Fodor's Expert Review Nirvana

Hidden above a Pakistani restaurant in the Ruwi business district, an area that bustles during the working hours but is near-abandoned at night, you will find an unlikely dive bar called Nirvana. The large TV silently plays old action movies, while the piped-in music is an odd collection of current American pop and classic rock. There are rarely more than three or four guests in the bar, and the friendly waitresses are attentive to their few tables, bringing bowls of salty peanuts and pints of cold beer. The atmosphere here is spectacularly strange, both because it somehow acquired a liquor license but isn't a high-end restaurant or in a hotel, and also for the quirky decor, including sculpted, hand-shaped seats and a gigantic sculpture of a menacing, shirtless man that lords over the entrance.