The 22-story, 68-room Pottinger opened last year in the heart of Central, the city’s epicenter of shopping and dining. The hotel sits on the steep hillside between Queen’s Road and Stanley Street, adjacent to the pedestrian-only Pottinger Street, one of the island’s oldest vertical pathways. The rooms are spacious and lavish, outfitted with fine linens, plush robes, Nespresso machines and all the high-tech necessities of a 21st-century hotel, including fast, free Wi-Fi. Comfortwise, the rooms easily hold their own against the city’s fiercest luxury brands like Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental. The drawback is the hotel’s size, which doesn’t allow for a gym or pool or big, glamorous lobby like the bigger players. The Pottinger revels in intimacy. Guests are greeted at a small, discreet desk then whisked to the privacy of their rooms, which are serviced twice daily.
The Pottinger outsources its three restaurants, including the outstanding Gradini Ristorante; Ta Vie, an avant-garde French Asian dining room; and a cutting-edge cocktail lounge called The Envoy, which is run by the same stellar mixologists as the world-famous Quinary Bar down the street.
Good hotels in Hong Kong are expensive. So with rates starting as low as $275, The Pottinger is an extraordinary bargain – and, for now at least, it still feels like a best-kept secret.
The Pottinger
21 Stanley Street
Hong Kong
+852 2308 3188
See also: Where to eat now: Hong Kong
This article originally appeared in Coast Magazine. To view more of my work for Coast and the Orange County Register, check out the archives. For more dining and travel inspiration, I invite you to follow me and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.