Bravery doesn't come into it for Tang. Cheap rent means that even though he is busy at lunchtimes, this is still a place that offers a rarity in Hong Kong - space to linger. Tang has found that aspect alone has led to referrals in the six weeks that Bondi has been open. The Cambodia-born Chinese also believes that quality coffee and wine, and a menu offering simple, fresh food made from quality ingredients, will bring in more custom.

The restaurant hasn't come without sacrifices - with a background in IT and finance, Tang could have followed a corporate career, with regular and potentially much bigger pay cheques. But opening the restaurant is 'really what I wanted to do', says Tang. 'I had no choice.'

Hong Kong's foodies are lucky to live in a city that celebrates a wide range of cuisines. But that's largely because the restaurateurs themselves are a diverse bunch. Their passion and drive mean Hongkongers can eat food from virtually anywhere in the world.

One such player is Kevin Nobes, restaurants manager for Rhombus Hotels. He's only been in the city for a few months and is already aiming to raise the service standard of the small hotel chain that operates Azure and Ava, among other outlets. Having worked in the smart restaurants of Burnham Market in Norfolk, the so-called Chelsea on Sea where some of London's wealthy spend their summers, he knows a thing or two about service.

Nobes is amazed at the speed that restaurants come and go. He's a veteran of Britain's gastropub scene, one of the driving forces behind the country's food revolution. It was in pubs serving superior versions of British classics such as bangers and mash that a people not previously noted for their appreciation of good food started to care.

Nobes hopes to draw our attention to organic and locally sourced food. As there is some confusion about what produce may qualify as organic, he suggests we focus on the origin and freshness of our food. He wants the menu at Azure to be simple and healthy, and to allow chef Mike Boyle to cook 'wholesome food that lets the main ingredients do the talking'.

Yenn Wong, the Singaporean owner of 208 Duecento Otto, brings to Hong Kong's diners an appreciation of food that comes from a very different background. She is as happy travelling to Bhutan as Italy, and during her career as a restaurateur in Hong Kong has introduced items as varied as Bhutanese honey and a handcrafted pizza oven from Naples.

The mix of the esoteric and European was probably most evident when Wong owned Opia, started by Australian fusion chef Teage Ezard. Ezard's recipes (fiendishly difficult to reproduce at home) involved numerous Asian ingredients often cooked in European ways. Ezard also liked to play with Asian street food concepts.

When Wong opened JIA, the hotel housing Opia, she was in her early 20s and, although she liked Ezard's food, she now believes she may have misjudged the Hong Kong market. 'I can't say I had a good idea of what I was doing,' she admits, adding that she wanted to bring something fresh to the city.

Wong's next restaurant saw her switch to a more conventional approach, and also an approach that reflected her developing palate. The now well-established 208 Duecento Otto is a staple of Hong Kong's Italian dining scene.

Although Wong likes fine dining and rates The Chairman highly as a restaurant, she is keener on more down-to-earth outlets. A favourite is the Australian Dairy Company on Nathan Road in Jordan.

'It has no connection to Australia or milk, but produces the fluffiest egg sandwich ever,' says Wong. She's also a fan of its table management system. As the restaurant is so popular, its guests are served very quickly.

'But don't even try to pick up something to read, I think they'll kill you. It feels like a Hong Kong atmosphere - super efficient,' Wong says.

Where Wong has a strong vision of what she wants to give her customers, our next food hero has a strong vision of what his customers want from him.

Gold by Harlan Goldstein is an upmarket works canteen for the Central finance crowd - players such as Jason Boyer (table 88) and Craig Lindsay (table 23) are regulars, often dropping by on a daily basis.

While Goldstein shies away from the word 'fusion', he says that after 20 years of cooking in Asia he has adapted his food to the local palate. Goldstein has also adapted to the culture and psychology of his guests, which is how he famously managed to sell a HK$2.38 million bottle of wine. A regular customer from Beijing, identified only as a Mr Chen, was in his restaurant with guests and they had already consumed a 1961 Petrus costing HK$180,000 a bottle and a Domaine de la Romanee Conti at HK$120,000. The customers asked what else was available. Goldstein showed Chen a jeroboam of 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, one of only 20 in the world.

Goldstein recounts that he told Chen, in a lighthearted way, that he could hold the wine and look at it, but he wouldn't tell him the price because 'I don't think you can afford it'. That was the magic line - out came the black American Express card and the deal was done. Goldstein generously waived the 10 per cent service charge.

Goldstein's next trick is also going to be a little cheeky - a 1940s retro steakhouse called Strip House. Could the name and concept be too risqu? for demure Hongkongers?

'When I announced the project, most people's response was 'Jesus, what's he doing?' But everybody calls a sirloin steak a strip steak in the US,' explains the chef. That explanation doesn't quite wash with cocktails called undressed, the striptease, and worse.

Goldstein is as clued in as other chefs in Hong Kong to the idea of attaching a clear source to his produce and will import organic beef from a Californian supplier. He plans to offer the upmarket comfort food his public likes. Fat chips will be on the menu with beer-battered onions and a crab cake so rich we thought it might have been made with lobster tails.

Perhaps with Goldstein, as with many of Hong Kong's chefs and restaurateurs, it's not only about the food and the business success, but the passion.

Classy quartet

208 Duecento Otto
Tel: 2549 0208

Azure
Tel: 3518 9330

Bondi cafe
Tel: 3996 7806

Gold by Harlan Goldstein
Tel: 2869 9986