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Chilli Fagara
This new hole-in-the-wall in Soho serves reasonably authentic Sichuan fare and is a welcome addition to the short list of quality local eateries open in this part of Central. Make sure you try all three Sichuan tastes: màa (spicy), laat (hot) and táam (mild).
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Chilli N Spice
A branch of the ever-growing chain - nine branches at last count - has found its way into Hong Kong's oldest (reconstructed) colonial building. Expect no surprises, but the venue and views are worth a ringside table.
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China Beach Club
This pleasant bar/restaurant has a large rooftop and an open-air balcony overlooking Silvermine Bay Beach. The staff are friendly and helpful and the food is good. There are salads and sides, a large BBQ section, other mains including moussaka and Thai curry and puddings too. Reservations are recommended, particularly on Sundays. The two for one cocktail 'hour' can go on well into the night.
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China Tee Club
This civilised tea house-cum-restaurant serving both Asian and Western favourites is perfect for a meal or a cuppa after finishing your shopping at Shanghai Tang or Blanc de Chine below. The food is only passable but you can't beat sipping tea or diving into laksa or Hainan chicken rice in an ambience that makes you feel like you had travelled back to 19th-century Hong Kong. Pasta and vegetarian dishes are around HK$90 to HK$105 .
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Chong Fat Chiu Chow Restaurant
While this place isn't easy to get to and communications are limited, it has some of the best and freshest Chiu Chow seafood in the territory. Don't miss the crab dishes, sek-làu-gài (chicken wrapped in little egg-white sacs) and the various goose offerings. Chiu Chow cuisine originates from Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong.
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Chuen Cheung Kui
Enlist a Cantonese dining companion or dive in bravely - there is not much English spoken here. 'Gizzard soup' and 'stomach tidbit' are two of the less appealing (at best acquired tastes) items on the English menu here, but the pulled chicken, a Hakka classic, is the dish to insist upon.
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Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant
Chuen Kee, the granddaddy of the Sai Kung seafood restaurants, has three several nearby branches to house customers when capacity is maxing out. A standard stir-fried clams costs around HK$48 .
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Cine Città
This very flash restaurant with an Italian film theme is in an area of southwest Wan Chai that is slowly becoming something of a restaurant and nightlife district. The crowd here is more unhip hotel bar than Lan Kwai Fong, though.
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Cinta-J
This friendly restaurant and lounge has a Southeast Asian menu longer than the Book of Job, which covers all bases from murtabak to gado-gado, but with a strong emphasis on Pinoy, (Filipino) dishes. It turns into a cocktail lounge in the late evening and stays open late.
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City Hall Maxim's Palace
For many years HK Magazine readers voted this place as the best dim sum restaurant in town, and while probably not everyone would agree, this establishment does offer food of solid quality. The ambience is civilised but not snobbish, and at busy lunchtime there is always a nice buzz to the place. Dim sum ladies walk around with trays of food ready to be served, saving you from having to read the menu.
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Cococabana
Clichéd as it may sound, it's all location, location, location. The service is rather lax, but with the sounds of the waves and the sea breezes, the dishes such as bouillabaisse and Spanish duck confit with olives go down well.
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Deli Lamma Café
This relaxed café-restaurant serves everything, and that means everything. The menu features everything from continental fare leaning towards the Mediterranean, with a fair few pasta dishes and pizzas. It has an excellent bar and views of the harbour.
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Dia
This stylish place, all blue satin and rattan, serves North Indian cuisine. Kick off with the mixed starters platter (around HK$120 ) before diving into the curries with some sensational naan .
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East Lake
This Cantonese restaurant, away from the waterfront and close to Tung Wan Beach, is popular with locals and expats, especially in the evening when tables are set up outside.
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Eastern Palace Chiu Chow Restaurant
Chiu Chow dim sum is served at this large hotel restaurant from to daily. Particularly good are the crab and shrimp balls, as well as the sliced goose in vinegar.
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Felix
Felix has a fantastic setting, both inside and out. You're sure to pay as much attention to the views and the Philippe Starck-designed interior as to the fusion food (think lobster nachos, hoisin grilled ribs). Towering ceilings and copper-clad columns surround the Art Deco tables and even the view from the men's is dizzying. A special lift will whisk you up directly. If you can't afford dinner just try a drink in the swanky bar.
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FINDS
This wonderful place, whose name stands for - would you believe? - 'Finland', 'Iceland', 'Norway', 'Denmark' and 'Sweden', serves seasonal Scandinavian food. We love the scapas (Scandinavian tapas, for lack of a better term), especially the tartare of Baltic herring. The surrounds - faux igloo walls and icicles-cum-chandeliers - will have you thinking that global warming has worked in reverse in old Hong Kong. Nice place for a drink, too.
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Fish Bar
Seafood by the pool is what you get here, and the harbour view is a bonus. The signature jumbo shrimp cocktail with avocado and cocktail sauce (around HK$150 ) gets you ready for the seasonal selection of imported fish, cooked in your preferred recipes. The oysters are so fresh they shrivel when poked by a fork. Carnivores may still find solace in the freshly grilled rib-eye steak.
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Food Republic
Food courts in malls have a bad rep but this one proves an exception. The choice of food covers everything from pasta and noodles to Thai and Vietnamese. There are also mini hotpots and teppanyaki. The longest queue is at the stall by Yummy Vietnamese Restaurant, which is famous for its beef pho (around HK$25 ).
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Fook Lam Moon
One of Hong Kong's top Cantonese restaurants, the Fook Lam Moon takes care of you from the minute you walk out of the lifts, with cheongsam-clad hostesses waiting to escort you to your table. The enormous menu contains a lot of unusual and expensive dishes (shark's fin, frog, abalone), which would shoot your bill up to at least HK$1000 per head. You might sample the pan-fried lobster balls (from around HK$440 ), which are a house speciality.
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Forum
The Forum's abalone dishes have fans spread across the world and have won countless awards. What restaurant owner Yeung Koon-Yat does with these marvellous molluscs has earned him membership to Le Club des Chefs des Chefs and the moniker 'King of Abalone'. The pan-fried redfish and crunchy-skin chicken are also recommended.
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Gaia Ristorante
At least one bon vivant friend considers this the best restaurant in Hong Kong. We love the wood and tile floors, the thin-crust pizzas and the outside tables in the lush plaza.
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Gallery
This Middle Eastern(ish) restaurant, on a terrace with an arbour overlooking South Lantau Rd, has some good international dishes and, at the weekend, a decent barbecue, with seafood from Australia, kebabs and other grills, such as the signature black Angus. Oven-baked pizzas are another must-try.
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Golden Bull
The crowds who descend on this place at lunch and dinner are not coming for the atmosphere (noisy) or service (abrupt), but the excellent-quality, low-cost Vietnamese food.
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Good Satay
This place on the 1st floor of a shopping and office complex doesn't look promising but it serves some of the best (and most authentic) laksa and sate in town, as well as Hainan chicken rice (around HK$39 ) that has people travelling in from other parts of town. It's packed at lunch.
