Fly&Dine Lounge Review: InterContinental Hong Kong

Posted in Asia, Hong Kong, On the Ground

“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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

AttributionNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by InterContinental Hong Kong
The InterContinental Hong Kong is hosting my stay. In no way does this affect my views on the hotel or its facilities.

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  1. My husband and I were in HK in January, staying at the Upper House in Central, but took the ferry over to the Kowloon side to check out the various luxury properties. I must say we were pretty impressed with the IC, and the lunch we had in the main lounge area pictured above was actually quite spectacular. My husband’s salad was perhaps the most amazing salad I’d ever seen (or that he’d tasted), and my mere club sandwich was exemplary. Service was phenomenal, and the view is to die for. We were so impressed that we’d consider a stay at the IC whenever our travels bring us back through HK. (For comparison purposes, we also dined at Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons and at Amber at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental for our 2 dinners in town.)

    • Glad you had the same experience I did. I know my report sounds a little over the top in how complimentary I am, but it really is one of the best hotel lounges I’ve been to. If only they could bring the per-day price down just a little…

  2. Thanks for the great review Jason. We may have been at the HK IC at a similar time (we were there from 8-12th) and chose to get a larger room rather than the club access. We booked a harbour view room but were upgraded to a junior suite which was really lovely, but after reading your review I am thinking maybe we didn’t make the correct decision. I guess that means I just have to go back again, if nothing else but to try that duck breast – it looks soooo yummy.

    • Oh man! We definitely were there at the same time! I’m so sorry we missed each other. I think my advice would be to pay for club access for one day next time and see if you enjoy it enough to justify the cost. I thought that lounge was really special, but having a larger room is pretty great, too. Hope you enjoyed your trip.

  3. I agree. I did a quick trip to Hong Kong and want to stay @ Intercontinental for the view. I’m also an Abassador so booked just under the deluxe jr suite w/ lounge, then contacted the hotel a couple days before the trip and got a confirmed upgrade to the suite which is at the apex of the building so you get two views.

    The lounge is just as nice as you say. I had a late nite flight so I checked out at 4 then hung out at the lounge for a couple hours before stopping by the tallest bldg observation deck on way to airport.

    I’d go back in a heartbeat and Cathay Pacific 1st Class award availability

    @ Bill. I’m still trying to get my husband to agree to go with me to Hong Kong 🙂

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