Me Too used to advertise itself as being on Lishui Road 丽水路, but nobody could find the place, so now they tell everybody they are on Jinhua Road 金华路 which makes everything much simpler. You’ll probably walk in the front into a bright conservatory style room and this is where you’ll want to sit if not full already. The big room behind, through some high arches, is a little darker, and chairs a little harder and more upright, great for a laptop. I was armed with one so that was area of choice, and in any case a mate was sat on the corner of the conservatory with a very pretty girl, and I didn’t want to disturb them. I am sure it was business…

There’s pasta on the menu, along with pizza and a load of ‘business set menus’ – you know the things, Hainan chicken and rice, black pepper fried beef over rice, probably some curry as well. I munched hungrily a bowl bolognaise spaghetti  – nothing much to write home about but tasty, and drank loads of some no-brand soda water and constant stream of delicious Illy coffee (second cup is half price). All good. Double Star got written up quickly over the fast wifi before another mate walked in (this one luckily unaccompanied) and more coffee came. It would seem that Me Too has a quite a crowd of Hangzhou north and west friends.

The place is no smoking and there are signs up ‘SShhhhh!’, so providing there is a chair spare, you can get on with work.

IFE Cafe, 418 Xixi Road | 西溪路418号

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…

This rather new addition to the bar and restaurant scene has about 10 different names, but Vineyard sounds best, so that’s what it’s going to be on this page. Vineyard is a favourite afternoon hang-out for this office-less wannabe writer. The internet is good, the Illy coffee is really good, and there is a range of enticing stuff on the menu priced from 30Y to 200Y for a massive piece of Australian steak. The place is attached to a wine cellar showing a range of mostly Australian wines and you can drink them for the shop price in Vineyard, which is great.

When Vineyard frst opened it was a little dead, which I enjoyed as I could get on with writing banalities in peace. The owner of the bar (now ex-owner / part-owner?) owns the whole bleeding building of Zhongtian Dasha (中田大厦) and this was supposed to be a place, no doubt, that he could show his girlfriends or business buddies and demonstrate that he really is rich enough to own a place in a seriously good location and do nothing with it. Consequently, it dawdled on for while without any direction or identity.

The place looks pretty swish, designed by some mega-star designer from Oz whose name I cannot remember. Walls are in grey with purply-mauvy abstract pattern art – someone tell me that’s called – and the black wood tables are lined up every morning with a laser beam to make sure there is not the vaguest kink in the aesthetic. The lighting is so complex even the staff havent got their heads around it yet as they demonstrate well at various times of day when the light level has to be made more designer. Again.

The Western grub is always pretty good in a Hangzhou sort of way and one could never argue with the price. Lots of pizzas, sandwiches, steaks, burgers. Somebody with a sweet tooth has stocked a fridge with tonnes of Italian looking cakes and icecream.

So we have a designer looking place with good coffee, pretty good wine, non-designer food at prices for students, not much custom and pretty much no identity whatsoever. And the boss didnt notice or didnt care, or maybe even wanted it that way.

However, he probably didn’t reckon on Wade. Wade is well known in Hanghou and used to look after the laowai in In Club sometime before it became Out Club. Dont ask. Wade is filling the place up, and despite the less than perfect set-up, he has started to create quite a rocking atmosphere, no doubt largely due to his own encompassing joviality. Friday and Saturday evenings are full with party-goers coming to take in the cheap booze, live music and garden. Added to the mix are the guys that run the Hangzhou Expat 2009 page on Facebook. Lots of fun games, prizes and cheap cold beer served by the case load. If you’re after a quieter glass of wine or a seriously iced Aussie beer, maybe pop in during the week…

Day times are far more busy than before, with several people coming to steal MY internet connection.

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