Helen's gets a fair amount of attention from dastardly and roguish locals who, though they gross enough cash to pay for real alcohol and non-piss beer, prefer a more self-destructive hedonism. Its patronage relishes in the traffic of backpackers and Europeons ready to fondle jewels after a modicum of jabbering effort, but one's likely to wake up with a severe hangover and an anonymous hag excreting into one's day. Praised as being cool or hip, I'm left to question the integrity of these phrases, so vacuous that they suck aberrations of nauseating decadence into their descriptive breadth.

Cultural disgust aside, this place's beer sucks, but you can get a tower's worth of a hangover for a reasonable price, assuming that the ingesting of pure piss is in any way reasonable. If you don't mind colored and diluted ethanol, the cocktails ain't bad. Also there's food, I'm told, but if the disparity between claims to serving alcohol and the alcohol served are proportional to their claims of serving food and what would ultimately be passed through tinctured bowels, I'd rather hit any one of the nice restaurants on that strip. I ordered a hamburger once, I believe, but they may've mistaken my order for a paper-mache burger.

Anyway, I bestow upon this place two stars, as they seem to maintain a slew of patrons and therefore serve some purpose, one not dissimilar to a lightning rod.

Also: smokey, loud, crowded.

It's a great place just to hangout. Nothing too fancy about the food, I just go there for the beer and the companion. Waiters are friendly but sometimes just too busy. Price is not an issue here.

So, I may be biased because I go there everyday, but Helen's is my favorite place in Wudaokou. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind Lush, or the Bridge (when I'm feeling classy), but frankly, I'm a student and I love the atmosphere of Helen's. The food and drinks are super cheap, and while you shouldn't be expecting anything too grand, I am always pleasantly surprised at the veggie burger (for 16 kuai!). I've been told by meat eating friends its even better than the regular burger. But Helen's isn't about the food, or even the ridiculously cheap drinks (25 kuai for a bucket of whiskey coke, tell them to make it strong and it will knock you on your ass). It's about the atmosphere. On any day of the week, you will find people from all over the world. And they are all willing to chat, meet new people, and drink. I've met more friends in Helen's than I'd like to mention. Go to Helens, meet some new people, drink lots of cheap booze, and marvel at how awesome Benny is.

Looking for a nice place to enjoy a good meal? Scratch Helen's Cafe off your list. They'd probably be insulted if you called them "nice," and nobody would ever argue the food is good. I've eaten at dozens of backpacker places just like it all over the world--always friendly, sort of clean, and so smoky that you want to take a shower afterward.

One thing that can be said for Helen's Cafe is that it's cheap--so cheap you might think you're eating Chinese food. The food isn't terrible, but you get what you pay for. Drinks are cheap, suspiciously so. Accordingly, I didn't trust the booze (I'm not a student anymore and can't abuse my body that much), but it's hard to find a counterfeit Tsingtao.

Helen's Cafe is a great choice for cheap food to soak up the fake booze from Propaganda. Quality doesn't matter very much if you're just going to barf it up anyway. If you're too old to drink that hard, though, you might give Helen's a pass and try Lush or the Bridge Cafe instead.

Helen's is about as liberal and laid back as it gets. A great place to chill out, drink some drinks, and smoke hookah. Sundays are called "Chill Out Sunday" and a hookah is only 20 RMB. Beers are pretty cheap. They also become really cheap when you buy them for 3 RMB at the convenience store next door and bring them in with you. My friends and I walked in the other night carrying 3 Tsingtao bottles each. No one cared at all. If you don't feel like getting fratty in Propaganda, then shoot down to Helen's and you'll have a good time.

wanna american style dinner snakes, try this one while you in the area ... Drink never be cheap like this

This place is cheap for sure, but the food is always kind of disappointing. It's one of those eateries that serves "western" food and people will still flock to it because they are just dying to have something that reminds them of home. At least they have a really good deal for hookah on Sundays, just 20 kuai.

It's really decent place in Beijing for all students, especially expats. Good music, including local and oversea hits, good drink deals, like bucket of whiskey with coke for 25y, which one can smash girl's face, guys need at least two... Only one problem is maybe quality of alcohol, but You never know here, so it really doesn't matter. Flexible, nice staff and good atmosphere make this place really nice!