I dreamt about a Chateaubriand last night. 20 centimeters long, it was the whole tail end of  a filet of beef. Slightly blackened on the outside, this gargantuan piece of beef cleaved open, almost poetically, to show the soft juicy pink centre. I woke up just as that first piece was about to be gently and lovingly savoured. What a dream.

Actually, it wasnt a dream. It’s much better than that; we can all enjoy it. It was a flashback from dinner last night at Angelo’s new restaurant – Angelo’s New York Italian Restaurant and Bar, and that huge piece – 400g or about 10oz – of seriously delicious steak can also be yours.

Angelo’s is tucked up No.2 Side Street of Baochu Road. No2 Street is quite old Hangzhou – lots of little restaurants with doors wide open despite the advertised -4‘C, neon signs selling shrimps, groups of people stuck well into their baijiu screaming numbers at each other. Further in you might start to doubt that any western restaurant could be possibly be here, and Lo, the house of Chateaubriand appears next to the Minsu Hotel.

The restaurant is simple and slick inside. Plain white walls with dark furniture, large frameless black and white prints of old New York on the walls, and black laser-cut lampshades showing the New York skyline provide a modern clean feeling without being minimalist. The small bar at the end is a hive of activity as the barman, an old friend of Angelo, is doing something aggressive with a cocktail shaker – out comes a large Dry Martini, which has my name written all over it. “I’ll have one of those too please”. The drink is 3 minutes in the waiting. Good start.

Angelo is excited. It is only the second day of the soft opening period and people are coming in. “Too busy too busy we are still learning how to do things!” He grabs a menu and talks about it as if it is a list of his child’s A+ school grades. The menu looks good and feels good – has the feel of James Taylor’s handiwork. There seems to be a good range of stuff with obviously a strong American bent, not limited to New York. I didnt see the Reuben Sandwich on there (isnt that a New York staple?) But lots of other tasty looking things – mini burgers, crab cake burgers, pizzas galore, fish and chips, deep-fried calamari and mozzarella. Salads soups. Pasta. And of course that Chateaubriand. This restaurant is going to take a few visits.

And lest I forget to mention, the Martini is good too.

Three of us had the mini-burgers and fried calamari to share as a starter, both from the Share section of the menu. Personally, I felt the calamari were a shade overcooked, but the covering was delicious. Perhaps a slightly smaller, younger squid would be better. Over the table, the Chateaubriand was served in all its glory, alone, on the white plate. On the side were fried potatoes, mushrooms and few other veg served in their own small dishes. The waiter offered to carve the meat, but my friend preferred to do that himself. On my right, the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich looked and tasted perfect – so many restaurants make the mistake of substituting poor beef and cheap cheese into sandwiches, but that did not happen here. My Fish and Chips were not really the British style I was expecting, rather fingers of fish deep fried in batter, tossed together with fries in a tall, paper wrapped cone. The batter was delicious and fish cooked til it was just firm.

I didnt get too far into the wine list – Angelo suggested a great bottle. Will have a go at updating this page soon.

After dinner, we got stuck into the Grappa and Limoncello, perhaps a little too much of it. But hey, there is little better way to cap a very fine dinner than a few shots of grappa.

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From the outside, Fengdu is an unassuming place, lit truly Hangzhou style, i.e. brilliantly (maybe to keep the staff awake at 3am) and without any thought to aesthetic. (Well, the place is for eating at, not looking at). Of course those bright lights draw ominous attention immediately on entering to the large jugs of snake juice behind the cashier. There is nothing like snake juice to start the evening, or for that matter to finish it off. And it’s supposed to be good for you. The restaurant is only a few shades above grubby, perhaps worn is the apt word. But definitely one of those places I don’t really want to go into the kitchen to help. However, just about everything that comes out of the kitchen is good.

The restaurant is famous for the chicken stock that goes into the chicken noodles and rice soup. There must be a section of the kitchen devoted to boiling carcasses as the stock flows out in huge bowls of noodles, steaming. The stock is so thick and tasty it is almost sticky. Spectacular. Don’t tune up a nose to the rice soup either – normally a rather bland dish, the stock makes it.

