Tag: Duddell’s

Hong Kong’s top al fresco restaurants for summer dining

There’s just something magical about summer days, breezy evenings and outdoor dining. And with a low threat of local COVID-19 cases these days (fingers crossed!), relaxed social restriction norms, there’s no better time to enjoy a gourmet meal of al fresco excellence than now.

Book yourself a table and make the most of your sunny weekend at one of Gafencu’s handpicked al fresco restaurants. Beachside to skyline or a garden view, whatever’s your vibe, we got you covered…

For a French garden lunch: 
Michelin-starred Louise, serves heartwarming traditional French cuisine in a two-storeyed heritage house within the gardens of PMQ. Steeped in the ideas of authentic traditions and home cooking, it bridges the gap between fine dining and a relaxed all-day fare with an intimately chic backyard garden vibe.
Where: Louise, PMQ, Central
Cuisine: French
Contact: (852) 2866 0300

For a chic al fresco meal
A chic al fresco venue framed by the iconic arches that The Murray is known for, Cotton Tree Terrace serves discerning diners looking for an easy and casual dine-in location for cocktails and lunch. Offering international dishes and grilled specialties from The Tai Pan kitchen, gourmands can enjoy the quaint atmosphere of the space over an enticing meal.
Where: The Murray, Central
Cuisine: Continental
Contact: (852) 3141 8888

For Asian cuisine by the sea:
What’s the upside to the Southside of Hong Kong Island? A whole lot of open-air, pristine beaches and mouth-watering food options. Spices is our top choice for a contemporary, eclectic meal at Repulse Bay. Book a table at the restaurant’s courtyard and enjoy a slew of Asian flavours that range from Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Indian with a breathtaking view of the sea. 
Where: The Repulse Bay, Repulse Bay
Cuisine: Mixed-Asian
Contact: (852) 2292 2821

For a fun vegetarian meal on the lawn
The huge, vibrant, and contemporary terrace space of Komune makes for a unique dining space for the southern Staunton Valley of Wong Chuk Hang. Patrons can bask in the warmth of the sun while sipping on some deliciously creative cocktails and enjoy generously portioned vegetarian sharing plates with cool tunes to set the tone. 
Where: Ovolo Southside Hotel, Wong Chuk Hang
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Contact: (852) 3460 8157

For a laid-back beachside meal
Enjoy a long road trip down to the less frequented South Lantau for a relaxing day at the beach and end it with an even more chill modern British beachside lunch at Bather’s. With a close focus on fresh seafood but also stocking well-loved favorites such as burgers and fish and chips, all with the sweeping panoramic views of the long stretch of Cheng Sha Beach in the background.
Where: Lower Cheung Sha, South Lantau
Cuisine: Modern British
Contact: (852) 2504 4788

For an art-driven dining space
If you or your dining companion enjoys appreciating art, the leafy terrace at Duddell’s doubles up as an art gallery, restaurant and lounge bar. We are fans of the green foliage on the terrace, the mis-matched furniture contrasted with the brass-patterned windows and the amazing selection of cocktails here! Make sure to enjoy their exquisite weekend brunch – it’s an all-you-can-eat dim sum spread with free-flow Champagne. Do we say more?
Where: Shanghai Tang Mansion, Central
Cuisine: Chinese
Contact: (852) 2525 9191

For a romantic classic Italian fare
Classic Italian situated within a close distance of Central’s many commercial and financial centers, Gaia regularly draws a huge crowd for its classic Roman charm, regional Italian classics, and its al fresco front that makes for a sophisticated yet relaxed dining space for both romantic and familial meals. Let the nearby water fountain to set the dreamy mood.   
Where: Grand Millenium Plaza, Sheung Wan
Cuisine: Italian
Contact: (852) 2167 8200

