More Photos (4)

This is a real oddity: a French wine bar located in a traditional courtyard hutong. Côte d’Azur–born brothers Olivier and Ben Six used the connections of a Beijing-born family friend to establish this unusual operation, located on the fringes of the popular Hou Hai Lake area. The streets around there are the setting for one of the city’s best collection of hutongs, perfect for puttering around on foot or by bicycle rickshaw, and also increasingly home to snug bars and restaurants. Most places are local attempts at Western-style cafes and cocktail lounges; La Baie des Anges is the real deal, a French-run bar with its own menu of personally imported wines. A great place to stop off at after a hard day’s sightseeing, as part of a bar hop around the city or, on weekends, for an early-hours nightcap. Expect to share bar space with a cosmopolitan crowd—French embassy staff, Swedish bankers, British teachers, German engineers. Next door is another unlikely venture, Hutong Pizza, which you reach by tiptoeing along the edges of a courtyard goldfish pond. This tiny stone-floored restaurant is popular with both locals and expats.

Über-trendy cocktail bar-cum-restaurant in the Grand Hyatt hotel. It has an oval bar, where diners can order plates of sashimi, with fresh wasabi, or they can relax on red sofa-style seats. At one end a band plays gentle music on classical Chinese instruments, and an adjoining cigar lounge offers the chance to toke on Fidel’s finest. It is the kind of spot favored by the city’s nouveau riche, a place to see and be seen, ordering the priciest cocktails and finest Champagnes the menu has to offer.

More Photos (4)

A favorite of the city’s golfing fraternity, this is a sports-oriented bar with a clubby feel; leather armchairs and high ceilings provide a British colonial–style ambiance. In the summer, the expansive garden, with its comfy sofas and outdoor bar, makes it a buzzing gathering spot, particularly on weekends. The food is mainstream Western: pasta, steak and the like. The British owner is a keen golfer and happy to recommend courses.