The menu is Chinese only. I have offered to translate it, but I think the owners are worried that my fee might be free food for the rest of time. And they might be right about that. There aren’t even any photos. So it’s time to practise language or leave it up the boss and hope. I can hardly walk past the place without rushing in for the Shrimp fried with Meigancai – I have no idea what that is in English – oddly the rich flavours of the dried vegetables mixes perfectly with the shrimp. There is a pretty good Braised pork over spring onion, although it isn’t on the menu. Refried pork is fantastic, the Family fried doufu is not what you might expect, using old doufu instead of the delicious deep-fried crispy silk doufu. (How do they fry that stuff without breaking it?) Deep-fried spicy chicken is a must, along with the bacon and potato fry. And the black fish soup?

Last but not least, give the snake juice the respect it deserves and have some. The boss takes it seriously, makes it himself, and drinks it too. There is more than just snake in there too. I would suggest trying the stuff before looking. For a good warm up, split one serving between two – the stuff should have an ‘inflammable’ warning on the glass. And even if it isn’t good for you in the long term, what the hell, it is very good in the short term.

And you could always pop over to Provence for some coffee after.

Always open
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The restaurant is an old style Chinese building set in a Qingsha Park, sandwiched between Lishui Lu and the Grand Canal. White walls, bamboo tile roofs and all those pert upturned roof corners. Inside this courtyard building is modern. Pale stone walls, lots of glass. On the left is the sushi bar, on the right the bar. Under the temperature controlled wine room and up the glass stairs and you arrive at the main dining room and private rooms, including a large private teppanyaki room kitted with sofas. The restaurant is so perfectly laid out I still cant figure out if this place really is a converted old house, or a purpose built restaurant. The downlighting in the main dining room is a little harsh, but shows of the minimalist place settings. The huge fish tank (decorative for a change) dominates the room.

Hatsune has one of those menus you look through thinking, ‘One of those’ for every item. There were only two of us, so sadly we couldnt do that. Nevertheless, we ended up ordering way too much. Crab Roe Salad, and beef carpaccio came first along with the tuna and salmon sashimi. We got the Motorola Roll – somebody will have to explain why its called Motorola, I thought that was an overpriced cell phone – and deepfried breaded chicken and bacon rolls. Hatsune is famous for its rolls and there are 10 or so of them on the menu. Sadly they are big, and while you might want to order all of them, you cant. Overpriced cellphone or not, Motorola is delicious. Teriyaki salmon, asparagus in butter. And we only dented the menu.

The Japanese made Saki was a little dear for me, so we had a local one, and for a change left the beer in the fridge. Sipping ice cold saki and warm tea seemed to fit perfectly with the food, and dinner stretched on for a long time, in a flash. I’ll be back at Hatsune in no time.

Related links

Hatsune | Sherpa’s Hangzhou

Hatsune | AbsoluteChinaTours

Hatsune | Yoyoor

Hatsune | InHangzhou

Hatsune Shanghai | Best Food in China

Hatsune Beijing | Asiarooms

Something must have changed. Maybe a new manager discovered the Cinderella in Hangzhou. The last few times, dinner has been a great foody evening, and while the bill, for a full meal with wine and after dinner drinks, is not as palatable as the Milanese, you leave feeling it was cash wisely spent.

To look at, Va Bene is a bit of a show-off to take your date. Small cosy rooms in mottled dark reds and wood, low even lighting, beautifully laid-up tables and racks of wine give an air of confident comfort. At last sitting, the beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan followed by the scaloppini alla Milanese were both exactly right. One cant go too wrong with with carpaccio, but the generous escalopes were crispy without overdoing the perfectly sliced veal. Over the table my friend had a mixed seafood grill with seabass, prawn and squid. Even the squid was cooked al dente.

And after dinner. Not talking about desserts, no sweet tooth here, but the grappa. Shoot down a thick espresso and pour the grappa into the cup. Swill it around and savour. Limoncella served thick from the freezer will have your date swooning…

Va Bene is upstairs from Pizza Pazza, same group of restaurants, and you can enter from there or via Va Bene’s own door behind Pizza Pazza.

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Downstairs was already packed. Champagne and tidbits rushed around the room by an army of waiters. Little chunks of pate de foie gras on crunchy toast, prawns in a Chinese spoon dressed in a ginger and yellow wine (?) drizzle. And more Champagne.

