When I think of Wan Chai, I think of rowdy drunkards, the red light district and basically… a general chaos of people and traffic. So when we heard of the plush new Velvet Bar + Restaurant on Luard Road, Rach and I decided to check it out and see what Wan Chai’s latest addition had to offer.
Velvet is hidden in a building called The Phoenix – a building still very much under construction, so be sure to have Google Maps out on your iPhone to make sure you don’t miss it! We weren’t expecting much considering the exterior of the building was quite a work-in-progress, but stepping into Velvet was a nice contrast. The large space was fully furnished with sumptuous deep purple velvet (surprise surprise!) booth seats, and dim lighting to put you in the mood to relax and chill out.
Food-wise, you can expect a mix of everything with the fusion pub-style cuisine here. The menu is sorted into three separate categories: light bites, medium bites and sweet bites (translation: appetisers, mains and desserts)! Before we began digging into our different bites, Rach and I tried the signature Velvet Classic drink – a mix of fresh orange, fresh pineapple and mint leaves muddled with orange juice and ginger ale. It was definitely refreshing and a good choice for non-alcoholics!
We started with two of the small bites. First, the pork lollipops with a special garlic shallots and lime soy sauce, which you just pick up and gnaw at, making me feel sort of barbaric… like Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones looking to knock someone out! This was followed by the more delicate Peking duck rolls with Asian plum sauce; although the duck was a little too chewy, the plum sauce added just the right amount of flavour to go with the roll and this would make a good dish to share with friends.
For our medium bites, Rach and I were in for a treat with the lobster burger with frites. This was a whole Boston Maine lobster tail marinated with salt black pepper and white wine, baked to perfection. The burger roll itself was sort of dull, but the addictive creamy sauce made up for it; if you love a bit of lobster, Velvet only serves 10 of these luxurious lobster burgers a day – so pre-order and grab them before they’re gone!
My favorite dish of the meal was, without a doubt, the petite black and white truffle beef burgers. These little burgers might not look that special, but once I bit through the burger itself, gorgeous truffle paste flooded my tastebuds (don’t worry, in a good way!). It was a great surprise and the flavour was rich indulgent and instantly moreish, just the way truffles should be!
We also tried the angel hair with Norwegian salmon, seaweed caviar and tomato cream sauce – the sauce was creamy and light enough to go excellently with the fine texture of the angel hair. Another medium bite was the roasted baby back ribs with Thai dressing – again, eaten using our hands which made the whole experience a tad messy (not the best idea if you’re on your office lunch break), and we weren’t exactly convinced that the Thai flavours married well with the ribs either.
Finally, for sweet bites, we sampled the lemon yoghurt cake with fresh lemon syrup – looking like summer on a plate, this was a good light dessert for those with just a bit more room for dessert post-lunch. However, the other sweet we had, the strawberry and blueberry cake with dark chocolate glaze, had an odd not-quite-cake not-quite-mousse texture and strange aftertaste that left us a tad disappointed.
Even though we were only here for lunch, I can definitely see good reason to stop by Velvet in the wee hours of the night to take a whack at some of the awesome entertainment facilities! There’s Dartslive 2, Xbox Kinect, Beer Pong and a state of the art DJ system, which just about sums up a great girls and guys night out. If you’re looking for a bit more privacy, we also took a peek at the huge VIP suite – ideal for intimate parties of up to 30 people and fully equipped with a karaoke system, 3D TV and private bathroom!
All in all, Velvet is definitely something different to the normally crazy Wan Chai scene. If you work around the area, definitely stop by for a relaxed lunch (the good value sets range from $88-$108 for a full three-course meal)! The food might be not the star here, but for a place that will keep the guys and girls entertained with a night of Xbox, Beer Pong or karaoke in a private room with some decent nibbles and drinks, Velvet is definitely a great option in Wan Chai.
Velvet Bar + Restaurant, 3/F, The Phoenix, 23 Luard Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, 2527 0988
Are the prices in the post in HKD?
Hi Evelyn – Yes they are, and in general, all the prices on Sassy Hong Kong are unless otherwise stated!
Rach and Sarah, I checked some reviews after reading yours. Hope this Velvet is really as good as yousay it is! Have been waiting for a place like this to pop up in wanvhai for ages!!! One question though, does it have a ladies night?? Thanks a bunch for all your greats recs!
Good food, great ambience. There is something for everyone. Perfect place to chill out with some friends.
