Island Shangri-La

Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong is the traditionalist's choice in Pacific Place: 544 rooms across 56 floors, two long-standing one-star restaurants in Petrus and Summer Palace, a heated outdoor pool, and a 16-storey atrium hung with an enormous Chinese silk landscape painting. It holds no Michelin Keys.

"A 544 room grande dame built around a 16 storey silk landscape painting, with a heated outdoor pool and two long standing Michelin starred restaurants."

Aggregate 9.3/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Hotel status, room product and Michelin ratings were verified against official sources and the 2026 Michelin Guide in July 2026.

What makes Island Shangri-La special?

The defining feature is a painting. "The Great Motherland of China" hangs through the hotel's 16-storey glass-topped atrium and is described by the property as the world's largest Chinese landscape painting of its kind, which makes the vertical core of the building the attraction rather than an afterthought. Island Shangri-La opened in 1991 with 544 rooms and suites across 56 floors, and it still reads as a formal, traditional grand hotel rather than a contemporary design statement. The credentials are current, though. Conde Nast Traveler named it to the 2026 Gold List and made it the Editorial Director's Favorite, the first and only hotel in Asia to receive that specific nod. YUN WELLNESS was named the No. 1 Best Hotel Spa in Hong Kong in the Travel and Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific in both 2025 and 2026. Two restaurants hold one Michelin star each, and both have held them for years. The hotel has also been certified to ISO 14001 since 1997, the longest-accredited hotel in Asia-Pacific. It holds no MICHELIN Keys.

Which room should you book?

544 rooms and suites across 56 floors, which is the official figure from the hotel's own About page; third-party listings quoting 531, 557 or 565 are wrong. Decor is Asian-inspired and deliberately traditional, a formality that reads as either reassuring or dated depending on your taste. Views split three ways: Victoria Harbour, the Peak or the city, and a large share of the inventory faces the Peak or the skyline rather than the water. That is the single most important thing to sort out at booking, because the harbour categories carry a meaningful supplement and the hotel does not pretend otherwise. Horizon Club is the executive lounge for upgraded categories. One practical note about arrival: because the hotel sits above the Pacific Place podium, you change lifts to reach the sky lobby, which guests with luggage find laboured. Against that, the Pacific Place complex connects directly, so you can reach shops, restaurants and the MTR without going outside.

Where should you eat and drink?

Eight restaurants and bars, two of them Michelin-starred and both long-serving. Restaurant Petrus is the French room and has held one star since 2020. Summer Palace is the Cantonese room and has held one star since 2009, sixteen consecutive years to 2025 and retained in 2026. That consistency is the point: these are not restaurants chasing a rating, they are institutions that keep one. Nadaman was the first Nadaman outside Japan and runs separate teppanyaki, sushi and a la carte areas. Ming Pavilion serves refined Hokkien cuisine and dim sum, which is unusual in a city dominated by Cantonese cooking. Lobster Bar and Grill is the clubby seafood and steak option. cafe TOO is the all-day buffet, built around ten live cooking stations. The Lobby Lounge completes the list. No restaurant here holds two or three stars, so this is depth and reliability rather than headline dining. If you want a two or three-star dinner, Central and Admiralty put several within a short taxi ride.

What is the spa and pool like?

YUN WELLNESS is the strongest single argument for this hotel after the atrium. It was named the No. 1 Best Hotel Spa in Hong Kong in the Travel and Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific in both 2025 and 2026, and Hong Kong's Elite Spa by BAZAAR The Escape. The complex covers the spa, a gym, a salon and a heated outdoor swimming pool. The pool placed No. 5 Best Hotel Pool in Hong Kong in the Travel and Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific 2026, and the fact that it is outdoors and heated matters in a city where several rivals at this level swim indoors. This is a hotel where the wellness floor is a genuine reason to book rather than a box ticked, which is not something you can say of every Hong Kong five-star.

Where is Island Shangri-La, and how do you get there?

The hotel sits inside the Pacific Place complex on Supreme Court Road. Its own address line says Central, but the honest description is Admiralty, within Pacific Place, on the eastern edge of Central. That location is one of the best-connected in Hong Kong. Admiralty MTR station connects through the Pacific Place mall in roughly 5 minutes entirely under cover, which puts Central, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai and the Kowloon lines within a few stops. Central Star Ferry Pier is roughly 15 to 20 minutes on foot or two MTR stops. Hong Kong Park is immediately uphill, and the Peak Tram terminus is a short walk from the park. The hotel states it is approximately 40 minutes by car from Hong Kong International Airport; Airport Express passengers use Hong Kong Station in Central, one MTR stop away. The trade-off is that Admiralty is an office and shopping district, so street-level atmosphere after work hours is thin compared with Central or Tsim Sha Tsui.

What do guests consistently say?

Guests praise the atrium, the service and the spa, in roughly that order. "The Great Motherland of China" hanging through 16 storeys is the thing people photograph on arrival and describe afterwards, and the YUN WELLNESS awards match what visitors say about the treatment floor and the heated outdoor pool. Summer Palace and Petrus draw steady praise from guests who eat in the hotel rather than around it. Against that, three themes recur. Guests regularly report that the 1991 interiors feel traditional and formal, which delights some and reads as dated to others used to Kowloon's newer towers. A recurring complaint is that a large share of rooms face the Peak or the city rather than the harbour, with a meaningful supplement to move. And the lift change from the Pacific Place podium to the sky lobby draws consistent grumbling from arriving guests. These are directional themes, not measured findings.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

Three drawbacks, and none of them is fatal. First, the 1991 interiors read as traditional and formal. Some guests want exactly that; others find them dated against Kowloon's newer towers, and no amount of upkeep changes the underlying design language. Second, a large share of the 544 rooms face the Peak or the city rather than Victoria Harbour, and the harbour categories carry a meaningful supplement, so the version of this hotel you get depends heavily on what you paid. Third, arrival requires a lift change from the Pacific Place podium up to the sky lobby, which is a small thing until you are doing it with luggage after a long flight. Two more worth pricing in: Island Shangri-La holds no MICHELIN Keys, so do not confuse its two restaurant stars with a hotel award, and its restaurants top out at one star each, so the city's headline dining is elsewhere.