The Deep Dish: Eudora Station Serves Outdoor Ambiance in Lido

In the lead up to our September 16-17 Pizza Fest in Wangjing Soho, The Deep Dish will be previewing a few of the restaurants that you can expect to see slinging their thick, gooey, and tomatoey slabs of doughy goodness. Now that you're hot and dribbling, let's go!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Autumn is patio season, even more so than stepping-on-crunchy-looking-leaves season. In Beijing, though, patios are relatively few, and their surrounding conditions often aren’t conducive to the relaxation and tranquility I’m hoping to attain.

But there’s always Eudora Station, on the relatively quiet corner of the tree-lined Jiangtai Lu and Fangyuan Xilu, adjacent to the Lido Gardens, giving the restaurant a semi-magical vibe you might not expect to stumble upon in Beijing. Exhibit A:

Upon arrival at Eudora Station, I worried that I may have been intruding on someone’s outdoor wedding party. But the friendly and professional staff assured me, in a full-on humble-brag, that no, this is just how it always is. (“Oh, what, this old thing?”)

Eudora Station has occupied the same space for 13 years and has somehow evaded the intense whirlwind of development, abandonment, and rejuvenation that has surrounded it and enveloped the entire city. While it may have changed in that time, it has been serving western fare popular with the area’s foreigners (“particularly Americans and Germans,” manager Wang Chunfeng says) for more than a decade.

Perhaps it’s this longstanding tradition – reaching back to before high-quality western restaurants had permeated every corner of the city – that makes it a slightly more upscale dining experience.

A full range of delicious, ice-cold cocktails, plenty of imported brews, and cuisine from just about every corner of the globe make it easy to fall in gastronomical love, while the impeccable ambiance of the expansive alfresco seating area makes it difficult to leave.

Their pizza offerings focus on quality – this is not an establishment to wow you with the off-the-wall and zany, but with the lovely and delectable. The pizzas, too, originate all around the world: New York-style pizza (classic and meaty), Italian-style pizza (rustic, rectangular and covered in cured ham and herbs), Hawaiian (okay, they one’s American, too) and Mexican pizza (hunks of cured, spicy beef with corn and jalapenos).

They were all nice, if not a bit basic, pizzas, though I became obsessed with the spicy Mexican version. All the meats on all the pizza seemed to be smoked and cured, tough and dry but intensely salty and flavorful. These salty hunks of beef, paired with the jalapenos, onion and semi-sweet and mild corn (I often feel like the solitary advocate for corn on pizza) make up a pleasing blend of all your favorite contents of a taco, but on a pizza. And I'm not mad about it.

For pizza fest, they are bringing it all: Their New York, Hawaiian, Seafood Supreme and Mexican pizzas will be available for RMB 15 per slice, or RMB 45 for a whole (albeit small) eight-inch pizza. If that doesn’t seem like enough, grab some of their fried fish fillet, Orleans roast chicken wings, chicken strips, and French fries to round it out. If that’s still not enough, fill the void in your soul and stomach with some of their cocktails (gin and tonics, mojitos, and rum and cokes for RMB 30 each), beers (Heineken, Corona, Brooklyn Lager, and Stella for RMB 20-30) or a sweet and alcohol-free cranberry mojito for RMB 20.

Most of Eudora Station’s charm, especially with the coming weeks’ promise of blue skies and cool temperatures, lies in its physical location, which they, unfortunately, cannot bring with them to the Pizza Fest (though we hope they try to, in some capacity). The good news, though, is that their restaurant is but blocks away from the Pizza Fest venue. So when your feet are tired and your stomach full, drag yourself to their garden-side patio and unwind from the day’s excitement with some drinks, live music and a game of pool.

Look for Eudora Station's pizza, snacks, and cocktails at the September 16-17 Pizza Fest in Wangjing Soho.

Photos courtesy of Eudora Station, Mary Kate White