- Shanghai
- /
- bar
- (16)
-
China
The Shelter is a dark tunnel that is currently beating all nightclub competition in the city by a mile.
Hip-hop, dub, techno and d'n'b all sound good in this underground spot where the drinks are reasonable, people smile while they dance and the pretentious need not apply.
No chrome, no flashy lightshows, no rolling dice, no sparklers in Champagne bottles, great music. A breath of fresh air (despite all the tobacco smoke).
5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu.
Line 1 Changshu Lu Station
6437-0400
Taikang Lu is located near the central shopping street of Huaihai Xi Lu. It's one of the few remaining hutongs in the city. It offers an authentic Chinese feel, whilst resembling parts of Mediterranean Europe. Locals hang out their washing and go about their daily lives whilst you can visit boutiques and enjoy a range of international foods, including excellent Chinese cuisine.
Taikang Lu
It gives you an overview of all the places you can visit, where you can eat and drink as well as info on daily Shanghai life.
This bar might appear a trifle tacky, but the great live music, good drinks and friendly service more than offset the dubious visuals. Here, one can enjoy good clean fun. Beer starts at 20RMB.
13 XingFu Rd near FaHuaZhen Rd
logoshanghai.com
A lot of people disdain 'Irish pubs' and on the whole they'd be right. Nonetheless, but for the extortionate prices (you're looking at 65RMB - that's five quid - for a Guinness), O'Malley's is still a great place to settle down for an afternoon. The place really comes alive when there's a big sporting event on, and in the covered beer garden on match night there's no beating the atmosphere.
42 Tao Jiang Road, Tel +86 21 6474 4533 omalleys-shanghai.com
Situated on the top floor of 18-on-the-Bund, Bar Rouge encapsulates contemporary China. The 18th-century casing is starkly contrasted by the ultra stylish interior and views across the Yang Pu River to what is one of the most modern cityscapes in the world. With its velvet red sofas, a glass wall looking out on to a decked veranda, secluded booths and a lighting scheme that contrives to make the ugly look less so, in its year or so of business Bar Rouge has carved a niche for itself at the top of Shanghai’s bar scene.
It has become somewhat of a magnet for the cities well to do, including a scattering of national, and international, celebrities.
However, the bar also typifies China’s almost super human commitment to ignoring any concept of customer services and Bar Rouge takes this attitude to new levels. Many one time punters come away scoffing at paying 80RMB for a drink and not only not getting a smile but more often than not actually being ignored. (This probably stems from the fact that a round of drinks here is roughly equivalent to the waitresses’ nightly earnings.)
So, the services isn’t great, (or down right awful) the drinks are expensive and understatement doesn’t do justice to the word pretentious, but hey, this is Shanghai in 2006 – what was it you expected?
7F, Bund 18, 18 Zhongshan Dong Lu; tel: 633 9119
Not to be confused with its sister bar in Mao Ming Lu, Windows Too is Shanghai's prime budget dancefloor bar. Yeah, so it's a meat market, but with beers at a third of the cost of other clubs (plus a couple of free drinks included in the cover charge) it's by far the best place for a night of good, clean fun.
Right inside the plaza at Jing An Temple Metro Station (Line 2), 1699 Nanjing Lu if you're walking
Shanghai is all about the petty things in life. What you do, who you're with and where you're seen. Never who you actually are. And nowhere sums up this decadent philosophy more than Park 97. Without question THE place to be when the sun goes down, it's a restaurant, it's a bar, it's a nightclub and it's a statement.
2A Gaolan Lu, Sinan Lu, near Fuxing Park. Too cool even to be dropped off by taxi, you really need your own chauffeur. Tel: 00 86 21 5383 2328
On the wall of this smoky no-nonsense bar notoriously hangs a framed letter. Issued by the consulate of New Zealand it warns readers about Kiwi Pete, the proprietor and a true Shanghai character...
Little more needs to be said, but the often anarchic atmosphere of this place makes a welcome change from the soporific tone of others in the area. And the beer's better priced too.
35 Yongjia Lu, south end of Maoming Lu. Nearest metro - Shanxi Nan Lu (line 1) Tel: +86 21 5466 6066
You can't miss this hotel, in every sense. Taking up the 53rd to the 87th floors of one of the world's tallest buildings (at 1,380ft it's just a tad shorter than Chicago's Sears tower), the Jin Mao Tower boasts what is probably the highest cocktail bar around. There are also panoramic views across the city - assuming you can see past the smog. It's not that cheap -the rooms are at least 2,600RMB (over £170) - but you can stump up 50RMB for a visitor's ticket and sneak in a quick Martini and a few photos.
88 Century Boulevard, nearest Metro Liu Jia Zui (Line 2) Tel: +86 21 5049 1234
Funny how some places just seem to pack them in while the rest of the city is comatose. More a club than a restaurant, at weekends after 11pm, this place rocks. Folks even get up and dance on the bar (though they tend exclusively to be drunk American students). And check out ladies night on a Wednesday for the free - yes free - margheritas. Arriba!
5 Hengshan Lu, behind Sasha's bar-restaurant on the corner of Dongping Lu Tel: +86 21 64746166 www.zapatas-shanghai.com/
Don't expect to see much football, rugby or cricket in this American sports bar. Do expect the best burgers in town. Good value on weekday lunchtimes when you can get soup, a main course and a coke for only 45RMB (about £3)
257 Tongren Lu, walkable from Jing An Temple Metro Station (Metro Line 2) Tel: 021-6247-2400
In a city with a very commercial - yet often rather dull - bar scene, this is quite a find. In the smoky lobby area, guests loll on cushions in opium-den style, while the main bar really gets going when the ska does. It's the regular live ska band that makes this bar, though the general feel of illicit pleasures in darkened chambers gives you quite a blast from Shanghai's past.
85 Huating Road, corner of Huaihai Road - right on Changshu Road Subway, exit 1.
The word on the street is that Mao Ming Lu will soon be closing: ex-president Jiang Zemin wants to settle down nearby for his retirement and doesn’t want a noisy bar scene on his doorstep. Nevertheless, it is still the epicentre of Shanghai’s nightlife. More alive than Heng Shan Lu and more natural than the recently-built substitute Tongren Lu, there’s something here for just about everyone. Windows Bar gets jammed full of dancers after midnight: The Blue Frog has a fine ambience: Judy’s is a meat market with a lethal all-you-can-drink happy hour. It's often dead but when it gets going Mao Ming Lu is a taste of the decadent party spirit that never quite escaped from Shanghai.
Mao Ming Lu, of course; the bars are at the south end near Yongjia Lu. Nearest Metro is Shanxi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1)
Every city's got one; Shanghai has three. But this newly refurbished English pub currently has its Irish rivals beat on value at least. The Sheperd's Pie is great and they even have Cornish pasty (sometimes).
1 Wulumqi Lu (near Dong Ping Lu); Tel: +86 21 6445 7661 www.britishbulldogpub.com/
A converted patch of the old French Concession area full of swanky restaurants and bars, Xintiandi could almost be a corner of a cosmopolitan city tucked into the centre of Asia's hottest boomtown. It's expensive. Very expensive. But there's no better place to experience the cafe culture that was swinging hardest during Shanghai's golden age back in the 30s.
Get off at Huang Pi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1) and follow the Gucci.
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
Your tips about Shanghai