Best new restaurants and bars to try in Hong Kong this month

Fuel Espresso expands to Taikoo Place with a sizable new café and kiosk designed to complement the lobby’s handsome and well-lit interiors. The building, which was pre-certified Platinum in LEED Building Design and Construction, also aligns with the brand’s sustainable ethos – plant-based packaging and cups are just the baseline for Fuel’s eco-friendly efforts. If you work in the building, odds are you’ve already grabbed a coffee from here. If you don’t, add this to your list of places to try the next time you visit Quarry Bay.

The bar adjoining long-awaited Sushi Zo features no shortage of Japanese touches, from flavoured ice blocks shaped like Hannya masks and small-batch sakes to geisha-influenced performances and cocktails named after characters from traditional Noh theatre. This bar is another colourful feather in Tai Kwun’s cap. 

Uber-popular spicy miso ramen restaurant Kikanbo launches its first location in Hong Kong, bringing its numbing noodle soup to Causeway Bay. The burgeoning chain from Tokyo is best known for its miso soup, featuring its so-called “three thickness” ramen noodles and a broth made from pork bone, chicken bone and seafood, with accoutrement that include pork belly braised with star anise. What makes this really special, though, is the spice. You can up the heat with the addition of sansho chilli oil, Trinidadian scorpion pepper oil and more. Ouch.

Superstar actress Shu Qi finally brings her trendy restaurant KiKi to Hong Kong, opening this brand-new noodle outlet in IFC Mall. In addition to staples like the KiKi dan dan noodles, the restaurant is introducing two exclusive noodle dishes: meat dumpling mixed noodles with scallion oil, and abalone and fish maw noodles in chicken soup. Both were created by Albert Au Kwok-Keung, who was the world’s youngest Chinese chef to lead a three-Michelin-starred restaurant (The Eight in Macau). For drinks, expect a menu full of unique tea and fruit infusions made with cutting-edge BKON technology.

Mana, torchbearers of the ‘fast slow food’ movement, open their third location this month. And this one is going to be big. As in, 1,600-square-feet big. The plant-based, zero-waste specialists now have a flagship venue located opposite Three Pacific Place in Wan Chai. As far as food and drinks go, you can expect the brand’s beloved flats and plant-based burgers, as well as a build-your-own salad bar, a plant-fuelled coffee bar and an actual bar serving organic booze like the G&K, a blend of organic gin and kombucha. The brand also intends to use the space to host events, talks, screenings, concerts and more, so stay tuned.

Sushi Zo, the lauded omakase joint with several international branches, finally arrives this August, opening up shop in Tai Kwun. The Michelin-starred restaurant flies in fresh produce from Japan each day. With an array of premium seafood at their disposal, three chefs work behind the counter, turning out personalised 18-course meals to lucky guests. How lucky? There are only two seatings of 14 guests maximum each day. This might be one of the hottest tables in town. We imagine it will have been worth the wait, too.

The brainchild of award-winning bar team Sandeep Hathiramani and Gagan Gurung, Tell Camellia unites the world of tea with cocktail culture in a slick new space in suddenly buzzing H Code. (See: The Chicken Bar and Saketen, for example). Camellia sinensis is the Latin name for the tea tree, and so you know what to expect here. The cocktail menu promises drinks made with contemporary and cutting-edge techniques that highlight the flavours of teas sourced from around the world: Kenya, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and more. 

Acclaimed Japanese chef Mitsuru Konishi brings his expertise in two of the world’s most precise cuisines to the table this August. Occupying two floors in an On Lan Street sky-rise, Zest showcase the chef’s unique French-Japanese style – Konishi worked at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Tokyo and at Taillevent in France, where he became the restaurant’s first Japanese sous chef. On the 28th floor, he is cooking up haute cuisine that demonstrates his forward-looking views on flavour and technique while, on the 29th floor, he is paying homage to his Japanese heritage with express set menus, bento boxes and craft cocktails.