Flamme

Manhattan and Passionate Englishman.

A Paul Matthew creation, Campari Alexander

Dry martinis with the most fantastic blue cheese-stuffed olives.

Homemade chips with blue cheese dip.

Salad with smoked salmon.

Omelet, sausages and fruit salad.

Eggs benedict with béarnaise sauce.

Flamme
S4-33, San Li Tun Village
19 San Li Tun Lu
Chaoyang, Beijing

Notes:
A favorite of B and I in Beijing. Flamme is theoretically a steak house but it really is so much more than a steak house. On our first visit we randomly stumbled in to find that their happy hour deal is pretty extraordinary (50% off until 7:30pm every day, meaning most cocktails cost around 30rmb) and their head bartender Paul Matthew is doing an excellent job behind the bar. The cocktail menu is frequently updated and further, he is happy to freestyle. Aside from cocktails, Flamme serves delicious food. Everything from bar food to breakfast items, very reasonably price even. Make sure to stop by if you are ever in Beijing. Paul is around on Tuesdays and Fridays. Highly recommended.

Sunday Bar and Grill

Facade - Placed right behind the Focus mall, next to Holiday Inn, in Wangjing.

Bar atmosphere feat. old black/white movies.

Mint julep and cocktail, of which the name I forgot, featuring whiskey, amaretto and grand marnier.

Sunday Bar & Grill
Room 101, Tower C
Fang Heng Guo Ji
Futong Dong Dajie
Wangjing, Chaoyang

Notes:
This bar was B and I's local cocktail hang-out, which we only found as you could spot it from our stairway. During our time in Beijing we lived in the Wangjing area, also known as Beijing's Korea town and tech cluster, which Sunday's crowd also reflects. The bar is mainly frequented by white-collar workers enjoying post-work drinks. The bar itself is a Japanese style bar, specialized in single malts. The cocktail menu is classic and the generally don't freestyle or take requests. That does not matter much as the cocktail list is very extensive and the drinks are well-crafted. Cocktails are priced at 60-70 yuan, which I consider very fair. Highly recommended.

Japanese FMCG

Sushi lunch and Pepsi Black Lemon from depato Matsuzakaya in Ginza. 

Pre-dinner drinks and snacks: tonkatsu chips (tasted more like the sauce, sweet-ish) and black Sapporo

Oreos - Pina Colada flavor?

Sushi, sashimi and wakame salad dinner from Precce Premium in the basement of Tokyo Midtown. 

...Where we also picked up this Rosé de Japon to go with our meal. Not a very memorable wine but surely interesting to try. 

Late night snacking and drinking: A flat (?) ice cream cone and Häagen-Dazs crêpe glacé with Tiramisu flavor (B loved this one). The Strong Zero being a R2D mixed drink, and pretty bad-tasting as much as I remember.

Coffee break: Van Houten Cocoa and Roots Aroma Black from 7eleven + Pain aux raisins from local bakery

Another depato lunch.

Best of FritoLay: Mike popcorn, Doritos and Cheetos. B was very fond of this chips compilation.

Cod roe chips (we did not buy these, though).

Lemonade, squid and salad from 7eleven.

Lemon/squash mentos + Melon Fanta

Notes:
B and I are FMCG nerds. Whenever we go traveling be spend a great deal of time in supermarkets and seek out local products and brands. And as you know Japan is a haven in this context. We thus spent every possible occasion to try new products during our Tokyo trip. Some was good, most just interesting, but we surely did have a great deal of fun with it.

Misc. Tokyo Eats and Drinks

Ramen in Shibuya.

Pickles, karaage and biru in an Akasaka izakaya.

Yakitori of all sorts in Akasaka izakaya.

Yakitori, umeshu and biru in 400yen izakaya in Roppongi.

Octopus and fried smelt in a Shinjuku izakaya.

Tamagoyaki in a Ginza izakaya.

Late night tempura snacking in a Shinjuku izakaya.

Bento dinner in a Shinjuku izakaya. 

Omu rice in a Shibuya izakaya.

Noodle okonomiyaki in Shibuya.

Soup and salad from a lunch set in a Shibuya café.

Pasta gratin from a lunch set in a Shibuya café.

Steak salad and baked risotto from a Shibuya café.

Breakfast set with croissant with actual butter (a rarity in China) in an Omotesando bakery.

Coffee break with brownie in Rose Bakery in Dover Street Market.

B and a green tea soft serve. 

Mandatory cocktails in the New York Bar in Park Hyatt. Bland, overpriced and tacky cocktails. Who serves a negroni in a martini glass?

Japanese food road kill.