This review
of our visit there: Some time in April or May
2006.
Location: Ke
Hua Jie, just off KeHua BeiLu (official address 143 KeHuaBeiLu). Just
stroll south from Grandma's and/or the original Peter's Tex
Mex. Taxi from,
say, TianFu Square should set you back around 15 rmb.
Decor: Fairly minimalist place. Bare concrete
floors, a few nice photos and some clichéd must-haves
adorn the walls. Downstairs: wooden tables and chairs, sofas, nice bar, pool table,
kitchen Upstairs: sofas, bookshelves, kitsch mock-aquarium
Booze: Fosters on tap. OK range of wines, the
usual international range of spirits and liqueurs.
We went through the list of 7 cocktails on one of our visits. Our notes,
made on our geeky Pocket PC,
miraculously not lost, were as follows. "Margarita. 22.30. Not bad at all.
Black Russian. 23:01 small nice sweet.
White Russian small . Lack of booze, or are we on the way? 23:21
Bloody Mary 23:40 Nice that a bar has tomato juice. Tasty snap of vodka.
Carlton. A mind-blower 24:00
Daquiri. Not bad at all, either. (Food: ham and cheese baguette 00:19) Downed
cocktail 00:25
Cuba Libre 00:43 generous . No diet coke option, but dieting wasn't on our
mind.
Next time we'll have to have the shooters, particularly
as the proprietors gave us the seventh cocktail for free.
The others were 25 rmb a pop. The glasses are a little on the
small side, but the measures were more than adequate.
Times given in the notes were evening/night time.
Music: On the night we were there, DJ
Joe was playing some nicely chilled stuff, but later had to
battle with sound system
teething troubles, which were later sorted out. Cafe Paname also
have planned jazz evenings, photo exhibitions, more DJs and other
stuff.
Facilities: Separate men's (1 squatty,
1 urinal) and women's toilets (1 squatty) downstairs, back
left corner. Clean.
Food : Well
played all round on this front. Chapeaux off to their choice
of simple, classic bar food.
Mixed feta salad for 25 rmb is very good indeed, served with
dressing and a chunk of baguette.
Quiche salade is a bargain, for 16 rmb a nice slice of good quiche
with a green salad.
As an apertif we had a couple of gin and tonics, which were made
with Bombay Sapphire. We also treated ourselves to
a perfectly acceptable glass of Cabernet Sauvignon (details escape
me) and a Kirs. All good, all good value, served with a
a friendly smile in a very convivial atmosphere.
Overall: Very nice cafe/bar for a few
drinks before or after dinner, for light snacks and coffee
during the day. In May they
are installing wireless Internet, so it will be a very nice place
to hang out, pretend to be arty, and surf the web whilst pretending
to work. Lively crowds in the evenings. Food is a real strong
point. Just some basic, non-greasy, veggie food at
very reasonable prices in nice relaxing surroundings is something
very unusual in Chengdu. Perhaps lunch / dinner specials
(glass of wine, salad, dessert and cup of coffee for 60 - 70
rmb?) would go down well, or wine tasting / cheese & wine
specials.
Well played, mes amis. Great place.
