Texas in Xiamen

Last night after going to a boat exhibition in Xiamen (I'll post some photos of the nice yachts I saw later), I visited the JJ Bar and Grill, JJ Bar and Grill is located in the popular Haiwan Park area which, in addition to a park with a nice view of the sea, has a variety of restaurants, bars and nightclubs. In the early evening, you almost feel like you're actually in Texas with the bar's decor, and the menu featuring mostly Western style food with an emphasis on Texas BBQ. I didn't really try the food (other than a small sampling of appetizers), but since I was in the bar area, I could see a lot of it coming out of the kitchen to the restaurant area and it looked quite good.


At night, the place livens up largely due to the band made up of Filipino musicians and singers as well as one Chinese singer. Some of the Texas atmosphere gets lost at this point since the band plays a variety of music, but mostly rock and dance-oriented songs rather than the country music played on the sound system in the earlier hours. The band plays mostly English-language songs (from AC-DC to Lady Gaga and much more), but the female Chinese singer adds some Chinese pop songs to their repertoire as well. They are quite good and keep the mix of Western expat and Chinese customers well entertained.

Texas-style decor on a wall at JJ Bar & Grill

One very unique element of JJ Bar and Grill for China is their mechanical bull, which daring (and/or drunk) customers can try. Last night, the only people adventurous to try the bull were a group of young Chinese men maybe trying to impress the young ladies they were with. Some of them did reasonably well, staying on the bull at least long enough to provide some entertainment for the audience of customers. A friendly Aussie I met did his best to persuade me to give it a try, but I wasn't quite daring or drunk enough.

Road sign for inebriated expats at JJ Bar & Grill