A fine-dining meat lover’s favourite Hong Kong restaurants – and a cafe to take the kids to

Arcane, Belon, Ciak – Jason Lo offers an ABC of restaurants in Hong Kong to go to for ‘top-quality stuff’. He loves simplicity and elegance

An Italian steak place and a Japanese grill restaurant are among his recommendations for meat lovers, and a certain cha chaan teng for peace and quiet

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Bresse chicken with savoy cabbage, chanterelle mushrooms and Alba white truffle at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana. Jason Lo first ate white truffles at Chef Umberto Bombana’s now-closed Toscana restaurant – “it was just a mind-blowing experience”, he recalls.

Published: 12:30pm, 3 Jun 2019Updated: 1:54pm, 3 Jun 2019

Jason Lo is the managing director at Waves Pacific, one of Hong Kong’s premier food suppliers, which focuses on Australian wagyu.

The restaurants I like to go to serve top-quality stuff. I usually go out with the family and for special occasions, and these are the places I’ll suggest when people ask me for meat recommendations.

Not all the restaurants on my list are places I supply meat to, but the ones I do [sell to] tend to be my favourite places, too.

With Arcane (3/F, 18 On Lan Street, Central, tel: 2728 0178), it’s really because Shane Osborn’s style of cooking is what I really enjoy right now – very elegant, just a couple of really nice ingredients that go well together with great balance and execution. Just the other day I had his scallop dish with seaweed, sea grapes and Jersey potatoes, and it was like you were really eating from the ocean. The only missing thing was the beach and the sunset.

Jason Lo is managing director of a Hong Kong food supplier that specialises in Australian wagyu beef.

Danny [Calvert] at Belon (41 Elgin Street, Soho, tel: 2152 2872) is just such a talented young guy – the diligence in each one of his dishes, the way he keeps evolving every single one of his dishes and tweaking it until it reaches his idea of perfection. His scallop ravioli and foie gras terrine, especially when truffles are in season, are excellent.

Chef Umberto Bombana at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana (Shop 202, 2/F Landmark Alexandra, 18 Chater Road, Central, tel: 2537 8859) just really has a place in my heart. When he was at Toscana [now closed] – the first restaurant I ever had white truffles at – it was just a mind-blowing experience. I’ve always been a big fan of his pasta as well. He makes really memorable dishes with simple ingredients, like his octopus salads or pasta, with these small intricacies and subtleties that really elevate the dish.