No Matter How Much You Plan, Things Just Happen – Part 2

Deep Fried Soft-shell Crab with Coconut Tempura

After taking my leave of Hong Kong’s most inept taxi driver, I joined Jacob inside Soho Spice.  The restaurant was small, and we opted for a table in the open air courtyard in the back.  We sat down, decompressed, and proceeded to have what was nothing short of a fantastic meal.  The first thing I noticed was the incredible music.  Over the course of our meal we heard classic songs by Mott the Hoople, Elton John, Bob Dylan, The Cure, INXS, Psychedelic Furs, Blondie, Pretenders, The Bangles, ABBA, Pet Shop Boys, and Simple Minds.  It made for wonderful ambience (kudos to Jacob for not getting irritated when I kept stopping the conversation to say “Great song!” at the start of every new song – because if it had been someone else, it would’ve driven me bonkers!).  The next thing I noticed was how good the service was.  Our waiter was friendly without being overly chatty, and brought our food out promptly without making us feel hurried.  And that food – it was just incredible.

We decided to start with a few appetizers.  We split an order of Deep Fried Soft-shell Crab with Coconut Tempura, after which I got the Crispy Coconut Lemongrass Chicken with Pomelo and Mango Salsa, while Jacob opted for the Deep-fried Tofu in Red Curry with Spring Onions.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful this food was.  For entrees, I ordered the Spice-roasted Pork Rack with Roasted Potatoes in Chili Yam Sauce, while Jake got the Pad Thai Noodles with Prawns and Squid.  Offering a mix of Vietnamese and Thai cuisines, Soho Spice uses just the right amounts of zesty flair mixed into traditional fare that you are left sated and happy.  The portions were of a good size, and the chef really knows how to utilize seasoning to bring-out the flavors of the food, all of which was veritably crackling with freshness.  Bravo!

Too full for dessert (how often does that happen?), we decided to plan-out the rest of our night.  We would go to Dragon I, because everyone said we had to, and besides – DJ Reach (the resident at TAO and LAVO) was playing that night, and I thought that a Vegas DJ playing in Hong Kong while we were there was too much of a karmic coincidence to be ignored.  The Club Gods were speaking to me, and telling me to check-out Dragon I (more on that in a minute).  We decided to bookend the nightclub with the two gay bars, starting with Kolours.  That settled, we paid the check, and asked the manager for directions.  Instead of merely stepping outside and pointing, he said “I have to go check on one of our other restaurants, anyhow.  It’s in that direction, so why don’t I just show you?” How nice!

So, we followed the gentleman from Soho Spice, up the street, down an alley, alongside the now-closed Victoria Prison, then – upon his pointing to the road below –  carefully walked down a few very steep flights of stairs.  We thanked him and, upon reaching Arbuthnot Road, walked to Kolours.  The club was very intimate and rather chic in its way, with hardwood floors, off-white walls and a vine painted on the walls that stretched the length of the club.  Past the bar were four seating areas and a huge wall-sized window that was open and, as it looked out into the foliage of an enormous tree, gave the notion that one was sitting inside a very posh tree-house.  It was nice, but all of the tables were taken, so we decided to head over to Dragon I.  We walked back down Arbuthnot Road, and found-out that we had to go down – you’ve guessed it – another steep flight of stairs, through what I thought was an office building – only, there on the landing was Dragon I.

The venue was lovely – sleek and modern without being off-putting or uncomfortable.  The staff was all quite cute and smiling (I prefer my bartenders and servers to be smiling, don’t you?) and the music was fair.  Our names had been left on the list by the managers (thanks to a round of trans-continental e-mailing involving TAO Group’s own Mike Snedegar    ), and upon dropping their names the doorman (who had been fairly obtuse until that point) found our names on his list and let us in.  The club is pretty small, and broken into three areas – all of which would be considered “lounges” in the US.  We waited until 1am or so to say “Hi” to DJ Reach, but he never showed (the club told us he’d be going-on at midnight).  Meanwhile, a whole swarm of Eurotrashy models and their hangers-on swept into the venue and literally pushed us into a corner.  So, we decided to bid adieu to Dragon I and check-out Club 97, a place that our Concierge had told me was a Hong Kong mainstay and had a very popular gay night.

Once at the bottom of what we thought was the craziest staircase ever, we showed the Taxi Card to a cabbie, who pointed us to yet another staircase, just across the street.  Two jaywalking seconds later, we began our descent into the Lan Kwai Fong district that can best be described as a cross between the running of the bulls (sans bulls) and Mardi Gras (sans beads).  It was crazy, and we just looked at each other as if to say “We’re going into that?”  First though, Jake had to pee (tall boy, teeny bladder), so we popped into the Ice Vodka Bar (similar to Red Square at Mandalay Bay, right down to the beheaded statue of Lenin and the fur coats to wear in the vodka vault).  Finished, we resumed our plunge into the madness of the LKF.  It is worth mentioning that most of the people here were tourists, and reeked of beer.

We found Club 97, and ducked inside.  And when I say “ducked” I’m not taking artistic license as Jacob actually had to duck.  His hair literally hit the ceiling!  The staff was friendly, but the space was a bit confined.  But, we pushed through and I was saying something to Jake when, all of a sudden, the floor wasn’t in front of me any longer and I was on the sunken dance-floor (though, due to a little bit of grace and a full dance-floor, I was spared from falling flat on my face).  I turned around, and Jacob was laughing hysterically, and – once I was back by his side – said, “I thought you were dancing, until I realized you’d just fallen down the stairs!”  We looked around and noticed that the revelers on the dance-floor consisted of a very large bachelorette party.  So I asked the bartender about the gay night I heard was so popular.  Turns-out their gay night rocks – only it does so on Friday nights, not Saturdays. 

Living Room at W Hong Kong

Well, that was it.  We decided that we’d had enough and would finish out our (mis)adventures á deux, back in our lovely suite at W Hong Kong.  So, we collected ourselves, made our way back up and around and through the LKF, hailed a taxi, went back to the hotel, and made a cocktail pit-stop in the Living Room (W’s bar off the Lobby); then went upstairs, had some champagne, and fell asleep watching old episodes of Criminal Minds on DVD.  Good times!