Warm evening outside Maya Bar

Maya Bar has become an institution for the expat crowd living in Hangzhou. The small unassuming place fills up quickly after 9pm pretty much any night of the week drawing people who want to have a couple, or more, well poured drinks and properly served Tiger beer. By midnight, the bar is often in full swing with many looking like they are going to be settling in for a night.

Maya has a few secrets of success, although they probably wouldn’t be secrets in many other parts of the world. Keep it simple, good drinks at a fair price, cool music and great staff. No Rusty Nails, Sex on the Beach or Singapore Slings in this place, instead, healthy long drinks all for the same flat price. The menu is small – the six or so things on the menu have a tex-mex theme and is kind of modular – combinations of the same 3 things. But it’s all well tasty and the kitchen stays open until very late – great to soak up all that beer.

There might be no Sexes on the Beach, but Maya does make a few mean jugs of cocktails. Strawberry Daiquiris, Margaritas and others. These things are not for the faint-hearted, so be warned. But they delicious.

Tiger might be a boring beer, but the owner at Maya keeps the equipment clean and carbonation correct and it is probably the best poured Tiger in Hangzhou. There is a range of imported beers: Budvar, Old Speckled Hen, Rogue, Greene King, Guinness (Surger type) and a few others, so there is some real beer available too.

The bar is dominated by, yes, the bar. The emphasis on bar service over table service, cool staff and the long bar means that it wont be long before you are chatting away with a bunch of others. And if you happen to be there for a live gig, you’ll be singing along with those others too.

For all of us living on the West side, Maya is on the way home from pretty much anywhere in Hangzhou, so pop in.

Gig in Maya Bar