Size matters

Everyone loves Tsui Wah. Even if you don't want to admit it, the multiple floors of organised chaos and dishes hurriedly served with scant attention to service make a quintessential Hong Kong gastro-trip. For something more special, locals head straight for restaurants with private dining rooms for less chaos, more TV and karaoke. The present trend in dining sees regular restaurants shrinking to private dining room size, and with just a dozen or so seats the chaos factor is lower, the service more personalised and the dining experience one to savour.

Take Wagyu Takumi, for example, where diners flock to worship chef Mitsuru Konishi's two-Michelin-starred French-Japanese dishes. With just 12 counter seats, it's not easy to book for the single, seasonal menu of fine-dining French cuisine with a creative Japanese twist. Konishi sees the increase in mini-eateries as a fast-growing Hong Kong trend with a cultural Japanese twist. "In Japan, we have a long history of having restaurants which sell a particular specialty - for example, sushi bars, kaiseki restaurants, oden eateries and skewer shops. The shops only sell what they are good at."

Case in point: Little Bao. The fun, 20-seat eatery near SoHo is chef May Chow's brainchild, and although there are shared plates, diners line up for the reinvented baos. The beloved signature filling of pork belly is sandwiched between a toasted white bun, and served straight from the grill to the counter, piping hot. "A lot of Asian-American chefs in New York have done the bao. I wanted to do the same idea but make it unique to Hong Kong and try to use as many local ingredients as possible," Chow says. "We wanted to do an American diner idea, and from the moment we shaped the bao it was a burger."

On any given night, Little Bao is crammed, with more queuing up outside. "Three weeks in and bam, suddenly every day it's so busy," she says. "Our highest has been 110 seatings in one night, and for a 20-seat restaurant that's pretty ridiculous."

At Wagyu Takumi and Little Bao, what diners love is the interaction with the chefs. In restaurants this small, the drama of the open kitchen creates the theatre of the culinary experience. While at Little Bao the fun is all about the hustle of keeping up with demand, at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong the pace is reduced, with the newly launched The Teppanroom focused on the calm precision of Japanese grilling. The 16-seat space that serves up Japanese or international-themed cuisine is communal but intimate. Standing behind the gleaming grill, chef Robert Liu mixes the art of teppanyaki with the highest-quality ingredients and a quiet charm. "It is very private cooking, as if I am cooking just for you," he says. "We can discuss the food; if you have a question or comment just let me know."

The perfectly prepped ingredients are moved around the grill in a formal dance, and when Liu passes the plate over, whether with a piece of Japanese wagyu sirloin or a bowl of garlic fried rice, it is like being presented with a gift.