banquet venues :: Hong Kong Flower Lounge

JDWeddingDay - 09/10/2008 Awesome
HKFL turned out to be a fantastic place for our Chinese wedding banquet. The managers, Albert and (especially) Eric, were extremely accommodating during the planning process and the banquet itself. Because my husband and I are both Chinese, it was very important to us to have a Chinese banquet for our reception (particularly because we both think Chinese banquet food is awesome), but we really wanted to avoid the cheesiness of the traditional wedding banquet. It was also important to our parents that we not receive typical Chinese restaurant service - which is to say, terrible service. (Chinese restaurants are notorious for bad service haha.) HKFL let us bring in our own linens, drapery, and lighting so that we could totally transform the space - the reception space actually looked fantastic for the big day (courtesy of our coordinator Crystal Lequang and florist Nicole Ha). We were absolutely breathless. The restaurant also accommodated our wish to get rid of the traditional lazy susans and actually individually served each guest, which is totally unheard of. Eric helped us with the layout of the banquet and provided many helpful suggestions that we actually followed. The night of the event, each of the courses came out on time and was served promptly - no small task for individual service of over 160 guests. Our guests raved about how delicious the banquet food was and, to our great pleasure, about how terrific the service was.

HKFL also provided some unexpected, truly thoughtful services that helped make the evening run perfectly. First, right as we were about to start the traditional tea ceremony, my mother-in-law realized that she hadn’t thought about the logistics of how we would pour tea for each guest - out of nowhere, three waitresses materialized to pour tea and provide the cups for us to serve to our relatives. Second, as we visited the various tables during the banquet, a waiter materialized to help us guide us to the next table to visit so that our entourage could proceed smoothly through the restaurant. As a general matter, the staff - and again, especially Eric, the manager - were very kind and helpful throughout the entire event and during the planning process.

As a logistical note, we ended up having one long head table of 10 people, 17 guest tables of 10 people each, a DJ booth, and a cake table, and found that everything fit very comfortably.