Spreading His Wing

It took a bit of guts to open a new restaurant in this time of uncertainty; more so for someone without formal Chinese cuisine training to start one focusing on Chinese fine dining, in the city where there’s no lack of top-notch culinary talents. But that’s the hill chef Vicky intended to climb with his new venture Wing being the first step of that quest. 

Another Restaurant Opening

Even though Cyberport was hardly 30 minutes away by car from home but it did feel like another world. When we heard our friends Caleb and Josh’s new venture, called Interval Farmacy, has just opened in this part (outside) of town, we went to check it out with my parents and made this a field trip of sort on a sunny Sunday afternoon. 

The Most Exciting Restaurant Opening

There are every reason to be excited about the opening of Aulis at the turn of the year. Chef Simon Rogan is considered one of the greatest British chef of our time, and with a few Michelin-starred restaurants under his belt, has decided to open a couple new restaurants in Hong Kong as his first overseas venture, with Aulis opening in January quickly followed by a more casual eatery Roganic the next month.

Impromptu visit to a new restaurant

A spur-of-the-moment thought the night before led us into making a booking for lunch at the new restaurant Arbor the next day on a Saturday afternoon, and we were glad to have gotten the last table at such short notice.

New Italian Private Kitchen

There's every reason to be excited about this new restaurant opening. With Umberto Bombana being unarguably the most well-known Italian chef in town with three Michelin-starred restaurants under his name (Otto e Mezzo in Hong Kong and Macau plus Ciak in the Kitchen in Central), his latest project Octavium, branded as his "private kitchen", was eagerly anticipated by many months before it opened its door.

New Steakhouse in Town

Everyone at our table walked in and asked the same question - "what was this place before it's converted into a fancy steakhouse?" (by the way it was a spa, according to Google Map) A few evenings ago we were at Wolfgang's Steakhouse, an import from New York City, on their first day of business. The restaurant took over this vast space on the street level on the quiet Duddell Street in Central and has turned into that classic steakhouse look, with the classy façade, dark wooden décor with gold accent, with the bar in front near the reception and dining area further back. We were all amazed at how this hardly noticeable store space has gone through such transformation (hence the question)

Meet Samsen, Adam's New Noodle Place

We were at Chef Adam's last day at Chachawan late last year so I thought it's just appropriate (with a sense of completing a mission) that we came to his new place on their first day of their official opening, some 8 months later since he took off with new plans of flying solo with his own restaurant.

Dinner with a crowd

My friends and we were at Rhoda one Wednesday evening as the occasion to catch up and also to try out the dishes at this 2-month-old restaurant located on the main street in Sai Ying Pun and a short walk from the HKU MTR Station. This hip restaurant is the newest project by Yenn Wong, who seems to hold true to her current title of "Best Restauranteur of the Year" with a string of new restaurant openings under her belt in the last 12 months. Behind the kitchen is Chef Nate Green, formerly of 22 Ships and Ham and Sherry.

Jean-Georges' Comfort Food

We were at Lan Kwai Fong on a Sunday night trying out a new restaurant on California Tower. Mercato, which opened its door on June 1. This outlet in the middle of Lan Kwai Fong represented a re-entry of New York-based Chef/Restauranteur Jean Georges Vongericheten to this city (since his previous Thai-French restaurant Vong closed its door at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong more than a decade ago), with a new casual dining concept similar to his other restaurants in a few cities around the world, notably the one in Shanghai and Vancouver with the same name.

Delicious Lesson Learned

I must declare I knew absolutely nothing about Indonesian cuisine. With such diversity because of race, religion and cultural backgrounds for this fourth most populated country in the world, there's simply way too much to learn, so I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to explore a bit more about Indonesian food (and in a sense, their culture) with a presentation by a culinary expert on this subject followed by dinner at Kaum, the restaurant at the newly-opened Potato Head Hong Kong in Sai Ying Pun.

VEA-ry Impressive Dinner

There is always a constant stream of new restaurant openings throughout the year in Hong Kong, but to me, so far in 2015 there is none more exciting than this new place near Sheung Wan, which opened its door a couple of weeks ago.

This new restaurant, called VEA, is a collaboration project between Chef Vicky Cheng (formerly of Liberty Private Works) and mixologist/bartender Antonio Lai of The Quinary. I am a fan of Chef Vicky's creative cooking since his early LPW days so I am eager to find out his next move since he left the old venture early this year after over 4 years at the helm. And I came here for the dinner tasting during their soft opening period last week at the invitation of their PR.