Mandarin makeover

THE Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, is one of the best places in Asia to be pampered.

The Man Wah restaurant, at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, specialises in Cantonese cuisine.

THE Mandarin Oriental is one of Hong Kong's grand dowagers, a much-loved fixture on this little territory's social scene since its doors were flung open with great fanfare in 1963.

At 25 storeys, it was then the tallest building in Hong Kong; these days it is but a minnow amid the cloud-piercing skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island’s Central district.

GALLERY: A tour of the Mandarin Oriental
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But like any ageing star in their 40s, things were looking a bit droopy a few years back. So a complete $US150 million renovation was called for and the hotel has emerged as triumphant as an Extreme Makeover survivor. The (architectural and design) surgeons have performed miracles. Somehow the Mandarin Oriental’s distinctive character and quirks have been retained and enhanced, packaged in tight new dressing. It’s as if the place has been Botoxed and then re-wardrobed by Trinny and Susannah.

The hotel reopened in September 2006 after a nine-month refurbishment and its 502 rooms and suites (including one in honour of London society snapper Lord Lichfield; its fit-out is a homage to his London studio) are among Hong Kong’s most sumptuous. Despite a proliferation of funky boutique hotels, only the historic Peninsula, across the harbour in Kowloon, really competes at this stellar level.

The Mandarin Oriental’s original carved and embellished Chinoiserie, rosewood furniture, urn-like ginger jars and antiques such as prancing Tang horses have been replaced with a lighter, edgier decor that still nods to the mysterious Orient. But make that shades of Shanghai 2009, not 1929. The expected guestroom accessories, such as goose-down pillows, Egyptian cotton sheets and techno-wizardry, are all provided; the service is thoroughly attuned, almost clairvoyant in anticipating guests’ needs.

Dining. Welsh author Jan Morris, a great fan of this hotel, wrote about the perfect toast and marmalade here in 2005 as she pondered Hong Kong’s changing fortunes since 1997, the year when British rule ended and mainland China declared Hong Kong a special administrative region. (The writer Paul Theroux dubbed it “the Chinese takeaway’’.)

As with fine hotels in all Asian metropolises, dining at the Mandarin Oriental is of an elevated order. For Michelin credentials, head for Pierre on level 25 where three-starred chef Pierre Gagnaire has designed the menus (classic French with an unconventional twist). Rather obliquely, the restaurant promises “Parisian emotion and eastern energy’’ but, such daffy marketing spin aside, the ambience is of the special-occasion kind, with lights so moody and colours so deep and lush you almost need a torch to negotiate your way.

Lighter and brighter is the smooth and cushioned Mandarin Grill, revamped by Terence Conran. Windows once swathed with thick curtains have been opened up to views of Statue Square and Chater Garden. A raw crustacean bar displays ziggurats of oysters on crushed ice (specimens from Ireland’s Galway Bay to Tasmania’s Barilla Bay), alarmingly large lobsters and Alaskan king crabs with legs the size of umbrellas.

The wondrous array of fresh sashimi from deep Pacific waters reminds just what a conveniently located port Hong Kong has always been, smack-bang on trading routes. Oh, and you can still get a cracker of a bread-and-butter pudding here.

Forget room-service breakfast, even if you are accommodated in the sort of harbour-view eyrie that is hard to leave. Mandarin Grill does morning spreads that could stall an army (kedgeree and Loch Fyne kippers, please). And if you hanker for the nosh of empire, head to the hotel’s time-warp Chinnery Bar in a snug corner on the first floor for steak and ale pie, prime rib of roast beef with Yorkshire pud or bangers and mash.

Hot tip. As well as room categories there are decor styles so check photographs and layouts online. The most contemporary and resort-like in feel are veranda rooms, which each have a tiled and glassed-in annexe (these were balconies before the makeover) and harbour views. With floaty curtains and casual furniture, the annexe can be curtained off like a transplanted pool cabana.

The room proper is a mix of harvest and leaf tones and the black-tiled bathroom has an internal window (with optional blind) that affords views from the tub and a fl at-screen television can be rotated for viewing from various angles. (It’s appropriate the bathrooms should be utterly glam; when the hotel opened, it was declared the first in Asia to have a tub in every guestroom.)

Stepping out. Let’s make that stepping up. The spa covers the hotel’s top three floors and is a true urban oasis with its pool, tea lounge, Chinese herbal steam rooms infused with nasal-clearing cloves, showers with therapeutic coloured lighting and eight private treatment parlours, including dedicated Vichy and Ayurvedic rooms, the latter with an Indian hand-carved neem tree treatment bed.

Everyone’s talking about. For chaps who think spa treatments are too sissy and wouldn’t be seen dead in towelling slippers, the Mandarin Oriental’s barber shop offers pampering of the pin-striped kind. A haircut here is a fine thing but a 30-minute traditional wet shave with the foamy lather whipped by a badger-hair brush and blazing hot towels applied to one’s baby-soft cheeks is what it’s all about. There are just six chairs and the barbers are wise fellows who have been attending to the grooming needs of city gents all their working lives. (There are manly facials and forensic pedicures on offer, too.)

Essentials. The hotel’s best year-round tariff is its Delight Rate of $HK2900 ($470) a double plus 10 per cent tax; on select dates, guests receive a daily $US50 credit (or $US100 per suite) to spend in the hotel. Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queens Road, Central, Hong Kong. More: + 852 2522 0111; www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong.

This story was originally published in the September edition of Wish magazine. Wish is published free inside The Australian on the first Friday of each month.