Xai Xai

Yesterday, my sister in law and I decided to go wine bar hopping and chose 51^st St for our adventure because there are two wine bars across the street from one another. Our first stop of the evening was Xai Xai, which is at 369 W 51^st St.

The bar is decently spacious and features modern African style décor. It has stone floors, huge wooden columns made to look like trees, wooden beams on the ceiling, vases of reeds placed around the bar, rustic chandeliers, and of course a huge wine rack on either wall. It was very fresh looking. The atmosphere of Xai Xai was quiet at first, but it started to fill up fast with a loud 30-something happy hour crowd. It had a good energy.

All of the wines at Xai Xai are from South Africa and the menu lists each of these wines by grape variety, although the vintages for the wines are not shown. You can order three different sizes of wine here: a glass, a carafe, or a bottle. Glasses are well priced between $5 and $14, carafes, which look like they hold about 2 glasses of wine, are $11 to $19, and bottles start at $32 and the most expensive is $120. I had decided to order the Six Hands Pinotage, but the waitress had not come over to my table since pouring my water. Normally, I would wave like a madwoman try to get her attention, but since I was reviewing the place, I decided to wait it out and see how long it actually took for her to come over on her own free will. Maybe she thought I was waiting for someone. I was, but I hadn’t told her that. Then my sister in law arrived and after several minutes the waitress still hadn’t stopped by our table. She was helping people at the other tables in the bar, but apparently we were seated in the invisible section because after a grand total of 20 minutes, she finally appeared and took our order. What the heck? I thought it was pretty ridiculous.

My glass of long awaited Pinotage smelled like dried strawberries and tasted like blackberry. It was quite full bodied, but it tasted a little overripe. It was pleasant enough though, especially with the wedge of Humboldt Fog cheese that we were snacking on.

Xai Xai has very well priced wines and good happy hour specials. It has a good energy, but the service, or lack thereof, really detracted from my experience here. I give this place a rating of 3 out of 5 glasses. I would suggest you go across the street to our second stop of the night instead…

The slightly blurry (sorry) exterior of Xai Xai

A little South African flair

My glass of Pinotage