Houhai / Yandai Xiejie / Di'anmen-后海烟袋斜街地安门

Shuang'ou is clean and bright, stacked with DVDs and magazines, and comes off more like someone's living room than a bar. Coffee is the house specialty, so try a cup for RMB 25-35.

Touch occupies most of an old-style courtyard home off the hind-end of Lotus Lane, and has done a good thing with it. The main building sports a little rooftop deck, and the interior yard is glassed in greenhouse-style, including an old tree and a fishpond worthy of the word "placid."

Located behind a small park on the south shore of Houhai, Tao Yao
Bar is a tranquil, Tibetan-themed escape from the neon noise of the
nearby beer bars. Ideal for hanging out with friends over beers, cocktails or Tibetan milk tea, the party cranks up on Friday nights with all-you-can-drink deals and a DJ spinning Houhai's best tunes. Available for private party hire.

The Gulou area Raj is situated in a charming courtyard just west of the Drum Tower and boasts a large terrace with a fantastic view of the surrounding hutongs, while the Nuren Jie outlet is more expensive and aspires to Super Bar Street concordance. Executive chef Iswar Singh offers dishes from India's northern, eastern and western regions, with a la carte selections ranging from bengan aftab (grilled eggplant with coriander) and vegetable pakora to lamb samosas and more. Live song and dance performances and private parties are available as well.

The “House of Zhang Qun” lurks behind an old fading wooden door with the number 5 written on it, on Yandai Xiejie (“Bending Pipe Street”). This one-table restaurant was opened several years ago by Beijing artist Zhang Qun, initially as a hangout for friends. Later, Ms. Zhang decided to open the small venue to the public as a way of introducing her native Suzhou cuisine.

Getting lost on the way here is definitely part of the fun. The Huaiyang dishes prepared in this elegant courtyard restaurant filled with antiques were once served to the great Peking
opera star Mei Lanfang. The set-meal menu changes daily and must be ordered in advance. This hidden charm is far from cheap – RMB 300 per person minimum (and goes up to RMB 2,000 a head) – but the gasps of delight make it all worth it. Definitely a place to impress.

Richang offers a quick Cantonese meal – the food is plentiful and the prices are cheap. The restaurant is best known for its claypot rice casseroles; each is enough to feed three to four people. The most popular are lawei paigu bao, a sausage/sparerib casserole, and lawei huaji bao, a sausage/chicken casserole. We highly recommended their stir-fried rice noodles with beef (干炒牛河ganchao niuhe), which has what the Cantonese praise as “wok hee” (锅气) – a way of saying the dish has “wok soul,” or is delicious.

The Lotus Lane strip (and it can only be described as a strip) is home to a row of bars of comparable luxury. Though anyone used to Houhai's other spots will find these bars excessive and then some, they definitely fill a certain niche.

Long-running Yandai Xiejie bar and restaurant serves Southeast Asian favorites with a coffee and bar menu in a converted 70-year-old, two-storey building.

8gua, as in bagua (to gossip), is quiet and inviting with comfy couches and tasteful modern-traditional Chinese decor. A smattering of tiny curtained-off rooms affords some privacy, and you can enjoy views of both the lake and the bustle around its banks.