Well said, Sassy! went to Velvet last month with my girlfriends visiting from NYC, having lived in NYC for a few years, I love hunting for cool hidden bars away from the usual hangout crowd like LKF. Velvet turned out to be a cool mix of HK style and NYC style with cute pink karaoke room, dart boards, varieties of yummy-but-deadly shots, and delicious food. We love love love the shrimp cocktail and the black-and-white truffle burgers! The highlight of our night was a-little-too-many-shots… it started with the friendly owner offering us free shots and just like that, we ordered the whole rack of shots, ranging from sweet blueberry muffin, deep throat and cum shots (LOL). If u feel like EAT.DRINK.PLAY, definitely swing by Velvet!! We’ll come back soon to rock out the pink karaoke room
First off, Thanks Sarah & Rach, for the great review. Please do come back soon for dinner & drinks and we’ll endeavour to make sure everything is even better this time! We appreciate all the feedback and we’ll definitely try to improve on the things that you pointed out above. I must say you have quite a following on SassyHK. There were quite a number of people (mostly girls, of course) who came to Velvet last night (Tuesday) because they read about us in your review which came out on Monday! (Note to self : keep to the good side of the Sassy Girls)
Evelyn, yes, as Rach says, the prices are in HKD. not USD, because even though our stuff is worth it, we’re really not in it for the money and only want everyone to have a great time.
However, we do have to charge something because we do have bills to pay…:)
Sylvia, thanks for the kind words. The place is not perfect yet and we’ll continue working on making it so, but we’re glad that you think it is!
big-apple-girl, if you are who I think you are (ie that girl with that group of crazy & cool NY’ers with the freakish insatiable appetite for shots and yet more shots), please fulfill your promise of coming back again soon. You have our cards, drop us an email and let us know when! We have a really, really cute Strawberry Santa with your name written on it and dont keep it waiting for too long!
Hi Girl In The City,
It’s definitely a nice venue and a bit more sophis than many bars in Wan Chai – me and Sarah went by in the day though, so you’ll have to let us know what it’s like at night! We checked with Velvet and as yet, they don’t do a ladies night.
Thanks!
Dear Rach & Sarah, took your recommendation and visited Velvet last night with a few gfs. You wereright!! The food was good and the place was ggggreat! More importantly tho, the people were really friendly and cool. We thot we’ll just hang out and chill but ended up playing darts and beer pong with the manager, owners and their friends. We found out later that most of the “friends” were people who were also there for the first time or second time. Hahahaha…. this is really a place you can turn up in a small group or even by yourself and you can expect to have a good time !! Haha. They are having an all you can drink event for movember charity tonight! Will definitely go check out the gathering of the moustaches!!!
)))
So I went to velvet this past Wed with my bf and some of his friends after dinner and before hitting LKF. I honestly thought that part of town really didn’t have much happening, but we ate Italian near by and just walked over after one of the guy’s said his friend always goes to this new spot. The surrounding bars on the street level are a bit rowdy but when the elevator opened into Velvet I definitely felt a lot classier and upscale. The place has a warm ambiance that is attributable to the decor, staff and clientele. There were groups of young professionals sitting at the booth tables and hanging around the bar area that made it feel less intimidating. After hanging out for an hour or so the boys started to play some beer pong while I just watched ~_~ There were other people that wanted to play too so we eventually gave up the table – I think it would be good if they had a few more. The manager came by and was real nice, brought us some ‘blueberry muffin’ shots on the house that were easy to drinks. A nice welcome gesture I thought! He told us about the theme of the place and showed us the karaoke room too, which looks great! Thought it was a good spot to warm up post-dinner, pre clubbing. We’ll def be going again. Oh, we didn’t get to try the food but the manager told us their menu is great so maybe we’ll try something next time!
girl-in-the-city, as Rach said, we do not as yet have a ladies night, but we’re planning to have 2 for price of 1 wine nights and many other such promotions. Please check out our facebook for updates. New ideas are always welcome too, so please feel free to leave your thoughts/suggestions there. Am really glad that you had a great time at Velvet, and yes, part of the reason for Velvet is for us to meet more people and get people connected! So you’ll often find first timers joining in the fun quite soon after stepping into the place!
Jenn, thanks for your comments. The manager will be really disappointed to know that you described him as “real nice”. He’s more used to superlatives such as “drop dead gorgeous”, “totally awesome and amazingly charismatic”, “utterly brilliant, extremely witty” and not to mention “very, very, very modest and humble”. I guess you just caught him on his off day. Also, he’s paid to tell you that our menu is great, so please don’t take his word for it. Please come back and put it to the test, and oh, did i mention that he’s prone to making understatements?
heh heh…
went there last Saturday, and saw this hot female DJ performing there. (apparently it only started 2 weekends ago) the place was not packed to the brim, but had a great crowd there, think someone had a big bday bash too. everyone was having a ball and then the staff started handing out shots to all the ladies in the crowd. the buzz was definitely happening. asked the staff who the DJ was, and they said she was from Taiwan or sumthing. we werent in the clubbing mood, but definitely a great place to be at “pre-clubbing”. Gotta go check it out cause she was getting alot of attention from the guys in the crowd.