HKG Pier dining — what a let down!
 

After a number of years as OWE, I finally got the opportunity what the majority of FT describes as as the Mecca of frequent flierdom — the CX lounges at HKG. Having read about how amazing they are, I did not hesitate to book an itinerary that included two long layovers at HKG — it seemed like a bonus, based on what I'd read. I had plenty of time to try the First Class Facilities both at The Pier and The Wing, with a visit to the QF lounge thrown in for comparison. The reception and reservation desk staff where uniformly friendly and actively helpful. I enjoyed a couple of naps in The PIer's day lounges, and nobody reminded me of the 1.5-hour recommended maximum. The bartenders were absolutely wonderful. But blimey, my five meals at The Pier restaurant were a letdown. My standards are automatically relaxed when there's no expectation to pay for my meal or tip the staff, but with different crew and managers and two different days, I've rarely experienced such a dysfunctional restaurant. The menu, for starters, is very uninspiring, certainly compared to any menu I've seen at the CX LHR lounge (where I've had many very enjoyable meals), and the dishes I tried did not compare favourably to how they were described. And the ones I tried more than once were hugely variable. One of the meals (a Chinese dish, which was missing half of the things listed on the menu and was basically shredded hen in a glutinous sauce) I even had to send back. Every single time, appetiser and main course were brought to me at the same time, even when I'd made it clear that I had plenty of time and preferred to have them served sequentially. Cognac wasn't brought with my coffee, because, when bringing my coffee, they asked whether I preferred VS or XO, and needed five minutes to deliver the obvious choice. Multiple times, I had to ask again for key items (such as tea with my breakfast) after everything else had already been brought to me. On my second day in the lounge, added excitement was brought by the fact that the person who brought my food didn't understand a word of English, and responded to further requests for items that had been ordered but not delivered merely by wildly flapping her arms (as it turned out, that was her entire response — it clearly didn't occur to her to alert her colleagues to the fact that the customer wanted something else). The only thing that was as good as at LHR was the Dan Dan noodles.

So I left HKG bereft of yet another illusion — but also with enhanced appreciation for CX's LHR lounge, and for the QF SYD F lounge and its wonderful combination of food, wines, and service, which I now know to be the top of OW (with honourable mention to JL's lounges at HND and NRT).

If you had spent time reading here, and not on the blogs, your expectations might've been tempered a bit going in;).

The impression out there in the blogs or on Instagram about CX is essentially phony. Not wrong all the time, but not necessarily right either. More like just travel porn. And the expectations they build are essentially what you DONT want prior to going in. I recently advised a cousin looking forward to some future flights to completely avoid reading internet "reviews", "trip reports", etc. They're more downside than upside but they're like drugs, he can't help himself.

Agree with this.

Having been both LHR and HKG CX lounges frequently - I find there isn't too much difference tbh. Some days you get a good server or a menu that better suits your appetite, some days you don't. To me almost all CX lounges are standardized CX experiences (of course except FRA SFO etc), so I don't feel too much difference between comparable CX lounges.

Fair point — in all honestly, I've mostly based my illusions on reading the BA forum, which seems to hold this as the gold standard. But I don't think I could have gotten away with posting this rant there...

Noticed the service at The Pier deteriorating after the CNY peak season. They got 6-7 staff running like a headless chicken when a supervisor standing still doing nothing & pretending he is the king of the dinning area.

Food quality had been back to the PP-Sodexo transition period, which is horrible. The supervisor helped to take my order yesterday but fail to ask if I would like to have all course at the same time or course by course. It ended up then send me the starter and fruit at the same time while the main course took almost 25 mins to arrive!

My opinion: Please send a new lounge manager!!!!

