Style Edit: Regent Hong Kong brings local cinema to life with harbourfront dining

The setting couldn’t be more cinematic. Perched on Victoria Harbour, the Lobby Lounge features soaring, floor-to-ceiling windows that turn the view into a living movie screen. Throughout the day, the light shifts from soft morning luminosity to the amber glow of sunset and the dazzling choreography of evening, with the special menu very much a part of that panorama.

The film references are subtle but unmistakable. Lobster and prawns wonton noodle soup alludes to recurring noodle‑shop scenes, with handcrafted wontons in a dried flounder broth. Char siu egg rice takes a Kowloon Walled City favourite and upgrades it with house‑roasted Spanish Iberico pork collar. Premium Black Angus beef balls with mantis shrimps and bone marrow soup nods to Hong Kong’s more playful films, while Hong Kong-style French toast, and Hokkaido Tokachi adzuki bean put chai ko (steamed cakes) translate love stories and romcoms into dessert form.

For the Directors’ Guild, the project is about both feeling and flavour. As president Soi Cheang notes, food in Hong Kong cinema belongs to the quieter moments – a father and son conversing over char siu rice, lovers enjoying wonton noodles in silence. The menu’s emotional suggestions are therefore familiar. “Cinema and cuisine are, at heart, the same art: of timing, of patience, and of soul,” the acclaimed director says.

A Cinematic Taste of Hong Kong is positioned as the first “episode” in A Curated Cultural Experience – a series of art and wellness encounters that extend well beyond the kitchen. Future chapters will include mahjong tile painting with local artisans, meditative introductions to Chinese calligraphy, and private kung fu sessions guided by master practitioners and inspired by the city’s martial arts films.