The theme this year was red and black and the dining room was indeed red and black. As always the Hyatt table decoration was spectacular, with under table lighting, enough glistening wine glasses to make any experienced drunk know there was more than enough to go around.

Speeches went on a little long, but hey, it is a charity event and sponsors need to be recognised. FInally food to soak up all those drinks. The menu was slightly strange given the event: The prawn with green tea sauce tasted great, but pumpkin and sharks fin soup for 300 at a charity event? Heavy tasting braised beef cheek in China? An awful lot of Chinese poeple dont eat steak at all. It was good, but most of my table guests didnt touch it.

Speaking of table guests. I was invited by a woman who owns a spectacularly smart spa on Jianguo Road and she brought many of her staff with her. Surrounded by girls.

At the end of the meal the raffle gave away weekend getaways in many of the hotels around east Asia – I was hoping for the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. No such luck… As usual the room emptied so fast after the raffle somebody could have walked in screaming, “I have swine flu!” Left us lot to the music. Little grooving to just dead Michael Jackson and back to Bellevue.

Hangzhou Hyatt Regency Summer Ball, 27th June 2009

JZ Bar is busy. And Bellevue isnt, really, which is a great pity. It sometimes gets a good buzz on, but on the whole it is the sort of place to kick back in huge leather sofas and drink your 3oz Martini with a large cigar. The inside is opulent and designed with thick carpet, black, granite. Sofas and tables are low, and loads of room between tables. Three sides of the room are plate glass with views out over Hubin Road and a bit of West Lake. The main entrance of the hotel is just below so there is always the chance of having a good laugh at somebody who really can’t drive parking his Ferrari.

Many of you might think, hey no way am I going to hang out in a hotel bar. The sentiment is understandable. But 5 star hotels do have their advantages too. The cocktails here are really worth the effort, and the price tag. 65Y a drink on average seems like a lot, especially for Hangzhou, but the drinks come quick, and they are good. Cosmpolitans, Mai Tais, Caipirinhas, James Bond Martinis. All good. And they are large too – a couple of those Dry Martini’s fix all of the world’s most intractable problems. Another great advantage of a 5 star is the kitchen. Few places in Hangzhou offer anything but the most rudimentary snacks, and they are usually of the spicy duck neck variety. Hyatt has a menu full of all sorts of real food.

Afternoons are pretty good too – although check what time they open, perhaps earlier over the weekends. This bar has wickedly quick wifi – I go there for my Mac OS updates. What would 2 days at home to download, the Hyatt handles quicker than you slurp a cappuccino.

The meal is a slightly unusual format – buffet for starters and desserts and a la carte main courses. The buffet start is a quite a spread all by itself with loads of antipasti, tomato and mozzarella salad, salami, shrimp cocktails, carpaccio, Gravadlax and cheese and more. 2 or 3 plates of that and you have to start to wonder if there is any room left for main course. And the Shang hasnt held back on those either. There are perhaps 6 to choose from, not including build your own pizzas and pastas, with grilled cod, Roman-style veal escalope (which was amazing), ossobucco, spring chicken. You get the message.

While the food is worth a visit just for that, the real fun is the free flow martinis. Yup. Free flow. There are perhaps 20 of them on the menu, and it is tempting to challenge yourself to try them all, although I think that is taking hair of the dog a little far…

We arrived about 8.30 and the place was empty. People do eat early in China, but still it is a little perturbing walking into a restaurant to find that you’re the only ones there. The place looks great. Dark matt-stained wood flooring, big high-backed armchairs at real wood tables, no direct lighting, soft earthy colours all round. The table was too big to sit opposite each other, so we moved one of the settings around the corner to sit closer. And anyway, sitting opposite is for business.

