Finding it
A courtyard full of bars
6 posts mention the location. None found it hard
Posts place Vagalume in the Kelin Building compound on Dongsi North Street, near Beixinqiao. Nobody in our sample had trouble finding it, though none of the posts give a street number. What people mention instead is the neighbours. Bar Flavour and HYE are a few steps away, and several visitors suggest making a night of it. One went to Vagalume, HYE and Pistachio in a single evening.
Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026
Most talked-about drink
Summer Night Fireflies (夏夜萤火)
9 posts mention it. 8 like it, one found it too herbal
On the soft-opening menu it was plainly called Dill Passion Fruit, and it was a favourite from the first night. It brings together gin, Suze (a French gentian liqueur), dry vermouth, apple and passion fruit, finished with dill. Visitors describe a bright, sweet-sour start that turns herbal and slightly bitter. One visitor who usually finds passion fruit overbearing said the herbs finally put it in its place. A bartender recommended it to another, and a September post calls it the drink the menu leads with.
The bitterness is where people differ. One June visitor found the root and herb flavours too heavy and thought fans of Suze would enjoy it more. Another warns that the vermouth leaves a bitter finish, while a September post says the bitterness is barely there.
“The best use of dill I’ve had in a drink lately.”
Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026
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Signature drinks
Bright to dark, with blackened fruit
20 of 21 posts review the cocktails
The menu changed in late August 2026, and several soft-opening drinks stayed on under new names. Posts from both menus are counted here. The drink people keep remarking on is Canopy (深林偏振), the darkest on the list at 30% alcohol. It mixes a green tea spirit, sherry-cask whisky, violet liqueur and blackened apple, and three posts say you would never guess the strength. Five posts talk about the blackened fruit that runs through the new menu. Polar Night Shuttle (极夜穿梭), built on blackened lemon and orange with amaro and blackcurrant, won over a visitor who was cool on other drinks that night.
Sunshower (太阳雨), once called Mint Peach, comes up in seven posts. The mint comes from a heavy dose of Fernet, not from mint leaves. Five liked it, two found the peach faint or the herbs stronger than expected. Twilight Line (晨昏线) brews Colombian Geisha coffee twice, first with gin and limoncello, then with sparkling wine. Six posts mention it, mostly for its floral nose, and one found the first sip a little sharp. Polar Flash (极地冰闪), made with cream sherry and coconut milk, is praised in all four posts that name it. West Wind, Tree Shadows (西风树影), a savoury martini-style drink with litsea and oolong tea, struck two visitors as sweeter and stronger than they expected.
Afterglow Snorkel (霞光浮潜), served with a small spoon of caviar, divides people. Three liked how the caviar changes the drink. One found it very sour, and two found it underwhelming, one calling it too safe for the price. Three posts tried the daily fresh-fruit specials, and one counted four whole mangosteens in a single glass. Two posts single out the glassware, including a round-bellied glass that one visitor was sure would roll away, and a cup you can eat.
“Not a single miss on the soft-opening menu.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Classics
Little said so far
3 posts mention classics
Only three visitors wrote about classics. A twist on the Bamboo, lifted with a little Cointreau, was one visitor’s best drink of the week. A Dry Martini struck another as a little watery, perhaps stirred too long. A third found the Martini less dry than expected but with a good finish, and planned to come back for more classics.
Xiaohongshu post, Jul 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026
Bartenders
Warm, and happy to improvise
12 posts write about the bartenders. 3 asked for off-menu drinks
Zhang Yuan, known to everyone as Yuan Jie, is the reason many of these visitors came. Several expected someone distant because of her reputation and found her warm and easy to talk to. In October one visitor asked about her love for the job. She said love was too big a word. She has simply kept liking it, for more than ten years.
Three visitors asked for something off the menu and wrote about the result. One got a long drink built on a jar of ginseng-steeped spirit with gin and mezcal. Another got a cocoa drink made up on the spot. A third asked for something herbal and stirred, and the bartender topped it with prosecco on a hunch, which that visitor took as proof of a good palate. All three were happy.
The other bartenders get warm notes too. One visitor heard that a bartender here was the slowest learner with the thickest notebook, and loved his drinks anyway. Another had the separate ingredients of Canopy laid out to taste before drinking it. When a durian drink went out without the durian, the bartender noticed and made it again. Staff also poured one visitor a glass of non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice on the house.
“Friendly to introverts and extroverts alike.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Food
The ¥38 beef noodles
6 posts write about food. 5 of them about the noodles
Food is a small part of the story, but one dish keeps coming up. Five posts praise the beef noodles at the bar. The base is instant noodles, upgraded with big pieces of stewed beef and tendon in a rich broth. Visitors call it exactly what you want after a few drinks, and one says it saves you a late-night food run on the way home. A commenter on one post was told there were only instant noodles that night, with no mention of the beef, and skipped them. So ask.
Snacks come with soda crackers, and one visitor found the ¥78 cheese plate a fair price.
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026
The room
Like being at home
4 posts describe the room
The posts that describe the room agree that it feels like a home, with soft, warm light that lets you settle in. One visitor liked how the decor and the drinks both play on the light in the bar’s name. Another liked the music enough to leave their headphones off, and one says it felt like being back in London. A commenter on another post liked the coasters.
Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
Price
Fair, mostly
5 posts mention price
Few visitors talk about money, and none quote a cocktail price in their text. Two can hardly believe the ¥38 beef noodles at Beijing prices. One found the ¥78 cheese plate reasonable and the mark-up on wine modest. The soft opening came with a discount. The one complaint is Afterglow Snorkel, which one visitor found a little expensive for how safe it tastes.
Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jul 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026
How people hear about it
Following Yuan Jie
7 posts say how they found it. 4 came for Yuan Jie
Most of these visitors already knew the name behind the bar. Four posts say they came because Yuan Jie had opened her own place, one of them after following her drinks from Tablo to Shifter to Bar Long Fong. Two came on a tip, one from a friend and one from a bartender at another bar. One came as part of a night across three new bars in Dongsi.
Visitors also compare it with the best. One ranks it second in Beijing, behind only Bar Long Fong. Another puts it in their Beijing top five, and a third says that if you only have time for one bar in Beijing, this is the one. Keep in mind that this is a small, early sample, much of it from people who already follow the city’s bar scene, so the mood may run warmer than average.
“If you can only pick one bar in Beijing, pick this one.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Complaints
No bad nights, a few doubts
No negative posts, 3 mixed
None of the 21 posts is negative. Of the three mixed ones, a June visitor liked Sunshower but found Afterglow Snorkel ordinary and Summer Night Fireflies too herbal. A September visitor gave it 3.7 out of 5. The drinks are good and well made, they wrote, but not worth crossing town for unless you live in Dongcheng. A third worked through the new menu and found Photosynthetic Peat (光合泥煤) too creamy for their taste, because the milk is shaken in rather than washed through, though they still praised the bartender’s instincts.
Smaller gripes turn up in otherwise happy posts: a watery Dry Martini, a sharp first sip of Twilight Line and a peach that hid behind the blackcurrant.
Xiaohongshu post, Jun 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
We searched Xiaohongshu, China’s main lifestyle app, for every post about Vagalume and its owner Zhang Yuan we could find. We set aside posts by the owners, guest-shift announcements, posts about her earlier bars, an interview and posts with no text, which left 21 by visitors from the bar’s first four months. That is a small sample. We read each post in full to make the counts, but some are short and only name a drink, 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 2026-10-13.