For one night only on Sep. 20, diners in Hong Kong have the chance to soak in the tannins and taste of true French fare at The Breizh Night four-hands dinner, joining modern French restaurant TANGRAM Bistro & Bar at AKI Hong Kong – MGallery and Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16. The six-course wine-pairing dinner is priced at HKD1,238 + 10% service charge per person.

Grown up in Brittany, Executive Chef Hubert Goussard of TANGRAM is no stranger to the grandeur of France’s storied bistros, having trained at a litany of Michelin-starred establishments across his native country. This culinary collaboration in late September is enhanced by the history that Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 chef Yvan Collet brings to the table.

For 30 years, chef Yvan has commanded true dedication to his craft. In Macau, he imports worldly ingredients and innovates on modern French techniques to create striking French dishes. During his tenure at Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16, chef Yvan has rendered the storied Macau hotel a fixture for a classic taste of his  country.

Chef Hubert and chef Yvan’s four-hands French wine dinner begins with notes of the sea and land, punctuated by a selection of canapés shared with guests. Black pudding sausage and apple compote, Breton oyster, and crab with black radish tartlet ignite emotion on the palate. Shared with a welcome drink of Grand Bellot Crémant de Bordeaux Brut NV, the blood begins flowing in anticipation of the grander flavours to follow.

The first of six courses, L’entrée froíde, the cold appetisers pairs beetroot, Breton scallop, artichoke mousse, and Cornish crab for a touch of the sea. The starter possesses an intoxicating texture of the scallop, aided by the soft crabmeat and beetroot. A glass of Domaine Weinbach Pinot Blanc Reserve 2022 is paired with this course, complementing the delicate flavours of the scallops and crab with crisp acidity and subtle fruit notes.

L’entrée chaude, the hot appetiser of the four-hands dinner, further explores France’s sea bounty with a clear crustacean broth that includes additions of shellfish and fennel for a snappy ending. The soup course pairs well with a glass of Domaine Weinbach Riesling Cuvée Théo 2021, landing on the sweeter side of the French winery’s product line. The Riesling’s crispy acidity and mineral notes will enhance the shellfish and fennel flavours of the dish.

The traditional fish course at the wine dinner, Le Poisson, sees an assortment of fish and shellfish decorate the plate with sea-salt tones. Milky flavours and snappy sour notes from the simmered monkfish, baby abalone, potato buckwheat pie, sea asparagus, and squid-ink crisp work well with the Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Treilles du Loup 2022, a Burgundy of aromatic and slightly off-dry nature that complements the rich flavours of the monkfish.

Roasted Challans duck, a signature of chef Hubert’s cooking at TANGRAM, is the La Viande meat course. Tempered with open fire on the grill, the bird is met with fruity additions of cabbage, orange zest, and a sweet-and-sour jus. A pouring of palate-cleansing Domaine Weinbach Pinot Noir Clos des Capucin 2022, an excellent match for the duck dish, carrying a light to medium body and red fruit flavours that complements the rich duck meat and balances the sweet and sour jus with acidity.

The four-hands dinner course Le Prédessert features an inventive creation; the traditional Breton sablé is decorated with confit apple and an infusion of cider. Le Dessert hawks back to former generations of French cooking with a simple yet flavourful thousand-layer crepe cake topped with salted butter caramel.

Interested diners can book a table at TANGRAM here. Secure your seat before Sep. 13 to enjoy 20% off your final bill at the four-hands French dinner.

This feature is brought to Foodie in partnership with AKI Hong Kong – MGallery.

The post TANGRAM chef Hubert Goussard and Sofitel Macau’s Yvan Collet join for French wine dinner on Sep. 20 appeared first on Foodie.

The numbers Jonathan Glover shares about the growth of his steakhouse restaurant chain proves that some can weather, and even contend, with the troubled times plaguing the city’s restaurant industry.

20,000 steaks, 1.8 tonnes of beef, and one large container shipped every month from Australia to Hong Kong. Perhaps in a fortuitous fashion, the head of Flat Iron Steak has seen success where many this past year have not.

“I am a restaurateur that cooks,” Jonathan tells Foodie; his title is as grand as his commitment to Hong Kong’s F&B scene. 30 years in Hong Kong manning a swathe of concepts and restaurants, his next venture began in earnest in early spring 2023. The aim? “Affordable steak for everyone.”

Jonathan first began his mission of affordable steak with the opening of Macelle, an Italian steak pop up, in February 2023 offering diners a taste of the flat iron cut. After success with selling the inexpensive flat iron cut of steak, coming from the shoulder of the cow and having the same quality as a chuck roast, Jonathan rebranded the business into Flat Iron Steak, which took over the same spot in Soho in October 2023. 

Since then, the original Flat Iron Steak location moved to Hollywood Road, Flat Iron Deluxe opened in Wong Chuk Hang with a variety of steaks, burgers, and seafood, Flat Iron Burger found its footing up in the north of Soho, and a new Flat Iron Steak location recently opened in Sheung Wan. Launching four restaurants in a year in a tough economy is daring, but not for Jonathan.

Evidently, Jonathan has a love affair with steak. “Beef is easy to cook and it appeals to a broader audience. I have a good relationship with the farmers that we work with.” Jonathan claims he “can put a steak on a plate cheaper than anyone else Kong,” and he is correct. A flat iron steak meal at each of his restaurants, barring the burger store, is HKD168 for lunch and HKD228 for dinner. 

“We have been creative with our steak. Everyone in Hong Kong wants a ribeye. We found a secondary cut (flat iron) that is just as good, even tastier [than more premium steak cuts], but is half the price of ribeye.”

Through creative messaging and social media, Jonathan has spent great time in marketing the unknown steak cut to conjure diners to enjoy his great value for steak. With the restaurant business hit hard locally with changing tastes and dining habits, the steak businessman is intent on keeping prices down and smiles up.

