Bar Review: Catalog

In the midst of craft cocktail lounges and club openings, how refreshing it is to have a new bar on the scene with just the three building blocks of fun: good music, reasonably priced alcohol and a dark room with a disco ball in it.

Catalog, on the corner of Yueyang and Dongping Lu (Upstairs from GoGa) is just that: a pretense-free disco-bar that’s perfect for getting wasted with friends. And the drinks aren’t half bad either, thanks to jovial bartender Joni who plies patrons with complimentary shots every now and again to maintain your buzz as a live DJ spins a mixture of Chicago house, funk, old school, disco, G funk and cool jazz (their words, not ours).

Despite its disco-esque vibe, drinks aren’t your standard spirit-and-a-splash-of-coke affair, rather a considered group of serious cocktails, like the heather kiss (scotch, crème de cassis and Drambuie, below) or our particular favorite: blueberry thyme cobbler (fresh blueberry, thyme and blueberry infused vodka).

One problem we have with cocktails is they take so damn long to make, but fortunately the bartenders at Catalog are surprisingly quick and manage to rustle up pretty good looking drinks in just a few minutes.

Raspberry mint fizz (left), Vesper with Tanqueray, vodka, Lillet Blanco, lemon peel (right)

On the menu all cocktails are priced at RMB90. However, since printing,the management seems to have had a change of heart, and put them all down to RMB60 (although on our night they were just RMB45, go figure).

Either way, Catalog is a sure bet on a good night out, and perhaps an inevitable hangover too ­­­–a small price to pay for fun.

Price: Cocktails RMB60, Wine from RMB220/bottle, Beer RMB40, shots RMB35 each, RMB180 for six.

Who’s going: Mixed bunch of young locals and expats

Good for: Dancing, cocktails, partying

> See a listing for Catalog.

See more Shanghai bar reviews.