The newest & most luxurious gem in Wanchai
The posting of this hotel review has been delayed by a year, strongly hindered by the frightening political unrest and numerous protests that happened a couple of weeks after our wonderful peaceful Hong Kong vacation in May 2019, followed by the outbreak of Covid-19. I feel sorry that not many international tourists would choose to go to Hong Kong while it was so politically unsafe, as I really think St. Regis deserves a much better recommendation than anybody would have given in the past year, rather than just staycations from the local people.
In mid-May 2019, my husband and I went to Hong Kong from Canada to celebrate my father-in-law’s 90th birthday. Originally, we booked the W Hong Kong to start our vacation, but then St. Regis Hong Kong’s opening reviews were so flattering and inviting that we decided to give it a switch, just 3 weeks before our arrival. As soon as I made the reservation, the St. Regis butler and restaurant teams sent me numerous emails, introducing their teams and asking for my arrival details so they could personalize my stay. I was totally impressed by these little touches and already felt pampered even before we left Canada.
Upon arrival, our lovely butler Lydia (now promoted to be the butler supervisor) greeted us with a huge smile at the entrance of the hotel on the ground floor.
We were so surprised that she was actually waiting for us to arrive by taxi from the airport. As a Marriott Platinum elite member, I was asked before my arrival the room type that I’d like to be upgraded to, so I knew that my harbourview corner room awaited us. Our luggage was taken care of as soon as we stepped out of the taxi and delivered to our room. Check-in was done comfortably in our 500+ sq. ft. Premier Harbour View room on the 22nd floor.
Below was a picture of my room with the beautiful harbor view that I downloaded from the St. Regis website.
In reality, the window facing north was half blocked by a huge TV. If I were the designer, I would move the TV to the corner and have the sitting area and round table right in front of the window to maximize the “harbour view”.
Sorry to have gone side-tracked! Let’s get back to the awesome butler, telling us that she could help us unpack, do ironing, make our drinks, etc. Then she took us downstairs to the “Great Room” (lobby) where the St. Regis Bar and the Chinese restaurant Rùn were located, and showed us another elevator lobby that we had to use to go to the street level.
As soon as I stepped into the Chinese restaurant, I was greeted by name by the restaurant manager, Welly, who has also exchanged many emails with me regarding a dim sum lunch there with my in-laws and my husband’s siblings. She kindly introduced me to the table location by the window, even though it was not the restaurant’s regular opening time.
When we got back to the hotel after some sightseeing, we called the butler for some tea. Then a table of English and Chinese tea with snacks and chocolate-covered fruit appeared in 15 minutes with personalized hand-written welcome notes.
Other than a complimentary room upgrade, Marriott Platinum members also got free breakfast at St. Regis Chinese Restaurant Rùn. Four breakfast choices were offered: Continental, American, Chinese or Healthy, all served with a semi-buffet breakfast. Here is the menu.
On the 1st day we chose the American breakfast.
Then on the 2nd day we had the Chinese breakfast which was a much better choice with a whole abalone in the congee. Other than the congee, there were personal steamers with sticky rice in lotus leaf, siu mai (pork dumpling), ha gau (shrimp dumpling) and a spring roll.
The semi-buffet was sumptuous, with tables spreading all around the restaurant so nowhere would be crowded.
The Chinese Restaurant Rùn offered the best dim-sum lunch experience that we have ever had in Hong Kong. The ingredients were fresh and the presentations were attractive. We were always circled by numerous waiters to check if we needed anything or about the comments of the food. Best of all, they made everything to 6 pieces for the 6 of us so we could all taste the same food and no one had to split the food or have extras. It was a lovely pre-birthday lunch to celebrate my in-law’s 90th birthday.
After breakfast, we were so fortunate to have a hotel tour led by 2 of the hotel personnel so we were able to see different types of hotel rooms and hotel facilities. They showed us a suite that we could have stayed instead of the corner room that we chose, with a much less promising view, though the room size was definitely much bigger.
The sitting area of the suite was very spacious but there was no harbour view, whereas the bedroom had quite a good view. The bathroom was super big with 1 shower stall, one stall for the toilet, and a bath tub on the other side of the mirror. You could see the reflection of the bath tub on the glass panel of the toilet.
This was the grand lobby of the hotel on the 2nd floor,
where the bar with the famous mural was located.
There was also a beautiful terrace with a moon-shaped gate.
All in all, I highly recommend the St. Regis Hong Kong with its fantastic location, top-notched service and incredible food.
