And you thought you had heard the end of Lan Kwai Fong's hot-off-the-press new restaurant news. Well, brace yourself for more because the area is far from finished with state-of-the-art restaurants and bars. A new bar, Zip, on Glenealy opens this week, courtesy of the same group which brought Wyndham Street Thai and La Bodega. Oozing attitude, Zip's floors are metal, its bar stools look like bicycle seats, and there's an open area outside complete with wooden deck and waterfalls. It's not been part of last week's Lan Kwai Fong Food Festival mania because it's so low-key it's not a member of the Lan Kwai Fong Association. At the other end of the hip scale, the child-friendly Ruby Tuesday is opening its first restaurant on Hong Kong island above Mad Dogs on D'Aguilar Street in the double-storey space last occupied by the fabulous House of Canton. This is a dress-down establishment, with lots of mayonnaise at the salad bar, a have-a-nice-day attitude, model cars on the wall and an American menu. Next up is the Wyndham Street Deli, sandwiched between Wyndham Street Thai and an Oriental carpet dealer. The builders have already moved in so it shouldn't take long now. The cafe will have a takeout deli counter and a seating area. It will be open seven days a week. A bit further down the road is a spot for Lori Granito's long-awaited Cajun restaurant, The Bayou, which is about to be signed and sealed, and another place for Barry Kalb, who is said to be looking to expand his Il Mercato empire. But the biggest ambitions belong, of course, to Mr Lan Kwai Fong, Allan Zeman, who has just bought the building where Greek bar, Acropolis, used to be. The plans are for a 22-storey block which will house six levels of restaurants and podiums. In the meantime, there are 10 new restaurants open or opening in Lan Kwai Fong between now and the end of April. That's a lot of launch menus to eat through. Beefed-up menu Dillinger's home-made beef jerky is shaking up bar-snack attitudes about town. Americans are going crazy about the stuff, claiming it to be the best jerky this side of the Pacific. Owner Sherman Tang has high hopes that the menu, soft launched when the restaurant opened in Central last week, will be as warmly received. It includes good old American favourites: about a dozen kinds of steak, seafood, fat chips, soups and salads, corn bread, apple pie, banana fritters and chocolate brownies. Asian influences have crept in with pickled ginger in the consomme and bok choy among the vegetable side orders. Reservations on 2521-2202. BB's bugbears It didn't take long for Wan Chai to begin claiming its own. BB's Bar & Brasserie, the wonder in the middle of all the girlie bars, has begun to show signs of strain. The light-wood floors are scratched, pocked and stained with cigarette burns, the gorgeous blue menus are covered with greasy finger prints, and the white supporting beam on the ceiling has begun to turn grey. The orange napkins - great colour, pity about the polyester - are so synthetic they slide all over the table. Plus our wine list came with a bug squashed against it, and the pumpkin wasn't cooked properly. But at least they've started polishing their glasses with lint-free cloth. And the sticky date pudding is still truly out of this world. Sting in the bill Scorpions are making culinary headlines in Singapore. Deep-fried (with their stingers), the chewy scorpions have joined dishes such as stewed fruit bat, black ants, and deer-penis wine on the island state's list of must-eats for diners in the know. According to a recent report, patrons at the Imperial Herbal Restaurant, just across the road from the Raffles Hotel, are paying up to S$400 for plates of nutritious insects and animal parts. All the dishes have medicinal applications. These range from preventing cancer, heart disease and insomnia to premature grey hair. Spago's ascent What with Jackie Chan knocking John Woo off the top of the US box office charts and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility picking up a bucket-load of Oscar nominations, Hong Kong stars are sitting at top tables in Tinseltown these days. They will undoubtedly be among Hollywood's bright-lights cruising Sunset Boulevard after the Oscar ceremony on March 25. But it will be the last time. Wolfgang Puck's flagship Spago restaurant on the boulevard, traditionally the Oscar after-party spot, is moving upmarket to Beverly Hills later this year. Celeb chef Puck said he had considered renovating but had decided to move when the opportunity for a new site with an outdoor area came up. It will be much more Californian, he said.