For a colonial vibe with a view:
Housed in a 19th-century Grade II Historic Building at the summit of Victoria Peak,  The Peak Lookout (formerly known as the Peak Cafe) is a perfect spot for an intimate dinner or a relaxed afternoon with with the gang. It’s warm, colonial, cabin-esque interiors are inviting and make us nostalgic for an era gone by. Go there for the majestic Peak view and stay for the grub. The place is a winner!
Where: The Peak Lookout, The Peak, Central
Cuisine: Intercontinental 
Contact: (852) 2849 1000

For a casual break from art viewing
Not your everyday Thai eatery, this one. Earning a Michelin star just last year, Aaharn boasts of an authentic cuisine using only the best quality ingredients that are directly flown from Thailand. Patrons can expect to experience the real deal of kup kao in historical surroundings, meaning a meal eaten with rice underneath a mango tree. Grab front row tickets to live art performances on the main grounds of Tai Kwun whilst savouring a canapé of crispy noodles with crab – the restaurant is a crowd-pleaser for a reason! 
Where: Tai Kwun, Central
Cuisine: Thai
Contact: (852) 2703 9111

For a secluded and intimate group gathering
Situated in the bay of Three Fathoms Cove, One-Thirtyone is the perfect location for a private lunch outdoors. Serving a European menu that features beloved favourites such as amuse bouche, seafood, and Italian staples, all cooked with locally sourced produce. The three-storey Mediterranean-style building in Sai Kung provides a mesmerizing backdrop for all occasions, from dates to weddings. 
Where: Sai Kung
Cuisine: European / Mediterranean
Contact: (852) 2791 2684

 

June Highlights: 11 happenings not to miss in Hong Kong this month

Looking for the hottest arts and cultural shows and exhibitions to fill your social calendar? Look no further than these 11 event highlights in Hong Kong that are not to be missed this June.

Karen Mok: The Ultimate Grand Slam Show
11 – 13 Jun
Iconic Hong Kong pop singer Karen Mok bids farewell to performing on stage and moves on to the next chapter of her life in the final stint of her three-year tour to 40 cities worldwide. Held over three nights within the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon, her last large-scale concert serves as the star’s last hurrah in her decade-long career in the showbiz industry. Though it remains uncertain whether the artist will be retiring from performing completely, it is definite that this concert would be the last of its kind for the megastar and is surely a historic event that is not to be missed.

Price: From HK$380
Location: Hong Kong Coliseum, Hung Hom Bay
For more information: sunconcert.com

Music After Work @ Xiqu Centre
Until 24 Jun
If you’re seeking a relaxing end to a busy Thursday, perhaps a visit to West Kowloon’s most prominent arts and culture venue, Xiqu Centre, will offer you just the escape you need. Presenting a weekly slew of live musical performances by the likes of local jazz bands, folk singers and songwriters, the live ensemble will take place at the venue’s front entrance, generously offering the public a soundscape of lyrical tunes and sweet harmonics to unwind to.

Price: Free entry
Location: Xiqu Centre entrance, Tsim Sha Tsui
For more information: westkowloon.hk

Hi! Flora, Fauna
Until 30 Jun
One of the oldest zoological and botanical centres in the world, and the city’s oldest park, the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens provides the lush backdrop for an art project that exhorts visitors to explore their relationship with nature. ‘Hi! Flora, Fauna’ exhibits 17 different artists and groups using various media, including painting, photography, sculpting and installation. The experience is further enlivened with a collaborative audio experience by Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

Price: Free entry
Location: Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Central
For more information: lcsd.gov.hk

Calligraphy Rhapsody: Retrospective Exhibition of Georges Mathieu
Until 4 Jul
Co-presented by non-profit organisation K11 Art Foundation (KAF) and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau at K11 MUSEA. Calligraphy Rhapsody is the largest Georges Mathieu exhibition in Hong Kong  that marks the French artist’s centenary. Curated by Catherine Kwai, featuring 14 oil paintings loaned from important private collectors, three of which span 6-meters wide and were specially created for Mathieu’s Grand Palais retrospective in Paris in 1978.

