Blue Marlin(Near XingHai Square)

1999 — The Story Begins
The first Blue Marlin opens as a small, 30-seat restaurant on Fenghuang Street. With Suzhou’s international dining and nightlife scene still in its infancy, it quickly finds an audience among the city’s growing international community.

2003 — Blue Marlin Comes to SIP
The Xinghai location opens, becoming one of SIP’s early international bars and restaurants and a meeting place for the area’s rapidly growing expat community.

From One Restaurant to 16
What began as a single restaurant on Fenghuang Street didn’t stay small for long. Blue Marlin expanded across Suzhou, with five locations in the city at its peak, before spreading further across China.

At its largest, the Blue Marlin network had grown to 16 restaurants and bars — 12 directly operated locations and four franchises — with the brand reaching Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Hefei, Changzhou and beyond.

It was quite a journey from that first 30-seat restaurant in Suzhou.

Today
More than two decades after opening in SIP, the Xinghai Blue Marlin remains. Its surroundings, its customers and the venue itself have all changed over the years, but it continues to welcome a mix of long-term regulars, local residents and newcomers.

Blue Marlin built its name as a bar, but today food plays a much bigger role.

The menu covers great-value Western favourites, including burgers, steaks, pizzas, salads and pub classics. Over the years, the venue has gradually evolved from somewhere people primarily visited for drinks into a restaurant where food is just as much a part of the attraction.

But Blue Marlin doesn’t restrict itself to the familiar. There’s also a playful fusion side to the menu, bringing together Chinese flavours and Western comfort food in combinations that have become signatures in their own right.

East Meets West

Mapo Tofu Pasta. Kung Pao Chicken Pizza.
Two dishes that say quite a lot about today’s Blue Marlin.
Rather than simply putting Chinese and Western dishes alongside each other on the menu, Blue Marlin brings the two together. Familiar Chinese flavours meet pasta, pizza and other Western favourites to create something distinctly Blue Marlin.
For anyone who can’t decide between Chinese and Western food, perhaps you don’t have to.

Blue Marlin doesn’t just serve beer — it brews its own on site.

The brewing equipment is visible inside the restaurant and forms part of the venue’s modern industrial-style interior, while Blue Marlin’s own beers are poured just metres from where they’re brewed.

It’s been part of the Blue Marlin experience for years and remains one of the features that sets the venue apart from the average restaurant or bar.

Live music is part of the Blue Marlin experience, with Taiwanese musician ABEN currently the house performer at the Xinghai location.

With his trademark cowboy hat and electric guitar, ABEN performs a series of live sets across the evening, giving guests the option of dropping in for a drink and some music or settling in for dinner and staying for the night.

Current Performance Schedule
19:30–20:10
20:40–21:20
21:50–22:30
23:00–23:40

Each set runs for around 40 minutes, with a 30-minute break between performances.
Performance days and times are subject to change. If you’re making a special trip to see ABEN, check with Blue Marlin beforehand to confirm that he’s performing.

Blue Marlin has long been somewhere to meet friends over a drink and watch the game.
Live sport is shown throughout the week, making it an easy place to get together for major matches and sporting events. Add dinner and a house-brewed beer, and there’s little reason to move until the final whistle.

Before Blue Marlin became a familiar name in Suzhou, Dan Zheng was a chef.

After training in Western cuisine and gaining experience in China and Germany, Dan came to Suzhou and opened the first Blue Marlin in 1999. The original restaurant had just 30 seats, with Dan working as both owner and chef.

From that small beginning, Blue Marlin grew into a restaurant and bar brand with locations across China. Dan’s business also developed in another direction through BlueMAX, a group catering company that today operates more than 50 staff canteens for companies and organisations across China, with operations reaching as far as Inner Mongolia.

Away from business, endurance sport has become another major part of Dan’s life. A long-time marathon and trail runner, he has competed over distances ranging from the marathon to 50km and 100km events. He continues to travel, train and compete, with his sporting interests now extending to events such as HYROX.

More than 25 years after opening that first 30-seat restaurant, Dan’s connection with Blue Marlin — and with the city where the story began — continues.

Suzhou today bears little resemblance to the city where Blue Marlin first opened in 1999. SIP has changed even more dramatically.

Blue Marlin has changed with it.

For some guests, it’s somewhere they’ve been visiting for decades. For others, it might be their first visit. Either way, the promise that has followed Blue Marlin throughout its history remains:

Your Home Away From Home.