Antipodean opens in PoHo, Aberdeen Street and Banrock Station wine

Watch Out For…

There’s a new Kiwi café in PoHo called Antipodean (3 Upper Station St., Sheung Wan), serving breakfast, brunch and coffee in a slick and minimalistic space. And to all the coffee drinkers from Down Under: they serve flat whites. Brunch and hearty breakfast items, as well as pastries and cakes, can all be had. Hopefully by the time you read this, the shop will be fully up and running. (Last I checked, they were still in the soft opening stages.)

The bar Cheri Cheri is no longer, and now we have Aberdeen Street (UG/F, King Ho Building, 41-49 Aberdeen St., Central, 2546-5833), a lovely dining space with an alfresco terrace, on the treacherously steep Aberdeen Street (obviously). If you’re coming up from below Hollywood Road, be prepared for a workout. Serving healthy salads, seafood, steaks as well as Sunday brunches (the menu has a section entirely dedicated to EGGS), the resto caters pretty much to everyone. Read our resto review.

Talk of the Town

Chef Philippe Labbe from Shangri-La Paris’s Michelin two-star L’Abeille will be making a guest appearance at Petrus (56/F, Island Shangri-La, Supreme Court Rd., Admiralty, 2820-8590) from September 9-13. By all means, do sign up for a lunch ($488-658) or dinner ($1,480-1,880) to sample chef Labbe’s creative dishes—but promise me you’ll still pay a visit to the original restaurant (housed in the immaculately beautiful former home of Napoleon Bonaparte’s grandnephew, Prince Roland) in the 16th arrondissement. Chef Labbe is a favorite of the Gault Millau 2013 guide, having been named France’s Chef of the Year in the popular French volume. He’ll be making dishes like langoustine with vanilla oil and roasted lamb with herbs, followed by sweet treats like mille-feuille with white chocolate sauce.

Dondonya Shokudo (1/F, Hung Wai Building, 3-5 Fa Yuen St., Mong Kok, 2783-0789) and with various branches across the city) has brought over a very special type of donburi (Japanese rice bowl topped with meats) from Butahage restaurant in Hokkaido: the Butadon (pork rice bowl). Long queues form outside the restaurant every day, apparently, because people go crazy over the high-heat grilled pork and the secret house sauce. You have a chance to try this until November, starting from $88 per bowl. Better get in line.

Cheers

In partnership with the WWF, Aussie wine label Banrock Station will be donating $5 of every bottle they sell to help support the Mai Po Nature Reserve, up to a total of $100,000. The Banrock Station vineyard hails from Southern Australia, and the whole brand is dedicated to contributing to conservation and environmental projects from around the world. In Hong Kong, Banrock’s currently stocked exclusively at Park N Shop, and there are five types on offer: chardonnay, sémillon chardonnay, shiraz cabernet, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. All bottles cost $69.

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