These Restaurants In Hong Kong Are Changing The Game For Cantonese Cuisine

A char siu bao for breakfast, a steaming bowl of wonton noodle soup at Tsim Chai Kee for lunch, a quick stop for silk stocking milk tea at Long Fong Yuen in the evening, a to-go matcha mochi brioche bun from Vission Bakery, and a portion of roast goose from Yat Lok as early dinner—that’s how time ought to be divided in Hong Kong. 

Given its significant position on the global map, which has historically worked like a magnet for people from all over the world, Hong Kong, in culinary terms, can be best described as the food court of the world. From adopting the European nuances brought in by the British to embracing foreign ingredients and cooking styles of the rest of Asia and even the South, Hong Kong has always kept up pace with the happenings of the culinary world. However, despite the range that it puts up, Hong Kong’s soul is best encapsulated in the Cantonese cuisine that it has made its own since the 19th century.

While its most authentic version has been preserved by the many family-style restaurants, like Ser Wong Fun, that have persevered for more than a hundred years—each unflinchingly holding onto the original, traditional recipes passed down over generations—a new wave of restaurants and chefs have committed themselves to putting it on centre stage, looked on by a yearning global audience.

An Artist's Take

It is impossible to imagine one Michelin-starred restaurant sandwiched between antique shops, but Mora by Chef Vicky Lau is not about the obvious, and its location is its first tell. While it may be surrounded by old, ash-grey buildings on both sides, the door to Mora welcomes you into a slick, clean, and warm space that instantly relates to the ingredient that the restaurant champions: soy.

Opened in January 2022, Mora was a result of Chef Lau’s ambition to take a rather commonly used ingredient in Cantonese cuisine and highlight its versatility, which she achieves brilliantly by infusing each dish with the with the inherent finesse of French culinary techniques. While the hero is soy, Chef Lau applies her decades-long knowledge to pair it with other finest available locally sourced ingredients that helps in sometimes revealing and other times accentuating soy’s hidden flavours.

For a fitting initiation, Chef Lau begins her curated seven-course “Characters of Soy” meal with a shot of pure savoury soy milk, served with geoduck and clam jus. Meanwhile, the rest of the six dishes proceeds to highlight soy’s diverse versions and textures. From the golden crunch of the bean curd skin tart that is served with pickled cucumber and wood ear, soy ricotta and herb pesto, to the udon noodles sitting in satin-like soy milk lobster bouillon, the meal is an excursion into the many possibilities of soy, which continues with other fantastic creations like camouflage grouper tofu skin roll with zucchini and herb sauce, chicken and tofu roulade with yellow wine sauce, Swiss chard and string bean, and mushroom mapo tofu rice. The ending is just as impactful as the beginning, with black rice soy ice cream and Kinsman’s rednaxela cocktail (soy milk from Chef Lau’s soy factory, An Soy, monkfruit spirit, fenjiu and red bean liqueur) for dessert.   

But the one Michelin-starred Mora is not all there is to Chef Lau. Having left behind her career as a graphic designer to embark on her journey as a culinary genius, Chef Lau continues to indulge in her love for art, infusing it in all her creations. The Tate Dining Room, which is located only a five-minutes walk away from Mora, is her canvas and has been so since 2012. 

Unlike Mora, Tate Dining Room is where Chef Lau stretches beyond a particular ingredient, technique and region to craft a menu that presents itself as “Edible Stories,” which follows the style of Pablo Neruda’s “All The Odes.” Like it, every month, Chef Lau and her team puts together a six-course culinary sojourn that takes you through the various facets of a singular ingredient; and each is aptly named as “Ode To….”

In fact, it is this streak to innovate and discover an ingredient down to its last detail that led Chef Lau to conceive the idea of Mora, when she presented the “Ode to Soy” menu. Moreover, it is also here that she draws upon her past as an artist to skillfully and accurately draw upon diverse but complementary flavours that acts as the base for the central ingredient to shine—such as the dish composed of shiitake mushroom braised with morel mushroom ragout and Yunnan tree moss (from “Ode to Mushroom”), charcoal grilled blue grouper with green olive sauce and oolong tea foam (from “Ode to Grouper”), and roasted Beijing duck with five spice, hibiscus, strawberry and plum compote, sticky rice and duck wonton (from “Ode to Duck”). Furthermore, it would be a sin to not mention just how visually arresting each of these dishes are with its intentional simplicity and finesse—quite possibly an ode to Chef Lau’s time training at the three Michelin-starred Kitcho restaurant in Tokyo.

Modern Meets Memories

While the culinary world is always about anticipating the future, and Hong Kong is where it is realised, food is as much about memories—and that is what Wing by Chef Vicky Cheng is all about.

After having ascended the peak of culinary excellence with the one Michelin-starred VEA restaurant, known for Chinese-French fusion dishes, Chef Cheng decided to tell a more personal story in 2021, by introducing Wing, which is his Chinese name. 

At Wing, Chef Cheng retreats to his childhood days, bringing forth elevated creations that meld traditional Chinese culinary wisdom with utmost elegance, earning it multiple spots in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. In his own words, “The philosophy of Wing is derived from the auspicious “ruyi” handicrafts that progress into progress into endless discoveries through mastering the essentials.”

Experiencing the tasting set menu in Wing is a lot like flipping through Chef Cheng’s family album, with a story behind each of the twelve dishes. The meal starts with incredibly presented razor clams with yunan chilli and bull kelp, braided eggplant marinaded in sour sauce and smoked with applewood; chilli Japanese oyster and golden crystal egg that was drunken in chilli mala sauce; drunken mud crab that featured two kinds of Chinese wine, and a perfectly crispy and meaty sea cucumber spring roll served with charred scallion. The traditional winter melon soup and geo duck punctuates the transition to the mains, which comprised of traditionally steamed wild macao sole; sugarcane smoked pigeon (prepared using sugarcane juice from Kung Lee, one of the oldest shops in Central, Hong Kong); fish maw rice with abalone sauce; Chinese white cabbage or hok tau dressed in light ginger broth, and chilli Alaskan crab steamed with garlic and presented with crispy cheung fun. There was also an off-the-menu surprise—the delightfully crispy and juicy Hújiāo bǐng or pepper bun, a local favourite from China’s Fujian province.

Another gem in Hong Kong’s gastronomy map that pushes the envelope of traditional Cantonese flavours by playing with textures is Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 in Happy Valley, helmed by stalwart Chef Silas Li.

Chef Li was only sixteen when he started out in professional kitchens, having discovered his passion early on while helping his parents at their Chinese takeaway in the UK. After mastering the French culinary techniques, Chef Li spent time in Mainland China learning all about the Chinese cuisine. It is this trove of experience that shines through in all the dishes at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983, which dispels the rigidities and myths surrounding the cuisine to present a unique East-meets-West experience. 

While Chef Li stresses on keeping the essence intact, each dish comes with an interesting textural element. Among all his dishes, Chef Silas’ ambition is most well encapsulated in creations like steamed egg white and fresh crab meat with hua diao wine sauce and lily flower root foam served in an eggshell, steamed shiitake mushroom prawn dumpling with homemade shiitake mushroom powder and oil, poached foie gras with Chinese marinade, horse-head fish en papillote served with mixed vegetables and tofu puff drenched in sweet and sour sauce, and preserved chicken meat and rice encased in crispy chicken skin and served with Chinese mushroom sauce.