Dinner in Nanjing

On Saturday night in Nanjing we were trying to decide what we wanted to eat, and then what we were going to do afterward. We talked about maybe heading over to the 1912 area that's a lot of western bars similar to Xintiandi area in Shanghai, or maybe trying the college area and their bar street.

Tough choices, so we took it to the internet to see if there were any reviews for good things to do at night, dinner and then drinks or so, and guess what we found? A well reviewed wine bar and restaurant. That settles that, we write down the address and phone number and head down to grab a taxi.

We had the hotel concierge flag down a taxi for us, the first one didn't know the area and couldn't help us but the second seemed sure and off we went. About ten minutes into the drive he starts asking a taxi next to us at a light for directions, and soon we're driving done some narrow streets that don't seem like the location for a wine bar. We call up the restaurant and hand the phone to the driver, that usually works. A few minutes later he's at an intersection of one-way streets and he's telling us to walk down this narrow road and that we will find it there...

Off we go down this narrow road when my phone rings - it sounds like our friend Siew Yih - "Where are you?" She should know this, "We're still in Nanjing." "Where?" "Nanjing." Then, "Do you want to come to my place?" This is when I realize that it's not Siew, and start wondering who would call and ask such a question, "What?" is my only reply. "You are looking for the restaurant My Place, right?" Ah, yes. That's right the restaurant name, what ever was I thinking. So she tells us she will meet us and show us the place, as we walk down the street we see a girl that ask us, being the only laowais on the street, "You're looking for my place right?"

Perfect. She walks us back down the narrow one-way street, up a driveway past parked cars to a tiny walkway and finally do a small door in that walkway. Yeah, we never would have found the place...And then there we were, in My Place, a great little home turned into a wine bar and restaurant.

our guide to the restaurant

The owner JT, and the waitress

The food was excellent, and the wine was even better. JT is from Singapore and felt that Nanjing was deserving of a great wine bar, maybe he is like we were before we found Temptations and was going crazy without good wine. He has his own house wine that he imports from Spain and sells at a price we couldn't believe, it was great. We enjoyed a full dinner and then moved to the bar where we ended the night by drinking him out of his house wine. It's alright, he was expecting a shipment in the next day, but it did prevent us from purchasing a few bottles to bring back with us to Xiamen.
I don't think that we could recommend this place enough, it was that good, but you will need to call them and have them send out a guide - there's no way that you would be able to find this on your own.