The Den

Some bars won't slot neatly into my 'love 'em' or 'hate 'em' categories. There are several bars where sometimes I can have quite a good time, and other times they just really get on my tits. I am therefore going to create a new category of 'can't quite make up my mind'.

First nomination for this indeterminate class is The Den.

There are many things not to like about it. It's often just too damned busy, and sometimes excessively raucous (it's been re-positioning itself over the last few years as primarily a sports bar; and it is home to a number of expat sports teams, rugby teams especially - and you know what they're like!). In general, I am resistant to any places that are jammed wall-to-wall with expats all the time, and especially with smug, complacent, overweight, excessively wealthy expats.... and that's The Den. And, like many bars of its ilk, it is - at least from time to time - something of a brothel, a favourite of the Russian working girls, in particular; the (tiny, dingy) upstairs disco bar is an especially notorious pick-up area (I am frankly afraid to set foot up there usually). Back when I first arrived, they even tried to impose a door charge - though very inconsistently and half-heartedly (and the policy seems to have been long since abandoned).

On the plus side, though, the TVs these days are very good quality - probably the best in town. The beers are usually quite well-kept (a real rarity in China). There's a generously long 'happy hour'. And they do a good range of pub grub, quite reasonably priced (their burger is one of the best in town; and, since it is one of the few bars to stay open all night [officially, that is - as I've observed on here before, most small bars and restaurants will quite happily stay open as long as you're spending money], it is a favourite spot for a dawn breakfast [I did once end up there with my notoriously insomniac ex-girlfriend, The Poet - one of my very few happy memories of the place]).

Best of all, the staff - especially the waitresses - are probably way the best in town, even beating most of the swank hotels. Service tends to be a big problem in China. Local rates of pay are pitiful, so staff turnover is high; there doesn't really seem to be much of a 'service ethic' in Chinese culture to build on (not as we Westerners would recognise it, anyway); and employers never seem to be willing to invest any time or money in training (whenever the service is terrible - as it so often is - I always blame the bosses, not the staff; no-one has shown them how to do their job properly). The girls in The Den are always charming, attentive, efficient (and usually speak quite good English). It's a remarkable achievement; indeed, it's almost remarkable enough to elevate The Den on to the 'Favourite Bars In China' list.

But not quite. Despite its many virtues, it's just not my kind of place. It's a useful resource to have available - if I do want to watch a major sporting event in a noisy atmosphere, if I do get a sudden craving for some Western food in the wee small hours of the morning - but it's not ever likely to become a regular haunt of mine. If I lived over in that part of town (near the Workers' Stadium), things might be different; but I have plenty of cosier, more characterful, less crowded bars to choose from within a convenient stagger of my apartment.

The Den is, for my money, much the best of the 'expat bars' in Beijing - but I don't like 'expat bars' all that much.

Update: I always had rather mixed feelings about The Den, and was inclined to rank it among my 'hates' rather than my 'favourites' - but, after this experience, I transferred it definitively to the 'Hate List'.