Orange Peel

This is a truly great music performance venue. Very comfortable, with good food and cool décor. I had not been to a jazz performance in a long time and was astonished by trumpeter Adrian Kelly and his group. They were super! I highly recommend this place!

Wonderful live music venue with talented performers and a welcoming, artistic ambiance.
We decided to check this place out after reading Kevin L’s review and we weren’t disappointed. We paid cover of HKD 120 around 9pm on a busy Saturday night in Lan Kwai Fong, which included one house pour, wine, beer or soft drink. The first band performing (I think it was called Opium?) was mediocre, but the second group, Azucar Latina with Chris Polanco, was when the party really got started! People started dancing and the seats started to really fill up! They were extremely talented with stage presence and great voices!
I would have given five stars, but the only thing detracting was our table location… We made the wrong decision to sit at a table near the entrance, which I will avoid in the future… First, the manager bumped into our table while dancing, spilling my tea (to her credit, she did offer me a new one. Then, the lead singer from the first band chose to stand next to our table and speak very loudly to the manager asking for feedback. It was very rude as it was during the second performance. Additionally, occasional cigarette smell would drift in from the hallway (far from ideal as I am pregnant)! The staff would constantly drift back and forth in front of the table to look to see if any customers needed anything… Just doing their job, of course, but again highlighting that sitting near the entrance is a bad idea. Next time we will sit closer to the front or further into the place!
PARTING THOUGHT: it’s a bit hard to find as it’s inside a building on the second floor, but it’s worth the sleuthing to track it down… Check out the website in advance to see the line up…

The love and hate of Orange Peel.
In case you don’t already know, it is the same crew who are rocking the Peel Fresco for the last couple of years. And also in case you don’t already know, Peel Fresco was perfect excepts one problem — they have constant complaints from one single resident in the neighborhood, and they have to stop playing live music every midnight.
Solution? Enter Orange Peel. Big cozy lounge with the best equipment for live music, and even a grand piano. Located right at the heart of LKF, they now play live music till 3am almost every night, with the same familiar faces we used to have in Fresco. Eugene Pao, Ted Lo, Scott Dodd, Chris Polanco, you name it. And occasionally Jun Kung and even Khalil Fong, if you are lucky.
What’s the hate, then? Well if you had been to Fresco before, you loved not only the music but also the intimacy. It was so packed musicians had to play music next to you, and it became a very unique experience. Now that Orange Peel was large enough to accommodate like 100 people+, you don’t see that anymore. Musicians play music on the stage, audience sit quite properly on their seats. You may sometimes see people chitchatting and ignoring the music, just like they are in any other music lounges.
This is still a five star worthy place, as no any other place in Hong Kong hosts as many live jazz (and among other genres), nor with as powerful lineup as Orange Peel. But there’s something I’d forever miss in Fresco, that’s all.

Enjoying live music and live bands is always a delight for me. Besides this bar that I usually go to in Tsim Sha Tsui, I’ve never really liked any other live music lounges in Hong Kong as many of them are usually catered for the older population and they only sing oldies. It’s not that I don’t like oldies… but it’s nice to go to a place that has a good vibe with a wider range of music.
I’ve never been introduced to any live music lounges in the Central area until my partner took me to Orange Peel’s sister bar, Peel Fresco, on our first date! See? Live music & live bands work wonders on me. Hah!
Orange Peel is much more spacious than Peel Fresco. I like this place because they have live bands singing songs of a variety of genre every night. They also have different themed nights on different days of the week. If you don’t play any instruments but have a beautiful voice, you can even go on stage and sing on certain nights like the Canto Pop night. There are nice lounge chairs and interesting paintings all over the place. For private groups, you can occupy a quieter side in their private room.
Orange Peel is still rather new. It needs a bigger crowd that enjoys live music! It’s definitely a nice place if you want to have a drink and chillax with a friend.