Felix — Restaurant in Kowloon

A waste of the panoramic view. So-so food.

Summary: View from restaurant: 1/10 (The curtains hide the beautiful view, why the restaurant brings it down?) Renovation/Design: 5/10 (No design at all. A dark restaurant with dim table light. Curtains hide all the beautiful view. The only thing that I can remember this restaurant for is its darkness) Atmosphere: 4/10 (Very noisy. Tables are close) Service: 7/10 Food (Taste 5/10 Plating 5/10 Ingredient 5/10)

This is impartial comment. Idea of the chef is lovely and innovative. Cooking skills of the chef is fair. Ingredients are fair. As a non-Michelin star restaurant, you can’t demand more. Please see the other review that I have written for all the other Peninsula restaurants and you can see the comparison.

Overall comments: If you are a local HKer, need to choose a restaurant in a rush, do not have high requirement of what you eat, just want to dine in a 5 star hotel, this could be your choice. Spring Moon and Gaddis in Peninsula would be my first choices, followed by Felix.

If you are a tourist, recommend you to come to Peninsula and try this restaurant. Spring Moon and Gaddis would be my first choices, followed by Felix.

If you had been to quite a few Michelin 3 stars restaurants in HK and around the world like me, this is not a place that you will go again for fulfilling dining experience. For causal dinner I will go to causal places, not Peninsula; fine dining I will go to Michelin 3 stars; for family gathering this is not a place for wine and spree; for dating it’s not a romantic place; for friends’ gathering this is too noisy)

Details: Appetizer: -Seared Tuna with Roe (Lovely plating. Beautifully seasoned and seared Tuna)

Main: -Octopus dumpling, Octopus source spaghetti with fried Octopus (The idea of the chef is to enable the diners to enjoy the variety of one single ingredient by using different cooking method and presentation. This is a lovely traditional Japanese cooking culture. The texture and taste of the octopus in the dumpling is no different to that to the fried octopus. And the whole dish is cold)

Wagyu with fried thin sliced potato. Fairly cooked with a texture I personally like. Soup: Awako with Lily (Nothing special. But appreciate the chef may want to use seasonal ingredients. This deserves credit)

Desert: BEST dish of the meal Pear. Wined dipped pear + Pear sorbet+ Pear Cream Brulee + Original Pear (Again the idea of the chef is to enable the diners to enjoy the variety of one single ingredient by using different cooking method and presentation. This is a lovely traditional Japanese cooking culture. BEST dish of the meal. The sweetness is balanced in the Pear sorbet and Pear Cream Brulee. Caramel on the cream brulee is light, not too much. Cream brulee itself is surprisingly beautifully and...

Bar and restaurant. Located on 28th floor of Pennisula hotel. Take separate lift up to Felix. They have a separate area for drinks only, so can come here for drinks only at Felix bar. We had a reservation for dinner. 3 course set dinner. The best tables are by the window directly overlooking the harbour, but they were taken already so we were sat at the back of the restuarant. So not much of a harbour view for us. We were here for a dinning offer so we did not pay full price. Usually 3 course dinner would be around HKD1,200 per head before service charge. The food was ok. I was expecting french style fine dining, but this is not that type of restuarant. It's more like a bar restuarant. The music was loud. They had a DJ playing tunes. Dark, very dim lighting. Western food. Main course dishes were ok, but not as good as some of the fine dining places we tried in Tokyo or London. There is a dress code for men, which is shoes and shirt with long sleeves and collar. Price range is a little high for bar restuarant, but should be expected as in the 5 star Pennisula hotel. Most people here are probably for the experience of being in this fine hotel and the harbour view. A mix of drinkers only and those having dinner. Pint of draft beer is HKD108 before service, so beer...

In two words: extremely disappointed.

Foodwise the main course was good, Everything else was ok. Dessert (break the felix wall) definitely not worth it.

What led me to write the deserved bad review was the service and attention from the restaurant.

We chose our last honeymoon dinner there because we wanted it to be special. Where other restaurants found out that we were on our honeymoon by chatting with us or asking if it was a special night and went out of their way to make the night special for us, this was the only restaurant I let know in advance with our reservation that it was our last honeymoon dinner and wanted it to be special. All they gave me was the option to print something (happy honeymoon...? ) in our dessert, they gave us a table all the way in the back which although had a nice view was next to an exit with a lot of traffic, and the kind of service were you have to look for the waiter as food plates have not yet been removed, or we want to order another drink but they are nowhere to be seen.

So summing up: ok food, bad service, no extra effort on their end, all at a very hefty price tag. Very disappointed, turned what we wanted to be a special night into a very...