I've enjoyed my time spent in the CX lounges at HKG. Probably has to do with spending way too much time in Admirals Clubs.

the difference between the BA board and CX board is that there are not a lot of CX apologists / fanatics here compared to the BA board :) and you wont get many here jumping into defend CX at the slightest criticism... more like a bunch of jaded travellers who are tired of CXs continued deteriorating standards. :)

i havent been intoe CX pier F post the CNY period but shame that the service has gone back down to the PP / Sodexo transitioning period. it was bad then but somehow did improve a short while after - but still very sore on how they cheapened the very delicious burger (no more truffle sauce + thick cut fries!!).

still if one had to compare BAs OWE lounge, Pier F knocks it out of the park. Now comparing to CCR - a more even toss up perhaps (certainly the drink is better in the latter). I agree that QF F in SYD/MEL seems to still set the gold standard.

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Several months after the switch the Sodexo and the lousy roll-out, an extremely affable Sodexo manager was brought in who really got things into shape. He was a friendly, outgoing guy who knew what he was doing, and over a couple of months the change was like night and day. This year, I've been in Pier F about 10 times and I haven't seen him once. Perhaps it's a coincidence, but my experiences in Pier F dining have been mediocre at best and downright lousy at worst over this period. It's inexplicable how the quality is so all over the place. There is no consistency whatsoever in the food or service. Just goes to show how important good management is. FWIW, I was no big fan of the Peninsula's management. I found many of the staff cold and snooty. And without a doubt, the range of items in the pantry now is much better (which was also achieved by the Sodexo manager who has now vanished).

Here's my two cents. While I don't probably use the dining room as frequently as many of the ppl here (maybe twice a month on average, but 90% of visits at dinner time), I've observed a few things.

Ever since the last handover, the level of service has been very dependant on the individual staff members on duty. There are a few of them who are just excellent. For instance, one presents the menu items and recommends items very well, and service is very polished. The other always makes sure to welcome me back and stop for a quick chat even if she's not serving my table. They also take note when items are not delivered within reasonable time frames and push the bar/kitchen accordingly.

But at the other end of the spectrum, it's a completely different league. Like others have reported, some staff members who don't seem to understand a single word of English, who constantly deliver items to the wrong table and just seem constantly in hurry to get out of the CS interaction. Also, having trained some CS people myself, most of the staff have little to no proactive eye when it comes to anticipating customer requests and wants. Although I do appreciate some of the staff are fairly young, so they're still learning the ropes.

In terms of food quality, I do agree that the menus could use work. However, I've always been able to find some good dishes that suit my taste. E.g. the highlights of the March menu for me were the Thai Beef Salad and the Beef Cheek main. The downside is that the food is not always consistent either. Not a recent case, but I remember having a lamb dish some time late last year. The first try was by far the best lounge dish I've ever had. On the second occasion, however, the dish was inedible and I had to send it back to the kitchen.

For me, I know that I'll have a good experience when I see a particular member of staff on duty. If I don't, chances are that it's going to be mediocre at best.

first that ive heard that CX food is better the QF onboard!
just have to compare the ice-cream, believe that QF uses (or used to use) Maggie Beer but CX uses stock standard Haagan Daaz.

Yep, that's the guy. And I'm sure he remembered you.

He imparted that CX was sincere in wanting to make sure that the Pier F offered the highest quality. He would often go between Pier F and Pier J, and he definitely led by example.

He always asked how the experience was and I'd often say, "No complaints from me," to which he'd always respond that this wasn't a high enough standard for him.

Anyway, I hope he returns soon, but I'm guessing he was assigned elsewhere or was poached by some other firm.

CX uses Movenpick in PEY, J, and F actually, for sometime now I believe.

I honestly think the food at the QF F Lounge in Sydney is slightly superior to that of Pier F, though admittedly, service can be very dysfunctional at both restaurants. Maybe I had a bad day, but I encountered one of the rudest servers at the Sydney QF F lounge, who forgot all our orders. With my experiences at Pier F, it simply is just hard to get the attention of any of the staff to place an order.

Despite that, I think the food aren't that bad at either place, and I actually enjoyed some of the dishes on offer.

