Article By Alex Zheng
Hops Bar is located in Xi’an’s Koreantown lv di shijicheng in the southern part of Gaoxin near the Third Ring Road. The place is instantly eye-catching due to its uber-orderliness—every beer bottle, every wall decoration, every chair is perfectly placed and aligned. There are large shelves of beers along the left wall and a small bar along the right wall with a few wooden tables, a dart board, and the Begin Again soundtrack playing in the background. This is a comfortable environment for a quiet drink.
Hops has a very large selection of beers from all over the world. There is no menu here so you have to peruse the shelves, judging the beers from what you already know or what labels you like. There are Belgian Trappistes, English Porters and American Pale Ales ranging from 25 to 45 RMB. Each beer comes ice cold and with the proper beer glass—a rarity in Xi’an. We were recommended a Belgian-heavy menu and ended up drinking the PauwelKwak, Rochefort Trappiste and Chimay Blue.
The service here was polite and unhurried. The bartender tried to speak to us with what English he knew but we mostly kept to ourselves and played a few games of darts before moving on to look for a place to eat. One criticism is that there is no food here other than spicy peanuts to eat.
Koreantown isn’t an easy place to get to and these beer store bars are becoming ever-increasingly common but this is one of the nicer ones if you’re looking for a break from the clouds of cigarette smoke and roar of drunken people.
Pros: Good beer selection
Cons: Koreantown is so far away from most things
10103,Tao Jie, Lv Di shi Ji cheng,
Zhang Ba 3 Lu,Gaoxin
(高新区丈八三路绿地世纪城饕界美食一条街10103)
029-6820 5579
11:00am – Midnight
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