Forums > Living in Kunming > What baked goods are you craving?
Good English-style crumpets.
Good English-style crumpets.
Tonight is the full opening of the new Uprock.
DJ DSK will be on the decks for what will be one of the biggest parties of the summer (we hope!)
Many thanks to all the people who have given feedback over the past week during our soft opening. The air con is now fixed, the outside bar is fully operational, the staff and level of service is a lot better. We now have 90% of our beer stocked including a great range of Belgian and German beers. For those who prefer local beers, Qingdao is just 15 kuai (12 with a VIP card).
VIP customers (you can collect your cards tonight) receive discounts on bottled beer, spirits and wine.
For those that want to start early, we'll be showing the Germany v Serbia match at 7.30pm on our massive projector. You can also play pool or table football.
Our table reservation number is 0871-533 0001.
In the spirit of the World Cup I will personally buy a drink for anybody wearing an England football shirt. We need all the help we can get!!
If you can't make it tonight look out over the next few days for announcements on our weekly events. In future we will have live bands, special music nights (Disco, Hip-Hop etc), a pool competition, and more....
Hope to see you tonight!
Uprock will be re-opening on Friday, 18th June.
The re-opening party promises to be a great night with music from Kunming's finest Norwegian DJs Martin and Tor Turbo.
Don't worry about missing any World Cup games. Uprock has a huge projector and a number of TVs dotted around the bar so you can keep up with all the latest matches while you groove to the awesome music and sample any of our huge selection of imported beers.
@flengs We didn't plan to have a wooden dancefloor but I'll see if my other partners are willing to change that.
Uprock will definitely be open before 26th June. At present, if nothing goes horribly wrong, the opening parties are scheduled for the weekend of 11th (World Cup weekend). Will update that as soon as something is fixed.
@kohsamui - I'll send you a mail later this week.
@KuiXing - I can assure you that the alcohol will be 100% real. As I'm sure you know, China is plagued by fake alcohol - I intend to make sure that none gets into Uprock. Our selection of beers will be mostly imports and we'll be very careful with our spirits suppliers.
The new bar will be run be new staff and there are new owners (myself included) who intend to bring up the level of service to a much higher level. At the new place, if you don't get your change, think the booze is fake or have any other issue with the bar, feel free to come shout at me!
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Update/Retraction:
I went to the new Red Star on Jinhua PuLu last night (they've moved across the road) hoping to have a good steak and a chat with some friends.
From the moment I walked in I had a bad feeling about the place. There were swarms of fuwuyuan all over delighted to welcome us with synchronized yells but nobody seated us. We found a table upstairs and ordered three of their French Steaks and some beers. After waiting 15 minutes our beers hadn't arrived so we called over an indignant waiter who bluntly told us we hadn't ordered any.
Having re-ordered our beers and confirmed how we wanted our steak cooked we began our discussions only for the speaker next to us to crackle into life at full volume. Unable to hear a thing we moved to a table away from the speaker where we still struggled to hold a conversation. We asked the staff to turn the music down which to our surprise they did. Within 5 minutes, however, they cranked the music back up whereupon we again complained that we were eating and unable to hear a thing. Another indignant (and this time belligerent) waiter told us that after 8pm Red Star turns into a bar and thus loud music was a pre-requisite.
We ate up quickly and left.
Whatever charm the Red Star used to have has gone. The new place is huge, the staff are beyond useless and completely unable to answer the simplest question, the bathroom is brand new and looks like it's already been through 30 years of use, the food average and the general feeling is that they don't care at all about customer experience.
After all this time it seems that Bernie was right!
28th Jan 2007
Whilst I'm loathe to defend the Red Star I must point out that 'niche' doesn't equate to 'standards'. If I may point out a few similarities between the two:
1. Both Bluebird and Red Star are multi-level bar-restaurants with roof gardens.
2. Both Blue Bird and Red Star have live music in the evenings (BB a Filipino keyboard-crooner couple and RS a guitarist)
3. Both BB & RS are quiet drinking venues outside eating times.
4. Both BB & RS serve western food, chinese food, Thai food, Italian etc. In fact the menu content is surprisingly similar (RS is perhaps a third or quarter of BB's price).
5. Both BB & RS were designed rustic-style. BB just renovated and RS was renovated badly.
And finally whilst BB may have a 'chef' to RS's 'cook', the RS's cooks, in the most part, used to work as chefs in BB.
The RS is quite plainly an imitation of BB with lower standards. It is the Wimpey to BB's Burger King.
Next time (of if) you go, try the French Steak at Red Star and then head over to Bluebird for the same. Sour and Spicy Noodles, iron-skillet squid, spicy devil fried rice, pizza, pasta, the list goes on....
Pretty much the same recipes but made with lower quality ingredients, presented less professionally and delivered by waiters with a quarter of the IQ, in a setting that as Bernie rightly states could have been knocked up in a couple of hours on Wenlin Jie.
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Red Star is very much in the same niche as Bluebird but not quite as expensive. The restaurant is on 3 floors, I'd recommend going up to the roof terrace for the best atmosphere especially if you want to eat. The second floor is more of a bar with lower ceiling and smoky atmosphere.
I had some pretty good food last time I went to Red Star. In the past though it has been hit or miss. I'd recommend the steak and the chicken burrito isn't bad.
The one thing that brings the Red Star down is the service. The waiters look like they've been pulled out of the Firebird, thrown into uniform and told to stand around and ignore customers. They are masters at avoiding eye contact.
If you like Red Star get one of their VIP discount cards for 100 kuai. The savings tot up pretty quickly.
Oh and don't try the house wine. It's foul (makes Yunnan Red seem like premier cru bordeaux!)
3 1/2 stars for food
0 stars for service
In the past few weeks most, if not all, of the Feiyang branches have upgraded menus and some have renovated. Annoyingly some of my favourite dishes have disappeared to be be replaced with poor but expensive replacements.
From my last visit expect prices to have nearly doubled - I kid you not.
This is my favourite Feiyang. It's a lot more spacious than the one on Jiaoling Lu.
Other reviewers have given a good description of the food and service. However I have to reiterate the Japanese beef is awesome.
For draft beer fans, they stock KK draft. It's nothing special but it's cold and wet and 15 kuai a pitcher.
Feiyang have discount cards that can get you up to 15% off. Used to cost 100 kuai or sometimes a friendly manager gives you a free one.
Depending on what you order, meals can cost from 20-40 kuai per head (with drinks). I think it's best to go in a larger group so you can get more variety without wasting too much food.
It closes at 2am for late night snackers.
Who were the ad wizards behind this one?
发布者Nice one! I found some eye drops in Kunming whose usage was only recomended when "the eye fucks the eye". This one was just a silly translation but don't must Chinese translators know that "fuck" is a dirty word?
Beerlao returns
发布者Beer Lao is now available in Chapter One, Salvadors, and Speakeasy (No Dark Beer at Sp'easy). French Cafe may well be next on the Beer Lao circuit.
If anybody has a bar that is interested in stocking Beer Lao please contact me at Chapter One or thru this site. For Beer Lao sales in Dali, contact Brian at Dragonfly Garden.