Central
Of course there’s always plenty happening in Central, with its vibrant sub-communities of Lan Kwai Fong, Wyndham Street, and Soho. Right in the thick of things is Lupa by New York’s celebrated Mario Batali, who has teamed up with Dining Concepts to open the Hong Kong’s latest Big Apple-esque eatery. The sprawling terrace out back is already a hit with the after-work crowd, while inside, designers Lisa Eaton and Zanghellini Holt have created a smart-casual space with deep booths at one end and a semi-alfresco area overlooking Queen’s Road Central at the other.
Across the street, Landmark Men is proof that the city’s luxury shopping scene has finally realized that men also care about what they wear. Situated in the basement level of the Landmark mall, this is a one-stop shop for the discerning male, with 5,600 square meters of floor space devoted to looks from Gucci, Lanvin, Thomas Pink, Valentino Men, and Louis Vuitton alongside a men’s shoe store and a pair of grooming salons, Gentleman’s Tonic and Joyce Grooming. Ladies need not feel left out; upstairs at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental’s spa is Pedi:Mani:Cure, a newly minted outpost of globe-trotting French pedicurist Bastien Gonzalez.
Elsewhere on Central’s retail trail is Museum Context, from the Scottish owners of Edinburgh’s Context Interiors. The name of the game here is retro and vintage homewares, from architectural models, vintage board games, nautical knickknacks, and handsome wall clocks. Another haven for collecta- bles is General Store, on Gage Street, where you can stick your head in every few days and be assured of finding something new and surprising, whether it be a piece of reconditioned furniture, a covetable curio, or a one-of-a-kind antique.
Looking for something a bit more disco? Then make a beeline for Bang Bang! 70s, which has relocated from Tsim Sha Tsui to a cubbyhole off Hollywood Road. Owner Parker Tan sources everything from time-capsule handbags to cocktail shakers, desk lamps, and posters from pop-culture centers around the world.
Down the road, the L. Place is establishing itself as a high-end dining complex. With Shore already open for more than a year and the paint on Linguini Fini only just dry, two more restaurants have joined the fold. One is 1968, an Indonesian restaurant originally based in Causeway Bay that turns out tangy satays and melt-in-your-mouth beef rendang curry. The other is Se Sa Me, the brainchild of Shore owners Mark Cholewka and Cathal Kiely, where Japanese cuisine is fused with Southeast Asian flavors into something dubbed “Japanasian.” With bright, natural tones and colorful hues reminiscent of a Vietnamese marketplace, the minimalist eatery is welcoming and spacious, though not for the budget conscious. Standouts on the à la carte menu—styled by Filipino-American celebrity chef Rodelio Aglibot and executed by Dominic South—include black cod with miso, Alaskan snow-crab hand rolls, and the Dragon’s Breath, a collection of fiery, Sichuan-influenced dishes that are made for sharing. Also be sure to sample the sashimi, served jet-fresh from fish markets in Tokyo.
There’s good reason to revisit Lan Kwai Fong, too, since the opening of Harlan Goldstein’s Strip House. Rooted in the American steakhouses of the 1940s—local food hero Goldstein is originally from New York—it is intentionally tongue-in-cheek, with bawdily named dishes like the Striptease and the Panty Dropper married with piped-in jazz and rich period decor. Look out for decadent offerings like jumbo shrimp with house-cured bacon; double-cut fiorentina rib-eye steaks; Harlan’s signature beef tartare; and, for dessert, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup cheesecake or Baileys crème brûlée with Sambuca ice cream.
Over in Soho, Staunton’s, a Hong Kong institution, has returned to the scene following a dramatic facelift. Despite the double-height ceilings and polished woodwork of its ritzy new wine-bar persona, you can expect the same alfresco crowds, satisfying brunches, and summer afternoons spent on the stone staircases outside. This is still the city’s best spot for people watching.
Just a couple blocks away is The Monogamous Chinese, where restaurateur Jamie Higgins has teamed up with chef Shizh Hoi Ping to deliver authentic Sichuan and Beijing dishes—think crispy pork spare ribs in black-vinegar sauce and steamed shrimp-and-spinach dumplings—in a room that channels an older Hong Kong with eye-catching decor and a coziness that is missing from many of its neighbors. The set lunches are especially good value, and on warm nights, there are a couple of sidewalk tables worth booking ahead for.
Another hidden gem is Jaa Kitchen, the culinary extension of Jaa Bar, a hole-in-the-wall cocktail spot nestled in the heart of the old wet market running down Peel Street. Don’t be fooled by the Hollywood Road address: you need to search well beyond the gallery strip to find it, but that’s part of the fun. The restaurant continues the owners’ penchant for busy, eclectic interiors, while the short but well-edited menu of comfort food revolves around standouts like Wagyu burgers on English muffins and New Zealand soft-shell crab, paired with unexpected sides like deep-fried okra. The apple crumble is another treat.
Tucked away beside the British consulate in Admiralty, Ammo inhabits a former explosives magazine built by the British Army in the mid-19th century, now part of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center’s new headquarters. It’s opened with a bang (pardon the pun), thanks to architecture by New York’s Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and chic copper-toned interiors by boutique design agency Wang, not to mention chefs Tony Cheng and Roland Schuller’s elegant, East-meets-West menu. Highlights include slow-cooked eggs with toro, sea urchin, and zucchini sauce, and quail salad with grapes and pancetta. The 300-label wine list is a bonus.
Be sure to finish off a night in Central with a tipple at Quinary, a Hollywood Road cocktail joint from the owners of nearby whisky bar Angel’s Share. With mixologist Antonio Lai behind the mahogany counter, this decadent space can be counted on for plenty of Prohibition-inspired drinks as well as some truly unique combinations made with the city’s first mini-distillation machine—wasabi-vodka in your Bloody Mary, perhaps?
