Ask for Alonzo (Tai Hang) — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

I made a reservation for a weekday evening at 7 PM with Bistrochat, and I couldn't have been happier! The Tai Hang branch, conveniently located next to the Lotus Temple, was delightfully quiet on a weekday night. It’s about an 8-10 minute walk from the MTR station.

Upon being seated, the waiter promptly informed me about the items that were sold out, which I appreciated. I’m definitely coming back for the meatballs next time! The restaurant was only about 30% full so it was not packed. The waiter was patient and allowed us plenty of time to decide on our orders. We opted for the tasting menu, which included Cold Cuts & Cheese, Tomato Bruschetta, Carbonara, and Roasted Italian Suckling Pig. For dessert, we both chose the Tiramisu. Every dish was delicious, but the Suckling Pig was a standout—crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, accompanied by mushrooms and creamy mashed potatoes. The Tiramisu was the highlight of the evening, featuring a smooth, creamy cheese layer with rum-soaked ladyfingers that provided a perfect balance to finish our meal. We also ordered Spiked Lemonades with Vodka and homemade lemonade, both of which were incredibly refreshing.

This dining experience was a birthday celebration, and the staff went above and beyond to make it special. They wrote "Happy Birthday" with my friend's name on the Tiramisu dish, lit a candle, and the whole restaurant joined in singing "Happy Birthday." As a lovely gesture, they also treated us to Limoncello as a celebration gift. It was truly heartwarming — thank you for everything!

The only downside was the discomfort caused by the smell of cigarette smoke. Since the restaurant is open-air, when customers near the door smoked on the pedestrian walkway, I could still smell it even while seated inside. There were also patrons smoking just outside the floor-to-ceiling doors next to us, and the scent drifted through the gaps. We ended up leaving earlier than planned, which does make me consider visiting another branch next time.

Despite the personal drawback of the cigarette smoke, I genuinely loved the food, drinks, desserts, service, vibe, and overall atmosphere of the restaurant. Thank you for a wonderful evening filled with...

Giving credit to where credit is due, food isn’t bad (dessert is a bit hit or miss but starters and mains are up to scratch). Main issue is that having come here twice, services are consistently weird / non-existent. During our first visit which was a Sunday, we were the only table. We sat down for 10 mins and couldn’t get a chance to order. While we waited, one of the waitresses (maybe the only one come to think of it) signed off and left the restaurant (presumably it was the end of her shift). That said, she clearly saw that we were waiting to order and did nothing and we eventually approached the manager and got our orders sorted. Second time coming here, we were 10 mins late to our reservation. We were given a two seater for our group of 3. We accepted it as is knowing the restaurant was indeed busy. 15 mins into our visit and just about to order food, the other two-seater next to us became free and we asked to have our tables combined. The manager stalled for a bit and eventually refused our request, on the basis that we were late and hence had already given away our initial reserved table. At that point there was a group of 5 waiting outside the restaurant which I understand to be “walk in” customers and the manager is struggling to find space for them. That said, his holding back of of a two seater in the corner wouldn’t have made any difference. All a bit...

We had an unpleasant dining experience with rude service here last night.

To go with the good points first - the food was perfect, absolutely. And the location was not bad at a pretty chill neighborhood.

We three arrived at 7pm and were informed we could stay till 9pm. This made sense -- so we ordered two rounds, six in total, of Alonzo Hour drinks, one snacks, with two mains from the a là carte menu. Total HKD662 on a Tuesday night, the deal was pretty fair.

However, after half hour (~7:30pm), the staffs kept hurrying us by asking if we needed to add anything else (hey we were still enjoying the mains and drinks!), cleaning our table quickly and even setting up the transparent block in the middle of our long table – claiming it was prepared for other customers who might come later. Obviously there were still some empty tables and there was no one waiting for a table outside, not to mention that we were allowed to stay till 9pm! Around 8:15pm, we got the bill from the staffs (which our 2nd round of drinks arrived not long ago…) and of course, we unwillingly left around 8:30pm.

Fun fact that there were still some empty tables with no one waiting outside when we left at 8:30pm…… and were staffs here living in a half-hour-earlier-timezone too?

All in all, we all felt so unwelcomed and got rudely served here, so no more return for sure with a bad...