Wolfgang's Steakhouse Hong Kong — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

My review below is from the last time I went to Wolfgang's. Though I said I would never go again, I was invited to go today and I didn't want to be difficult. Maybe they have a new manager and new staff but today was a completely different experience from what I wrote about below. It was really quite good and after today's experience, I would definitely go back. Was the steak the best ever? No. Was it very good? Definitely. We had the porterhouse and there was nothing to complain about at all. The service was also very good today. Again, I don't know how it all could have gone so wrong last time, but today it was like visiting a completely different restaurant. Thumbs up and the 4 stars above are an upgrade from the 1 star from last time.

I will never, ever, ever go to Wolfgang's again. Why? I went with a colleague for what was supposed to be a simple lunch. We ordered the set business lunch and ordered burgers with a salad appetizer, mine medium rare and his well done. Our intention was to go have burgers from the time we set out from our office. We sit down, we order.

First, but not most importantly, It took ages to get our drinks. It's quite hot and humid in Hong Kong and as most everyone after walking even a short distance in the heat would be thirsty. It wasn't particularly busy in the restaurant to excuse this issue.

We're waiting for our food and the "head waitress" to whom we gave our order came back and told us they only have one hamburger. What? A steak restaurant doesn't have enough hamburgers? We told the waitress that seeing as how this is a steakhouse clearly they should be able to grind the meat to make another hamburger. She goes off to the kitchen and 6 minutes or so later comes back to say it's impossible.

We hadn't set out to have a particularly expensive lunch. Just a relatively quick burger in what would be considered a semi-civilized environment. My colleague and I looked at each other and we said maybe we should just go somewhere else. Just at that moment, another junior waiter was bringing our paltry appetizer salads and the "head waitress" tells him to move away. So he is walking around the dining room with our salads and just getting us more aggravated due to this "head waitress's" approach.

My colleague tells the "head waitress," "okay, I'll then have the filet mignon cooked medium please." Our food comes. My hamburger was okay, but I could have had better at Plat du Jour in Pacific Place and the chips were not very good. My colleague's steak was almost rare and closer to blue. He calls the "head waitress" over and explains he ordered his steak medium. I'm almost done with my hamburger when they bring out his steak again. He cuts it and it is rare and nowhere near medium. It was served with a pepper sauce that was essentially goopy brown corn starch slurry with a few black peppercorns suspended in this slovenly, poor excuse for a colloid. By this time, the lunch had been ruined by the poor service. Wolfgang's, a "known" steakhouse, cannot even cook a steak to a standard temperature ordered by a customer. Something as simple as a pepper sauce looked and tasted worse than something one is likely to get from an American fast-food restaurant with golden arches. Really disappointing.

Throughout all this, the manager of the restaurant was skulking around in the background trying to avoid dealing with a series of problems both in service and management.

We asked for the bill and found my colleague was charged the a la carte price for a filet mignon. He told the waitress that it was incorrect as we ordered the set lunch and they were overcharging us. She scurried off and the "head waitress" came to our table and made some excuses and insisted on this price. My colleague correctly got a little stroppy and corrected her and 10 minutes later came back with the corrected bill.

The manager was hiding and not...

😭Value for Money is low; quite a disappointing steakhouse.

I saw many reviews (now I realize they were all paid foodie influencers) and the Porterhouse steaks looked really good in the photos, which is why I booked a table for a birthday meal.

When we went in, there were only four or five tables occupied. It was quite quiet and there wasn't much atmosphere.

The menu had the usual steakhouse offerings. We also ordered a bottle of red wine that day.

Who knew the first problem would be the red wine? My friend's glass wasn't cleaned properly. He only took one sip before noticing a lipstick mark on the other side of the rim. 🫠 Just thinking about it is disgusting. （we pointed it to the server right away, and they did replace the glass for us$

🥖Bread basket 3 types of bread, but the bread was cold, so I won't even bother commenting on whether it was good or not. (My friend asked for a refill of the buttered roll; the refilled one was warm!)

🦀Crab cake: This was good. It had shredded crab meat and was quite thick. It tasted good with the tartar sauce.

🦞🦐🦀Seafood platter: average! The seafood was relatively fresh. The prawns were very large and springy. (One thing I don't really understand is that the platter was served on a very shallow plate with crushed ice underneath. When we were halfway through, the ice started to melt and water dripped onto the table.)

🥩Main course: This was also the steakhouse's signature dish: the Porterhouse steak. The sizzling sound of the butter on the hot plate did feel quite atmospheric. Unfortunately, the steak wasn't cooked well and looked completely different from the pictures those foodies posted.

The key point is: we ordered it Medium Rare, but it was completely overcooked. Initially, the staff served the steak and placed pieces on our plates; that piece was probably the best-looking one from the entire steak.

Later, as we ate, we found that the doneness was very uneven. One side was cooked nicely, but the other side was completely well-done. The entire steak was beyond Medium. It was really quite disappointing, especially since this is a steakhouse—I expected the steak to be the best part of the meal.

Side dishes: We ordered broccolini, sautéed onions, and french fries. They were average and definitely better than the main course.

🍮Dessert: Even the caramelized sugar on top of the Crème brûlée wasn't crispy.😞

Service: The service was just normal. I didn't find the staff particularly friendly either.

However, for a bill of over $4,000,(2 persons) this meal really didn't meet my...

Wolfgang's is a popular NYC steakhouse with a branch on Ice House Street in Central. This is a classic steakhouse with seating environs, service and steak menu that does as best as they can to emulate their place in the Big Apple. Opening hours are 11.30am to 10pm daily. Reservations recommended for peak dinner time seating on weekends and public holidays.

Have had a few meals here since they arrived on the scene in 2017 and have been generally ok with those experiences because this is Hong Kong and not NYC. Do note that steak meals in Hong Kong are considerably more expensive that what you might be used to in Western countries and the overall quality is usually a grade or two below what you are used to back home as well. That is just the reality of the scene here and it applies to pretty much all western steakhouses around the city.

During a recent lunch, we both ordered the fillet mignon, which were expectedly good but not great. Steaks were both good cuts, nicely grilled at medium rare and tasted ok. They lacked the rich natural beef flavour of top choice fillets but were noticeably better than what is served up at a majority of places around the city that try their hand in the steakhouse game. Do ask for sea salt, which is not brought out to the table with your steaks but is available upon request. It does helps accentuate the beef flavours quite a bit.

Side order of mash potato was bland this time around, lacked the butteriness that we had enjoyed during previous visits, needed salt and pepper to be better enjoyed. The grilled asparagus was a delight. Wine and cheesecake for dessert both tasted as expected.

On the whole, this was a good steakhouse lunch by our local standards. You can do better in Hong Kong for the price point charged at Wolfgang's but you can also do much, much worse. What you can expect here is a predictably good steakhouse experience, if this is what you are looking for while dining...