Eating and Drinking
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Eating and Drinking |
Please note this section includes restaurants which think they are western, but may not be!
You probably get out more than me! If you know somewhere, please tell me.
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Ramen Restaurant This is one of Liuzhou's most secret restaurants, hidden away behind a bank, in an alley leading nowhere, but is one of the nicest surprises I've had in a while. It is Chinese owned and operated, but specialises in Japanese style Ramen dishes.
Large bowls of noodles are served in a stock made from pork bones, accompanied by your meat of choice, vegetables and half a boiled egg. They also do other dishes and set meals. Fruit juices are available and don't miss their ice cream. The durian ice cream is delicious (unless you hate durian!) The fairly short menu is in Chinese only, but there is a rough translation here (PDF Format). One of the friendly young waitresses speaks adequate English. To find the restaurant, enter San Zhong Road 三中路 at the southern end. Find the Bank of Communications at No. 29, opposite the small Lianhua supermarket. Go up the lane beside the bank and turn left at the end of the bank, going behind the bank building. Here you will find the restaurant. See arrow below.
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23rd August 2009 |
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Daozhiyuan has been in Nanning since 1986, but have recently opened a branch in Liuzhou, on Longcheng Road (See map). I haven't been yet but the menu includes the usual Japanese dishes - sashimi, seafood and Japanese hotpots. They are on the second floor of the building opposite Pizza Hut which also houses Little Sheep. It is the one under the red signs in the picture below.
The entrance is on the main road, tucked among the fashion and sports shops. Look for the kimono clad "Japanese" girl who will escort you inside.
The have a website here. (Chinese only)
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Ten years ago, one of the few recognisable comfort foods available in Liuzhou was the jam doughnuts from the Gongmao bakery. Gongmao Dept. store haven't had a bakery for years now, but a few bakers around town still do them. American style 'donuts' have arrived in Liuzhou in the form of Mr Chan's Donut & Coffee & Tea shop. The shop is on Gongyuan Lu opposite the kindergarten See map.
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Liuzhou has at least two Korean restaurants in the city centre. The first,
Much better, is this place.
Favourite dish: Spicy Octopus
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It is difficult to know what to say about this place. Situated on the ground floor of Liuzhou's 5 star Liuzhou Hotel (Liuzhou Fandian), Prince is a steak restaurant., although its menu has alternative dishes. However on a recent visit, at just before 7 pm on a Friday evening, I was presented with the menu, which is a design disaster. Someone decided that all dishes should be pictured. Unfortunately, one steak looks pretty much like another so the pictures are not really all that helpful, especially the ones out of focus or just too small. Each dish is, of course, captioned in both Chinese and English. The English is almost unreadable. Green lettering over a picture of a salad doesn't really help. I was perusing this menu trying to find something I could read when the manager appeared and informed us that only steaks were available. He pointed to two pages of the 20+ page menu and said that was all they had. Oh! And, of the 12 listed soups, they only had two. For a 5 star hotel restaurant to run out of 80% of its menu so early in the evening is nothing short of disgraceful. If you run out of food so early - go buy more! We duly ordered our steaks, which was not what we really wanted, and they arrived reasonably promptly, cooked exactly as we had requested. They have Japanese, American, New Zealand and local beef and although it's not the greatest steak I've ever eaten, it was perfectly acceptable. Note: When you order a steak, that's what you get - with the tiny addition of two cherry tomatoes, a lump of corn cob and two slices of cucumber. No carbohydrates were on the menu. Come on, guys! A steak need some fries! (The full time we were there, the waitresses were kept busy delivering bowls of rice to carb deprived Chinese steak eaters!) As I was munching into my steak, I noticed adjacent tables being served non-steak menu items which we had been told were 'not available'. These included tables which had ordered after us! So, all in all, a very disappointing experience. I have been to this restaurant many times before and the service was never so awful. Perhaps the new manager should spend less time wining and dining his friends (he was at the next table to us) and more time doing restaurant manager stuff like buying food. 3rd November 2007 |
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As long predicted, the Cafe Blooming has closed. According to the notice in their window, they have closed down as the area is to be redeveloped. However, none of the neighbouring businesses have closed and the customary Chinese character (拆) written inside a circle on condemned buildings is nowhere to be seen. I would like to think they will be back as they say, but I ain't holding my breath. Every time I went there, the place was empty, the service was getting worse and worse. The notice is below.
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UBC is a Taiwanese chain which has a number of outlets in Liuzhou. See the map. I really can't see the point of these places. Overpriced, terrible service, average food. They happily charge ¥25-30 for Chinese fast food you could buy all over town for about ¥5. Their western food is mediocre at best and way too expensive. The coffee is run of the mill and way overpriced. Avoid. |
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which means "Happy" is on the mezzanine floor of The Big Chef restaurant
on the main pedestrian street, opposite Soho Bar. It specialises in
Korean Barbecue. The night I went, the service was decidedly bad and the
food just acceptable. They were in the middle of a redecoration which
may have caused problems, but I'm in no hurry to rush back.
which simply means "Korean Delicious Food" And it was. The restaurant
lies on
the side street running down to the river opposite the southern
end of the Wuxing Pedestrian Street (see
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