On The Radar is a weekly SmartShanghai column where we profile 2-3 new venues that you might like to know about. Here are the facts and our first impressions.

***

Hey, there're a bunch of new places out there to eat and drink at. Nothing too earth shattering this week but maybe one of these might make a welcome addition to your 'hood.

Beer Bank

What is it: Shanghai's changing priorities, I guess. This place used to be that sort of artsy, left-of-center, almost dive bar-ish, mid-priced bar Kulou. Shanghai doesn't need that sort of thing anymore. Shanghai needs gyms and craft beer bottle shops. Craft beer bottle shops — drink in or take-out — and conceptual gyms. The concept of the gym next door is "Fight Club Meets Nightclub", which you can read about right here. We sent Sarah to try that whole thing, I'm not going to get into it. They pull me off the rack to do the beer bar things.

This craft beer pairs well with chicken. FINALLY. A beer that goes with chicken.

But anyways. Yeah. It's a craft beer bottle shop. Selection is okay. It's no Beer Lady, of course. But there's enough in there that you'd find something interesting, if you're into craft beer. Prices are standard. It's mostly unrefrigerated on the racks though, so you'd be taking it home. If you want to drink it on-site they have a second floor that looks like this.

Don't really know if this screams "beer drinking environment" to me. On the other hand if I had a huge trigonometry midterm the next day, this feels like the ideal dormitory study room to do some cramming in.

First Impressions: Hmm. First impression of "beer_bank :)". How about: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

But yeah it's a serviceable bottle shop if you live in the neighborhood or are a member of the gym next door.

-Morgan Short

Pate

What is it: Clean, simple corner thing in Fuxing Soho. Coffee. A handful of pastries/desserts. I believe it's called a "patisserie." It's quiet, it's soothing to the eye, and nearly everything on the menu has Pate in front of it.

35rmb for a Flat White or a Pate Matcha Lemonade (solid attempt at making matcha taste like something), 40rmb for a Pate Coconut Ice Coffee or 35rmb for tea. Pastries are things like Pate Strawberry or Caramel Religieuse (42rmb), Pate Lemon Thyme Tart (40rmb), Pate Matcha Tart (40rmb), Madeleine for 8rmb, Lamingtons for 25rmb (yes. yes. yes).

First Impressions: Lamingtons. Sponge cake and jam dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut shavings. Australia's gift to mankind, to apologize for Fosters.

Much like Lamingtons, Pate is good. Good desserts, good pastries, good coffee (though served in a glass cup, only acceptable at roadside cafes in Oman, Morocco, etc,), bright, well-designed, polite service. Go there. Have the Lamingtons, of the Berry or regular varietals. I think they're very good.

-Alex Panayotopoulos

EDR

What is it: Just down the street from immediate rivals Le Souhait and Co Cheese, EDR (stands for Eat Drink Repeat) is a brushed concrete cubby with a smattering of two-seat tables. It runs some surprisingly good lunch/light dinner grub, and it's got some outside seating to boot.

The menu's a quartet of salads for between 45-50rmb, a quartet of sandwiches for 50-70rmb (Pesto Chicken Wrap is 49rmb, Sourdough Pastrami is 69rmb), three pasta dishes (55rmb-60rmb), some eggy/pancake-y brunch options in the same range and some snacks. Good quality lunch-meeting stuff. Healthy-looking. Well-presented. Green salad, dark bread. There's avocado in the Summer Chickpea Salad.

There's a cheap cappuccino (28rmb), Little Creatures, two Ballast Points and Green Flash Soul Style IPA in bottled form for 55rmb, 50-60rmb and 55rmb respectively. Wine by the glass in the same range. It's... serviceable! Who needs a thousand beers on tap? Do you like any of those beers? They're available here in lovely little brandy balloon glasses.

First Impressions: The dumb acronym name and the X-Space-sans-neon-piping sort of had me thinking it's another overpriced photogenic coffeeshop. In actuality, it's a good food and drink spot that does what it does well. I tried the 68rmb lunch deal; half-sandwich, half-salad and I was well served by the Chickpea and Pastrami. They throw that nice cheap cappuccino in, too. It's never going to beat Co Cheese for sandwiches, or Le Souhait for drink selection, but it's got a tight, concise menu of good stuff at a reasonable price.

-Alex Panayotopoulos

Bitter Soul

What is it: It's a lounge bar next to Mirror and "Bar Constellation Exclusive". Pfftth. "Bar Constellation Exclusive" — when did this happen? Where was I? When did one of the most hoity toighty cocktail bars in Shanghai go "hmmm, nah brah, I think we're being too populist with our 100rmb cocktails, let's make this one EXCLUSIVE."

Exclusive — what does that even mean? This sentence is exclusive, how bou' dah.

I digress. Bitter Soul, indeed. Bitter Soul is exactly all the elements of a slightly nicer Shanghai bar lounge all in one place. With slightly cheaper prices. 50rmb cocktails. It's got the leather seating, shiny brass bar, Edison bulb lighting, and a tech house soundtrack. Check, check, check, check. They've got a very nice and warm management, who I feel, in another incarnation of Shanghai, five years forward or five years backward, could just as easily have been running a tapas lounge, a crepe restaurant, a local dive like Three Sisters *sniff*, a wine bar, a craft beer bar, or a whiskey lounge.

Actually, they do have a pretty good whiskey selection. I got a spritz though. Spritzes — that's like a thing now, eh? Seems like everyone is blasting spritzes these days. I don't mind. Nothing wrong with a good spritz. And this was a great spritz! For 50rmb.

First Impressions: It's a perfectly fine if you're in the neighborhood and you like this genre of bar. It's a serviceable lounge that you can get a drink in.

They told me tonight (Wednesday) is ladies night. Some unstylish things never go out of style.

-Morgan Short

***