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From excellent Indian food that lets the chef’s personality shine through to the Shanghainese dishes at The Merchants (pictured), the Post picks its 10 best restaurant openings in Hong Kong in 2023. Photo: The Merchants

Lifestyle Food & Drink

The 10 best restaurant openings in Hong Kong in 2023 ranked – Indian and French fine dining, a food court, and more

While there were some high-profile closures like Écriture in 2023, hundreds of new restaurants opened in Hong Kong to keep diners on their toes
From fantastic noodle bars to bastions of fine dining, these are the newcomers we found most memorable

Food and Drinks

Charmaine Mok

Published: 12:45pm, 4 Jan 2024

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Each month, the Post recommends the best new restaurants to visit in Hong Kong. There has rarely been a month where we have listed fewer than a dozen noteworthy venues, such is the speed at which restaurants open in the city.

While there have been plenty of losses and closures of beloved restaurants too, from humble char siu and egg specialists and noodle dai pai dong to those that quiet-quit us (like Écriture and Ramato), we are hopeful that a 2024 free of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions will see Hong Kong’s dining scene on the up.

Below we rank our top 10 restaurant openings in Hong Kong in 2023, based on a somewhat subjective process takes into consideration not only the quality of the food and drink but how it enriches Hong Kong’s culinary map.

As always, taste is subjective.

10. Francis West

The original Francis in the Star Street precinct in Wan Chai is an old favourite, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear it would open a fresh venture in the heart of Soho.

Spanner crab with chraime at Francis West in Hong Kong. Photo: Francis West

The second branch is geared more towards the flavours of the Maghreb – a region of North Africa that takes in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco – with stellar dishes including crab challah toast with chraime (spicy fish stew) flavourings and its house-made merguez (lamb sausage).

22-24 Peel Street, Central

9. The Merchants

Some of the best Shanghainese cuisine in Hong Kong is found in private members’ clubs, so a high-end restaurant serving dishes from the region – headed by chef Chen Tian Long, previously of one-Michelin-star Jardin de Jade – is a welcome addition to the public sphere.

Hairy crab season here is a highlight, but the plush dining room is a perennial destination for classic dishes such as soy sauce fried river shrimps, steamed xiao long bao and bruised yellow croaker soup with shepherd’s purse.

45/F, Forty Five, Gloucester Tower, Landmark, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Central

8. An Choi

Vietnam is but a short plane ride away from Hong Kong, but in between food crawls in Ho Chi Minh and beyond, thankfully there is a place like An Choi.

Crisp yet fluffy banh mi – the baguettes baked in-house, in case you could not tell by the racks of cooling loaves next to the kitchen – join a rotating line-up of popular Vietnamese noodles, some lesser seen in Hong Kong, such as the funky bun mam (a fermented fish noodle soup) from South Vietnam and the delightfully crabby banh canh cua.

Some days, we are told, they even have chewy cao lau, Hoi An’s famous bowl of thick, udon-like noodles.

Shop A, 15-17 Mercer Street, Sheung Wan

7. BaseHall 2

The 2020s has been the era of the upgraded food court, but who would have thought that they could earn a spot on the year’s best new openings too? It is all about the tenant mix, and BaseHall 2 – the second phase of the Jardine House food hall project – has a winning combination of trending restaurant brands (Moyo, Porker, Mashi no Mashi, An Soy) and local gems (On Lee Noodles, Kam Centre Roast Goose, Ah Chun Shandong Dumplings).

A full set lunch at An Soy in BaseHall 2.

After the hit Yuen Long bao specialist Both Street departed in the autumn, BaseHall 2 played a trump card by snagging JJ’s, the new diffusion line of cult hotpot restaurant Big JJ’s.

LG/F, Jardine House, 1 Connaught Place, Central

6. Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco

Another highly anticipated opening at the tail end of 2023 came courtesy of a man who must be one of the busiest chefs working today.

Chef Mauro Colagreco opened his first Tokyo venture about two months before Plaisance. Photo: Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco

Argentine-born Mauro Colagreco – who had opened his first Tokyo venture about 2 months before Plaisance – has gone fully into the ocean theme for this restaurant, which is a beauty.

While there is a private members’ club in the basement and a bistro lounge on the ground level, the main dining room is definitely the star, where you can have one of Colagreco’s most known signature dishes: beetroot and caviar.

