2 new Hong Kong restaurants to replace Hutong, Aqua, which are moving – founder David Yeo explains why, and what to expect from their replacements

Hutong and Aqua have been in One Peking for 18 years, but restaurateur David Yeo says the new location in H Zentre ‘gives us a chance to showcase more things’
A second branch of The Chinese Library and a yet-to-be-named Italian concept - which was meant to open in London first - will move in behind them

Chinese cuisine

Bernice Chanin Vancouver

Published: 7:15am, 9 Nov 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

Restaurateur David Yeo is executing an ambitious plan. The London-based Singaporean is, having completed 21 days of hotel quarantine to enter Hong Kong, trying to open four restaurants in the city – almost all at once.

The founder of Aqua Group is moving the Hutong and Aqua restaurants from One Peking to H Zentre in Tsim Sha Tsui. In their place, Yeo will introduce The Chinese Library to Kowloon-side diners, as well as a new, yet-to-be-named Italian concept, later this month.

On the 29th floor at One Peking, Aqua has commanded stunning views of Hong Kong Island below and the clear blue skies above for 18 years. During an interview with Yeo there, we wondered why this Italian-Japanese restaurant, and the Chinese one a floor below, were moving out. The answer, Yeo says, is because it’s time to refresh them.

“For these two fairly iconic restaurants, it will be great to have something really exciting, plus [the new location] has something this place doesn’t have: it’s got three outdoor terraces. It’s bigger and it just gives us a chance to showcase more things, really.”

A view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour at Aqua. Photo: Aqua

Hutong is aiming to open in mid-November, with Aqua following about two weeks later. These dates are, however, subject to change – and the state of power in China. Power cuts in the country, mandated by Chinese President Xi Jinping because of the short supply of coal, have led to factories curbing or stopping production.

“Our furniture was supposed to have arrived by now,” Yeo says. “All of a sudden, the factory had to shut, they had to satisfy their quota so all the district chiefs were taking turns cutting off the power. It’s the luck of the draw if your factory is affected or not.” This has had a knock-on effect on the opening of The Chinese Library and the new Italian concept.

The inside of The Chinese Library in Tai Kwun. Photo: Owen Raggett

The spaces on the 17th and 18th floors of H Zentre have panoramic views of Hong Kong Island, and the highly anticipated outdoor terraces will be ideal for taking advantage of cooler temperatures in the coming months.

Yeo says that The Chinese Library’s new second location in Tsim Sha Tsui (the first is in Tai Kwun in Central on Hong Kong Island) is to satisfy Kowloon-side diners’ preference for dim sum and Chinese food, while the new Italian concept will be good value at around HK$700 (US$90) per person with cicchetti – small plates of food – with wine.

The concept was supposed to be launched in London first, but its delay means Hong Kong gets to be the guinea pig instead. Lucky us.

The menu focuses on Sicilian dishes, including pizza, and Yeo describes for us a pasta with sardines with pine nuts, raisins and wild fennel that makes our empty stomachs rumble. As wild fennel is grown seasonally and may be hard to import, he says the chef may use dried fennel instead.

Yeo’s restaurants in One Peking are rarely at full capacity during the day. The Hong Kong Island office crowd, he says, is hard to lure over to “the dark side” (the nickname for Kowloon), but both Hutong and Aqua tend to be full in the evenings and weekends. For him, Tsim Sha Tsui is where one can appreciate the best vistas of the city.

“The view from Hong Kong can only be appreciated from the Kowloon side. It’s like Shanghai – to appreciate the Bund, you have to be in Pudong and look back, rather than be in the centre of the Bund itself. Kowloon affords us that kind of space. We can’t get that kind of space on the Hong Kong side.”

The inside of Hutong. Photo: Edward Wong

More than 20 years ago, Yeo, a confessed foodie, was a lawyer working in Hong Kong. When he cooked for friends, they enjoyed his food so much that they encouraged him to open a restaurant.

In 2000, he opened a 60-seat “canteen for boys” on Hollywood Road, just above the Graham Street wet market – one of Hong Kong’s oldest street markets – in Central.

Unlike other local groups that have franchises, Yeo says Aqua Group is Hong Kong’s first international restaurant group, with 22 wholly owned outlets in the city, Beijing, London, New York, Miami and Dubai.

Boiled fish in Sichuan spicy chillies from Hutong. Photo: Edward Wong

The success of the group, he says, is down to organic development and waiting for the right moment.

“I firmly feel we’re only as good as our last restaurant,” he says. “So we rather grow a lot slower than boom boom boom – that’s just our style. You don’t see Aqua Group opening and closing its doors, that’s not us.

“We started our restaurants as an extension of our kitchen, so we just share whatever is fun, and if we hit that nice midpoint people will keep coming back. For me, I’ve never aspired to open a six- or eight-seat restaurant that’s booked up for six months, that doesn’t interest me. If you want to cook and have a party, you have to have a lot of people around and it’s about interacting. For us, it’s very much a people business.”