The Steak House

Steakhouse by the Harbour inside the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong

The second steakhouse in our head to head pits The Steak House at the Regent Hotel against the Grand Hyatt Steakhouse. Located inside the former InterContinental hotel, it closed during COVID in 2020 and underwent a renovation when the hotel rebranded back to its original brand, the Regent. The steakhouse reopened in 2023 along with the rest of the hotel. The Steak House at the Intercontinental has always been famous, and little has changed during the rebrand.

The Steak House at the Regent also made it on to the the list of the World’s Best Steaks, one of two restaurants in Hong Kong to make the list.

Down a set of stairs past the main lobby at the Regent brought us to the small steakhouse at the side of the hotel.

A small room at the back contained a display wall of wines, as well as a display of steaks dry aging in a fridge. The center of the room contained the salad bar, and the pass into the kitchen in the back.

The restaurant was much more contemporary and elegant in design, looking closer to a fine-dining restaurant than a classic steakhouse.

The menu was quite neat. The restaurant was very dark, so instead of providing a light, all their menus are backlit and looked a bit like a giant kindle. They had beef from six regions around the world - Ireland, Japan, Spain, Korea, Australia and the US.

We decided to start with two soups, a Cajun-spiced corn chowder topped with popcorn, and a classic lobster bisque. In stark contrast to the Grand Hyatt steakhouse, the serving sizes was much more Asian standard, at about half of the typical American size.

Along with the soup, came the starter, a tender octopus tentacle with a sweet and sour aged vinegar glaze and topped with almonds for texture on a bed of caramelized onions. I have no idea how they prepared the Octopus but it was melt in your mouth tender and one of the best I've ever had.

We were given our choice of weapon, before the main event.

I went with a 14 oz. New York Strip. Nothing fancy today. I had learned my lesson from that fatty Hanwoo steak. We were much more conservative with our ordering this time around.

A very interesting selection of salts and mustard, including a sweet dried fig mustard and a slightly bitter wine dreg mustard. The salts being from places to Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines.

Classic steakhouse onion rings - crisp, lightly-battered and served with a chipotle aioli.

A classic creamed spinach with shredded parmesan. In contrast to the “food processor” style at Grand Hyatt, this one had a much lighter touch with discernable individual leaves. Both very good - it’s pretty hard to screw up creamed spinach.

Unique to the Steak House at the Regent, thousand layer potatoes with beef drippings. This reminded me of one of my favourite sides at Hide, mandolin-ed thin layers of potato pressed into blocks with beef drippings and deep fried. I don’t know why more places don’t do this - absolutely amazing!

With the much more normal serving sizes, and remembering our massive over order at Grand Hyatt, we were much more conservative with our ordering and managed to finish all the food and leave room for dessert. I went with the orange confit souffle that was flamed with bourbon tableside and served with an vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

Overall, a very different approach than Grand Hyatt. Whereas Grand Hyatt focused on the classic American steakhouse experience, the Regent gave a bit more of a refined, upscale experience.

Comparing course by course, on the starters, Grand Hyatt took the round with a giant tub of its amazing clam chowder. I would go back just for the clam chowder alone. On the steaks themselves, I would have to call it a tie. The Hanwoo ribeye at the Grand Hyatt was amazing, but way too rich to eat in one seating. In contrast, the US NY strip was a very classic experience - we got exactly what we were expecting. A fair comparison would’ve been ordering the same steak at both restaurants, but I didn’t want to repeat the experience with the Hanwoo. On the sides, I have to give it to the Regent, with their amazing thousand layer potatoes. I also preferred their take on creamed spinach. I can’t compare their desserts, because we didn’t manage to leave room for any dessert at the Grand Hyatt.

My personal view - if I wanted a lot of food or going with a large group of hungry football players, Grand Hyatt is probably the right choice. For a more upscale and elegant choice, I personally preferred the Steak House at the Regent and it will be my default steakhouse in Hong Kong going forward.

Total Damage: 2600 HKD/3 people