Price: Free entry
Location: Shop 605, 6/F, K11 Musea, Tsim Sha Tsui
For more information: k11musea.com

Yim Tin Tsai Arts Festival 2021
Until 16 Jul
Organised by the Tourism Commission, the Yim Tin Tsai Arts Festival continues its three-year pilot scheme to instigate a new experience of art through the integration of culture, heritage and nature in everyday life. The festival takes on a virtual space to showcase its varied artworks in digital format, inviting viewers to immerse in a 360-degree virtual reality exhibition that encapsulates the unique natural landscape and history of the Sai Kung village.

Price: Free
Location: Online
For more information: yimtintsaiartsfestival.hk

Between the Lines: The Legends of Hong Kong Printing
Until 26 Jul
This fascinating exhibition presents stories and illustrations of traditional printing techniques and movable type tools, as well as works and designs by emerging young designers who have assumed the mantle of reviving and modernising the craft of letter printing. Curators at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum train a special spotlight this month on the disappearing art form of lithography.

Price: Free entry
Location: Thematic Gallery 5, 1/F, Hong Kong Heritage Museum
For more information: heritagemuseum.gov.hk

Chinese Surrealism
Until 7 Aug
In association with the month-long Le French May arts festival, the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau partners with Alisan Fine Arts to present Chinese Surrealism. The exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink paintings and sculptures focuses on dreamscapes and explorations of the unconscious mind – imagery more commonly associated with Western names such as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. Young Hong Kong female artists dominate a six-strong group selected for their impressive interpretation of surrealism through a Chinese lens.

Price: Free entry
Location: Alisan Fine Arts, Aberdeen
For more information: alisan.com.hk

Colour The World
7 Jun
D2 Place, together with the French May Arts Festival, proudly present an extraordinary art exhibition that showcases two talented Hong Kong-based artists, The French Girl (Caroline Tronel) and Rainbo in a joint collaboration to bring French and Hong Kong culture together in an extraordinary art journey — co-creating a giant 10m-long mural painting titled Smell of Stars. Other highlights at the event include a series of artworks courtesy of the new knitting brand hoopla.

Price: Free entry
Location: The Garage, G/F, D2 Place TWO
For more information: frenchmay.com

Romeo + Juliet
18 – 20 Jun
The Hong Kong Ballet brings to life one of the most epic love stories of all time, Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, with a contemporary Hong Kong-inspired twist. In this local iteration of the timeless tale of star-crossed lovers, the duo is caught in a war between rival triad families in the ’60s Hong Kong. The narrative follows their passion and tragedy in a fusion of dance and drama with original choreography by Septime Webre, Prokofiev’s dramatic score, and sumptuous cheongsam costumes.

Price: From HK$140
Location: Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre, Tsim Sha Tsui
For more information: hkballet.com

Curve of Buoyancy
20 Jun
Michelin-starred cultural and social destination Duddell’s lends its contemporary mixed-use space to an exhibition of 16 thought-provoking works owned by four eminent female collectors, including Mimi Brown, Karen Levy and Li Lin. Curve of Buoyancy spans such diverse subjects as Gothic architecture and functional straps in athleisurewear, and is inspired by the curved lightness of Wendell Dayton’s sculpture ‘For Calder’ (1975).

Price: Free entry
Location: Duddell’s, Shanghai Tang Mansion, 1 Duddell St, Central. Website: duddells.co/art/main/en

Jewellery & Gem Asia Hong Kong
24 – 27 Jun
Asia’s most important jewellery event returns this year, albeit in a hybrid of physical and virtual programmes. Occupying 70,000sq.m of event space within the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the gathering of all that glitters lives up to its year-on-year exciting line-up of exhibitors and special events. The fair’s virtual showing, meanwhile, extends from 17 June to 7 July and grants full access to new products, digital events, specials and more.

Price: Free entry
Location: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai
For more information: hkcec.com

 

Old-timey dimsum experience unveiled at 1 Michelin-starred Duddell’s

For six years now, Central-set Duddell’s has set the benchmark for fine-dining Cantonese cuisine. In particular, its dimsum menu has found favour with discerning diners across the city, lauded as being equal parts innovative and an homage to the culinary tradition’s established flavours. 