“Our menu is limited and we focus on what we do best: affordable steak. Our customer base is 25 to 45 years old, 95 percent of them being office workers in the Central and Sheung Wan area. The market does not want to spend four digits on a meal, they want to spend HKD200 on a meal, and that is what we are doing.” 

Sustainability is in the forefront of his beefy business. The steak used in the restaurant is imported directly from Jack’s Creek, a reputable Australian cattle farm committed to carbon neutrality by 2030. All sinew from the steak is used to make dog treats and french fries are cooked in left-over beef tallow.

The trimmings and wastage remaining after the steaks are cut to portion found their place at Flat Iron Burger in Soho, an answer to closing the loop for no-waste in the business. “The burgers are mixed with chuck, brisket, and rump and trimmings from our flat iron and gaucho steaks.” Great value is also present in the burger store: a six ounce burger, fries, and a frozen custard milkshake comes out to only HKD148.

On the business end, Jonathan has opened Flat Iron locations inside restaurants looking to shut up shop, recycling their kitchen and furniture without shelving out millions of dollars in retrofitting new interiors. He continues employing the same server and kitchen team from the shuttered business too.

Is it crazy to open four restaurants over one year in an industry experiencing a heavy hit in business? No, he says. “We are all about opportunities [at Flat Iron]. If someone says to us, hey we have this restaurant, do you want to run it? We will look at it. It is not because Flat Iron is so successful, but I have a lot of trimmings left, so now I need to find another burger restaurant to use up all the trim.”

Jonathan is intent to multiply his locations by a count of five to 20 restaurants in Hong Kong in the imminent future. Shenzhen, Macau, and Guangzhou locations are also on his agenda to spread his Flat Iron ideology far and wide in the Greater Bay Area.

Head to your local Flat Iron Steak restaurant today for a taste of Hong Kong’s greatest value for money steak.

The post How Jonathan Glover serves 20,000 steaks a month at Flat Iron Steak chain in Hong Kong appeared first on Foodie.

It is not every day that a piece of America comes to Hong Kong in the form of something savoury and sweet. Auntie Anne’s made a splash in the local food scene in mid-June when news broke on the opening of their entrance into Hong Kong with a new store in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Hong Kong is familiar with the flavours of Americana, be that Outback Steakhouse, The Cheesecake Factory, Cinnabon’s, Subway, or Ruby Tuesday. In the 2020s, the world has seemingly gone pretzel-crazy with Auntie Anne’s capturing such mania.

“It is exciting to bring brands to Hong Kong at this time and I think Hong Kong needs it more than ever now,” Dhiraj Kundamal explains in an interview with Foodie. The Indian Hong Konger is the CEO of the chain’s Hong Kong franchise, brought to the city by Super Fab Foods. “Being a Hong Konger born and raised here, we all love our hometown. We should try and give back to the economy, to rebuild Hong Kong.”

The growth of Auntie Anne’s in Hong Kong begins with feeding the city with the same flavours celebrated globally in the chain, Dhiraj says. Since 1988, the American fast food chain has opened more than 2,000 stores in 23 countries. In the last ten years, their pretzels have gripped Asia. “We have 200 stores in South Korea, 200 in Thailand, 100 in the Philippines, 40 in Indonesia, 20 in Malaysia, five in Taiwan, and now one in Hong Kong.”

“The move to Hong Kong offers the opportunity for Hong Kongers to experience fresh baked pretzels, which very few people are doing the right way in the city. This is a good  product to bring to Hong Kong.” This is Dhiraj’s first foray in the F&B industry and franchising, and a big one for that matter. 

Economically, Auntie Anne’s fits into Hong Kong well. Where the fine-dining space is suffering and neighbourhood restaurants are hit with waning visits, the average ticket order at the Tsim Sha Tsui store is under HKD100, befitting an impulse buy when local spending has become recently more reserved. “We have had lines every day since we opened,” Dhiraj notes. 

Taking after Hong Kong’s love for travel abroad, Dhiraj is delighted to serve the same taste, flavours, image, and brand that Hong Kongers can expect in Tsim Sha Tsui as they would at Auntie Anne’s in New York, Los Angeles, London, Taipei, and Seoul.

But Auntie Anne’s in Hong Kong is not just about their signature freshly baked pretzels. “We offer pretzel sticks and pretzel dogs, we are known for almond crunch and cinnamon sugar toppings, and our lemonade drinks.” Catering to the local market, the brand will introduce twists like Hong Kong egg tart pretzels and matcha and seaweed flavours.  

Dhiraj finds Auntie Anne’s penetration into the local market as a real “east meets west” connection. A penchant with queueing and the social media buzz of new food in town has enthralled Hong Kongers with a taste of America in the city. Notable fans of the brand can expect the same meme-powered branding strategy of Auntie Anne’s in North America and that has rendered the chain a hit with Gen Z diners.  

Auntie Anne’s Hong Kong are not stopping at just one location. The plan, Dhiraj divulges, is to open their second location on Hong Kong Island in Q1 2025 and another in Kowloon shortly thereafter. “The objective right now is to really immerse ourselves in the business, to understand it, and to be able to scale organically because Hong Kong does have its fair share of challenges.”

“Because Auntie Anne’s, traditionally, is a mall-based brand, an impulse buy, we are building that into our branding. The long term strategy for Hong Kong is to team up with developers and the big malls to have Auntie Anne’s as a fixture in the malls.” The attack plan is to grow to Macau and the Greater Bay Area for expansion.

Head down to Auntie Anne’s in Tsim Sha Tsui today to try their delectable pretzels and drinks.

The post Auntie Anne’s Hong Kong CEO Dhiraj Kundamal is thrilled about America’s fave pretzels coming to town appeared first on Foodie.

