If you want one of the girls to sit with you, it's an additional $40/hr. plus a $20 tip to the Mama-san. The girls that he saw were very attractive. There were about 10 of them around but they were not obviously sitting together. The Mama-san knows where they are. If you want to take a girl home during operating hours it is $300 to the Mama-san and $300 to the girl. The girl said that only a few rich tourists from Taiwan ever exercise that option. Most customers that want a girl wait for the club to close and pay the girl $300. There are several of these clubs, mostly Chinese-owned, along Valley Blvd. in the San Gabriel Valley. I understand some of these places are well known for being hangouts for alleged Asian organized-crime members.

The girl told my friend that they probably would not have let him in if she had not been with him. Apparently it's more a matter of language skills and a complicated formal/informal pricing structure that makes them shun non-Asians rather than outright discrimination. There would just be too many arguments over the bill.

There are also some Korean and Thai hostess bars in Koreatown and Thaitown, respectively, and I understand there is a club or two in Little Tokyo. I don’t know if they operate the same as the San Gabriel Valley clubs, but I remember reading an LA Times article on the Korean clubs several years ago. What they have in common with their Chinese counterparts is they are very expensive and no action takes place inside the clubs. Bottom line: IMO, unless you have a "thing" for Asian women and money to burn, there is no good reason to bother with these clubs.