The Four Seasons sits on the water in Central, with the ferries crossing right below the window and the Airport Express under your feet, and no hotel in Hong Kong is better for eating, with seven Michelin stars across Caprice, Lung King Heen and Noi. The staff were warm and quick from the moment we walked in, and the sixth-floor pools look straight out over the harbour. Our Deluxe Harbour View room was the disappointment. It was refitted only a few years ago but already looked older, the 45 square metres filled up fast, and the bathroom was cramped. At close to Rosewood prices I'd book it for a work trip in Central or a trip built around food, and if you're paying mainly for the room, I'd send you across the harbour to the Regent or the Rosewood. See pictures ↓
Service
We came in from the station side, along the link from IFC Mall, and someone from the concierge team had stepped over to help before we'd even found the front desk. Our room wasn't ready yet, so they took our bags and we went out for lunch. When we got back, a second man from the front desk walked us up himself, all the way to a room at the far end of the corridor.
I'd come back for the staff. Whatever we asked for was sorted almost the moment we asked, and always with a smile. The concierges here are the kind who remember what you liked last time and have it waiting when you return. If you're flying out, a porter will take your bags right down to the Airport Express platform, which after the walk through the mall is a real help.
We didn't have the Executive Club on this stay, and it's where I'd want to be next time. It's on the 45th floor, at the very top of the hotel, with a long outdoor balcony running along it above the harbour. It's included with the Executive Harbour View rooms and the Superior Harbour View Suites, and up there, with eggs cooked to order at breakfast and a quieter room to sit in, the service gets even more personal.
Rooms
Open the door and the harbour is waiting at the end of the entry corridor, and it pulls you straight across the room to the glass. Ours was a Deluxe Harbour View room of 45 square metres, and the window looks right across the water to Kowloon, with the tall ICC tower and the hills behind it and the ferry piers almost directly below. I sat at the little round table in the window for a long time, watching the ferries cut long white wakes across the harbour and the double-decker buses crawl along the shore road. After dark the whole Kowloon waterfront lights up, and I'd book this room for the view alone.
The room itself let me down a little. It was refitted only a few years ago, but with its charcoal woven headboard, dark timber bedside tables, black lacquer TV console and a lot of beige and taupe, it already looks older than that, and I found it hard to warm to. There are some lovely touches, like the ink landscape hanging beside the bed and a lit shelf of little white ceramic birds, and waiting for us were fruit under a small glass dome on the table, a tea tray with a jar of mango gummies by the door, and some very good little biscuits. Even so, the 45 square metres went faster than I expected once the dining table and its two swivel chairs, a third armchair by the window and the long console were in. Everything in the minibar is charged, and turndown brought a small gift.
The bathroom is tight. There's a long grey stone counter with two round white basins under a big mirror edged with strips of light, then a glass rain shower and a deep tub, all in warm cream stone, but the shower and toilet are squeezed in and two of you getting ready at once will be dodging each other. The Deluxe Peak View rooms are the same size for less money, but they face the mountain and the city, and I came here for the water. If you can stretch, the Superior Harbour View Suite gives you 68 square metres, a separate living room and the Executive Club, and the corner ones look out over the harbour on two sides.
Food and drink
Our best evening was dinner at Lung King Heen, after a long day walking round the city. It was the first Chinese restaurant anywhere to win three Michelin stars, and it holds two today. Our server explained every dish as it came, and when she saw how much we were ordering she suggested half portions, which meant we got to try far more. There wasn't a dish I'd skip, and I'd start with the baked barbecue pork buns with pine nuts and the Peking duck. Book it well before you fly, and note that men can't wear shorts or sandals.
Caprice is the other big name, a French dining room of chandeliers and mirrors around an open kitchen, with three Michelin stars for the eighth year running and Hong Kong's first cheese cellar. We only had the one night, so lunch there is top of my list for next time. Noi, a 22-seat Italian tasting-menu restaurant, has two stars of its own, which makes seven across the hotel. For a drink, Argo came 25th in the 2026 World's 50 Best Bars, and I'd finish the night in the little Caprice Bar with a glass of French wine and some of its 36-month Comté.
Breakfast was at The Lounge, just beside the check-in desk, and it's ordered from a menu. The Japanese set was lovely, with a glazed piece of grilled fish, miso soup with tofu, a cup of steamed egg custard, rice and pickles, but the seafood congee on the Hong Kong set was thin on flavour. If you'd like the full buffet, with dim sum, congee, noodles and an egg station, head to Gallery instead. Later in the day there's live music in The Lounge, and Gallery serves an East-and-West afternoon tea with Chinese teas.
Setting
Up on the sixth floor the infinity pool runs out to the edge of the building with the harbour beyond it, and when you duck under the water you can hear music playing through the underwater speakers. There are four pools up there altogether, the main one heated, with cabanas and drinks brought out to the loungers, though the main pool has no shallow end, so keep a close eye on small children. The Pool Terrace makes smoothies and frozen cocktails, and late afternoon is the time to be there. The spa is enormous, over 2,000 square metres of cool marble and pale wood with windows onto the harbour, and I'd make time for the eucalyptus sauna and the ice fountain.
The other great thing about this hotel is where it sits. It's built into the IFC complex in Central, so you can walk under cover from the lobby to the mall, the MTR and the Airport Express at Hong Kong station, and the Star Ferry leaves from the piers below your window. The route to the train zigzags past designer boutiques, which is hard work with suitcases, and the restaurants and bars of Central are about a ten-minute walk away. If you're working in Central, though, I can't think of an easier base.
The lobby and public rooms did the least for me. The lobby has tall windows and a spiral staircase, but it felt ordinary to me, with some age to it, and the hotel as a whole has the polished calm of a big international brand without much of Hong Kong in it. From this side of the water you look at Kowloon, so the Island skyline from the postcards is behind you, and it's the Rosewood and the Regent across the harbour that get that view. What you get here is the harbour close up and busy with boats all day, and I enjoyed that more than I expected to.
Value
Standing at that window with the ferries going by, I could see why people pay what they do here, but it's a lot. A typical night costs about $840, almost exactly what the Rosewood charges across the water, where even the smallest room is 53 square metres. The Regent along the waterfront from it costs about half as much, though at both of them you pay more to face the harbour. The Peninsula and the Mandarin Oriental usually come in nearer $600, and The Upper House at about $700.
This hotel earns its rate outside the room. There are seven Michelin stars in the building against two at the Rosewood, the pools and spa are better than at either of its rivals across the harbour, and the Airport Express is a short walk from the lift. For a work trip in Central, or a trip planned around eating, I'd pay it.
Book a rate that includes breakfast, because the buffet adds up quickly for two. A Deluxe room doesn't include the Executive Club. If you want the lounge, book an Executive Harbour View room, the same size with the club included, so the only extra is the higher room rate. If the room is what you care about most, I'd spend the same money across the harbour.
Who it suits
It suits anyone who travels to eat, anyone working in Central, and travellers who want to step off the Airport Express and be in their room in minutes. Families do well here too, with the pools, the 107-square-metre Family Suite and children under 18 staying free in their parents' room when no extra bed is needed. Skip it if you want a new room with real character, or the Island skyline in your window. For the best room in the city, book the Rosewood Hong Kong across the water, and for a newer room on the Kowloon waterfront at about half the price, the Regent Hong Kong.
More on the area: Hong Kong guide.