Weathering the double whammy of protests and pandemic, heightened local consumption of coffee and optimism bred cafe innovation in 2020, investments and growth typified 2021, promise and hope was strong in 2022, and reality hit hard in 2023 and the first half of 2024.

As the city has become accustomed to Shenzhen trips and overseas holidays, cafes in the city have met troubled times. Popular independent cafes Flowfloat, Cafe Corridor, Brew Note Coffee Roaster, cafe5月, 休CAFE, Amber Coffee Brewery, and Infiniti C have all met their demise in the past three years. 

Top Hong Kong coffee chains have both expanded during the two-year pandemic shut-in, and closed stores following a boom in outbound travel. Hong Kong is not drinking coffee the same as it was before.

Florence Lam, a Hong Kong coffee blogger, has recorded the past four years of optimism and capitulation for the city’s cafe space online. When Hong Kong’s F&B industry thrived, cafes thrived; when it wasn’t, cafes were hit hard.

In 2020, Florence reported that Central, Sheung Wan, and Sham Shui Po saw the most cafe openings, estimating 160 in total city-wide. Almost 300 cafes opened in 2021 with only around 30 closing, a credit due to heightened local consumption. 

The downturn came in 2022 with 200 new cafes opening and 80 closing. 2023 saw around 220 cafes open with a whopping 125 shutting business. 

Shared amongst Hong Kong’s top coffee professionals is mixed feelings of both optimism and brutal reality. The founder of a small coffee business in Hong Kong tells of such despair. Once managing three cafes at its peak, two in Mid Levels and one in Causeway, he claims he was the first coffee company in Hong Kong to make and manufacture their own coffee capsules. 

During the pandemic, their store on Caine Road saw an abrupt reduction in sales and visits. “We were probably one of the first specialty cafes in the area, but suddenly we saw more moving trucks come onto the street and fewer people come to our store,” he told Foodie.

Now only operating one small cafe beside Hollywood Road, he found Hong Kong’s taste and habits for drinking coffee directly affecting business and his peers’ business.

“Because Hong Kong people have a lot of disposable income, we can spend a lot, but not inside a cafe. People were spending elsewhere. I didn’t believe in the market when everyone was believing in it.”

In a reaction to the swathe of openings during the pandemic calm, he noted an over-saturation of the Instagrammable factor of cafes during the past five years a big factor for the mass shutdowns of cafes when viral chaos came back in the city. Cafes were reliant on style over substance. “On the surface, everything looks good,” he says, “but underneath, the coffee may not be good. Even before COVID, you still had to think about how Instagramable your cafe was.”

“It has been too easy to open a cafe without experience. A lot of the shutdowns in cafes are businesses miscalculating how many cups of coffee you need to sell to break even.” Fiona also noted this in her annual cafe reports on Instagram.

The great move of consumption from cafes to drinking coffee at home has hurt coffee businesses like Filters Lane even more than cheaper coffee and dining options available in Shenzhen. “When customers do not treat coffee as a craft, people would prefer to save and drink at home. We saw the coffee capsule movement coming into Hong Kong and now it is disrupting the market,” he says. 

Where store closures and false hope over a quick economic turnaround have left some coffee professionals despaired, others operating in the space are brashly optimistic.

Scottie Callaghan, co-founder of FINEPRINT, claims that “more people are drinking coffee in Hong Kong nowadays than ever before. FINEPRINT coffee sales are very good and there are substantially more cafes in Hong Kong now than ever.” 

He has personally seen a reduced frequency of people dining at “nice restaurants” and opting for casual dining experiences, such as cafes and takeaway shops. “This definitely has a positive effect on the preference for coffee. I suspect this is the result of coffee’s growing popularity in Asia over the past 15 years combined with post COVID dining preferences.”

The pandemic, nor Shenzhen consumption, had largely not affected FINEPRINT’s bottom line over their seven locations. They benefit from the sustained trend of cafe culture becoming central to the Hong Kong dining scene. “FINEPRINT did grow during COVID, and we were very busy, but we were also very busy before COVID and more busy post-COVID.”

After all, Scottie tells of the “beauty and romance behind coffee that Hong Kong is slowly growing to appreciate.” Whilst he agrees with sentiments shared by cafe owners that more people are drinking coffee at home, “more people are visiting their local specialty coffee shop to buy good coffee and engage with the professionals about the coffee they buy.”

The flush of new mainland Chinese tourists to Hong Kong from spring 2023 onwards found FINEPRINT as a key destination for uploading pictures onto Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). Their Soho location in particular has made the cafe a must-hit spot on “city walks,” a perfect backdrop for pictures. Increase of cafe sales at the location has been linked to the increase of overseas tourists visiting.

Similar to Scottie, Teddy Pun, founder of The Cupping Room, finds coffee an essential part of life. “Cafes are a significant part of Hong Kong’s dining scene,” he told Foodie. To him, and many professionals in the cafe space, coffee has and is a daily necessity rife in Hong Kong. 

“Along with the entire F&B industry in Hong Kong, the coffee shop business suffered post-COVID with trips to Shenzhen and decline in inbound tourism from overseas and Chinese visitors. Yet, cafes have become less impacted than any other F&B businesses.”

With more than half a dozen cafes operating across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories, and Lantau Island, Teddy is confident of the survival of coffee. Where COVID prompted a rise in work-from-home culture in cafes, influencing and the advent of Instagram advertising have seen coffee shops prioritising style and aesthetics with fashionable latte art and plates of food.

All day breakfast, pasta, French toast, savoury crepes, smorrebrod, and salty snacks bring variety to The Cupping Room’s coffee game, lifting up profit when coffee consumption may appear on a decline.

With the rise of specialty coffee varieties, drip bags, and coffee capsules in Hong Kong, Tedd notices “more discerning coffee lovers who are looking for really exotic beans single origin beans are engaging the market more. They are focusing on certain coffee roasters that a growing number of players can serve. The COVID wave of coffee shops certainly allowed more people to learn about and appreciate specialty coffee.” 

