Header photo: red prawn hot dog at Pica Pica

Start the new year with a new restaurant! If you need more, check out the complete new restaurant list for 2018.

Aulis Hong Kong

Chef Simon Rogan’s Aulis Hong Kong

Michelin-starred British chef Simon Rogan, famous for his Lake District restaurants L’Enclume and Rogan & Co and Roganic in London, lands in the 852 early this month with the opening of Aulis Hong Kong, the chef’s first “table and development kitchen concept” outside the UK. This creative, experimental dining experience will be available to only 12 guests at a time, showcasing a 10-course menu personalised to their specific tastes, with a price tag of $1,480 per diner. Wine and non-alcoholic cocktail pairings can be tagged on for the ultimate gastronomic experience.

Using seasonal, local ingredients is key to Chef Rogan, and he is cultivating personal relationships with farms in the New Territories. Current dishes include grilled salad using local veggies grilled over cherry-wood embers paired with truffle custard, elderflower vinaigrette and a Westcombe cheese sauce. Sea urchin and caviar custard, five-flavour cod, dry-aged beef with roasted leek and onion and, for dessert, stout ice cream and Pink Lady apple tart also sound like winners.

Seemingly infatuated with the Pearl of the Orient, Chef Rogan is also set to launch a Hong Kong branch of Roganic in late February.

Shop 8, UG/F, Sino Plaza, 255 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 2817 8383, reservations@aulis.com.hk

Fini’s

Fini’s Hong Kong

Taking the place of Stone Nullah Tavern in Wanchai will be Red Sauce Hospitality’s Fini’s, an Italian-American eatery serving up New York-style pizza, homemade pasta, Italian-inspired cocktails and plenty of Big Apple charm. Linguini Fini in SoHo will also be changing to another Fini’s outlet, with revamped decor and menus. Read more here.

SoHo: 49 Elgin Street, Central

Wanchai: 69 Stone Nullah Lane

HEYTEA

HEYTEA Hong Kong

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard of HEYTEA. The tea brand most well known for its fresh fruit teas and cheese teas has inspired lengthy queues across China ever since its humble beginnings in 2012. Now, the explosively popular brand opens in Hong Kong, with its first location at New Town Plaza in Shatin. Alongside its bevy of delectable fresh fruit teas and cheese teas, HEYTEA Hong Kong also offers an HK– exclusive item: the eggette roll sundae with milk tea soft serve ($32). Better start queuing up!

HeyTea will open a second outlet on Hong Kong Island in buzzy Times Square on 12 January. The shop will be a takeaway-only concept, and HeyTea is currently testing out a WeChat mobile ordering system called HeyTea GO, which should go live sometime around the third week of January.

Causeway Bay: Shop B216, B2/F, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street (opening 12 January 2019)

Shatin: Shop 408, 4/F, Phase 1, New Town Plaza, Sha Tin Centre Street

LE BREAD LAB

Le Bread Lab Hong Kong

Get ready, because the Korean dessert shop of your dreams is opening this year! Known for its signature desserts like the strawberry omelette ($68), this cult gourmet sweet shop from Seoul is setting up at Mira Place One in TST. Alongside the decadent desserts are a strawberry latte ($48) and other hot and cold bevvies to sip amongst the romantic decor.

Shop 303, 3/F, Mira Place One, 132 Nathan Road, TST

Pica Pica

Pica Pica Hong Kong

We’re thrilled to report that, in collaboration with Epicurean Group, Spanish chef Edgar Sanuy Barahona is back in business with his new restaurant Pica Pica, opening on 2 January, which celebrates the Spanish tradition of enjoying a fun, casual meal consisting of an array of dishes served in small portions. The innovative produce-driven, small-plate menu – with dishes like squid-link paella, “lazy” omelette and red prawn hot dog – is complemented by a selection of house-made aged sangria and Spanish wine and beer. We first fell head over heels for Chef Sanuy back in 2013, when we named him Chef of the Year in our annual Foodie Forks awards for his SoHo restaurant BCN (BarCeloNa), now shuttered. Pica Pica has been a long time coming!

317–321 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, 2811 9880

RAMEN CUBISM

RAMEN CUBISM Hong Kong

Ramenheads, get ready for ramen noodle champion Hayashi Takao’s RAMEN CUBISM in Central. The brainchild of ramen expert Takao – whose restaurant, Original Ramen Style Hayashi in Osaka, boasts daily queues – this hip new global ramen chain (with HK the first outpost) features unique premium ingredients like organic Tanba chicken, edible kelp bamboo seaweed and Aigamo “rice” duck, a hybrid of wild and domestic duck, in addition to the stretchy, chewy noodles we all crave and five signature broths. These include three types of chicken ramen, Premium Cubism (pictured, with slow-cooked pork belly and soft-boiled egg) and a seafood option.

Basement, Yuen Yick Building, 27–29 Wellington Street, Central, 2399 0811

Redhouse

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Opening on 15 January is Redhouse, sister restaurant to ifc mall’s SHÈ, which opened last month. With the symbolic colour of red as the theme, Redhouse is a modern Chinese restaurant offering up the tried-and-true suspects of roasted meats (+ Peking Duck), dim sum and premium seafood dishes in opulent surrounds.

23/F, California Tower, 30–32 D’Aguilar Street, LKF, Central, 2344 2366

Read: our first look review here

Satay Inn (The Royal Pacific Hotel & Towers)

Satay Inn (The Royal Pacific Hotel & Towers) Hong Kong

To celebrate the launch of the nearby Xiqu Centre – West Kowloon Cultural District’s home for traditional Chinese opera – Singaporean specialist Satay Inn has opened a new branch at The Royal Pacific Hotel & Towers in TST. From 20 January–30 June 2019, all Xiqu Centre theatregoers will receive 50 per cent off the seven-course Taste of Singapore menu, which includes Lion City delicacies such as bak kut teh, Hainanese chicken rice, chicken and pork satay and devil fish skin with salted egg yolk.

Shop 3, The Royal Pacific Hotel & Towers, China Hong Kong City, 33 Canton Road, TST, 2738 2368, book online

Savor Japan

Savor Japan Hong Kong

Savor Japan, the newest “day-to-night” F&B concept in Central, is opening on 18 January. Composed of three sections, there’s Japanese-Western artisan bakery BEAT offering a tasty line-up of grab-and-go buns with flavours like purple sweet potato, chocolate and orange confit and cream cheese with cranberry, donburi shop Nijuuichi Don and sit-down patisserie Chez Shibata, by Japanese pastry master Takeshi Shibata. At Nijuuichi Don, dig into a fresh tuna and salmon jumbo rice bowl ($128) or a piping-hot yakiniku chicken rice bowl ($57), then wash it all down with an icy glass of tomato craft beer ($58). We’re pretty sure this place will be a big hit with the Central lunch crowd.

33 Stanley Street, Central, 2881 5628 (BEAT Bakery)/2881 5286 (Chez Shibata)/2881 5222 (Nijuuichi Don)

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