Eat, Drink and be Merry: Beijing's Best Party Restaurants

It’s no secret that bars (and clubs) are still a fairly new invention in Beijing. Until as recently as the mid-1990s, Hard Rock Cafe was about the only place in town where a mixed drink didn’t mean tea leaves and hot water. Beijingers have traditionally done their serious drinking in restaurants, and most still do.

Party restaurants make a whole heap of sense. You’re guaranteed somewhere to sit. You can chat with your friends. The food takes the edge off the alcohol, not to mention your hangover in the morning. And with a one-stop nightlife solution, there’s less time wasted in taxis, on sidewalks or in the gutter. The restaurants are also kept happy by the healthy margin made on your boozy excesses. Everyone’s a winner, in fact … except for bars. But they’ve already done a lot of winning this issue, so hey, it’s only fair. Here’s our guide to Beijing’s party restaurants.

Café de la Poste
There are few restaurants in Beijing that combine the twin pleasures of dinner and dancing. Even fewer where both occur on the same table. And they don’t mind if you take a nap to recharge the batteries. Is it the free schnapps at the end of the meal that’s the catalyst for carnage? Or are the shenanigans here spurred on by the loyal French regulars who’ve ordered one too many bottles of RMB 98 vin rouge? Whatever the reason, the rumors of bikini-clad men dancing about are completely founded, according to reliably sober eyewitnesses.
Party night: Bastille Day (July 14) – traditionally the day when le silliness reaches new heights.

Flamme
When the GM of a restaurant is also a celebrated bartender, you know you’re in for a good night. Paul Mathew stands behind the stick at one of Beijing’s best happy hours, with all cocktails and beers half-price between 3-7.30pm. In fact, there’s almost no night of the week when it doesn’t make prudent financial sense to guzzle cocktails with your steak. This time of year, Paul recommends a jug of Pimm’s or one of his signature sparkling wine cocktails, like Ruby Shoes, made with berry syrup and rum. “These drinks are light and summery, so at least you can last a bit longer and not get drunk too quickly.” That’s not really in the spirit of the article, Paul, but thanks anyway.
Party night: Wednesdays – martinis and Manhattans are half-price all night.

Tairyo Teppanyaki
This all-you-can-eat (and drink) restaurant combines captivating food theater, piles of tender grilled meat and endless bottles of ice-cold Asahi beer and little jugs of sake. Tairyo is a firm favorite for birthday parties and sports team celebrations, with groups squeezing in around the grills at sundown to make the most of the free-flow booze. At RMB 198 per person, thoughts of “I can get almost 200 chuan’r for that” tends to encourage making the most of it, with revelers imbibing far more than they ordinarily would. The result? What should be a place to kick off the party can end up as the last stop of the night.
Party night: Thursdays and Fridays, with the China View branch getting the most rowdy.

Jin Ding Xuan
There’s something delightfully surreal about leaving Tango at 4am, danced-out from some visiting Berlin DJ, and popping next door into a four-story, faux-Qing dynasty building for dim sum at daybreak. At all hours of the night, the place will be packed out with a cross-section of blistered revelers, hoarse KTV chanteuses and more than a few shady characters with questionable lady-friends tottering about on too-high heels. To let you in on a secret … the food is average at best. No one ever seems to remember this fact. I wonder why?
Party night: Saturday into Sunday morning – it’s when all the ne’er-do-wells come out to play.

Dahuaishu Grill
The nightly grilled meat BBQ at this hipster dive beside the National Art Museum is a red-hot, greased-up lao Beijing love fest. With dozens of heavy tabletop grills heaving under chilli-doused pork, lamb, squid and kidney, the sweaty dining room is a maelstrom of spitting fat and man flesh. Yes, most of the men have their shirts off. And everybody is bleary-eyed as the baijiu flows and the grill sizzles. Stay sober and you’ll notice how startlingly dangerous the place actually is, with staff racing through the packed dining room across greasy floors holding flaming braziers of white-hot coals. The moral? You might as well get sozzled.
Party night: Midweek – otherwise you’ll have to queue.

Dali Renjia
A major problem here is your food getting cold. Why? Because the owners interminably insist on toasting each new table that sits down. At first it seemed little more than a gesture to celebrate the opening of this excellent Yunnan restaurant. Maybe it’s a Dali thing, but several months in, these antics haven’t abated. Perhaps the reason why proceedings can get so out of hand is the drink of choice, qing meijiu (Yunnan plum liquor, RMB 10) that comes in little cups with peel-off lids. It tastes like smoky Kool-Aid, goes down like water and packs a punch way above wine at about 20 percent ABV. Proper party fuel.
Party night: Wednesdays – the Dali-born owners and their pals like to sit down for a group meal in the middle of the week, and it always ends up lasting well into Thursday.

For venue information, see directory listings.

Photo:Simon Lim