Breakfast at Blue Bar

As much as locals were obsessed with all-you-can-eat meals offered in many places around town, it seems like no one really paid attention to the breakfast buffets, as offered in most hotels, for a meal which some may argue as "the most important one of the day". Guess that's just something I would never understand, as I do enjoy hotel breakfasts, especially when I am traveling.

After seeing the picture posted on Instagram a couple weeks ago by Chef Ringo of Four Seasons of a sourdough bread freshly baked from the hotel pastry kitchen, I have been craving for some good quality pastries, particularly the croissant, which I considered to be one of the very best in town. I blame that on missing the great time I had in Paris during the summer. So one morning I decided to pop by Blue Bar at Four Seasons on the ground floor next to their lobby, where they served breakfast buffet daily to both hotel guests and any walk-in customers who need more than a simple cup of joe to get by the morning.

I usually only came to Blue Bar for drinks and snack after work but during the day the place did present a totally different vibe. Sitting at a table by the window, the view was just gorgeous in a sunny morning with a backdrop of the harbor and Kowloon skyline (plus plenty of of "cloud porn" with the beautiful blue sky). I first thought I would be a bit out of place with my casual outfit, given the hotel is located right in central and presumably most guests would be in business suits, but there's a good deal of holiday-goers too, some even in shorts and flip flops.

Most of the food items were placed on the long table by the side of the restaurant and also on the bar counter. Compared to those breakfast spread offered in many resort hotels, I couldn't say they have a super crazy wide range of dishes, but there were enough varieties from the traditional Chinese dim-sums, noodles and congees, to the usual western breakfast items such as ham, bacon and sausages, and plenty of freshly-squeezed juices, fruits, milk and cereal to go around. The "breakfast bar" - as the set was called - also came with a choice of eggs, with the usual suspects of ingredients. I went with my usual "omelette with everything" and it was delicious.

But of course, to me the most impressive part was the pastry basket. Most places may carry a few kind of bread, then a few more kinds of French pastries, but here, there were more than a dozen savory and sweet choices. I almost managed to try every single one of them - hence probably getting my money worth just by those pastries - and my favorites were the brioche and donuts, in addition to their signature croissant of course.

Eggs, pastries and a good cup of coffee... to me that's the formula for a perfect breakfast, and I love spending such a leisure morning in such lovely setting of a lush hotel coffee shop. Perhaps I should do that more often, even when I am not traveling, and next time, I am going to come early and just spend the entire morning chilling out, and enjoying my favorite pastries.

When? September 3 2015
Where? Blue Bar, G/F Four Seasons Hong Kong, 8 Finance Street, Hong Kong
Web: www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/dining/lounges/blue_bar