Cute concept - speakeasy style cocktail bar tucked away in a nondescript old office building.
Bottom line: Good drinks, done a massive disservice by the weird vibe. For the price relative to average Hong Kong cocktail pricing, you could do better.
Maybe it's just me but this whole establishment gives me strong weeaboo colonialist vibes. Read on for more.
Context setting: I'm Chinese American from the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have no shortage of craft cocktail bars with expansive high end liquor selections and innovative mixology. All that to say, I know a good cocktail.
Scene: Came in on New Year's Eve. Was sat at a table away from the bar with my sister and two friends from mainland China. Only entirely-Asian group in the bar.
Service: We were sat at one of the tables near the bookshelves. Service is polite but stiff. Might be a language barrier with the servers, since my sister and I are primarily English speaking, with terrible Mandarin and 0 Cantonese.
Vibe: The couples at the bar (predominantly white guys...) got much more attentive service and conversation than our group. White guy bartender kept giving us weird looks the entire night. We did get the complimentary champagne cocktail when the clock struck midnight, which was nice.
Drinks: Thoughtful and well balanced. Honors the flavors of the primary liquors while adding other subtle twists with nods to Japanese and Chinese flavor profiles and ingredients. 5/5, everything we tried was tasty and well executed. read more