Beijing Nightlife Tips by beijingboyce

Nightlife Spot: Sanlitun Bar Street

If you are looking to get some filler in your gut before pouring in the Qingdao, here are some good places in the Sanlitun area. These are all one street over from the main (and tiresome) drag, in the Tongli Studio area and are within a one-minute walk of each other. Kebab Nation - great kebabs, one will be enough; Saddle - huge burritos; Berber 'N - the best BBQ in the area; Fish Nation - fish and chips, naturally; The Tree - some of the city's best pizza, this is a good place to kick off the evening, since it has more of a restaurant feel. The crowds in this area tend to get younger and younger as the evening wears on and it takes on a college feel after 10 or 11 PM.

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Theme: Eating and Drinking
Address: Tongli Studio area
Directions: One street west of the garish main street of Sanlitun South

Nightlife Spot: John Bull pub

John Bull Pub is now Tim's Texas BBQ and, if the opinon of my friends from the Lone Star State are valid, serves up excellent smoked meats (the jalapeno potato salad is good, too). Not the biggest ranks of beer, but the food is good.

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Theme: Eating and Drinking
Dress Code: Casual
Phone: 6532 5905
Address: 44 Guanghua Lu
Directions: Metro to Jianguomen and walk north about 5 minutes

Nightlife Spot: The Big Easy

This place bit the dust last year. It had a great layout, live blues and jazz, and Bloody Marys. I hear that it may re-open this year. Here is some background on The Big Easy: http://www.beijingboyce.com/category/big-easy/

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Theme: Eating and Drinking
Directions: Chaoyang Park

Nightlife Spot: The Den (Dun Huang)

The decor is beat up, though some (including me) think it gives the place character. Great happy hour - half-price pizza and drinks - up to 10 PM. If you've had a few drinks and it's past midnight, this is a great place to load up on some carbs! The staff is extremely efficient and polite.

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Theme: Eating and Drinking
Dress Code: Casual
Directions: next to City Hotel (Cheng Shi Bin Guan), near The Workers' Statium (Gong Ren Ti Yu Chang).

Nightlife Spot: Browns

Browns opened in January 2006 and quickly became the hottest bar in town. It's a knock-off of Carnegie's (Taipei, Hong Kong). The food, service and layout (tiered seating, high ceilings) are good, though the drinks are a bit watery (luckily, there is a nice selection of drafts). This is known as a place to dance on the bar top (brass railings keep people from falling off) and gets very raucous after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. At that’s Beijing’s annual bar awards, it took home top honors as not only best new bar, but also best overall bar. The blue cheese chicken wings are tasty. I've written a LOT about this bar in the past: http://www.beijingboyce.com/category/browns/

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Theme: Nightclub
Dress Code: Casual
Directions: Close to where Sanlitun south and north meet