Ice bar at Binjiang One

Until yesterday I thought that Shanghai had just one ice bar (the one on Huaihai Lu), but it seems there is at least one other place where you can drink in sub-zero temperatures. I had a Christmas Day dinner with my parents at Binjiang One, and found the restaurant has an ice bar on its premises.

Binjiang One is a fusion restaurant located in an old villa on the Pudong side of the Huangpu River, about 300 meters from the Shangri-La next to the river ferries. Both the food and the location are excellent, and the view of the river and the Bund is also great. The only dissonant is that the neighboring floating seafood restaurant’s fluorescent lights spoil a bit of the view.

After dinner we went down to the ice bar, where we were given thick winter coats to wear inside. My very pregnant wife could not stand the cold too long, and left after a few minutes. My mom followed her, but my dad and I decided to have a vodka. The bar has a pretty big collection of different vodka brands with all kinds of vodka flavors (in total 103 different kinds of vodka). I decided to try out a crystal clear chocolate-flavored one, while my dad opted for an espresso vodka (both from the Van Gogh brand). Both tasted excellent, but maybe that also had to do with the surroundings. The drinks were not cheap (RMB 70 per shot), but it was worth it. It’s a nice experience to be surrounded by ice, in a freezing cold environment, especially during Christmas. We decided to only have one shot, and the freezing Filipino bar tender seemed to be very happy with that!