Beijing Boyce

The Real Deal Contest drew more than 25 suggestions as to where the city’s drinkers and eaters can get the best for their buck during these trying times. Unfortunately, only one person can take home the Wolf Blass wine, the Riedel glass, the Yunnan corkscrew, the Blu Lobster apron, the glory, and other assorted sundries (see full list). To this end, I asked John Gai of Palatte Wines and Palette Vino to pick the winner. And that winner is: aardvark_3.

Thanks to everyone who left suggestions. I plan to announce another contest tomorrow. In the meantime, here is the full list of “real deals”:

Kro’s Nest: “We Hate Tuesdays”, with two free kegs of Tsingtao at 6PM, followed by RMB5 pints until 10 PM – Boyce

Tun: Ladies drink for free on Friday nights – beijingdaze

The Saddle: Fajitarita Monday, with fajitas at RMB35rmb and Margaritas at RMB30 – beijingdaze

Carrefour: Wine fair, with hundreds of wine samples for free and 20 percent off retail – beijingdaze

Pyro’s: Happy hour, 10 PM-midnight, RMB25 pitchers of beer, RMB15 mixed drinks, and RMB50 six-shooter tequila deals – Stuart

La Bamba: Happy hour with RMB5 draft – Stuart

Paddy O’Shea’s: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 9 PM, bottled beers and house spirits, two-for-one upstairs – GP

The Den: From 5-10 PM, half-price pizza and beer – Judge Panda

Domus: From 5-8 PM, complimentary antipasti spread – Judge Panda

Pekotan: Lunch box – pick jumbo prawns for all three servings, RMB28 – Daniel LaRusso

Asamuka: All-you-can-eat lunch, with sashimi, steak, sushi, etc, RMB150 (includes one drink) – Daniel LaRusso

Club Sandwich: Pepperoni pizza (RMB25) and iced coffee (RMB10) or Qingdao (RMB10) – Blake

IKEA: One hot dog, one ice cream cone, one coke for RMB10, or three hot dogs and one ice cream cone for RMB10 – Chad

The Saddle: FajitaRita Mondays, with Margaritas and Fajitas at half-price – Melissa

China View: Teppanyaki place (3F), all you can eat and drink for RMB150 – aardvark

Club China Doll: Ladies drink free on ladies night, with RMB1000 prize split between best dancer, sexiest girl – Boyce

Tun: Thursday night, live music, no cover, two beers for RMB15 – Boyce

Aria: Happy hour, two-for-one drinks and free snacks – Boyce

Matsuko: RMB78 lunch, with all you can eat, including sushi, desserts, and beer – Chad

Hash House Harriers: RMB20 for beer before, during, after the run; RMB60 gets the beer and a meal (hash.cn) – Arthoof

The Rickshaw: 6th of each month, all-day ‘Hair of the Dog’ party with half-price drinks (same deal at Cinco de Drinko at Saddle Cantina, 5th of each month) – Blake
Blue Frog: 25 Tuesdays, all standard drinks for RMB25 – Blake

OT Lounge: During November, Brooklyn Lager at RMB20 per bottle – Blake

The Boat: Thursday “Alt Dance Party”, two drinks free between 9 and 11pm, no cover – Blake

The Aubergine (Shangdu Soho): RMB36 lunch includes soup, Danish Roast Pork with potato wedges, “something that looks like clover, and rich, fat sauce” – Mazolinc

Mesh Bar: Thursdays, two-for-one cocktails, 7-11 PM – Weeble

The Rickshaw: Taco Tuesday, during happy hour; RMB40 for three tacos, 1 pitcher of Margaritas for RMB60 – aadrvark_3

Xiao Mai Bu: RMB2 beers – aardvark_3

Note: You never know when a deal will end, so it is always best to check before you go.

6 comments

We haven’t had a really good contest since the Celebrity Pub Crawl series and The Haiku Challenge months and months ago. In the spirit of the times – the increasingly hard times – I’m getting back to it with some free stuff.

The contest: Leave a comment about the best deals in town for those on an increasingly tight budget. It could be a happy hour, a weekly special, or a one-off event.

My pick: The weekly “We Hate Tuesdays” event at Kro’s Nest, where the first keg opened at 6 PM is free and then it’s RMB5 per pint to 10 PM. Plus, the pizza is huge: you can take some slices home for breakfast, thus saving more).

The prizes: Some stuff I get for free at tastings and events as well as a few items from my own personal stash (I’ll be adding to this list during the next few days):

• One bottle of Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz 2005
• One Riedel glass (drink that Wolf Blass in style)
• One Yunnan Red Wine corkscrew (from my trip outside Kunming – love these things)
• Two Dewar’s snifter and mini Whisky bottle sets
• One Blu Lobster apron (very nice, very blue, and looks like it can absorb a lot of foam)
• One Frank’s Place mug
• Two Four packages of Tim Hortons coffee (for use in that mug)
• One package of Beijing Devils rugby team coffee
• One XL T-shirt from Blue Frog (described as “very, very nice”)

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The nitty-gritty

Everyone who leaves a reasonable comment gets his or her name entered in the draw. This is all about helping out fellow readers, so please make useful suggestions (“eat chuan’r” doesn’t cut it).

It’s winner take all, i.e. one person gets all of the items listed above.

You need to be in Beijing to win, either able to pick up this stuff from me in Sanlitun-Workers Stadium or have a reliable daytime address to which I can courier it.

The deadline for entries is next Thursday at 5 PM. I’ll find some respected member of the community to pull the winning name and will announce the winner next Friday.

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