It would take an army of people to keep up with the number places opening (and closing) in Hangzhou. It seems as though every Tom, Dick and Harry (read Tan, Dou and Huang – or even 张三李四) want to have a cafe, restaurant or bar. Many of them don’t last too long, or tick over without ever gaining any traction. Whether successful or not, this replenishment of places to hang out is wonderful. Right now I am sitting in Me Too Cafe on Jinhua Lu (Address says Lishui Lu, but you’d never find the place then) which has been open a year or so and seems to be doing very well for itself aiming to write about Double Star Restaurant which has been open a few weeks.

Whether Double Star will be one to last, who knows? The place has got to be well-funded; Euro-American Centre rents cannot be pretty, and the decor, if well a little non-Mainland-Chinese Chinese, is bright and airy and comfortable. There is a large round bar on the way in with somebody looking very busy doing something, bit early for cocktails. Seating spreads down both sides of the plate glass walls. Lots of light.

The place is right under my gym and on the way to CC Cafe but that Hong Kong look always spelt uhoh. An trusted Hangzhouvian said it was pretty good, so there I went.

Despite being late for lunch, the place was quite full with a small buzz on. People promptly came with menus and water, good quiet efficiency. Several menus – for coffee, tea, wine and food. They say that you have to give prospective buyers lots of things to touch and hold, but that isn’t necessary in a restaurant, you have already decided to buy when you walk in. Anyhow, some oven-baked broccoli with mash and cheese, butter-fried mushrooms, some salmon fried rice for my friend and the mixed grill over this side. The side dishes were pretty good, cant go wrong with anything with mash and cheese, but the mains, while pretty tasty were not overly awesome: there was a tiny lump of probably not cooked just now salmon on her plate, and my mixed grill arrived with a thick floury gravy all over it… That’s a nono. That said, the chicken, pork and sirloin were all excellent and came in American size.

Coffee was delicious.

Will definitely go back. Walk in behind the EAC from either north or south entrances and you cant miss it.