“Imagine this as your living room while you’re here.†That’s the direction I was given when I first laid eyes on the Club InterContinental overlooking Victoria Harbour (yes, I’m spelling it the British way. When in Rome Hong Kong…). After a few visits, I started getting angry that my actual living room wasn’t nearly as nice.

Light woods, large windows, and attentive service dominate the club here in Hong Kong. While the fast wifi and ample power outlets are great features for business folks, a food dude such as myself cares mostly about the food and beverage offerings and this club delivers more than any I’ve been to before. Three times a day, they lay out a full spread (breakfast, afternoon tea, and evening cocktails). Each time, the selections are more akin to a miniature version of a high quality Vegas buffet than the usual hotel lounge afterthoughts of triangles of turkey sandwiches and bowls of nuts that have been robbed of their cashews.

The very fact that a full hot breakfast comes with your club fee ($140 per day for one/$178 for two) is pretty great. For the record, this isn’t your Holiday Inn Express hot bar with chafing dishes full of soupy scrambled eggs and soggy bacon. Here you can find those standard options like eggs, bacon, and sausage, but there’s also a full menu of a la carte options that are cooked to order. Omelets, Eggs Benedict with your choice of ham or smoked salmon, corned beef hash, oatmeal, and more – the choice is yours. You can even get steak and eggs to maximize that club fee.

If you want to go a more healthy route, they also offer items from the InterContinental’s signature iHealth menu developed with help from a nearby hospital. Order the organic scrambled eggs with field mushrooms, avocado, and tomatoes on a toasted brown English muffin or opt for the Japanese route and get the honey-glazed salmon fillet with cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and kiwi.

Afternoon tea doesn’t have the same extensive a la carte menu, but the spread on the bar is perfect for a midday snack or even a replacement lunch if that’s the game you want to play. Hit up the shrimp spring rolls, pan-fried pork dumplings, or BBQ pork in puff pastry if you want to eat local, or make it a traditional British afternoon tea with adorable little sandwiches of truffled egg salad with prawns, grilled vegetables, or ham and cheddar with roasted pineapple. If desserts are more your speed, you can pretend to be a giant because these bite-sized versions of elegant cakes and pastries are minuscule and almost too cute to consume.

Pro tip for you: Come to the lounge at 5:30 to get the last of the afternoon tea set and wait like a crouching tiger (or hidden dragon, if you prefer) while they set up the cocktail hour snacks. You’ll be rewarded with various dips (hummus, olive tapenade, cheese) to coat your veggie sticks, nachos, and assorted breads. You want to be an Italian big shot? They’ve got composed dishes of duck prosciutto with melon, parmesan cheese, and mostarda as well as a full charcuterie spread with assorted cheeses. Feel free to totally skip dinner and load up on the global hot dishes that range from chao zhou dumplings to roasted pork loin with sauerkraut to black cod with button mushrooms and smoked eel.

If you prefer to drink your club time away, the beverage service is equally as appealing. Top shelf liquors like Laphroig, Hendrick’s, and Belvedere are availanle and they have a nice selection of wines, as well. Overall, this is the type of place you want to plop down in the morning and watch the marine traffic float by in the harbour for the rest of the day.

It really is the best living room around.

 

Main photo:

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The InterContinental Hong Kong is hosting my stay. In no way does this affect my views on the hotel or its facilities.