BEER, snack and football make a great combination, especially during a football season. And the season to enjoy them is right now with the European Championships and Copa America being held at the same time.

Bars in Hangzhou have dressed up for the football festival. Shanghai Daily had a look at some of the best spots in the city to enjoy the game while enjoying some bites as well.

In Club

The bar at the five-star Dragon Hotel will remain open until the last game of the championships. For diehard fans, it is issuing two affordable monthly cards — the 300-yuan card comes with eight bottles of Tsingtao beer every day. The 900-yuan card gets the holder a bottle of sparkling wine every day.

The fancy bar, which has held a birthday party for Jackie Chan, has wine, Champagne, beer, cigar and also serves dishes popular around the Qiandao Lake in suburban Hangzhou.

All river food, including fish, shrimp and crab, are from the lake, which is the water source of Nongfu Spring, a well-known Chinese mineral water brand.

The meat and poultry are purchased from local farms, tofu is made by local peasants, and bamboo shoots are picked from mountains that are over 1,000 meters high.

These dishes are rustic and organic. “Healthy Food” is the bar’s highlight. Taiwanese chefs make sauces with only fresh vegetables and natural spices.

Address: B1, Dragon Hotel, 120 Shuguang Rd
Opening hours: Till the last European Championships match

On one side is the West Lake. On the other side is the setting of a football game.

Pilsen sits next to the lake and occupies an ideal spot. Its home-brewed Czech beer will not disappoint any of the football fans.

The first and the only Czech restaurant in Hangzhou, Pilsner is run by a Czech-Chinese couple and provides authentic cuisine as well as beer brewed in the house by Czech experts. Customers can take a little tour through the zero-degree-Celsius cold brewing room, and feel the aroma of alcohol.

The first floor has an oval bar and a round area for dancing as bands perform live. Its second floor is a dinning area with comfortable sofas and large tables, making it an ideal place to sit for hours and watching matches.

If you come early, grab a seat at the balcony on the second floor, which is right above the West Lake.

Stout, ale or beer are priced 88 yuan (US$13.56) a liter. The foam is rich and the ale has a strong scent and leaves a crispy feeling in the mouth.

Recommended dishes include raw sirloin with bruschetta, and Pilsner roasted pig’s feet.

Raw sirloin, a tender cut of beef, is finely chopped and stirred with eight kinds of seasonings. Roasted pig’s feet is a signature dish in the Czech Republic. Pilsner soaks the pig’s feet in its home-brewed beer and honey for at least six hours before they are roasted.

Address: 9A-9C, Xihu Tiandi, 147 Nanshan Rd

Opening hours: 10:30am-2am

Haxnbauer

Pork knuckles, sausages and beer — the three items alone take up 10 pages of Haxnbauer’s menu, proving beyond doubt that it is a German restaurant and bar.

The German flags are on every table, with nine TV sets at every corner. So wherever you are seated, the game is right in front of you.

During the European Championships, customers can buy one beer get another one free (after 8pm).

The Western restaurant/bar is in a shikumen (stone-gate) building. Shikumen is a traditional Shanghainese architecture that combines Western and Chinese elements and has been around since the 1860s.

The white wall with black tiles, dark-rose wooden pillars and beams, as well as neat and narrow wooden stairs, are all in harmony with the beer-themed wall paintings and beer bottle decorations.

The restaurant’s manager, Wang Lei, said Haxnbauer imports most of the beer from Germany, and follows The Reinheitsgebot, or “German Beer Purity Law” in English, which is the collective name for a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany.

Premium Pils, Premium Lager, Premium Dark Lager, Hefe-Weissbier and Dunkel Hefe-Weissbier are five classic beer that is available at the restaurant. It also serves beer cocktail — beer mixed with Sprite, coke, and fruit juice.

The restaurant serves seven kinds of sausages, and Austrian chef Mario Tassoti has created four kinds of pork knuckles.

The boiled one, called Eisbein, is preserved for 16 hours. The original one is roasted three times so that the pork skin turns golden and is crispy rather than greasy. The other two are roasted with pepper or chili.

The other specialities are German soda and soft drinks, Pretzel, Bavarian cuisines, pizza made with rye, as well as German desserts such as Emperor’s Cake and Appel Strudel.

Address: 103, 1st Mansion, In-77 Hubin Intime Department Store, 255 Yan’an Rd (B exit of Longxiangqiao Metro station)

Opening hours: Till the last match of European Championships

Midtown Brewery is an up-market gastropub offering specialty craft beer, innovative plates and live music. “Drink awesome beer for awesome times,” the slogan of the bar in newly-opened Midtown Shangri-La Hotel in Hangzhou sounds rightfully fitting as the football finale reaches its climax.

Awesome beer — its highlight — is brewed by resident brew-master Josh Staines from Australia who also serves a selection of Ales, Pale Ales, Porters, Lagers and Stouts.

Staines used to work at James Squire, the largest Australian brewery company, as the chief brewer.

The kitchen serves modern Asian tapas, as well as premium grilled meats and has a personalized menu.

Pay attention to the design, not only football. The bar features 990 pieces of metal and wood cube pillars crisscrossing each other. Over 700 crystal glasses decorate the space, as well as a wall that has over 100 jeans strips, and Chinese wood sculptures.

There are nine huge brew barrels that contain 1,300 liters of beer, and over 1,000 of pipes crisscrossing in front and behind the barrels.

Address: 6 Changshou Rd
Opening hours: 11:30am-1am

Schanke

Another German bar, Schanke, is spacious and is a great place for a bunch of friends to go and enjoy football matches.

The bar boasts 14 1-ton-capacity stainless-steel brewing vats that produce Weissbier and Schwarzbier beer. It is made from humulone, malt and yeast that are imported from Germany.

The bar’s signature product is known as the “boards.” They serve glasses of beer on boards of various lengths, starting from 1 meter and consisting of 12 glasses of beer — perfect for a group of friends out for some fun.

To match the ale, the bar offers German sausages and pork knuckle, or if you want some extravagant night snacks, there is raw oyster from France served with lemon.

During the European Championships, girls in football-themed vest and skirts will take orders.

A DJ makes it lively before the referee blows the whistle for kick-off.

Address: Room 1-3, Mansion 32, Qingchunfang (the crossing of Zhonghezhong and Qingchun roads)

Opening hour: Till 2am; during semifinals and the final it will close after game.