The Zhi Wei Guan on Yanggong Causeway isn’t new, but since we’re moving outdoors this month, it is an essential inclusion. On our recent visit to the spectacularly-situated restaurant, we encountered even more of a wait than usual because it was the only sunny day in a week of rain, and everyone and their grandmother was out trying to take advantage of the respite. We stupidly chose to go at high lunchtime because we, like the masses, were anxious about getting out and enjoying the sunshine. An important decision had to be made however. The wait was shorter for indoor seating, and outdoors they were only serving dim sum. Inside it was. We still sat there thirty minutes waiting. A word of advice, go after 1pm or 7:30pm and you’ll be fine. We even saw them seating people at 2pm. Now, we’ve been to ZWG a good number of times, and each time we’ve sat in different spots. It’s a crapshoot. Our last trip was positively irksome as we were placed in the large dining room upstairs in the main building. Trust us. Hold out for a good place. The patio is the choicest (clearly), but...

See more>>

Things have been moving on the bar scene in town. A bunch of places have gone down, a few new ones have opened up, and a couple more are going under the renovation jackhammer. Most noted was the demise of Paradise Restaurant or Paradise Rock. Whatever you called it, it was around for close to fourteen years, and if you’d been here for longer than a day or two when it was open, you’d probably say that you had at least one good time there. We had many. Rumor has it that she just couldn’t bang out a new rental agreement. Who knows? Things are often more complicated than they appear to be.

And what is the deal with the old Reggae Bar? We’ve heard noise about it closing down. But, it’s still there, and just down the road from it, on the ever-expanding Shuguang road, is the new Reggae Café. Talk about night and day – no, not the bar on Nanshan road (hey, aren’t they moving too?). The new Reggae Café is nothing like its older brother. It’s refreshing, has fantastic windows that hold flowers beneath them, and they serve a couple of dishes to be reckoned with. The...

See more>>

Spring has finally sprung, or so we hope. The toxic smell of insecticide wafts through the air. Has to be how they’ve kept the skeeters in check for the past couple of years. Have you noticed? We used to whinge constantly about mosquitoes for a good five, no, six months of the year, yet for the past two, there’ve been few to be squished. We did have a random spotting in the office in March, but the unusually cold temperature has surely taken care of its spawn.

Wait, this isn’t a piece on pesky parasites; it’s about getting outside. In keeping with what has somehow become our ‘All Around the Lake’ issue, we decided to pay a visit to Watching Goldfish on Flowery Stream (a.k.a. Viewing Fish at Flower Pond, a.k.a. Viewing Fish at Flowers Harbor, a.k.a. the only place around the lake to check out truly snobby peacocks, oh and some goldfish too). Millions of tourists have come to this spot. It’s amazing what a title like one of the “Ten Sights of West Lake” will do for a place’s popularity. (Of course, in ’85 came the New Ten Sights, and last year the New, New Ten sights were voted on. With over 100...

See more>>