If you think both are terrible, wait until you see the pastries and juices they serve and the 'napkins' at the Malaysia Airlines First Lounge Dining at KLIA.

ex-HKG i have seldom had the movenpick for some reason (i read they were changing to it). always seen the hagan daaz... do they mix it up actually?

strange... I've always gotten movenpick both inbound and outbound to/from HKG. Though now I suspect that movenpick is only served on long haul flights as opposed to regional ones as well(?). My flights from europe to hkg usually has movenpick...

Can't speak as much for Pier F, however Pier J has definitely gone downhill in food and service. At the start I actually felt it was on par with what you'd expect pre-Sodexo, however my recent visits over the past few months were just bad. Not that I ever intentionally go to the airport to hang out in the lounge so I have extremely low expectations, but the difference I feel is just too obvious right now.

Pier F v QF SYD F
 

I agree with the comment above that the quality of the ingredients in the QF First lounge has gone down over the years, but I still think the (western) food is better than CX/Sodexho in the Pier. However, the Accor/Novotel staff in SYD are much more consistent and professional than those of Sodexho. The wines in Sydney are also much better-a wider range and better quality (mainly Australian but still good). I can't comment but I suspect the Chinese/Asian food in HK is better than the Asian food in SYD-part of CX's problem is that it is trying to offer two different cuisines and doesn't really do a good job in either.

When The Pier opened it lived up to its reputation, it's still an excellent lounge but cost cutting has taken the shine off. It has such a reputation on the BA forum mostly because its being compared to BA's efforts in T5.

any OW lounge in hong kong is better than the corresponding BA lounges in LHR

My CX experiences in LHR are the worst, they were out of every vegetarian item but waited 10 minutes after ordering to come out and tell me. All of the servers seemed to have no idea what they are doing the other times, often I am told something is out, only later for them to suddenly "find" it. Also, they smell, the LHR servers do not seem to wear any type of deodorant which is really awful in an environment when one has to eat.

I hope it's just my experiences, but at least in HKG they have been better, if not always very slow.

While I like the two CX F lounges a lot, I never thought food was their strength at any time, even when Peninsula was in charge.
I agree that recently the food quality and service level in the dining room got even worse, and this is very disappointing.
I encourage everyone to file a complaint with CX about the poor dining experience in the lounges, so hopefully CX can take it seriously.

Put it this way, the chinese food at QF F is very bad. The Gua Bao is a joke, very dry, any tiny foot stall in Taiwan would make it ten times better. The beef noodle soup they had the last few months was lack of taste in soup, the noodle were simply purchased from grocery shop. Remember couple of years ago they had the Chairman Mao pork with rice, that is absolutely the worst chairman mao pork I ever had, the colour, the taste, the presentation, all wrong. Anything else from the QF lounge, all very good.

Service wise they are mostly very good. I would prefer to dine at the bar table, where your food came a lot quicker, especially if you wanted to add anything.

I miss popeyes

I have been to the CX J lounges many times, but was really excited to try the F lounges, after watching a number of blogs and youtube videos about how great they are. But alas I was so disappointed when I had breakfast at the Wing F on my last trip, it was absolutely horrible.

It was totally packed, even more people than The Deck during peak hours (but maybe felt that way because its smaller). There was even a dude asleep on the next table and snoring.
The food was cold, the Eggs Royale I had was even worse than a random eggs any random cafe in HK. If it was a real restaurant I would never go back.
The food at the buffet area was probably worse than the Pier J imo, with much less selection.
Maybe it was a bad day, but based on that alone I think I would rather go to any of the J lounges instead.... the only thing they had extra was their OK-level champagne.

In comparison, I've been pleasantly surprised every time I've been to the QF lounge. The staff are way friendlier, food is decent, some of the cocktails are great, and it feels way less packed.
Sadly the only thing I actually look forward to at the CX lounges nowadays are the showers.

Will go to the Pier F very soon, hopefully it will be better...