The hotel is in the heart of Wan Chai, on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, among restaurants, cafés and bars. A footbridge from the entrance leads straight to Wan Chai MTR station, the harbourfront and the Convention Centre are two blocks away, and the Star Ferry pier is about ten minutes on foot.
You arrive under a stone-clad porte-cochère beside a cascading waterfall, and stone elevators take you up to the main lobby. The Great Room beyond has soaring ceilings, bronze screens that recall the window frames of colonial Hong Kong, and lanterns like the city’s old gas lamps.
A butler completed our check-in in the room, and for the rest of the stay we could text the butlers for anything, coffee included. Our King room on the 15th floor was over 500 square feet, in soft grey with brass and wood, with Frette linens, a reading corner and a round dining table.
Floor-to-ceiling windows looked across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon. The marble bathroom had a double vanity with brass fittings, an oversized tub with a television set into the mirror, and a separate shower.
When we stayed, breakfast was in Rùn, a buffet of Asian and Western dishes with a menu besides, and our Japanese set of salmon, rice and miso soup was delicious. The hotel now serves breakfast in The Drawing Room, which also holds the afternoon tea and the evening champagne sabrage.
Rùn serves Cantonese cooking by Chef Hung Chi-Kwong, and L’Envol serves French cooking by Chef Olivier Elzer. The St. Regis Bar mixes cocktails inspired by the first St. Regis, in New York.
The seventh floor is given over to wellness, with the spa, an outdoor pool and a gym open around the clock, looking out over the skyline.
We found the public rooms a work of art, the rooms generous and the location an ideal base for the city. We would happily return.