shard shang

splurged on a cheeky staycation at the shard shang over the weekend and while the room was comfortable and the views amazing, felt there were teething problems and the service lacking. don't want to sound like a complete ingrate moaning on about why it was substandard but let's just say the mister had a field day treating them like a case study and came up with some pretty good ways they could've done better. 

the siew mai on the breakfast buffet were raw in the middle. hey, nothing against frozen food (have an in-house chinese restaurant but no pride? that's ok.) at least cook it through. the hostess brought me to the wrong table after giving my room number, to a man who was not my husband. uh....? and there was a shrill alarm scarily telling us 'there has been an incident. please...' without any follow up after to explain it was crying wolf. also, the staff weren't great. the mister and i wandered up to the bar only to be snootily told by a staffer showing a couple around that 'the bar is closed, you can't be here without a staff member'. well, if you want to be pedantic, she's a staff member and we were there while she was. the tea cups in the room were chipped, the sauces had cracks and there were cup marks all over the tv console. little things like that that really should be better given how guests are paying top dollar. 

the one silver lining (apart from the breath-taking views from the room) was how the concierge got us a next day reso at hutong. my love for hutong has not gone undocumented but alas i'm not alone in this love affair and it's notoriously hard to get a reso (6 weeks in advance). way to go, hutong! so when i had a massive craving and thought to try our luck the day before (the poor mister was on the receiving end of much ridicule by the eastern european hostess, oops) we couldn't get a table. 

light bulb moment: aren't we staying at the shang??? GET THEM TO MAKE THE RESO! and tadaa! the concierge came through. and i was a happy camper.

some photos of the room and pool and bar we were chased away from at 1130h. don't ask why we were drink-seeking at 1130h.