1/F, 1 Duddell Street, Central

5. Man Yuen Restaurant

Some restaurants are carried not only by who is cooking, but by their front of house. So when Forum’s general manager, CK Poon Kin-wai, left earlier in the year to open his own place, it did not matter to his regulars that he had chosen an obscure public housing estate in between Lok Fu and Wong Tai Sin, in Kowloon, for his next project.

Man Yuen Restaurant’s (left to right) Phoenix Tung, Edmond Lam Hei-wai, CK Poon Kin-wai, Ming Ma, and Yuk So. Photo: Jonathan Wong

In Michelin parlance, it is worth a special journey for the satay-rubbed suckling pig, freshly roasted char siu, and old-school dim sum such as the pork liver siu mai.

Shop S02, 2/F, Tin Ma Court Shopping Centre, 55 Chuk Yuen Road, Wong Tai Sin

4. Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic

Rumoured for more than a year, anticipated for months, the first Hong Kong restaurant by the legendary French chef Anne-Sophie Pic is a collaboration with crystal house Baccarat, and it sure does shine.

Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic features sweeping views over Central and Victoria Harbour. Photo: Groupe Pic

Having half-expected a staid, ultra-formal experience, it was refreshing that Cristal Room’s focal point is the entirely open kitchen; it fosters an intimacy that reminds us of warm dinner parties.

Pic’s team runs seamlessly, while the dishes offer vignettes of surprise through flavours not commonly associated with French: eucalyptus, matcha, turmeric.

45/F, Forty Five, Gloucester Tower, Landmark, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Central

3. Dolos

2022’s Vivant was a hit in my books, and twin brothers Josh and Caleb Ng have nailed 2023 with their new venture, Dolos, with chef Sean Yuen at the helm.

With its name bearing an obscure maritime reference (a dolos is a large block used to break waves), the menu is appropriately seafood forward, with some concessions to quality local meats such as Hong Kong’s three yellow chicken.

It is a small, intimate spot where Yuen takes single-handed charge in the kitchen, making it all the more impressive.

60 Staunton Street, Central

2. Leela

There is an oft-posted-about Australian sea urchin butter roghani naan on the menu at Leela, but it is honestly one of the least interesting dishes from chef Manav Tuli, previously the kingpin at one-Michelin-star Chaat.

Leela lets more of chef Manav Tuli’s passions and culinary geekiness shine through in the dishes.

His own venture lets more of his own passions and culinary geekiness shine, from the cleverly calibrated lily bulb and mangetout dish that is flavoured with tadka redolent of coriander, cumin and carom, to the updated smoked butter chicken curry with the optional add-on of Laphroaig whisky.

Shop 301-310, Lee Garden Three, 1 Sunning Road, Causeway Bay

1. Feuille

I must admit, given the number of overseas chefs opening restaurants in Hong Kong over the years, I was lukewarm about another French fine diner launching in the city. How wrong could I be?

Feuille was a surprise hit for Charmaine Mok. Photo: Feuille

In the weeks and months since Feuille opened, I have heard over and over how David Toutain and his team have created something exceptional – a place where local and seasonal sourcing is done with an extra level of conscientiousness and technique is applied to turn all manner of vegetables into quiet masterpieces.

The luscious pil pil sauce that goes with the bread is a superlative mouthful, and each dish sings of its hero ingredient; best of all, you leave feeling nourished and sated, not bursting and bloated.

5/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central

And some honourable mentions:

Enishi, a small teppanyaki spot run by husband and wife Toru Takano and Ami Hamasaki, is charm personified.

Also in the Japanese realm is Uza by Nikushou, a hideaway in Foco building in Central that peddles high-quality izakaya fare and excellent grilled eel. Downstairs from there is Barkada, a venture by online influencer Jen Balisi in collaboration with Singular Concepts, bringing a fresh and modern take on Filipino cuisine.

Cafe Bau, yet another venture from chef Alvin Leung, surprised with its solid seasonal cooking and excellent roasted chicken stuffed with Yi O rice. Kanesaka, a high-end sushi bar, offers pristine omakase in ultra discreet environs.

House of Culture, headed by former Brut chef Gavin Chin, is slinging genre-defying cuisine that is rooted in Asian flavours.

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