Duddell's new dimsum menu

Now, Duddell’s is introducing a special iteration of its much-loved all-you-can-eat dimsum buffet every Monday to Thursday starting in July. This new take sees the restaurant take guests back to Hong Kong’s ’80s-era heyday, serving up not only classics like steamed shrimp dumplings (har gau) and chicken’s feet (feng zao), but also revives long-forgotten favourites from that time.  

Duddell's new dimsum menu 2

As such, the new all-you-can-eat ‘80’s dim sum menu include additions such as Duddell’s signature pork and shrimp dumpling, juicy beef dumpling with lard, minced beef ball with bean curd skin, steamed bean curd sheet roll filled with collagen-rich duck feet and taro, and shrimp spring roll with garlic. New desserts include the Chinese traditional sweet soup of green mung bean with fried seaweed, and the beloved coconut milk pudding with red bean. 

Duddell's new dimsum menu 3

In all, over 30 varieties of dimsums, dishes and desserts will be on offer. What’s more, there’s even a free-flow drink package (HK$148 + 10% service charge per head) inclusive of two hours of house wines, spirits, soft drinks and beers. With the unlimited buffet priced at just HK$268 + 10% service charge per head, there’s really nothing stopping you from diving in, chopsticks brandished, to your heart’s content.

Summer Cocktails: Stories behind the summer’s most spirited concoctions

With the mercury soaring to new heights in Hong Kong, the city’s bars have chosen an array of summer cocktails as weapons of choice to beat the heat…

Summer Cocktails

At the heart this summer cocktail movement is Duddell’s, an institution seen as Central’s cultural and social hub. Perhaps somewhat boldly, it has put its new Harmony cocktail range – a selection of drinks inspired by Eastern mysticism – at the front of its bid to build the cocktail constituency. Curated by resident mixologist Masumi Tomioka and award-winning bar specialist James Barker, each cocktail in the Harmony series blends nature with art.

The bar’s cocktail menu is neatly divided into four seasonal sections, with each said to “explore Japanese spirituality and draw inspiration from natural imagery and proverbs”.  It’s probably safe to say that several libations played a part in its creation.

Summer cocktails

Designed to please a variety of palates, Fuubutsu-shi is the section that evokes the spirit of summer. It is a process that seems heavily reliant on haiku-esque drink designations, including the somewhat gnostic First Reeds Sprout (HK$160) and the more prosaic Frogs Start Singing (HK$160). The true star here, though, is the Warm Winds Blow (HK$160), a blend of Kamm & Sons Ginseng Spirit, Islay single-malt whisky, turmeric, vanilla, Indian tonic and pink grapefruit. I think we can all agree just which warm wind is likely to blow after two or three of these.

Summer cocktails

Another forerunner in the summer cocktail carnival is Angel’s Share, one of the Hollywood Road’s most welcoming drinkeries. Its seasonal specials are all elegant variations on the highball, that most classic of cocktail styles.  

 Among the most popular highball creations credited to head barman Lok Cheung is the Monochrome (HK$118), a classic blend of Johnnie Walker Black Label and homemade smoked malt soda.  Another seasonal favourite, the Lavender Cooler (HK$118), also features Johnnie Walker Black Label, this time paired with lavender cordial, ginger ale, Singha soda water, lemon bitters and a garnish of lavender and gooseberry.

Summer cocktails

Returning more to the fantasy realm, Quinary – the Central-set nightspot recently recognised as one of the world’s 50 best bars – turned to Peter Pan, a classic of children’s literature, as the inspiration for its summer cocktails themed ‘Finding Neverland’, all of which were dreamed up by Samuel Kwok, the bar’s resident mixologist.

For summer 2018, his most popular creation has proved to be the Cool Lagoon (HK$130), a deceptively potent cocktail of Italicus, Iron Balls gin, Thai basil, Pavan grape liqueur, kaffir lime, cucumber bitters and pickled jalapeno syrup. While it’s not guaranteed to transport you to a land where boys never grow up, chances are enough of them will.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay