A good half of the bar is outside – large downstairs terrace and good outdoor space above lets you see out easily. The location is on the way back from the Qiantang River on the Hupao Road junction with Jiuyaoshan Tunnel and so makes a fitting stop on the way home from your Meijiawu bicycle trip. The pints came a little slow – that’s only important for the first pint I guess, but the first is the most important… And the din that is Hupao Road can be a little oppressive at first. But if you have been in China for more than a week I bet you can block that out with a little mental effort.

At night there is supposed to be a band and a good vibe.

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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Panini also has a good selection of beers. Did anybody go in the evening?

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Paradise was the first bar I ever went to in Hangzhou. And in it I met many people who are still good friends today. If you only knew how long ago that was, and me, you would be amazed. Paradise went through many phases, some good and some bad, mostly something to do with what manager the owner had hired for that month. (Not kidding, she was a psycho and staff lasted less that a month, most of them.) Perhaps the most successful time was during Kana’s tenure that actually lasted, to his credit, two or three years. The place was packed pretty much every day of the week, with new drinks and shots, great live music (The Honeys, Huhumamas, to name two) and bashes held for all known countries party days. And then some. It was a great place, and I am obviously biased.

The restaurants are different, for sure, but the concept of Paradise whether intended or not, was great. Good music, good food, a happy laid-back place with no pretensions is a base for building a good crowd of loyal fans. Paradise had that gift and the fans, and Eudora has it too, while at the same time, they surpass Paradise in most ways, from food and decor, to staff, and it’s debatable, but the location too.

Eudora is a smart place. Well-lit and spacious with a long bar on the ground floor, its long and narrow lay-out draws you in. I am sure the bar area is always busy, but if you want a quieter drink, slip towards the rear. Upstairs is all restaurant in bright colours, but not garish, and the roof is simply unbeatable for any bar. The menu is eclectic, but strongly European and American. Schnitzels, pastas, great burger, pizzas, local and imported steaks, sausage and more. (The chocolate truffle cake, oh god.) The beer list is extravagant, and while the wine list has some lesser offerings for us poor writers, it is weighted towards those who like wine. The music is superb; Pink Floyd was playing when I walked in the first time and immediately lifted the spirits. Being opposite the artschool and a 45 second walk from the lake and Xihutiandi, you cant knock the location.

What doesn’t Eudora have? Hmmm. I wish it didn’t have the TVs showing 3 or 4 different sports channels, and it doesn’t have 15 years as a central meeting point for all Hangzhouvians. Well, it does take 15 years for the first case, but Eudora will become central much quickly than that. And if the owner were to read this, he might switch off the TVs outside of game time, (doubtful) but he wont read it. “Amateur reviews are not much good for the reviewer, the reviewee, or the viewer.?.” Gulp.

Other Links
Eudora Station
Eudora Station Hangzhou
MOREHangzhou
Eudora Station Beijing
10Best
CityWeekend
TheBeijinger

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The Shangri-la Garden Bar probably isnt going to be a destination for the evening unless you are staying in the Shang, or tucked into dinner at one of their restaurants, Peppino’s or the Coffee Garden, but if you are ever after a quiet good cocktail with a bit of live background jazz, you cant go far wrong with Garden bar. When the weather allows, not very often admittedly, the terrace outside is definitely a pace to kick back.

There is wireless internet and you have to ask for a temporary, free, hotel logon.

You cant really see the place as you go in the main entrances of departures. So trust me, look for the big section number signs on the huge columns holding up that amazing roof, and follow around the departures ring until you get to 14. It’s up the stairs behind you.

Bricco Cafe, Shanghai South Railway Station, departures ring section 14.

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.

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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