Beijing Cafe Review: Z-Space

By Holly Baer, September 13, 2018

Before walking into Z-Space, the neighborhood prepares us like a visual appetizer. Hutong streets, young women in summer dresses eating ice cream, the casual ambience of a hot summer afternoon.

When we find Z-Space, nestled into the wall just southwest of Zhangzizhonglu station, we’re struck by the modernity of it, surrounded by the old hutong feel. Clean, automatic glass doors open and beckon us into the white entryway, the closest thing we’ve seen to a foyer in a cafe anywhere in Beijing.

Z-Space is built for anyone looking for an easy dose of cool. With two open-air courtyards, several rooms named after planets, and a library, it’s a large, inventive location just begging for creatives to camp out in it. The design alone is enough reason to come through the door – its natural-light flooded open floor plan feels like it’s designed with us in mind, lost and hungry wanderers wanting something more out of the afternoon.

The coffee at Z-Space, meanwhile, is standard. Our lattes (RMB34) are satisfactory and pretty, but aren’t memorable beyond the house they live in. Perhaps the tea menu is better – they’ve got black, oolong, pu’er, jasmine and green (all RMB38). But Z-Space offers more than drinks. Hearty Buddha bowls come in several varieties. We choose the spiced salmon (RMB68) – filling, with delicately crafted layers of flavor.

Most places like Z-Space tend to value form over function. It has a hip design, an impossibly cool atmosphere, and everyone inside looks like extras in an arthouse film. Despite all the ingredients that lend themselves to mediocre experiences in beautiful places, Z-Space maintains a high standard. The food is great and the drinks are good enough, but it’s really designed to be what its name implies: a space, to build things and work in. There are quiet areas for studying, more bustling areas for socializing. While eating and people-watching, we’re struck by the easy contentment the place provides. There is just the space, the people and the intellectual fervor of getting stuff done.