The strategy Gerald Li, co-founder of Leading Nation group, has taken with Hong Kong’s coffee chain Elephant Grounds has been to promote a culture of coffee in every aspect of the brand: flavours, location, image, and style.

“Cafes in Hong Kong are in the best position they have ever been in the past 20 years. We are constantly improving,” Gerald argues. Launching the brand in 2013, Elephant Grounds began as a coffee bar in Soho before expanding to seven locations across Hong Kong Island and Tsim Sha Tsui 11 years later.

The “affordable luxury” of coffee has enabled Elephant Grounds to survive, and sometimes thrive, in a competitive cafe market. The brand maintains a 100% direct trade partnership with international coffee growers and roasts all their beans in their Hollywood Road location, enabling the chain to cut costs and control quality. Like Teddy and Scottie mention, coffee drinking is a routine for many Hong Kongers.

“The intent for Elephant Grounds was to create a culture around the brand,” Gerald says. Over the decade, the chain has served ice cream sandwiches at select cafes, hosts a comprehensive brunch menu of Asian comforts, and sells a myriad of alcoholic beverages. The co-founder cites location as a vital aspect to growing in a neighbourhood and becoming a key part of the street, especially at a time where more people are shunning the office for flexible working arrangements.

Impact has indeed affected Elephant Grounds this year. “During the first couple years of the pandemic, [business] was great. The only time we have seen a big impact was Chinese New Year earlier this year. A lot of the Xiaohongshu tourists from China weren’t coming as much.”

All four leading cafe business owners agreed on one fact, in spite of waning profit or increased fever in the past year: coffee drinking is here to stay in Hong Kong. The city’s compulsion for caffeine may have adapted with more Hong Kongers working from home, travelling to Shenzhen for day trips, taking overseas trips, or spending becoming tighter. Yet, the cafe business proved innovative during the early 2020s and will continue to show its revolution.

The post Is Hong Kong’s café business dead or thriving? It depends on who you ask appeared first on Foodie.

As a food journalist in Hong Kong, I admit that the hype around new restaurants landing in our restaurant scene can, and in periods of sustained gloom or dark darks (literally during the wet summer months) typically do, make a bigger splash and noise than other happenings going on.

The construction boarding is removed to reveal a fresh new concept, journalists, influencers, and budding foodies flock to try the new menu, Instagram hype is abuzz, and reservations pile on board. The soft opening of any shiny Hong Kong restaurant is where the energy begins for any new venue. For how long that can sustain is a different question. 

I am not like your typical Hong Kong diner. My profession and hobby for dining multiple times a week to complete research means I am constantly eating at new restaurants. For those who dine less than I do, settling for local neighbourhood dinners, or constantly revisiting their favourite lunch haunts, a new restaurant popping up from the ground presents a golden opportunity to escape the similar.

Our brains like novelty. The novelty of new restaurants landing in our face with a new menu and concept that may have never existed before in Hong Kong. Our brains are dopamine-producing machines. A thing we have never experienced before feeds us with our much needed dose to continue succeeding.

I love a new restaurant opening, that is my human nature, but this comes at a cost. When the early 2020s shut-in produced a healthy mass of local consumption across restaurants city-wide, Hong Kongers now fleeing intermittently for holidays in 2023 and 2024 has rendered our old goldies and gems forgotten. Why isn’t there love given to restaurants that have been around for years and honed their craft? 

This year’s closures of Insomnia nightclub, Shatin Inn Restaurant, Outback Steakhouse, and SEVVA, to name a few on the long laundry list of venues calling it quits, tells a story of our forgotten love for spots that need the support more than ever. 

Yes, the blame cannot be put solely on our crazed attention on new restaurants, issues of Shenzhen’s pull, weak Japanese yen, and strong US dollar have complicated the bounce back of Hong Kong’s F&B industry. But I believe more attention, and our money, should be placed on the restaurants now achieving veteran status. They became veterans because we have patronised and continue to patronise them when support is needed.

Every latest closing in Hong Kong draws as much attention as a new opening, just with pessimism about the future of the city’s restaurant scene and depression. This is bizarrely countered with hope and celebration when a shiny toy is presented to us with the wrapping paper ripped open. 

It was a great story to hear when Hong Kong’s oldest dim sum restaurant – 100 years to date – reopened in April earlier this year. Lin Heung Lau has seen lines longer than its pre-2018 heyday, prior to its two closures in 2019 and 2022. This is the type of energy we should show restaurants that have existed throughout our lifetimes in Hong Kong.

Restaurants that have survived pandemics, financial crashes, and protests warrant your patronage. They have become picked in history and a part of the street, neighbourhood, and city. Bo Innovation has continued a mission set out 20 years ago to innovate on fine dining Chinese cuisine, so too the 18-year-old Sichuanese restaurant Chilli Fagara. 

The Peak Lookout has been serving diners since 2001. Top cha chaan teng Mido Cafe saw its establishment in 1950. The local history of Hong Kong’s veteran Tai Ping Koon dates back to 1938. Hong Kong’s first French restaurant Gaddi’s was founded in 1953. The top dai pai dong Oi Man Sing opened three years later in 1956. Gaylord Indian Restaurant has been open since 1972. 

There is no right to slight new spots finding their feet in Hong Kong. It is a joy to see a business take the place of another fallen venue that keeps the energy of a restaurant alive. But right now, we ought to give the same attention to the scene’s recent entrants as the spots celebrated over years and decades. 

The views expressed in this column are those of the author’s and do not represent or reflect the views of Foodie.

The post Rubin’s Take: why does Hong Kong love new restaurants but can’t support its old gems? appeared first on Foodie.

By way of America, South Korean chef Sung Anh’s cooking is modern on its surface. His three-Michelin star restaurant Mosu Seoul and local outpost Mosu Hong Kong is ornate and deliberate with its style.

