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Water bamboo salad from Moxie at Alexandra House in Central, one of Post senior food and drinks editor Susan Jung’s favourite restaurants opened in 2021. Moxie serves mainly plant-based dishes. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Lifestyle Food & Drink

2021’s best new restaurants in Hong Kong – for plant-based dishes, roast duck, curry laksa, pasta and more

Vicky Cheng’s new Chinese restaurant Wing shows how versatile the chef is; Estro’s pasta dishes are memorable and Sushi Mamoru never disappoints
The stars of Moxie’s menu are the delicious plant-based dishes, while you’ll find a comforting, leisurely meal or late-night snack at Kyoto Oden Masa

Food and Drinks

Susan Jung

Published: 5:45pm, 28 Dec 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

Don’t you just hate “best of” lists when they consist solely of one person’s view, as if their proclamation is the word of God? How can one person declare that something is “best”? The word is definitive, and leaves no room for argument.

Favourite, however, is more personal. You can’t really say a person is incorrect (although people do …) when they mention that Restaurant X is their favourite – it’s their opinion, not a proven fact.

On that note, here are some of my favourite new restaurants that I tried over the past year.

Wing

Wing is Vicky Cheng’s new Chinese restaurant, and it shows how versatile the chef is: it’s so different from the Chinese x French food he serves at VEA. The service at Wing, though, is as attentive as it is at VEA, which won the Art of Hospitality Award for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021.

Who knew that Cheng could make such delicious versions of slightly updated classic Chinese cuisine – an extensive, changing array of cold starters, along with prawn toast (served on stinky tofu instead of the usual bread), stuffed crab shells, fried pigeons, and crispy-skinned chicken.

Crispy-skinned chicken from Wing in Sheung Wan. Photo: Wing

29/F The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Sheung Wan, tel: 2711 0063

Estro

I first tasted Antimo Merone’s food at 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo in Macau. His food at his Andre Fu-designed restaurant, Estro, is more personal, focusing on the chef’s Neapolitan roots.

Merone’s pasta dishes are so good that I wish he’d open a more casual pasta-only restaurant (major hint!) – a dish called “buttons” is eggplant Parmigiana in ravioli form, a luscious pasta ragu has a sauce that is mainly Montoro onions that have been slow-cooked for hours until they’re sweet, complex and intense.

I also love his tomato starter (available only when the fruit is in season) and the pigeon in ashes, meant to be reminiscent of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

2/F, 1 Duddell Street, Central, online bookings: sevenrooms.com/experiences/estrohk

Whey

I’ve been a fan of Barry Quek since he was chef at Beet (now closed). At Whey, Quek’s European dishes have flavours of the chef’s native Singapore: pie tee (fried pastry cups) filled with chicken and oyster; brioche served with buah keluak emulsion (seeds that are poisonous if not properly prepared); curry laksa with konjac rice, spiny lobster and cockles; pork rib bak kut teh; and probably his most controversial dish – maoshan wang durian ice cream served with Kristal caviar (you either love it or hate it; I love it).

UG/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central, tel: 2683 3198

Sushi Mamoru

Good luck in getting into Sushi Mamoru: for dinner, it’s booked out months in advance (although lunch is easier), and if you do get a reservation, you have to pay the entire amount upfront. But it’s just like eating at a sushi-ya in Japan: chef Hirofumi Chiba serves the entire counter in the austere but airy room.

Shop 2, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2133 5700

Kyoto Oden Masa

This is another restaurant that will make you feel like you’re in Japan. As you can tell by the name, Kyoto Oden Masa specialises in oden – ingredients such as daikon (radish), yuba (fresh bean curd sheets), turnip, and cabbage rolls that are simmered in a light dashi (stock).

The selection isn’t as wide as you’d get at an oden specialist restaurant in Japan, but still, it makes for a comforting, leisurely meal. It’s especially nice to come here for a late-night snack – their last seating is at 10.30pm.

Shop 1103, 11/F United Success Commercial Centre, 508 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay, bookings on quandoo.com.hk

Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant

This Cantonese siu mei (roast meat) specialist is a UK import – and unexpectedly delicious. Four Seasons started in London and now has five branches in England; it opened in Tai Po, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, last year and in Central in October (there’s also one in Bangkok).

It is most famous for its roast duck, served deboned, and with crisp skin and succulent meat. Of the other siu mei, we’ve only tried the roasted pork belly, which was excellent.

Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant, 2/F Tsang Chiu Ho Building, 160-164 Wellington Street, Central, tel: 2889 9883

Moxie

Although Moxie serves some seafood (but no meat) the stars of the menu are the plant-based dishes. The menu changes seasonally, but a dependable guide to ordering is to try anything with pastry – there’s always some kind of tart. If the menu lists the Karana jackfruit croustillant, it’s a must-have.

Shop 203, 2/F Alexandra House, 16-20 Chater Road, Central, tel: 2718 8211

Margo

Prepare your stomach for a hearty meal at Margo – or maybe it’s just that I tend to gravitate towards the heavier dishes. I love anything with boudin noir, and here, the blood sausage is served with smooth celeriac soup.

German chef Mario Paecke makes stellar Königsberger klopse (meatballs), which are far easier to eat than they are to pronounce. And of course, the Wiener schnitzel is excellent.

9 Queen’s Road Central, Central, tel: 2130 7731

Dynasty Cove

I also love Dynasty Cove, a new Chinese restaurant with a Fukienese chef. The oyster omelette was one of the best we’ve had, and the pomelo skin with goose web had a light but intense sauce.

1/F Wun Sha Court, 1-5 Wun Sha Street, Tai Hang, tel: 2871 9999

Honourable mentions (for one reason or another)

Woo Cheong Tea House (1/F-2/F Woo Cheong Pawn Shop, 62 Johnston Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2868 3444) is a new Chinese restaurant by the Classified Group. We went the day it opened to the public and had a fantastic meal. I won’t spoil the surprise, because the review hasn’t been published yet. Look out for it in the Post early next year.

And Belon (1/F, 1-5 Elgin Street, SoHo, tel: 2152 2872), which is a restaurant with a new chef, new location and an old name. I still associate Belon with the street-level location further down Elgin Street and previous chef Daniel Calvert (who is now in Tokyo at the Four Seasons Marunouchi). I’ve only been to the new Belon when it first opened, when much of the menu still had Calvert’s imprint.

The few dishes that I tasted that were created by new chef Matthew Kirkley were delicious, and I can’t wait to go back when the menu is fully his.

Want to find out where else (and what else) Susan Jung eats? Read her restaurant reviews, or follow her on Instagram.

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