Poison Ivy
38/F, Times Tower, 391-407 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai. Tel: 2861 1666
Open: Monday-Saturday noon-2.30pm, 7pm-11pm
'Oh please, he's not going to sing Barry Manilow, is he?' my guest moaned as the lounge singer began to belt out the first lines of Copacabana. And just when we thought the music couldn't get any worse, it did.
Poison Ivy is like that: full of surprises, not all of them pleasant.
The first surprise came when we walked into the large, L-shaped restaurant - the view of Hong Kong is spectacular from the 38th floor. Unfortunately, the seating plan in the long end of the L doesn't make the most of the view: instead of having small tables along the picture windows so guests can appreciate the vista, there's one long glass-topped table down the centre of the room, with settings divided by bouquets of fake flowers, complete with fake water droplets.
The second surprise came on sitting down, when the waiter announced we should have brought our own wine. Nobody had mentioned this when we made the reservation. The waiter recommended a nearby wine shop, but we decided to take a cab back home to pick up a bottle. Twenty minutes later - and $80 poorer - we were back with a Castello di Fonterutoli chianti classico. Corkage was free.