Baku (Baki) Entertainment

  1. Aroma

    Baku's best combination of comfort, fashionable décor and great coffee. Pod lamps and electro-retro feel downstairs, street-view sofa seats above. It's also a wi-fi hotspot.

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  2. Azza

    Three floors of coffee-and-cream minimalism within a historic pavilion right on Fountain Square. Excellent food including decent pastas are served by self-consciously handsome, slow-motion waiters.

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  3. Baku Jazz Center

    Nightly live performances in a large, somewhat staid dining-room atmosphere.

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  4. Black City Pub

    Although it's not worth a special trip, this Germanic wood-interior bar is a handy choice if you're staying at Hotel Araz. No spoken English, no menu.

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  5. Café Caramel

    Good espressos come with complementary cookie and glass of chilled drinking water. Small, with modern décor including a bridge-like upper level offering street views down through century-old vaulting.

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  7. Café Mozart

    With Klimt inside and a super-popular street terrace outside the Mozart remains a long-term favourite for Turkish breakfasts, lunch buffets or decent steak dinners.

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  8. Chocolate

    A classy, high-ceilinged café with pseudo-1920s touches, weighted hanging lamps and tasselled tablecloths on small wrought iron tables. However, macchiatos are far too milky.

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  9. City Lights Bar

    This hip, upmarket lounge-bar offers some incredible views of the city from its out-door terrace.

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  10. Corner Bar

    The most happening of Baku's many Anglo-Irish-style pubs, the Corner has very competent live music, '33' beer and a decent range of pub grub.

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  11. Hazz

    Choose from a vast range of designer coffees at this sedately hip businessman's café-cum-wine bar which has low-key live jazz after .

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  13. İzmir

    Many top-end restaurants, notably the Muğam Club, include a cabaret of traditional music and dancing to accompany your meal. Others, typically in large suburban gardens, offer top Azeri pop stars singing at full blast. Many Westerners consider this more like punishment than entertainment, but if you're interested, a classic venue is İzmir where Manana, a sort of local Kylie Minogue, enjoys a bizarre Vegas-style residence.

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  14. Kafe Fəvvarələr

    In Baku, you're likely to pay around Manat1 for a pot of tea at one of the open-air male-dominated summer çayxanas like those behind the Nizami Cinema, near the train station or a block north of Bibi restaurant in the Greater Baku area. The same tea will cost around Manat3 if a 'compulsory' cut-up Snickers bar arrives with your teapot. This will happen at most places on the Bulvar and at the well-located Kafe Fəvvarələr.

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  15. Karavan Jazz Club

    For years this intimate and brilliantly atmospheric basement club was the heart of Baku's jazz scene, though recently performances have been sporadic and of rather variable quality. Bring mosquito repellent.

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  16. Key Club

    Most of the city-centre basement dives marked 'Disko Klub' are effectively prostitute pickup spots. However, there are some (partial) exceptions, where groups of revellers will feel comparatively comfortable. Key Club is relatively professionally run.

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  17. Konti Pub

    This medieval-style bierstübe-cavern offers the novel concept of letting you pour your own draft beers. Be careful where you sit: some metered taps dispense Xırdalan, others Bavaria at. It's mostly for locals.

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  19. Le Chevalier

    Le Chevalier is the nearest thing to a full-blown nightclub.

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  20. Musical Comedy Theatre

    It's worth checking the Musical Comedy Theatre for operettas.

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  21. Ocean Deck

    Plonked in the middle of a duck pond, the terrace of this American café-bar makes a delightful people-watching perch in the summer. However, its small interior is rather lacklustre.

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  22. Opera & Ballet Theatre

    As with all artistic establishments across the ex-Soviet countries, the theatre season runs from mid-September to late May. It's worth seeing a performance at Baku's 1910 Opera & Ballet Theatre, if only to admire the grand interior. Most productions are lavish and even less exciting repertory performances have the advantage of transcending language barriers.

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  23. Philharmonia

    The brilliant Philharmonia, originally built as an oil-boom-era casino, has an even grander interior and offers an eclectic (if unpredictable) concert programme.

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  25. Puppet Theatre

    Kids might enjoy marionette shows at the Puppet Theatre.

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  26. Şarq Әfsanәsi

    An upmarket çay evi (teahouse) can charge entirely ludicrous sums (around Manat6 to around Manat20 ) for a pot of tea with samovar of water and a range of jams and fruit. The best such places tend to be indoors, with comparatively exotic interiors, qalyan (hubble-bubble water pipes) to smoke and possibly a belly dancing show, as at Şarq Әfsanәsi.

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  27. The Brewery

    In a spacious, stone-vaulted basement with heavy wooden furniture, Baku's only brew-pub turns out very acceptable dark ales and less successful lagers. Germanic meals and pricey beer snacks are available.

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  28. The Public

    More comfy sofa seating is hidden away at the back room behind the sparse front bar area. Excellent espressos are comparatively inexpensive and there's a lunch deal.

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  29. USSR

    This basement Soviet-nostalgia bar is decidedly down-market and a little musty, but has some fun photos of politburo stars and a Red Army coat and general's cap that you can don for souvenir photos.

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