Sung’s ancestry is complex, seeing swathes of North Korean, Chinese, and Japanese influence colour his family’s life on the Korean peninsula and the US, and the food stories he tells in the regional Mosu brand. 

“Every culture has their own traditional recipes and the way of preparing food and gathering around as a family,” Sung tells Foodie over a video call. “When I talk about my influences [as a chef], I speak of my grandmother, who is from North Korea,” 

Having lived previously in North Korea, Sung’s maternal grandparents fled their home after the country invaded South Korea in the summer of 1950. During their youth, the couple “were forced into a Japanese way of life” under Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. 

“Korean’s typically eat doenjang (miso) with their meals, they ate nattō (fermented soy beans). Their North Korean-ish, Japanese-ish meals affected how me and my family ate our food.” The mountainous North Korea lacks the great terroir and flat plains of South Korea. Meals are punctuated in the North with strong additions of buckwheat and root vegetables and less chillies due to the colder climate.

At 13 years old, Sung emigrated to the US to work at his family’s fast food Chinese restaurant in San Diego. After a four-year stint in the US Army, culinary school came next and a resume soon packed making any budding chef full of palpable envy.

Sung worked at the glitzy Urasawa sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, esteemed The French Laundry, and Michelin-starred restaurants in Benu and Aziza in San Francisco. In contradiction to his starred experience in America’s top kitchens, Sung is assertive that “no matter what kind of experience you gain as a chef, whether you flip burgers, cook fried chicken, or work in fine-dining, you must soak into your environment.”

In 2015, Sung’s first rendition of a now world-famous culinary brand was born in his adopted city: Mosu San Francisco. 

“The Michelin Guide struggled to categorise his restaurant,” Sung says when the Guide awarded his restaurant one Michelin star a year after opening in 2016. As a Korean-American, he sourced produce and protein exclusively from the San Francisco Sunday produce market, eager to broadcast his global story with his local know-how. 

Japanese touches from Los Angeles, French from The French Library, and Chinese influence from his family fast food restaurant came to the table. “We were Korean-ish,” he says. The Guide labelled his restaurant as American.  

Sung left San Francisco shortly after his star award and opened Mosu Seoul in October 2017 in a nation experiencing a flourishing within its fine restaurant scene. Can Korean food be brought in the fine-dining space? With Mosu Seoul’s three Michelin stars, the answer is evident, yet requires a complex answer pertaining to Sung’s history as a chef.

“I am optimistic, but also sceptical of [fine-dining’s survival and future], because when you say Korean food in fine dining, can we push it even further? I think it has come very far.” The past eight years, Sung notes, has been the entire history of fine dining in South Korea. “My job as a chef and other chefs in our community is to push very hard to promote our ingredients, the way we cook, and the cultural aspect of educating on Korean flavours.”

Although, he admits “a fine dining restaurant is not the first thing that you should experience of Korean food,” Korean mania, be that K-pop, K-dramas, KTV, has propelled Korea’s fine-dining spaces, such as Mosu, Jungsik, Mingles, Onjium, Born & Bred, into the collective consciousness of Korean culture. He does not ignore the soft power Korean fine-dining has globally.

Where Mosu Seoul stood when born, and stands today, is narrating the Sung’s nostalgia, childhood meals, and multicultural world learnings on the table. Fine-dining is the format he is most comfortable to work within and Korean ingredients are simply the tools he interacts with locally on a daily basis. “We source every ingredient from Korea apart from truffles, because it’s a fine dining restaurant” [laughs]. 

“Cooking from the heart, I go back to when my grandmother used to cook for me,” Sung says of menu creation at Mosu Seoul. “The times that I spent with my family and when I went to other households, be that Virginia where I felt southern hospitality at the Thanksgiving dinner, Europe where grandmothers cooked for me, or San Francisco where I trained, those feelings and emotions stay in the heart and you express that on the plate. It translates into the food.”

“It is hard to articulate in language, but when you cook food, when you want to impress people and satisfy, it is not the recipes that matter. It is how much you care.”

The part-North Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and American impressions of Sung’s life paint a story of the cultures he has juggled yet embraced over a storied career. The buckwheat of North Korea, pickled rice of Japan, and sweet sauces of Chinese-American dining make their appearance at Mosu Seoul. Three generations of cooking comes to enlighten guests in the international Seoul neighbourhood of Itaewon.

When Sung first came to Hong Kong in 2015, his visit left him yearning to return to make an impact. “It is one of the most memorable places I have visited; my heart beats fast for it.” He launched Mosu Hong Kong in April 2022 at M+ Museum to tell his ancestral stories in a market already hungry for Mosu stories. A quarter of reservations made by foreign visitors at Mosu Seoul are from Hong Kongers.

“We have developed a way to express who we are still in the DNA of Mosul, but using different ingredients not just locally in Hong Kong, but from China.” Where the elements of Sung’s narrative stays consistent, the produce used is adapted to fit an international market. “Hong Kong offers such an abundance of ingredients from all over the world that Japan or Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia can’t,” he says.

The roots of his grandparents’ North Korean and Japanese story have stayed consistent with Sung throughout the Mosu brand in Asia. The standard has never changed.

“Since day one opening in Seoul until present in Hong Kong, we have never changed the standard of service of how we serve, how we make food, how we clean, how we greet each other, and how to greet. Through one, two, and three stars, we have stayed consistent and the same throughout.”

Reserve a lunch or dinner table at Mosu Hong Kong to delve into Sung’s telling of edible nostalgia.

The post Inspired by North Korean food, Sung Anh cooks edible nostalgia at Mosu Seoul & Hong Kong appeared first on Foodie.

The matching of casual neighbourhood experiences and culinary destination dining has cemented Singapore dining identity: it is a leader in the region with an ideal synthesis of true taste and constant innovation. Singapore’s bar space, for instance, is emblematic of their trumping of competing scenes across the region; the city topped the Asia’s 50 Best 2024 list with 11 bars ranking in the top 50.

