Bar Review: Vita Café

By Christian Seiersen

What: A chic Mediterranean bar specialising in evening cocktails and afternoon tea
Why: Your Sicilian villa is being fumigated
How Much: Beer RMB 35; standard cocktails RMB 45; speciality cocktails RMB 65
Where: 557 Yongjia Lu, near Yueyang Lu. Tel: 5466 5718

In the leafy depths of the former French Concession, Vita is hidden behind a warren of wooden walkways in a spacious courtyard that could pass as Don Corleone’s back garden. The broad lawn is lined with a raised wooden patio with comfortable wicker furniture and deck chairs for snatching a glass of wine and drinking in the waning threads of summer sun. And if the weather is less pleasing, the interior, a muddle of chocolate brown couches and chairs overseen by imposing murals of the bar’s two primary benefactors, France and Italy, is inviting in its simple homeliness of an Italian bistro.

Vita’s cocktail list has a Mediterranean tinge that might easily be found in the bar of a Spanish piazza or bustling Roman villa. The Cucumber and Lime Cocktail (RMB 65) wafted a fresh, draughty nose with hints of crisp, sea air. There’s also a vast and unique selection of fruit mojitos (all RMB 65) including the Mango Orange Mojito, a mix of Mango syrup and Mango purée, topped with rum and squeezed slices of orange and lime. It twanged on our taste buds before sliding gracefully down the throat, leaving a refreshing finish. 

To cater for the flourishing afternoon tea crowd, Vita’s Martini Coffees (RMB 50) serve a twin volley of those enfants terribles: alcohol and caffeine.

And if the wide expanse of a courtyard and/or drinks list brimming with inventiveness was not reason enough to visit, then perhaps the bar’s happy hours are. During September at 7-10pm on Fridays and 6 - 9pm on Saturdays, for the paltry sum of RMB 150 you can grab a burger and as many appetisers as you can eat including spring rolls. The ladies can wash it down with free flow sparkling wine and Long Island Ice Teas; for the gentlemen it’s Tsingtao beer and shots. 

Go easy on the digestivos mind, no one wants the Dolce Vita to descend into the fall of Rome.