Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk Executive Lounge moves to the 5th floor on 1 October 2026
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Day four of five at the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk, August 2026, and this was the day the stay produced news: the Executive Lounge moves to a different floor on 1 October 2026. The gym is up there, so we had a look on the way.
We hold Hilton Diamond, which is how we are in the lounge at all. Night one and the 23rd-floor suite, the breakfast counter, the gym and the Western night and day three are written up separately.
The lounge moves to the fifth floor on 1 October
We had heard the Executive Lounge moves to the fifth floor from 1 October. The gym is up there too, so afterwards we took a lap of the floor instead of going straight back down.
The middle of the building opens into a full-height atrium, and from the walkway you look down on restaurant tables, a counter with a wall of bottles behind it, and a white latticed dome.
A gold handrail runs diagonally down one side, and the glass wall gives you the sea. We walked the corridor round, and at the back of the hotel’s Chinese restaurant, 望海楼, found a corner closed off with plain white partition panels.
That, apparently, is the next lounge. You cannot see a thing inside. From the corridor it looks as though it will be a good deal bigger than the lounge we have been drinking in all stay, though that is an impression, not a floor plan.
“We’ll have to come back when it’s finished,” my wife said.
For anyone booking after 1 October: whatever you have read about this lounge, our own four articles included, describes a room that will not be there. We can tell you the location. The size, the layout, the view from the tables, whether cocktail time still opens at 17:00 — none of that.
Breakfast, day four: soy milk French toast, and my wife’s mentaiko idea
The morning runs the same way here every day: salad first — the vegetables shift a little day to day, and there is a barley salad too — then fried eggs, which are made to order if you ask at your table. This day’s were very good, the white still wobbling around the yolk.
Today’s Plate, the dish that changes daily and comes to the table, was Soy Milk French Toast, Fruits Compote and maple syrup. One portion between the two of us, as usual: two slices under powdered sugar, with whipped cream, a red berry compote and plenty of syrup.
Verdict, mid-slice: “This tastes the same as the waffle.” The second morning had produced a Belgian waffle, and that was fair.
The rice sides were the usual raid — hijiki, sliced tamagoyaki, the black-soybean natto — plus one new thing, satoimo mentai, taro with mentaiko, the pale pink one on the plate. That one was fine. Just fine.
The idea of the day was my wife’s. The grilled salmon here is a little bland, so she put mentaiko on top of it. The bland salmon and the salt of the cod roe together turn into something that genuinely belongs with rice, and it was the hit of the morning. We agreed on the spot to do it again the next day.
Then the usual construction: soy sauce over the rice, break the yolk, natto on top. Good eggs, good bowl.
Night four is the Chinese set
We knew what was coming: the evening before, we had overheard a staff member telling another guest that the next day was Chinese.
We were at the lounge a little after 17:00 — it opens at 17:00, as we found on the first night — and it did not look busy. We sat down and got the sentence again: “Today may get crowded, so we might have to ask you to keep it to one hour.”
Two sad faces, apparently very readable ones, because the follow-up came at once: “But if it stays quiet we won’t come and ask, so it’s fine.”
We said we would be praying for a quiet room, and went to see the food.
Four hot dishes, all Chinese:
- Mini spring roll (ミニ春巻き) — thin ones, lined up in a tray
- Big shumai with Berkshire pork (黒豚大焼売) — the English is straight off the card
- Yurinchi (油淋鶏) — fried chicken with sweet and sour scallion sauce, the sauce in its own bowl so you pour it yourself
- Seaweed and egg soup (ワカメと玉子のスープ) — wakame and egg, in a blue pot
Dessert was on a two-tier stand, sweets above and fruit below: pineapple and grapefruit as on the first night, a chocolate cherry cake with red jelly over a pink mousse, and shiratama coconut milk in small glasses.
On the drinks shelf, next to the Corona, the Fukuoka sake Biden Shinjo and the Uguisu Tomari plum wine stood with their cards, as on the first night. We took a bottle of Yebisu instead. Four cocktail times in, and we still had not got to either.
The same shumai, twice in one day
At breakfast that morning we had finally taken the shumai, which we had not picked up on any earlier morning of this stay. Two of them, in a shallow pool of broth, with a dab of yellow mustard on each.
Good. Both of us wanted it meatier, and that was that.
In the evening, having had shumai once already, we took exactly one from the Chinese tray and split it. My wife cut it in half, ate her side and said: “Hm — I think this one’s better.”
