A handy pit-stop on bustling Nizami Street, The Café Ballizza, with its wall-mounted, 24/7 Fashion TV and blow up posters of models on the stairs, could just as easily be remodelled as a fashion café but, this being Baku, that name had already gone. The upstairs salon is a vision in pearl, gold, brown and taupe, with deep sofas and walls upholstered in a sort of pearlised, snakeskin textured velveteen. Plastic wall lights dripping in cascades of faux-crystal beads complete the look, which somehow works in Baku and what elsewhere might seem a little cruise ship, is remarkably soothing. The menu is better on the salads and sandwiches than the sushi, and the coffee is reasonable. A cut-price business lunch is served, although for the mainly twenty-something clientele, the main draw seems to be endless teas and coffees and the odd beer upstairs.