Traveling to Hong Kong for 5 days at the end of Feb. Does anyone have any advice on where to buy wine (for consumption there)? I will check the BYOB thread too. Thanks!
le Quinze Vins in wanchai. may be a little hard to find, but it’s well worth the visit to snack and drink some wine, and buy a bottle for takeaway ($100hkd discount from list price). extensive french list at all price points.
There is a wine shop at the basement of Miramar Shopping Centre at Tsim Sha Tsui where I usually go and grab some wines for dinner when I am in HK, decent selections of wines. A lot of restaurants in that mall too.
I usually buy my wines at Enoteca. It looks like they have 6 locations now.
Oh, I went to this shop in Wanchai also: https://www.wine-beast.com/retail-shop/
They had a great selection of bottles there and the price wasn’t too bad.
LQV (mentioned above) as well as Wine etc are both excellent. LQV in particular is one of the best wine bars I’ve been to anywhere with some remarkably good pricing
found decent stuff at watson from time to time
If you’re a natural wine fan La Cabane a Vin is very good.
LQV has a good selection, Winebeast had a good selection esp. Rhone but since the recent move and consolidation with the restaurant, they’ve pared back their wine selection significantly, so it’s not as compelling anymore.
For fine wine, I would also check out Ginsberg & Chan in Central and the Fine Wine Experience in Sheung Wan. Both of them have their price lists available online.
If you’re sticking with shops that have a retail storefront, you’re unlikely to find any deals as the commercial rents are so high.
It would also help if you told us what wines you’re interested in drinking.
Definitely worth a visit. Interesting list of wines here.
Since I usually stay at the Ritz, I buy wine at the Enoteca location in the Elements Mall. Pretty good selection and decent prices.
Thanks for all the suggestions! This is my first trip to HK, so just trying to get the lay of the land. Would be interested in any good BYOB restaurants as well.
What a fortuitous post. Taking a long weekend away from my work visit to Manila Feb 12-15 to go back to HK, and was wondering the very same thing! Will be watching this space.
If you are on Hong Kong Island and do go to Ginsberg & Chan (who have an excellent selection of the finest - Burgundy, Cali, Italian, Champagne - etc ) at very good prices, I would recommend that you email either the charming Roberto Gallato, or co-owner - Jay Ginsberg, give them an idea of when you will stop in, what you would be interested in and tell them I referred you (if you want a discount) and I think you will do well. If you tell them in advance about what kind of BYOB restaurant you are seeking, they will prepare a list.
Enjoy, great town, and super nice foot massages, legit - to be had. Great food and energy.
All the suggestions above are good ones (LQV for drinks, Ginsberg, ETC,…). I’d also recommend stopping by The Fine Wine Experience - Linden and Mike are great guys, exceptionally knowledgable and have excellant breadth of high end fine wines. You may also want to check out the website of Hong Kong Wine Vault which also has an excellant array of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, etc.
The “big”, retail oriented stores / chains I can think of are Watson’s, Ponti, ETC (the wholesale parent is Altaya, Enoteca…
Now where are you planning to eat?
Almost all restaurants in HK allow you to BYO but expect to pay corkage In the range of HKD 200 to 500. I’d say expect HKD 200 +/- 100 at Chinese restaurants and Western and hotel restaurants generally between HKD 300 to 500… But then, you don’t come to HK to eat Western… I mention hotel restaurants as many of the five star hotels have seriously good dining options… You can’t go wrong with any of their Chinese options… some of the finer hotels, such as the Mandarin and Shangri La discourage BYO, so check ahead or try to negotiate something… Usually some accommodations can be made if you ask.
The top of my favorite proper Chinese restaurants on HK island are:
Fan Tang in Causeway Bay (small, somewhat discrete, very serious Cantonese fare)
Fook Lam Moon in Wan Chai (known amongst the locals as the tycoons’ canteen for some of its clientele. Excellant dim sum, the best steamed fish (garoupa), and seafood)
The Chairman in Central (steamed Xian Xi crabs in rice wine / chicken stock and smoked pigeons)
Dynasty in Wanchai, inside are the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel (smoked pigeons and everything else)
The quality of stemware varies but is passable at all the venues above. Certainly don’t expect Zaltos or Riedel. No one will look at you funny if you bring you own glasses in this town.
Maybe an honorable mention to Yung Kee in Central which seems to have really upped their game after a renovation last year. Certainly has the best roast goose in town.
There are excellent places in Kowloon as well but I think might be less accessible… Tin Hung Lo in TST comes to mind.
Back to HK island, a few other places that come to mind that you might enjoy:
Dudell’s in Central (dim sum, great atmospherics with interesting modern Chinese art on the walls)
China Club in Central (members club but your hotel concierge may be able to arrange access. Amazing modern Chinese art - David Tang’s collection. He’s the funny, erudite agony aunt columnist in the FT amongst other things)
Now, not a place you will see anyone drinking wine but a very satisfying lunch, mid-day snack or dinner will be had at Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay (xiao lung bao - steamed pork dumplings).
Thanks Derek. I’m dining at the Chairman in a few weeks. Would love to byow. Will be there with wife and daughter and relatives in HKG.
I pretty much have a meal at Yung Kee on every trip to HK as getting roast goose in Singapore is difficult.
Thanks again for all of the recommendations. Made it a lot easier to navigate, though I didn’t get to try as many as I would have liked. A couple of highlights were finding 2009 Lynch Bages 375ml at Watson’s (round the corner from the Renaissance)for HK $580 and Dim Sum at Fu Sing Shark Fin Seafood (Wan Chai).
I’ve been a Yung Kee roast goose fan for a long time, but over the last couple of years, long time expats and locals that I know have switched their allegiance to Kam’s Roast Goose.