A Closer Look at the Bar & Club Awards: Best Beijing Happy Hours

Margaux Schreurs | Nov 29, 2016 4:00 pm | Add a comment | 2389 reads

With the "A Closer Look" series, we raise our glasses in recognition of the Beijinger 2016 Bar & Club Award winners, before giving a toast (in text form, of course) about why they were selected by our readers.

The winner of the Best Happy Hour this year went to Paddy O’Shea’s, everyone's favorite rowdy sports bar, located just east of Dongzhimen. Given that Paddy O'Shea's have a bunch of weekly deals, it's no wonder they secured this prestigious accolade:

  • Mon-Fri 2-8pm and Sat-Sun 2-6pm: buy-one-get-one on home brews, Tiger, and mixed drinks, and up to 30 percent off all other drinks 
  • Mon-Fri 5-6pm: Crazy Irish Hour with buy-one-get-one on all Irish drinks
  • Thu until midnight: 30 percent off all cider

Longtime haunt of the Beijinger team The Local was recognized as having an Outstanding Happy Hour, which takes place from 4pm to 8pm every day, with RMB 10-20 off cocktails and draft beer. This includes our favorite drink, the naughty pear (pictured at top), making it RMB 30 instead of RMB 40.

The second winner in the Outstanding category was Home Plate BBQ (Sanlitun). Home Plate's happy hour runs daily between 11am and 7pm (basically the entire daytime), which gets you RMB 10 off all house liquor, draft beer, cocktails, shooters, and house wine. 

While we agree all these winners, there are a couple of other happy hours that we enjoy around town and believe shouldn't go unnoticed: Centro (at the Kerry Hotel) and The Distillery by Capital Spirits. At Centro, all standard-pour drinks (including wines, cocktails, and beers) are buy-one-get-one-free from 5-9pm, and again from midnight to 1am. Centro is usually not a cheap destination, but the happy hour makes them well worth it (and look at the size!).

As for The Distillery, their happy hour rotates daily between Monday and Saturday, and runs from 7-9pm:

  • Martini Monday: House gin martinis at RMB 30 each
  • Tonic Tuesday: House gin and tonics buy-one-get-one-free
  • Whiskey Wednesdays: House whiskey cocktails at RMB 30 each
  • Thirsty Thursdays: Free 45ml house pour with every beer
  • The Friday Classic: Classic cocktails at RMB 30 each
  • Seasonal Saturdays: Seasonal cocktails at RMB 30 each

If these have left you thirsty for more, we also have these handy guides for the best deals around town on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

More stories by this author here.

Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
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Images: Tracy Wang, Margaux Schreurs