She was right. The filling is in chunks, where the morning’s had eaten like mince. You feel the pork — which is what the card said all along: Big shumai with Berkshire pork. Same word on the menu, morning and evening, two different dishes.
We had it again with the red wine, and it got the same verdict at the table: a different flavour from the morning one.
The rest of the first plate: the spring roll is straightforwardly good, though my wife likes the ones full of bamboo shoot, the crunchy-slippery kind, and this was not that. “It’s still tasty,” she added. She rated the yurinchi on the chicken itself — crisp, seasoned under the batter, not just sauced — and the scallion sauce you pour on yourself is good. The soup got the line of the evening: “The soup’s good too. That’s an old-school flavour.”
All four dishes cleared on the first trip, which is where the evening actually starts: refills, the build-your-own Caesar salad, bread, fruit, dessert.
Yebisu, Corona, and the staff member who came back
The beer produced a verdict. “It is a bit bitter, isn’t it,” said my wife at the end of the Yebisu, and it is — a beer for someone who wants to drink the beer itself rather than eat fried chicken alongside it. The Corona from the night before is lighter and stays out of the way of food. With a Chinese plate we would take the Corona.
Second drink, white wine, with the Caesar salad we had liked the day before, the bean hummus my wife had taken to, and dill pickles — which taste exactly like the pickle in a hamburger.
While we were on the white, the staff member from earlier came over: “It looks quiet, so you should be fine.” They had crossed the room to say it. We must have looked very sad indeed.
Third, red, and the same two bottles as the night before: Familia Gascón Malbec 2024 from Mendoza and Terre de’Priori Chianti from Tuscany. This evening we made it a glass of the Chianti each, with yurinchi and shumai, two pieces of each, plus the chocolate cherry cake and the coconut milk.
The coconut milk has shiratama in it — chewy rice-flour dumplings, mochi-like, and very good. My wife’s summary covered both puddings: “The coconut milk is aggressively sweet, but the cake is gently sweet, and good.” Tasting the cake after her, gently sweet is right.
Another round with the red — yurinchi, spring roll, shumai — then, with time running out, back to white: yurinchi and spring roll, another coconut milk, one more soup. The shumai we let go. Outside, still fully light.
Would we do this again
Yes. The Chinese night gave us what we want most from a five-night stay: a dish we came away wanting to eat again. Four evenings, four sets of four hot dishes, none repeating, all of it at ¥0 with lounge access. Inside the hotel that day we paid nothing at all — breakfast ¥0, cocktail time ¥0, nothing extra for the gym or the rock bath.
The caveat is the move. From 1 October the whole thing relocates to a floor we have only walked past, into a space nobody has let us see. We will be back to find out, which is not the same as knowing.
The smaller lesson: do not write off a dish because of how it turned up at breakfast. The shumai we took only one of, because we had eaten it that morning, is the one we want to eat again.
Practical bits
- The move: we were told the Executive Lounge moves to the fifth floor on 1 October 2026, into the space behind the Chinese restaurant 望海楼. In August 2026 it was closed off with partitions, nothing visible inside. It looked bigger from the corridor — an impression, not a measurement. New hours or seating: nothing was announced to us, and we didn’t check.
- Cost: breakfast ¥0 and cocktail time ¥0 in August 2026, both included with Executive Lounge access. We get in on Hilton Diamond status.
- Cocktail time opens at 17:00, per our first night here. We arrived a little after 17:00 and it did not look busy.
- The one-hour thing: staff said again at the table that if the lounge filled up they might ask each party to keep it to one hour, then came back to say it would not be needed. Whether it is ever applied, we didn’t check.
- Food cards: Japanese with English underneath — “Big shumai with Berkshire pork” is off the card, not our translation. The sake and plum wine cards are Japanese only.
- Rotation: four hot dishes, changed every night. Night four was Chinese: mini spring roll, big shumai, yurinchi, seaweed and egg soup.
- Breakfast: Today’s Plate changes daily and comes to the table; one portion between two is enough. Fried eggs are made to order if you ask at your seat.
- Gym and rock bath: the gym is on the fifth floor, the floor the lounge is moving to. Neither cost anything extra. Opening hours, and what the move changes for either: we didn’t check.
Facts checked 2026-09-05. Prices, hours and menus are what we saw on our visit; they change. Nothing here was sponsored or comped.
