View 62, Hopewell Centre, Wanchai

The visit to this restaurant was an unplanned fine dining lunch on a Saturday about two weeks ago, after my wife had finished her weekend shift. View 62 is located on the 62nd floor of the building where she works so we only had to travel upwards.

There were lift attendants who showed us the way to the restaurant and there was a maitre'd who showed us to our seats. We managed to reserve a table but that was because it was the weekend. Weekdays are quite busy as it is mostly full of office workers doing their power lunch.

The full title of the restaurant is 'View 62 by Paco Roncero', with Mr Roncero being the head chef and creator of the menus. Lunch is a set menu where one chooses three courses, with a tea or coffee included. During the I ordered an Iced Melon Tea, which was a cool and refreshing drink.

We made our choices and bread was then given to us after ordering, which came with olive oil and vinegar. There was a variety of rolls in the basket as shown below and each were hot.

Bread Rolls

My starter was Green beans with iberico ham and potato foam. The beans were chopped into small pieces and the ham was in very thin, small slices too. Although these ingredients were small they were tasty and the foam was like a light bubbly soup that was nice too.

Starter

For the main I chose Lamb shank with vegetables. The lamb was well cooked and tender, easy to cut and tasted great. The vegetables were cooked just right, consisted of carrot, beans, broccoli and others, and were presented beautifully in their miniature form. There was a gravy as well covering the whole dish for some additional flavour and moistness.

Main Course

My dessert was called 'San Marcos'. This came in a rather fancy cocktail glass and consisted of egg yolk cream with vanilla foam and whisky jelly. As a whole I enjoyed this dessert and it tasted like a tiramisu with the alcohol content but without the sponge.

Dessert

We had tea and chose Earl Grey to round off our meal. This was accompanied with a couple of biscuits that were nothing great.

Tea and Cookies

My wife had Salad of Tuna, Potatoes and Peppers for starters, and a main of Cod, with a dessert of Chocolate Coulant, which unfortunately is not pictured.

Hopewell Centre used to be Hong Kong's tallest buildings (at 66 storeys high) so the view from here is not bad at all. Further to this, one of the features of this restaurant is that it is revolving, giving you a 360 degree perspective of the island and the southern Kowloon peninsula. Just bear in mind that you might feel a little dizzy, though.

The View (towards Happy Valley)

One building you will see from the restaurant is the Frank Gehry designed twisty, residential tower, shown below. One 600m2 unit recently sold for a whopping 4M GBP...!!!

Frank Gehry twisty building

Like the apartment block, View 62 is not a cheap place so unlikely I will come here that often to eat, but it is good. Although the portions do not look particularly generous when served in front of you, by the end of the meal I was satisfactorily fed by the quality ingredients they used. Everything is all well presented in the white tableware. The waiters were attentive and service was efficient, although the restaurant was not full. The interior design is modern and view from the restaurant is as described above and probably their chief selling point.

Scores

Food: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 4/5

Total: 15/20

Bill: HK$792, about GBP£35 a head.

We ate: Set Lunch.

We drank: Ice Melon Tea, English Breakfast Tea

I wore: Slightly under-dressed hiking boots.