Where a weekend itinerary may comprise day-time trips to Newton Food Centre, Pek Kio Market & Food Centre, or Lau Pa Sat to savour Singapore’s melting pot of food, evening excursions to the city’s bars is a must. No better venue deserves a trip to than Smoke & Mirrors, the ritzy rooftop cocktail bar resting atop the National Gallery Singapore.

Smoke & Mirrors tells a story of modern Singapore, established above the former Supreme Court building and City Hall building, a marking of a contemporary and fast-paced era for the city. Directly facing the Marina Bay Sands, the cocktail bar is a symbol of Singapore’s avant-garde pioneering.

The Real Art of Drinking: Volume IV, fashioned by assistant head bartender Wong Wee Siong and Senior Bartender John Vincent “JV” Naive, is their latest cocktail programme, exploring “a painter’s palette” through colour in 12 distinct cocktails. Elegantly visual cocktails explore bold colours in Instagrammable, eye-catching form: red, brown, orange, yellow, chartreuse, green, teal, blue, purple, violet, magenta, and vermillion are designed to be drunk. 

The cocktail we recommend on your maiden visit to Smoke & Mirrors is The Golden Ticket (SGD42), a chocolatey and nutty cocktail. A mix of honey dark chocolate liquor and peanut butter-washed Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey whisks you off to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to experience the flavours of brown!

In collaboration with famed Singapore chocolatier Janice Wong, each drink is garnished with a chocolate bar where 15 lucky guests may find the “Golden Ticket” to win a bottle of Michter’s Whiskey.

Wong says the storytelling element of each drink is paramount to deliver their signature immersive experience. “Each cocktail is meticulously designed to offer a unique combination of flavours, textures, and aromas, creating an immersive sensory experience.”

“We also invest a lot of time in researching and developing unique glassware that complements the inspiration behind each cocktail, offering a presentation you will not find at other bars. This dedication ensures that every drink not only tastes exceptional, but also provides a visually captivating experience, making each visit to Smoke & Mirrors truly memorable,” he adds.

A taste of Southeast Asia, and its savoury and spicy flavours, can be enjoyed with the sambAlemak (SGD34), a cocktail coloured in vermillion, a royal red hue. Patrón Reposado Tequila and a homemade sambal liqueur meet to create an alcoholic, bright version of a nasi lemak meal, Indonesia’s national dish. Ginger, garlic, lemon, and cucumbers join to introduce sour notes to the funky cocktail.

And because you are visiting Singapore, we recommend you to try their yellow Lion City Sling (SGD28) cocktail, a refreshing and fruity drink mixed with turmeric-infused Bombay Sapphire Gin and pineapple juice. Pineapple is an important part of Singapore’s history, once home to many plantations farming the vibrant fruit.

“Maintaining high standards of service and customer satisfaction in a high-profile establishment like Smoke & Mirrors requires a combination of continuous dedication and a relentless pursuit of excellence,” says Naive. The team mandates precision and respect towards cocktail ingredients to ensure that every cocktail delivers a perfect experience.

“Our team is well-trained and motivated, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation. This allows us to create interactive, spirit-forward drinks that captivate our guests, blurring the line between the familiar and the experimental.”

Beyond the curated cocktail programme, Smoke & Mirrors is representative of a greater movement of fine, luxurious mixology in Singapore. The service, cocktails, and priceless view makes the bar a must to visit on your travels to Singapore.

Pointing to the cocktail bar’s new award, general manager Eileen Colzani says “for me personally, and for the team, this accolade is a reminder of the impact we can have when we work together towards a common goal. It inspires us to continue pushing boundaries and delivering exceptional experiences for our guests.” Head to National Gallery Singapore today to marvel at a truly outstanding cocktail experience.

Smoke & Mirrors, 1 St. Andrew’s Road, #06-01 National Gallery Singapore, Singapore 178957, +65 8380 6811

The post Smoke & Mirrors is a Singapore bar deserving to be on your next itinerary to the Lion City appeared first on Foodie.

Sindy Wong is cautiously optimistic about the future growth of Hong Kong’s food and hospitality scene, a sector plagued by challenges seen across the border, overseas, and locally with a slow return to pre-pandemic greatness.

Sindy is the head of tourism and hospitality at InvestHK, Hong Kong’s governmental department responsible for attracting foreign direct investment into the city. When foreign companies want to set up business in Hong Kong, they come to InvestHK for support. 

“Working under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, InvestHK started in 2000. It consists of 10 industry teams dedicated to attracting foreign investment to Hong Kong,” Sindy told Foodie during a Zoom interview. 

Hong Kong’s financial stability within the food and business and retail sectors has been changing by the return of foreign tourists to the city, a topic Sindy says is captured in daily conversation and media reportage. 

“Today, there’s more attention about tourism and hospitality in Hong Kong. When you switch on the TV, you always find people talking about how many tourists are coming to Hong Kong, what new restaurants are coming in, and how many events are being planned.” The city’s tourism sector only makes up 4% of the city’s annual GDP.

At InvestHK, Sindy and her team are putting effort to attract foreign companies to Hong Kong, dually benefiting tourist and local consumption.

“At InvestHK, we help companies with business matching,” Sindy commented. The department is uniquely positioned to pair local chambers of commerce or business partners with foreign companies interested in expanding their operations to Hong Kong. 

InvestHK have recently geared up their business program to pair local groups with overseas brands to stimulate foreign investment in the city’s F&B scene. “In April 2023, we invited the top 20 restaurant groups in Japan for a visit to Hong Kong to explore the business opportunity, eat at Hong Kong’s local restaurants, visit Japanese supermarkets, and speak with members of Hong Kong’s Japanese community.