At Oriental, the menu is gigantic, spread over 10 or 12 pages, and food is from all over South and South-East Asia, and maybe this is where the problem starts – what the hell to order? Food is categorised by country, and each country seems to be split up. There are hot appetisers, cold starters for each country, main courses, curries – Indian and Thai and Malaysian, Chef’s recommendations on another page. All very confusing for my little brain. After a meeting with the waitress, who did know her stuff, we learned there is a guest Thai chef in the house, so we decided to stick Thai – maybe next go with Philippine or Malay…

With all that decision making dealt with, time to sit back in those huge chairs and wait for the grub to come. Having started this page on a slightly negative note, now it is time to be positive. The food is very good, and the timing of the dishes arriving at the tables is good too. The Chicken Pandan is definitely the best in Hangzhou, juicy and crispy at the same time, with delicate seasoning, the yellow prawn curry with pineapple was lemongrass and ginger(?) spicy, the sauce delicious over Thai rice, pork wrapped in lettuce, always a favourite, was diced a little more coarsely giving the dish more texture. The only disappointed was the garlic fried beef – the meat was not a good cut and had been tenderised with that god-forsaken chemical, something I haven’t seen done for a long time.

The wine list looked like it had been sourced from Metro, which was a pity, but the prices were reasonable, for China. The coffee was crap.

Despite that ‘thing’ will certainly go back, the food is just too good.

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Jamaica has some pretty good eats too – the photo here doesn’t really do it justice, but this Jamaica Club Sandwich is full of cheese, pork loin and bacon, and is oozing with mayo and butter. The bread is fresh and soft with a little chew and a crisp outside. It is definitely worth the trek to Xihu Tiandi just for that. Jamaica has several other tasties on the menu, meatballs, paella pasta and some more sandwiches.

Jamaica does not seem that busy in the afternoons, although the booze on the menu may help fill the place up of an evening. Without the Quaker-ism of Starbucks etcetc, you can smoke eat and drink all at the same time. For now anyway – there is a rumour that China is going non-smoking too.

To find Jamaica, wander into Xihu Tiandi – I prefer the northern most entrance just after the Dahua Hotel and follow the lake bank to the cafe – but there are good signs all over the area.

If somebody ever gets there at night, let me know how busy it is.

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Image from Oakwood Hangzhou website

Despite the apparent lack of good it does me I tend to spend quite a lot of time in the gym. The lack of progress has probably got something to do with diet, or better yet, the liquid diet taken on board most days, but hey, I would be a proper round guy if I didnt go.

Feel Well Gym on Yile Road, just north of WenEr West Road used to fulfil my 2 gym requirements: close to home; cheap. There are no bells and whistles, and more often than not the bathroom stinks of piss. (Does cheap make the smell of 3-day old urine in the showers acceptable?) But it was quiet in the morning and so one could change in the tiny locker room (I affectionately call it ‘the monkey cage’) without accidently inserting your nose in someone’s arse crack. I am not scared of crowds or of naked men, but terrified when both attributes come together. The sauna was rarely on, and in any case, the black slime that seemed to cover most surfaces made the place pretty repulsive. Of course that was nothing compared to some guy spreadeagled naked on his back scratching is scrotum. (Hence monkey cage). Lastly, like all cafes and gyms, Feel Well opens at 10am. I guess the only poeple that can actually afford to go to these places can also skip work…

So when the serviced apartment lot, Oakwood Residences, set up shop in Hangzhou, I thought I would go and have a look. Wohoho. Great. The place is not really close to home, and isnt really cheap either, but the sauna works, and is clean and even switched on! The locker rooms are also a little small, but well-appointed and I could certainly live in the showers, the swimming pool is big and flat, and the treadmills each have BBC and HBO. Paradise. And the place opens at 6.30 in the morning. You can be there before the Hangzhou rush-hour and stay there until the rush-hour is over. What more could I want.

Went this morning for a swim. Arrived at 7.30 and nobody was in the pool, the lockers, or the gym. I had this million dollar exercise facility all to my little self. My swim, well a swim is a swim, no? Then on to breakfast. Breakfast might well be worth the price, bottomless espresso coffee, fresh-cooked eggs, croissant, cheese, sushi, bacon, baked beans, you get the gist, but honestly is a little expensive for me for every day. The buffet with 10% gym membership discount still came to 110Y. Sadly there is no a la carte option with some eggs on toast, or coffee and bread. Certainly going to mention that to the boss.

Anyhows, if you’re looking for a gym that is nearly as good as the Hyatt with a much more stomachable price, then have a peak in Oakwood.