Finding it
A hotel bar with a street door
10 posts describe where it is. None found it hard
TIAO belongs to Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, but the door is on the street. Visitors give the address as 40 Xixinglong Street, a two-storey building at the edge of the hotel, and one says typing the name into a map app is enough. Two make the point that you don’t need to be staying at the hotel to drink here.
The name comes from Caochang Shitiao, the hutong lane the hotel sits on. A visitor walking down Xixinglong Street spotted the sign by chance and came back the next night. Inside, the bar connects to the hotel, and one visitor describes walking through a corridor into the hotel courtyard.
Xiaohongshu post, Nov 2025 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jul 2026
Most talked-about drink
The welcome drink
20 posts mention it. 2 disliked it, 2 called it the best drink of the night
Before you order, a small drink arrives in a little clay jar. Visitors describe it as tasting of old-style Beijing yoghurt, with jasmine and a light touch of alcohol. One visitor says the base is whisky. It is sweet-sour and gentle, and it comes up in more posts than any cocktail on the menu.
Most people like it. Two say it was the best thing they drank all night, which is a compliment with an edge. Two others did not get on with it. One found it far too sweet with no alcohol to speak of, and another compared it to sweetened herbal medicine.
“The welcome drink was the best one.”
Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026
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Signature drinks
Built for the camera, and sometimes for the glass
28 posts describe the cocktails. 12 mention Mercury, 7 Caochang Hutong
The current menu, Worlds Apart, has run since December 2025. Each page pairs a drink about Beijing with one about the wider world in the same century, and the menu lists the base spirit, ingredients, strength and flavour of each. Visitors who like reading menus enjoy it. One found the pairings forced, such as a drink for Mozart’s Austria that tastes Thai.
Mercury (水银) is the drink people photograph. It is off the menu, a gin and lychee drink that staff dust with edible silver at the table, and it has been around since 2024. Most posts praise the look. Three say the taste is ordinary, and one lychee and gin fan loved it.
Caochang Hutong (草厂胡同) is the signature people discuss most for flavour. Whisky and baijiu, jasmine, passion fruit, green Sichuan pepper and a sour Guizhou-style broth, served in a small gourd-shaped flask. Four visitors liked it, and one praised how well the flavours hold together. Two did not. One found it weak and sweet, another felt the combination never quite worked.
Others that come up are La Dolce Vita (叹逍遥), a smoked Negroni with black truffle and dark chocolate that people call strong, and The Water Sleeves (水袖), a light, sweet champagne and guava drink with a paper kite on the glass. One visitor called E=MC² (能量方程式), a tequila and hop highball, the best highball of the year. Another said it was still a sweet drink at heart.
“Smells of flowers and peach, then the Sichuan pepper tingles like popping candy.”
Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026
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Service
Mostly warm, but ask for water
17 posts talk about service. 13 kind, 4 critical
Most visitors found staff friendly and good at explaining the menu. Three name individual staff. Two who sat at the bar say the bartenders chat with you, and one recommends the counter because they sometimes pour a free taste. Two visitors were given a free shot of wine. One visitor at a guest night noted that staff speak good English.
The criticism is consistent. Two visitors say water does not come unless you ask. A September 2026 visitor found glasses left on the table and one menu per table. A visitor from 2024 says service lagged in the early months.
“Sit down and ask for water. They won’t offer it.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2025
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Food
Snacks, not dinner
7 posts mention food
Food is a side note. Visitors mention small Beijing-style meat pies (three to a plate), sour and spicy chicken pieces, shrimp crackers, wings and burgers. A free snack comes when you sit down. One visitor was unimpressed by a plate of raw vegetable sticks with salad dressing, and an early cigar-shaped Peking duck got a thumbs down. Eat first if you are hungry.
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The room
The courtyard in the photos is the hotel’s
29 posts describe the room. 3 say the courtyard is not the bar’s
Much of what you see on Xiaohongshu is the hotel courtyard, with grey tiles, old trees and warm lights. Three visitors stress that this is hotel space, not bar seating. The bar itself is a small two-storey room, dark and moody, with big street-facing windows downstairs and a terrace upstairs. One visitor called it cramped, another was annoyed that their seat faced a crossroads with traffic lights flashing red and green.
There is often a DJ. Several visitors found it quiet enough to talk, and two who came alone felt at ease. Two others point out works by the artist Xu Bing, a fan in the hotel lounge and a calligraphy piece in his invented square-word English.
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Seats and crowds
Since the award, queue at weekends
21 posts talk about getting in
Doors open at 6pm, and on busy nights numbers are handed out at the door from then. Before the July 2026 award, early arrivals often walked straight in. Since then weekend visitors report waits of about an hour, one group queued two hours, and on a National Day holiday night there were still dozens of tables ahead at 11pm. Weeknights are kinder. Visitors who came midweek mostly walked in, one at 11pm after a few minutes.
Two posts say there are no reservations and one says you should book, so check before you go. One visitor warns that if you miss your number, you lose your place.
“Don’t come at the weekend. We queued two hours.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Price
Among the dearest in Beijing
13 posts mention price. 6 mention the 15% service charge
Menu cocktails are quoted at ¥128–168, with a 15% service charge on top. Visitors put a night at around ¥200 a head, and one paid close to ¥500 for three cocktails. One says the prices beat Singapore, another that they are double what other Beijing bars charge, and most who mention the service charge resent it. One visitor felt the charge was earned, and an early visitor thought the prices fair for a hotel this expensive.
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How people hear about it
Drawn by the ranking
11 posts came because of the Asia's 50 Best listing
In July 2026 TIAO came 50th on Asia's 50 Best Bars. Many recent visitors came to see what that meant, including a visitor from Hong Kong who searched for Beijing bars on the list and found only this one. Some left convinced. Others thought the ranking oversold it.
Earlier posts more often came for the courtyard photos, sometimes after afternoon tea at the hotel.
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Complaints
Price, sweetness and the story
4 negative posts, 7 mixed
The negative posts share a theme. The drinks are expensive, the service charge adds up, and the flavour does not match the price or the ranking. One September 2026 visitor spent over ¥1,600 on eight drinks and found both signatures and classics poor. Another said the menu’s stories had little to do with the drinks, which the visitor found weak and sweet.
The mixed posts mostly liked one or two drinks and not the rest, or liked the room and found the drinks ordinary. One guest-night visitor found the red lighting hard to photograph in.
Our counts only cover Xiaohongshu.
Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jul 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Dec 2025 · Xiaohongshu post, Apr 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
We searched Xiaohongshu, China’s main lifestyle and review app, for every post about TIAO we could find. We set aside posts by the hotel, its staff and sponsors, event posts, posts mainly about other bars or about TIAO’s guest shifts in other cities, and posts with no text, which left 59 by visitors. We read each one ourselves to make the counts. Many posts are only a line or two, so treat the numbers as a minimum. The summaries and translated quotes are ours, and the links go to the original posts. Our counts only cover Xiaohongshu. Last checked 2026-10-20.