Favourite Hong Kong and Amsterdam restaurants of Richard Ekkebus, chef behind Michelin-star Amber

Dutch chef Richard Ekkebus is the culinary director at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong and the executive chef of Amber, the hotel’s two-Michelin-star European fine-dining restaurant.

The way I identify restaurants I like is the same as everyone else – when people go to restaurants they want to feel special, they want to be recognised and they want service that is attentive and pleasant.

I always say people go to a restaurant for the food, but they will come back for the hospitality. For me, food is like music, every day you feel different and you need a different type of music, and food is very much the same way – it nourishes me in a very different way.

We just discovered a new Sri Lankan restaurant, Hotal Colombo (31 Elgin Street, SoHo, tel: 2488 8863). I lived in Mauritius, where the food is predominantly Indian cuisine, for nine years, and my son was born there, so for my family, this is a very homey place. The chicken curry and relish made out of coconuts was delicious.

Xin Rong Ji (China Overseas Building, 138 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, tel: 3462 3516) is a restaurant I’ve been to a couple of times and I really enjoy their cooking. They have great produce and even though it’s not a Peking duck restaurant they do a really good Peking duck. It’s phenomenal; I had one of the best Chinese dinners there.

And I always love Fook Lam Moon (1/F, 53 Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2366 0286) in Kowloon for the dim sum. I’m never disappointed there.

I go to commercial places like Din Tai Fung (various locations including 68 Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay, tel: 3160 8998), not just for the xiao long bao, but also the vegetable dishes, fried rice and chicken broth. Their spicy dumplings are delicious – there’s a little bit of MSG in there somewhere – but extremely good.

I’m also a huge fan of The Chairman (18 Kau U Fong, Central, tel: 2555 2202). I eat the menu the chef makes for me. Whenever I go, they will offer me new dishes. They know there are some dishes I really like, such as sticky rice with crab which is not on the menu, and they also do a killer congee with various types of rice, some lobster and finished with silken tofu.

When I have friends in town, I always like to take them to the more hard core dai pai dong (Hong Kong street cafe) like Kau Kee (21 Gough Street, Central, tel: 2850 5967), where they have extremely good brisket.

Amsterdam recommendations

Rijks Restaurant in the Rijksmuseum (Museumstraat 2, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel: +31 20 674 7555) has one Michelin star but it’s very local, serving up Dutch imprinted food with a very strong vegetable footprint. There’s also a place called Choux (De Ruijterkade 128, Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel: +31 20 210 3090), which is almost vegetarian.

Then there are cool restaurants that I like to go to because of the vibe like Scheepskameel (Gebouw 024A, Kattenburgerstraat 5, 1018 JA Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel: +31 20 337 9680), which translates to “a camel on a boat”. It serves classic European food – simple but well made.

I always go for Indonesian food when I am in Amsterdam, as Indonesia is a former Dutch colony. It’s not a part of history we are proud of, but Indonesian food has become a staple food for us. Tempo Doeloe (Utrechtsestraat 75, 1017 VJ Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel: +31 20 625 6718) is one of my favourites. At places like this you would order a rijsttafel, or rice table, which is basically a menu where you get 50 dishes to share.

And finally, when you really want to splurge, there’s a restaurant called Spectrum (Herengracht 542-556, 1017 CG Amsterdam, Netherlands, tel: +31 20 718 4635), which is run by my former number two here in Hong Kong, Sidney Schutte, and it’s a really great restaurant – but then I’m a little biased.