65 Peel’s Back! Ho Lan Jeng Hits the Fong

65 Peel (actually called Ho Lan Jeng 何蘭正, which is a slightly naughty way to say “delicious”) opened in March 2016 and quickly became a Peel Street favourite, serving a great selection of local craft beers alongside an unpretentious gastropub menu and interesting lunch sets.

On 28 January this year, Ho Lan Jeng served its last craft beer at 65 Peel Street. It’s now been reborn on the second floor of LKF 29, holding its soft launch earlier this week.

EDIT 19 May: They have their liquor license! The beers are arriving as we speak, and they celebrate with a beer launch from Carbon Brews on Thursday, 20 May. Check out more Brew News here.

EDIT 25 May: SIX collaboration brews coming to Ho Lan Jeng for their opening on Thursday 27/5. We know of five so far... a Lion Rock Signature APA, a Moonzen Rose Oolang Ale, a Citibrew HK Watercress Mead, a DEADMAN Italian Pilsner, a Yardley Brothers Raspberry Lychee Sour and one other from Mak's Brewery. (And.... it's a CBD Session IPA!)
We adore this epic Made in Hong Kong collaboration - and have heard rumours there are ANOTHER six on the way from different Hong Kong breweries. Honestly, this is the most exciting thing to happen to us all year.

Is Lan Kwai Fong making a comeback? Ho Lan Jeng moving into the neighbourhood certainly adds a much- needed local flavour to the (once) touristy area.

The new spot is a very different space to the Peel Street venue. Not being on the ground floor means patrons won’t be constantly coming in and out depending on who’s walking by, and the lack of open-air space gives the gastropub a more subdued, café-like feel.

The gorgeous dragon and phoenix artwork has been ported from their old space and gives an indication of the type of Hong Kong feel that Ho Lan Jeng is looking for.

We aim to be a typical Hong-Kong style bar and restaurant with local culture, art and sense. We want to be a platform to support the growth of our own treasure.

Gorgeous 龍鳳 painted window overlooking Fringe Club

The beer

The brews are coming soon! [EDIT 19 May: They are here! Updated list coming soon.] Whilst waiting for their license, Ho Lan Jeng is only serving non-alcoholic drinks (~~but you can BYO for now~~). But once their alcohol license comes through, they will be serving the same expansive selection of local craft beer for which we first fell in love with them. They have 12 taps, which is a tremendous selection of draught beer, and they are usually all local brews.

Recently consumed beers include:

HEA Pale Ale – Young Master Brewery
Grow Up Lemonade Milkshake IPA – Heroes Beer Co
Mala Jiang Ginger Beer – Symmetry Brewing
Lemongrass IPA – Mak’s Brewery
Ice Cream Swirl Milkshake IPA – Black Kite Brewery
This City Is Shining (Earl Grey Porter) – Citibrew HK
BUZZ Honey Lager – HK Lovecraft
Hong Kong Bastard IPA – Yardley Brothers
55555+ Cream Ale – Lion Rock Brewery
Operation Hop Drop Talus IPA – Carbon Brews
Yuzu Pale Ale – Moonzen Brewery

The food

Their new food menu is quite large. It features an entire page of large and small sharing plates, with the focus on sharing good food. We are huge fans of sharing plates, mostly because of the chance to taste more of what’s on offer. But it’s also such a communal, sociable way to break bread (and brew) together.

The Ho Lan Jeng sharing menu

If it’s your first visit, they recommend trying the following:

Golden crispy chicken with sweet hot sauce
Char siu rice featuring Ibérico char siu slow-cooked for 24 hours and served with a sunny-side-up egg and pickled red onion
Ho Lan Jeng–style egg Benedict with Ibérico char siu, pineapple(!) and baguette
Baked Camembert with black sugar ginger syrup and ginger ice cream

Once the liquor license is approved, they plan on recommending some food-beer pairings – or beer-food pairings, depending on your focus. We’re hoping we can help to test those out.

See you there for a cold 鬼佬涼茶!