LaVita Cafe At The Beijing Language and Culture University

The entrance to LaVita Cafe

In this post I'm going to talk a bit about LaVita Cafe on the Beijing Language and Culture University campus. It's one of the most popular student cafes on campus for a few good reasons. I know I, for one, was a regular visitor there during my year-long stay at BLCU and it's a place I can definitely recommend it as a good "chill out" or even study spot for anyone who is new to the university. It's usually very busy during lunch hours and often stays busy through the afternoon with students on their laptops or chatting with friends, or even catching up on a bit of Mandarin study.

So, let's jump right into some of the reasons that I think make LaVita Cafe such an easy recommendation.

How to get there

First though, let's talk about how to get there. LaVita Cafe is located on the south of campus and west of the south gate. If you walk straight (northwards) from the south gate you will come to a crossroads. Take a left and continue straight until you have completely passed the new canteen buildings to the left, after which you will see some tennis courts (still on your left) and a road that slips past it heading south. If you continue straight you will see a large statue of Confucius who BLCU regards very highly due to his historical contributions to the advancement of education.

Now take the footpath that runs between to the tennis courts and the Confucius statue. There are a few trees in this area that run for the entire expanse of the basketball courts and right along this section of road that divides the campus north from south. From here you can also see the HUGE campus sports facility.

Continue for a few yards until you arrive at the start of the huge basketball courts. Cut left across the courts (watch not to get hit by a ball!) and on the other side of the road you will come to a small area with some shops, cafes and outdoor seating. To the left side of this strip you can find LaVita Cafe, sitting between a print shop and a hairdressers. Now and then, particularly during the warm months, you may see people sitting outside smoking hookahs, maybe having a few beers and just relaxing with friends. It's a nice atmosphere.

(See map at end of post)

Seating

LaVita Cafe offers seating and tables both inside and outside (though far more inside), all of which are solid wood but comfy enough for prolonged study. There are two small areas at the back of the cafe with some sofas around a single table. The area to the right always seemed to be more popular for some reason.

I would estimate that the cafe can seat about 80-100 people. There is also a small area, or room, that a lot of people choose not to use because it is more closed off and claustrophobic. I think also think it is a smoking area and not as well lit as the rest of the cafe. When you go down the entrance stairs to the cafe, this room is immediately to your right before you come to the main open-plan seating and service area. You can poke your head in if you're curious.

Pizza and pasta

A lot of people go to LaVita for the pizza. It's good value and good quality, freshly baked and true to the Italian style. Every day they have a different pizza on offer for a few yuan knocked off the normal price. From memory, the pizzas here cost around 30-40 RMB (though prices may have gone up since I was there).

There's a good choice of toppings including a vegetarian option and all the others you would expect to see on a pizza menu. I imagine you can also customise your toppings though it's not something I ever did because I felt they offered enough variety as it was. Normally you can expect to wait around twenty minutes for a pizza, but they should tell you how long it is likely to take based on how busy they are.

If you want a good pizza on campus, this is the place to go.

I'm guilty of never having tried the pasta in LaVita. It's not because it didn't look nice, but more because I would usually go for the bagels when I went. From memory, I can only remember seeing a couple pasta choices on the menu, probably a bolognese and carbonara, and I only ever saw spaghetti. The portions were always generous though and offered a challenge for most people to finish.

I think the pastas were slightly cheaper than the pizzas, perhaps in the 20-30 RMB range. Please correct me if I'm wrong, it has been a while now.

Bagels and sandwiches

The reason I would most often go to LaVita was for the bagels. They were just so damn good and always very generous with the fillings. Great value, too. You had three or four choices for the bagel itself: plain, wheat, poppyseed or raisin. Then you have the choice for it to be toasted or not (which I recommend) and finally the choice of which filling you wanted.

Fillings included tuna, bacon, ham, cheese, salad, beef, and all the usual ones you would expect to see. If you wanted wanted extra cheese on top of your other fillings you had to pay 5 RMB more. The bagel itself was 15 RMB (20 RMB with extra cheese). You can choose from a range of sauces (again all the usual stuff you would find in a western sandwich bar). Just great value. A real steal in my opinion and heartily recommended.

It should be clear now how great I thought the bagels were and I'm sure the sandwiches were just as good. The truth, is in my time there I never ordered a sandwich. I do know that they came in either large or small and were priced 15-30 RMB accordingly (if memory serves).

The bread was kind of like a bap, but long instead of round. I only remember seeing white bread, whereas with the bagels you had four choices. Perhaps I'm wrong and it's just that most people ordered the white bread option.

Coffee, smoothies and other drinks

Frankly, the quality of coffee available on the BLCU campus is astonishing. As a big lover of freshly ground coffee in the vein of Starbucks and the other big coffee chains, I was in heaven when I arrived at BLCU. For just 12 RMB at LaVita you can have a freshly ground cup of coffee and it's really damn decent stuff, especially with how much we're used to paying for fresh coffee in the west (and I mean in a cafe or coffee shop).

The smoothies here are also great value. For only around 15 RMB you can enjoy a HUGE pint-sized freshly made smoothie with classic fruit combinations. A personal favourite was the mango. If you don't feel up to it drinking that much you can instead order a smaller (but still large) glass for a few yuan less. Again, stunning value and really delicious.

Of course, you can also go for something simple like the hot chocolates (which are nice) or just a hot milk with the option to add various "streamers" which are basically flavoured syrups (almond, vanilla, etc.). I would personally recommend the latter as being worth trying. Again I think they're around the 12 RMB mark.

Beer is also available at LaVita but I can't remember the price. I'm sure it's cheap enough though. From memory, Tsingtao was the only beer they served - not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm pretty sure they came chilled too, which is always nice on a hot day.

Sweets

The sweets here are pretty good but the apple crumble in particular is incredible (around 20 RMB)! Freshly baked each day, it's as good as the stuff you'll find back home. Other options include cheesecake (very decent stuff), chocolate cake, brownies, muffins, large soft cookies (the oatmeal and raisin were a personal favourite). I can't remember all the prices from memory but, as with everything else at LaVita, it's very affordable.

Here's something you may not know: go after 8pm and a lot of the sweets go for half price. It would be well worth checking out if they still do that offer or not and taking advantage of it!

Hookah

One of the final things I'm going to mention in this post are the hookahs at LaVita.  If you enjoy smoking hookah now and then I would certainly recommend you try these. You have all the classic flavour choices and get one free refill included. I think each hookah costs around 60 RMB, so it's a good idea to split it between three or four of your friends. I would say you'll get around forty-five minutes to an hour out of one.

Whilst we're on the subject of hookahs, during my time at BLCU I heard from a friend that you could get unlimited refills on hookahs for a set price somewhere in Wudaokou. I'm not sure it if was Lush (a student bar and cafe) or somewhere similar but be sure to ask around when you get there or please leave a comment if you know anything more on this!

Wi-Fi 

As with most cafes on campus and around BLCU, there is free Wi-Fi. Just be sure to ask for the password! Do keep in mind that I think they enforce a minimum-spend policy of around 15 RMB per person to stay and use the cafe facilities.

Official BLCU campus map, LaVita Cafe

One last thing...

Access blocked websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more from BLCU and China with PureVPN!

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to The BLCU Blog for free updates. You can also follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page. Feeling generous? Why not buy me a coffee through our donation button at the top of the blog? Thank you very much for your support!