“During the visit, a business matching day was hosted on the last day of the programme where we had local Hong Kong restaurants meet individually with their interested Japanese brands. After one year, we have seen more than five partnership agreements signed and two launched this summer.”

Sindy’s team found chopsticks food from nearby countries are expanding quicker into the city due to the region’s close proximity to Hong Kong.

Chongqing’s famous hotpot brand Chaotianmen have entered Hong Kong this year, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC has expanded its regional headquarters in the city, and Japan’s second biggest ramen company Machida Shoten opened their first store this summer. 

As a joint initiative, InvestHK will work with the Korean Chamber of Commerce to invite a delegation of Korean restaurants to Hong Kong to explore the opportunities of feeding a local love for South Korea’s spicy and meaty food. “Our work is all about connecting in Hong Kong, matching businesses to the right partners to bring them to Hong Kong easier.”

Sindy comments that the appeal of doing business in Hong Kong is an apparent choice. “If you want to expand your business in Asia, you should come to Hong Kong. Open your flagship store and get more exposure for your brand in the city.”  

Ultimately, due to the forward-thinking business policy and the “recent” trend of Shenzhen dining, many mainland Chinese restaurants see Hong Kong as the first stepping stone for business to expand internationally. Chinese barbeque chain Muwu BBQ, Hunanese restaurant chain Hui Jia Xiang, hot pot brand Little Sheep Hot Pot new flagship store, and Sichuan’s Shuyi Grass Jelly drinks company have all opened stores in 2024. 

These new businesses entering the city will help balance local consumption and growth of spending, Sindy suggests, pointing to a warm future beckoning for Hong Kong’s challenged F&B sector.

“For Hong Kongers, we have always travelled to Shenzhen, but now consume more at local restaurants in the north. We cannot complain too much when the business competition is not just from Shenzhen, but the whole Greater Bay. Prices have been rising for meals in Shenzhen, as opposed to six months ago.”

“Hong Kongers will continue to travel to Shenzhen and Japan, for instance, yet this city provides a good selection of cuisines. If our local restaurants can provide good experiences to customers, Hong Kongers will stay to spend their money.”

At the turn of a buzzing and hot summer, business at InvestHK in the second half of the year is ramping up with more food and beverage events to woo foreign restaurants to join the F&B space. 

Sindy is planning investment promotion events and seminars in Henan, Seoul, and Singapore to promote Hong Kong as a primed destination to set up a food business. For small to medium restaurant enterprises plotting a Hong Kong move, she says to “not be shy” to inquire about InvestHK and the government’s funding schemes to utilise the fund beneficial to business development.

Read more on InvestHK’s website to see which new foreign restaurants are calling Hong Kong home.

The post Sindy Wong, InvestHK head of tourism and hospitality, is optimistic about Hong Kong’s F&B growth appeared first on Foodie.

Dai pai dongs, like other elements of Hong Kong’s former 20th-century food culture, are a dying art. With 18 “big licence restaurants” currently operating here, this figure pales in a city that once saw hundreds of ragtag restaurants line steep hills, residential neighbourhoods, and business districts.

Situated streetside or in aircon-less cavernous rooms and cooking using propane-heated woks, dai pai dongs have retained a passionate fan base within Hong Kong. Meals are customisable according to spice preference and salt level, plates of food are kissed with the sweet touch of the wok, and the seating is unapologetically simple and rough.

Licences for dai pai dongs are only legally transferable via the spouses of restaurant owners. Thus, a financial blip can permanently decimate a dai pai dong business. In May 2018, five friends sought to make a change to the system and institute a new era for the Hong Kong-style restaurant.

Candy Cheng, Michael Suen, and Kay Chan teamed up alongside two other budding foodie friends to found On On Dining in 2013, envisioned as a restaurant group launching Asian-inspired concepts beloved by the well-travelled troupe. 

“We were just a group of friends interested in entering the food industry,” Kay tells Foodie. “We wanted to open a restaurant that served the food that we like.” Joined by professionals in the banking, marketing, and construction industries, the team opened Hot Pot Land (火鍋撚) in 2014, following a trip to Taiwan, “to launch a genuine Taiwanese hotpot restaurant in Hong Kong.” 

Hong Kong is brashly nostalgic, unforgiving for its warmth held towards its rosy past, yet uniquely forward-facing when it comes to innovating and modernising. When the group successfully opened a barbecue restaurant and Asian tapas venue, Kay and her team ventured forward with their next project: to enshrine dai pai dong culture inside a modern restaurant, making twists on classic recipes, elevating the interior, and blasting the aircon.

“We had the chance to locate a store down an alley in To Kwa Wan and create Hong Kong food. Dai pai dong food is daily food in Hong Kong; it is in the collective memory of many in a time where this kind of restaurant is becoming less and less.” The small dai pai dong chain Chorland (楚撚記大排檔) was born in the spring of 2018.

“Usually, dai pai dongs can be located inside public estates or open-air street spots. We wanted to bring the concept indoors to enjoy the food with the same environment, but with better hygiene and more comfortable seating.” 

With three shops now located in To Kwa Wan, Tsuen Wan, and Shek Tong Tsui, near the University of Hong Kong, the menu features nostalgic dishes found at Sham Shui Po or Central’s dai pai dongs: golden fried sweetcorn, pork knuckle, honey potato and beef tenderloin, stir-fried chive and dried shrimp, and sand squid balls.

The team were uniquely inspired by the Sha Tin-based Chan Kun Kee (陳根記) when strategising Chorland’s interior concept and menu. This dai pai dong restaurant is a childhood memory for Kay and her colleagues, cherished for its frenetic atmosphere that’s difficult to replicate. 

To modernise dai pai dong food and culture for a younger audience and a more demanding food scene, twists on the menu come with embracing local trends. “Our most popular dish, the sweet-and-sour pork, includes a caramelised typhoon-spiral candy topping to add texture, with red and yellow pepper and fruit added for a crunchy taste.”

