Capital Bites: TERRA Opens!

Jen Leung | Jul 26, 2010 2:44 pm | 3 comments | 2354 reads

At 6pm Sunday night, there was a crowd of people waiting on Sanlitun Nanlu, watching as the finishing touches were being made to TERRA, the new cocktail bar/cevicheria opened by Gaby Alves, owner of the popular SALT in Lido. Once the doors opened, a flood of people swarmed in for TERRA's opening party. The space was formerly occupied by Rickshaw, and the construction on TERRA over the last few months has been a cause of much speculation.

The result? A sleek, stylish space that has much more of the Sanlitun bar vibe than SALT's more elegant minimalism. Both floors have a bar, and the smaller downstairs space affords a view into the kitchen. Upstairs, a much longer bar dominates the room, and the usual dining tables were absent as room was cleared for the celebration. TERRA stands out with it's bright green back wall and the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows. The glass gives TERRA an open, airy feel - or it will once the party clears out and it's converted back into a dining area. At night, it will glow bright on that dark street, and the slightly odd-looking black graffiti covering the windows will likely look lovely and provide a modicum more privacy to the diners.

There was a steady flow of wines and cocktails on opening night, as well as some canapes that might be a sampling of what's to appear on TERRA's menu. There was a smattering of ceviche on hand, including tomato shrimp topped with fried celery and shrimps with avocado and lime. Also pleasing was a fragrant and chewy cheesebread. The air-conditioning was spotty, but despite the heat, the room was packed with revelry and there was already a DJ installed in the second floor's DJ booth that kept things loud and lively.

In short, TERRA looks like it will become a successful addition to the Sanlitun scene, providing a sophisticated but casual place to sip on some interesting cocktails while nibbling on an assortment of refreshing seafood concoctions (and if the canapes are a preview, there will also be some greasily satisfying cheesebread and goatcheese croquettes). Stay tuned for our full review.

TERRA will be officially opening tomorrow.

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JenL's picture JenL Submitted by Guest on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 18:13

The lunch deal at Terra, 2 dishes and a glass of wine for RMB98, is a great deal. I got the salad and the salmon, which were both a good size, and well done, and the house white was pleasant. Totally recommend it for those days when you want a glass of wine with lunch, and the big windows makes it a good spot to hang out in the day.

fbachief's picture fbachief Submitted by Guest on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 16:28

I went to the TERRA restaurant yesterday night with a friend and our first impression coming in was that there were no guests at all. But besides of that there were like 10 Chinese waiters and 1 Croatian Manager sort of forcing us to have a seat and try this new stylish restaurant. I have to mentoin that my friend and I know quite good the Peruvian cuisine and so we orderd the "BIG" ceviche plate and a platter of 3 different types of Causas (sort of a mashed potato dish).

We also ordered 2 glasses of Pisco Sour (typical Peruvian drink) and had also 2 beers.

1. Pisco Sour: One of the worst drinks I haver ever tried. They weren’t certainly made fresh with egg. There was no cinnamon in there. It tasted like a premixed created drink from somebody who never made has made any Pisco Sour before. Not even the salt rings on the glasses were freshly made they tasted like hard as if they were on the glasses for several days.

2. draft beers: Drafts beers were OK well there is not really anything you can do wrong with it.

3. “BIG” portion of Ceviche: Ridiculous small portion of maybe 80g. Everything was pre-prepared you could tell by the taste of the icecold fish that this dish was taken out of a fridge.

4. Causa potato dish: Again ridiculously small portion not even enough to consider it as an appetizer for one person.

All in all we paid 450 RMB and had like during the dinner 10 Chinese waiters more or less next to us starring at us and watching us eat. No wonder there was no other guest in the restaurant so they had plenty of time.

SUMMARY:

BAD FOOD AND DRINK PREPARATION, SMALL PORTIONS AND EXTREMLY HIGH PRICE.

I DON’T RECOMMEND TO EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT. IT’S A RIP-OFF.

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