I usually stay at Shangri-La next door, which is amongst my favourite hotels and where I have elite status. As Hilton Honors accepted my Gold status challenge request, I decided to give a try to Conrad as I only visited the dining outlets but never stayed in-house.
The hotel’s interior is both classic and classy, with refined pottery and paintings giving the property an Indo-Chinese charm. Room was well equipped, bathroom and bathtub are extremely spacious. I particularly love how the TV is hidden. Note for management: as a 5 star luxury hotel, do not charge local calls. Your competitors (e.g. Shangri-La next door) don’t and in 2021, it really sounds greedy to charge local calls especially when paying premium price.
Although a cold week, the swimming pool was open and nicely heated. Booking is required but at this time of year, space can easily be found.
F&B wise, the hotel has an exquisite array of cuisines. This time, I tried Pacific Bar, Lobby Lounge, buffet breakfast at Garden Café and in-room dining.
Pacific Bar staff is well trained, drinks are up to my standard, with attentive and friendly barman. As suggested by its name, Pacific Bar is a quiet venue, something that I especially love after a day in the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. Very nice place to rejuvenate at night.
If there is a major highlight of this hotel, this is the amazing music band and singers at the Lobby Bar, Bong and his team of drummers, pianists and singers, bringing nostalgic vibes to guests and patrons. Kudos to them.
Breakfast is fresh and products are of high quality with a huge variety to choose from. However, there are three things that made me slightly disappointed.
1. Yoghurt choices lack: e.g. no muesli, just packed industrial Japanese yoghurt.
2. Lacks bread such as baguette
3. Provides paper napkins instead of proper ones.
On a separate note, I think the hotel needs to do more to have a real cake shop, what they have now isn’t a real cake shop. People prefer to go to Island Shangri-La’s Island Gourmet because Conrad’s is either empty, unstaffed or with no choices.
In room-dining was tasty, and I especially appreciate how courteous the waiters are. They take the time to explain you what your meal is, as if you were in a real restaurant. Quality-wise, nothing to say. However, one thing made me very disappointed if not mad and I hope that the hotel can act on this. I ordered a salmon steak (or fillet I can’t remember the name). At my surprise, I was told that it did not come with mashed potatoes and that I would need to add 90HK$ if I want to have mashed potatoes on the side (otherwise just two miserable veggies on the side). For 300HK$ the meal, I expected to be given the choice to add fries or mashed potatoes, and all 5 star hotels I have tried in Hong Kong add mashed potatoes as a complimentary side (e.g. Shangri-La does, Hyatt does, Marriott does). I really hope that the management can consider changing this because it doesn’t really look good to charge people for mashed potatoes with salmon, when other competitors don’t. Same applies to the beef tenderloin, I should have the option to change roasted potatoes to mashed.
Despite things to be fine-tuned here and there, I had a wonderful experience and am looking forward to my next at the Conrad, Hong Kong.