Other dishes like the lotus squid fish cakes are paired with gloopy truffle sauce, switching up traditional customs with the meaty patties, whilst their Ma Ma tomato scrambled egg dish soaks in a broth-heavy bowl with tender beef strips. 

The interior is key to emulating the golden days of Hong Kong’s love affair with dai pai dongs, stylised with a green-washed interior familiar to former and current dai pai dongs. Neon lighting for bathroom signs, an alcohol station, and the kitchen are framed in each restaurant within the chain. “We even created a song list of the best 1970s and 80s Cantopop to bring back the heydays of the dai pai dong [culture],” Kay says. 

Similarly, attention to customer service is vital for flipping the old-school restaurant style on its head. “Today, we strive to give good service to allow our customers to come in and sit comfortably eating our food.” Hong Kong restaurants have recently found themselves in a row over the return of the city’s signature harsh service, alienating both residents and tourists. 

Long lines trail the entrances of all three chain locations owing to the group’s decision to open Chorland in residential areas, rather than “tourist locations or centralised areas. We want to serve [our dai pai dong food] to the local people, matching the old dai pai dong style established in residential areas to serve the people that live there.”  

As Kay states, “The dai pai dong is very much [embedded] in our collective memory. It is a signature of Hong Kong and its food style. It is vital to include this in Hong Kong’s culture.” 

Visit Chorland in To Kwa Wan, Tsuen Wan, and Shek Tong Tsui by booking here.

The post How Chorland modernised dai pai dong food culture in Hong Kong, led by co-founder Kay Chan appeared first on Foodie.

Minato embraces a truly minimalist interior design in its large dining hall, dividing space into five distinct rooms that each create purpose with dining. The refined Japanese restaurant takes on the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of “Ma” (間), the art, or fullness, of purposeful empty space. 

Such space exists to void distractions and harness well-being for guests. Latticelike shoji windows both fill the restaurant with ample sunlight, yet shutter the outside world. The main dining hall possesses an airy and voluminous quality, benefiting those who enter clarity to focus on the space and dining.

Brought to Wan Chai North by Langham Hospitality Group, this innovative premium dining concept guides guests through an expedition on land and through the sea with its distinctive dining space that combines discreet sushi-forward omakase dining, clean teppanyaki meals, and a scope for artistic kaiseki-style meals.

The four teppanyaki private dining rooms of “TAKI” (瀧) and “NAMI” (濤) and “KAN” (澗) and “MINATO” (港)” are naturally open to view, but can be grouped for guests to bond over dishes forged with delicate smoke and flames. Led by executive chef Ray Wong, a blend of local and regional ingredients are savoured on the grill, prepared with grace and intention for clean eating. 

The MINATO Teppanyaki dinner menu (HKD2,808 for two persons) promises an indulgence of seafood and meat. Sea Bream and Duck Liver are delivered to guests with a focus on premium sourcing and preparation. The A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Sliced Beef remains a star on the grill, both featuring otherworldly flavours deep with beef fat and flavour. The dinner menu ends with a Japanese Pepper With Whitebait Fried Rice, Miso Soup & Pickles, and daily Japanese Fruit. 

The nine-course HAMA Teppanyaki dinner menu (HKD2,808 for two persons) is also available to guests, featuring Local Lobster, Cod Fish, and 3-Head South African Abalone, evincing the dedication and expertise of chef Wong.

Headed by sushi head chef Shing Fung, MINATO features a dedicated sushi bar, imparting a direct connection with chef Shing and his preservation of centuries-old sushi and sashimi artistry. Both the Chef Omakase set (HKD588 during lunch; HKD1,188 during dinner per person) and the more varied Chef Premium Omakase set (HKD788 during lunch; HKD1,588 during dinner per person) detail his steadfast attentiveness to the flavour combinations and care for fish.

Dining experiences at Minato can begin at chef Shing’s sushi parlour, before finding yourself at chef Wong’s teppan grill for extravagant meat and seafood flavourings. An appetiser sharing of Sesame Tofu, Ayu Sweetfish Skewer, and Marinated Japanese Sweet Tomato with Plum Wine Jelly, crafted by chex Alex Ho and from the kaiseki menu, grace the table to wet the palate, before exploring the buttery and fresh profiles of Flounder Fish, Hamachi, Sardine, and Sea Urchin. 

Completing the trifecta at Minato is the kaiseki cuisine, delivered by assistant kitchen head chef Alex Ho. Through the nine-course MATSU Kaiseki set (HKD1,388 per person) and deluxe MORI Kaiseki set (HKD1,688 per person), a manifold of Japanese flavours, techniques, and styles are brought to the main dining room, lauding delicate fish flavours. 

The three leading chefs’ combined culinary efforts hold much weight in the Shokado-style Minato Bento (HKD668 per person), a lunch set option that features six expertly curated crafted dishes from omakase, teppanyaki, and kaiseki departments. 

Beyond the dedicated sushi bar and main teppanyaki station, other private dining spaces “LUNA” (月) and “KAWA” (汌) accommodate dining for six to eight guests only. Where the former is dressed in moon-decor theme to create safety and elegance for a manifold form of dining, the latter thrills guests with a flair of live cooking.

Minato’s unique design narrative paired with zen principles in both design and culinary offerings capture a quite extraordinary approach to Japanese cuisine. Through the philosophy of “Ma” (間), guests await a balanced, clean, and grand dining experience through the lens of omakase, teppanyaki, and kaiseki cuisine.

The new Wan Chai restaurant befits dining occasions of any type, from formal business meetings, grand celebrations, to intimate times with loved ones. Minato is ready to welcome guests, inviting groups to make reservations to visit the grand Japanese restaurant here.

Minato, Shop G4-G6, G/F, Great Eagle Centre, 23 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, 2345 0663, book here

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