Most restaurant owners treat their loyal patrons quite well and should offer these discounts and promotions to ALL. The idea of a preferred PAID VIP CARD won’t go over well with masses.

And the address is 19 Chenghai Yi Lu

赤暖帘
澄海一路19号
8593 5719

Also, yes greenery cafe kicks arse, but I think La Villa is cool again – they’ve restarted the tapas menu, put 30% off french food, 30% off wine (with a RS card) and have buy one get one free cocktails. Thank god for the economic crisis!
Good talking last night mate, love the blog. See ya soon.

As a confirmed Viet foodie and long time HoChiMinh resident, I have to say the Vietnamese place in HiSense Plaza has got great possibilities. Even though they took the peanuts and red onion out of the green papaya salad to “accomodate” local tastes, they were quick to rework it!

On the Indian scene, I have to give Yamuna the edge. A bit more pricer but, as the old adage goes, “you get what you pay for” and a jumbo prawn at Yamuna might be considered a whale at the “place” across town, nonetheless, Fatema has a lot of good points like you say.

Thanks again for the hard work to keep us too lazy to do it up to date!

I value your thorough comment and I will update my post to reflect some of the things you’ve mentioned.

I however am not as optimistic as you are on the Qingdao food situation…mostly because I’ve been spoiled by food in far better restaurants elsewhere.

I’ve read your comments with great interest. I just want to add that Da Milano is not dead. Elio has been back in town for a couple of weeks and hired some local people to keep it going — he’s changing it more into a trattoria kind of neighborhood place with more emphasis on the pizza for the winter. It’s still the best place for authentic Italian gelato, and the pizza’s pretty good, too.

Now, as for Stefano’s cooking at Napoli — I had the wonderful dining experience of eating the best fish of my life there at the auction to raise money for victims of the Chengdu earthquake. Stefano is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. The house wine is a pretty good one, too.

My flat-out favorite restaurant in Qingdao is Fatema. Shamim, the chef, spent twelve years in Athens working at Indian restaurants where he learned how to cook. He uses an authentic Tandoori oven. I NEVER try to rush when I go to Fatema — it’s my haven, a place to slow down and relax. I consider Shamim and Cao Quin, his wife, as personal friends and always enjoy their wonderful hospitality.

You didn’t mention Lisa’s Mediterranean Restaurant, which many expats consider has pretty decent food at okay prices. Both Lisa’s and the Diner have better french fries than you’ll ever get at any of the fast food places. The Diner is getting a reputation for the place to go for a good cheeseburger, too.

The place to drink a good French champagne is, surprise, surprise, LeBang!

For a big blowout, there is no place like the Crowne Plaza’s buffet with several cuisines to choose from. My favorites, the Mexican and Indian restaurants, have excellent food. It is as pricey as it gets, but, and here’s the kicker, it’s worth it!

However, I did wander in one time, just to try it, and ordered a pizza for 80 rmb. My home-made pizza is far superior, but I think my pizza is better than anyone else’s here in Qingdao. You’re welcome to come over for my pizza some time.

I’m an American mom with my 22-year-old son, James, here with me. He also came in September, bringing his bicycle with him. This morning we had pancakes for breakfast.

We both like to go for dumpling soup at a nearby hole-in-the-corner where we live in Sifeng. I get a jian bing gao ze from the street vendor on our seafood lane almost every day. I’ve become a valued regular — yesterday the vendor blew me a kiss and let me get served before another customer, who graciously agreed to wait a bit longer.

My favorite Chinese restaurant is a large busy place behind the public library on Shandong Road. Their plate of dumplings are superb. There is a long line of red lanterns down the porch at the front. You can sit on the porch in wood chairs. I always run into people I know at this restaurant, but I’m sorry that I don’t have the name.

Also, I must say that Pasta Fresca da Salvatore has great food. I’ve sampled several of their dishes and liked every one of them. Even though it’s expensive, it’s high quality and the ambience is authentic Italian.

Let’s see, what have I missed here? Oh, Jusco… there’s a little place tucked away near the stairway in the middle that serves eclairs that are to die for. I can’t believe that i passed this up for nearly a year before I finally tried one.

Also, there’s a Korean restaurant with really decent food near Tai Dong. Again, I don’t remember the name. And there’s a seafood Chinese restaurant in Badaguan where you can sit out right on the waterfront with great service, entertainment, and good food.

Really, I think eating out in Qingdao is a great adventure. I’m happy that we have so many different restaurants to try and that we have so many cuisines to choose from!

~cheers

I’m not hating on Redstar, and I know very well that you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. Not to mention the mag is an excellent resource for everyone in terms of addresses and phone numbers for all these places. I think of this post as more of a supplement to whats already available rather than a stand alone guide.

I’ve seen the pocket Qingdao cards and I think they’re a good idea, I’ll be looking forward to seeing the 2.0 version once they’re off the press.