This year has left us all feeling like we need to escape, but to where?
With a wide range of seemingly never-ending staycation deals, we’ve been enjoying escapes within our beautiful Hong Kong. Renowned five-star hotel The Langham has launched several enticing staycation packages (from $1,788/night).
The Langham Club
I recently spent a night at The Langham and enjoyed Club access, which is included when booking an Executive Room (from $2,000/night) or suite. Club benefits include:
- Continental and hot breakfast (at The Food Gallery)
- Afternoon tea selections
- Evening cocktails and canapés
- Fine wines and premium beverages throughout the day
- Garment pressing, Wi-Fi and daily international newspaper
- Private check-in and checkout
The room
The Executive Room is a bit small but positively immaculate. The design is classic with modern touches, including many pops of the hotel’s signature pink. The bed is dressed with crisp white linen, and there’s an all-marble bathroom – with which myself and my guest were particularly obsessed.
The one thing that The Langham lacks when compared to other luxury Hong Kong hotels is a view. Our net curtains remained closed during our stay as the room itself was far more appealing than Peking Road.
The pool
The rooftop pool is an ideal spot to spend a lazy morning before checkout. There is plenty of sunlight for those seeking to tan as well as shade for those who, like me, would rather hide from the sun. We loved how the bright blue pool glistened under the sunlight, with flecks of gold sparkling from the pool floor.
Afternoon tea & evening canapés at The Langham Club
The Langham is well known for its posh tea sets, which are a constant feature on our top afternoon teas list. The hotel’s scones are some of the best around, so we were very excited when we saw a tray full of them at the Club. Other teatime treats included finger sandwiches, apple tart, chocolate cake and biscuits. There are quite a few teas to choose from in “The Butler’s Pantry”, as well as a selection of soft drinks, beers, wines and spirits.
At 5pm when afternoon tea ends, you need not wait long until 5:30pm, when the evening canapés arrive. We tucked into a rather generous selection of cheeses, cold cuts and hot and cold canapés – along with glasses of Prosecco, of course.
Dinner at Main St. Deli
The Langham has three restaurants: three-Michelin-starred T’ang Court, Bostonian Seafood & Grill and casual diner Main St. Deli. Modelled after an authentic New York deli, Main St. Deli is a good spot for families with kids or adults who are big kids at heart, with a menu of monster shakes, colourful cakes and comically large burgers along with traditional deli fare. We were served a selection of recommended dishes from the à-la-carte menu.
The carne asada tacos were pretty tasty with a juicy meat filling and a peculiar but pleasant addition of feta cheese.
The Philly cheesesteak ($235) is not the most photogenic of sandwiches. It certainly tasted better than it looked, however, it was rather forgetful. The cheese was congealed, indicating that it had been left out under a heat lamp, and there wasn’t much of a filling. The meat was well cooked and flavourful, yet we think there should have been a lot more of both meat and cheese and a lot less roll.
The lobster roll ($195) tasted kind of like a prawn cocktail but with lobster. The lobster was very fresh, and the slightly spicy sauce was flavourful and soaked up by the pillowy brioche bun.
The signature New York cheesecake ($125) is rich, decadent and monstrous in size. Shared easily between three or four people, we made a good go of it, and although we didn’t get very far, we enjoyed every indulgent mouthful.
Overall, the food was decent yet slightly disappointing. At a five-star hotel, you expect five-star dining. The staff were distracted, we were served three tacos for a “two-person menu” (tacos are particularly hard to share, especially in these times of heightened germophobia) and, aside from the lobster roll and perhaps the cheesecake if the plate had been cleaner, none of the dishes were aesthetically pleasing. Although this is not always an indicator of how a dish tastes, we would have appreciated a little more effort, particularly at a restaurant that seems to embrace Instagrammable eats. The argument could be made that the restaurant is not meant to be fine dining, yet at $235 for a rather sad sandwich, it’s not your average deli either.
Breakfast at The Food Gallery
Breakfast at The Food Gallery is included in The Langham Club access. Although advertised as a continental and hot breakfast, a breakfast buffet would be a better description. After a very comfortable night’s sleep, a plentiful selection of pastries, fruits and Chinese and Western breakfast treats await you. We have to give a special shout-out to the French toast at the pastry section, which was freshly baked, sweet and unbelievably fluffy.
The Chinese section offers many options. There’s a congee section, a fresh noodle station and a selection of dim sum. We noticed that one of the dim sum options was listed as the controversial “shark fin” – surely an imitation, we thought. We asked if the har-gow-shaped dumplings were in fact shrimp to be safe, and they said yes. However, when we bit into one, it was not shrimp but some sort of undistinguishable seafood. Was it shark fin? Someone please tell us!
One of our favourite features of the breakfast buffet was the Hong Kong milk tea station. Served in Black & White milk cups, this provided the sweet and rich caffeine kick we needed.
Verdict
Aside from a disappointing dinner, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at The Langham. There are certain areas of the hotel that feel a bit tired, but the rooms are stunningly bright, simple yet luxe. The Langham Club is an idyllic place to relax, and the service is superb – well worth the price and certainly a reason to return.
8 Peking Road, TST, 2375 1133, book online
This write-up is based on a complimentary media staycation provided in exchange for an honest review and no monetary compensation. The opinions expressed here represent the author’s.
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