Header image: Kikanbo’s spicy miso ramen
Amazing Food Hall (city’super Times Square)
We could spend hours browsing (and eating) the delights of city’super, and that time frame could increase to whole mornings or afternoons with the opening the refurbished Amazing Food Hall at the supermarket’s Times Square branch on Friday, 16 August. This new retail concept is described as a made-to-order and ready-to-eat “foodie wonderland”, and we couldn’t agree more. The contemporary Amazing Food Hall seats 150 and features 13 zones: Seafood Kitchen, Sushi & Sashimi, Butcher Factory, Super Green (top produce from around the world, with a DIY salad bar to boot), Noodles & Pasta, Wine Town, Oyster Bar, Delicatessen & Cheese, Street Deli (global street food, with Korean street food debuting), Bellota-Bellota (Ibérico ham), Le Gourmet (caviar), RF1 (Japanese salad and juice concept) and Grab & Go.
Basement 1, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, 2736 3866
Dalloyau Bistro (Central)
Situated beside the brand-spanking-new FANCL shop in Central is the latest outpost of Dalloyau Bistro, which showcases all-day Parisian-style dining along with the French patisserie’s world-renowned pastries and desserts, as well as – for the first time – a selection of all-natural ice creams and sorbets. A key focus of the menu is healthy living, with dishes like crab salad with jellied tomato consommé, pickled green tomatoes and avocado ice cream and steamed grouper with cucumber and goji berries, while those looking to indulge are also catered to with lavish afternoon tea sets and sharing dishes such as beef Wellington and the seven-layered salmon coulibiac, pictured.
G/F, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road Central, Central, 3185 8392, book online
KFC Concept Store
Akin to Admiralty’s McDonald’s Next, KFC’s first concept shop has opened in Hong Kong with a café-like dining experience. At three storeys, the ground floor offers “sweet boxes” of takeaway desserts and ice creams, self-ordering kiosks and bar seats are on the first floor and the second floor features a spacious, pop-art-inspired seating area. Exclusive items include baked rice with chicken fillet and chizza (pictured) – a chicken “pizza” base topped with cheese and pineapple. Open daily 8am–midnight.
G/F–2/F, East South Building, 479–481 Hennessy Road & 29 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, 2745 2903
Kikanbo
Tokyo cult-fave miso ramen specialist Kikanbo is making its HK debut in Causeway Bay this month (to put things into perspective, 27,000 bowls of Kikanbo’s ramen are sold each month in Tokyo). This addictive ramen is made up of a complex miso broth flavoured with pork, chicken and seafood, noodles that come in three different thicknesses and five levels of spicy numbness – “oni extra” is the most fiery of the lot, with the off-the-charts heat coming from the Trinidad scorpion “Butch Taylor” pepper, one of the spiciest chillies in the world. In a unique twist, Kiakanbo’s ramen is served in different-coloured bowls to denote the varying heat levels.
530 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay, 2481 3383
Mango Tree Kitchen (Cityplaza)
Adding to the Mango Tree empire is this eatery at Cityplaza, making yet another flavourful dining addition to the mega mall. Several Thai dishes have been added that are exclusive to this branch including grilled stingray in banana leaves (pictured) and northern Thai BBQ spring chicken. Those dining at MTK between 1–4 August with be gifted with one or more Thai mangoes based on their spending – who’s keen to whip up some mango sticky rice at home?
Shop 314, 3/F, Cityplaza, 18 Taikoo Shing Road, Taikoo Shing, 2577 0699
Nectar
Grassroots Pantry may have shut, but its plant-based replacement, Nectar – also by pioneering chef Peggy Chan – is just as lauded. This next-generation veggie eatery, a more sophisticated version of Grassroots Pantry, some might say, features a series of seasonal dinner tasting menus using locally sourced, organic ingredients, plus a weekday set lunch menu and weekend brunch menu. In addition to popular Grassroots Pantry signatures such as mixed mushroom linguine and young coconut, sweetcorn and aji amarillo pepper, diners have the option of sampling newly invented dishes like Food Waste – a version of Thai snack miang sham utilising the oft-forgotten parts of a banana plant, the blossom and the skin, wrapped in betel leaves – and Clean Energy, made up of black corn, “butter not butter” and togarashi. The dairy-free Nectar Cheese Course (above) is a particular highlight for us fromage fans.
108 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, 2873 3353, book online
NOVE
Amongst the cluster of clothing and knick-knack stalls in Central’s lanes is new contemporary Chinese restaurant NOVE, focusing on both creative dim sum and Chiu Chow-style marinated delicacies. At the helm in the kitchen are Executive Chef Yiu Por Wong and Chef Kwai Chung Poon, who have more than five decades of experience under their toques (of note, Chef Wong was the former head dim sum chef at Island Tang). Yum cha signatures included steamed pork belly buns and baked abalone cheese tarts.
9 Li Yuen Street East, Central, 2180 6799, nove9hk@gmail.com
Peak Galleria
The F&B options at The Peak have long been underwhelming, to say the least, but that’s all about to change this month with the unveiling of the highly anticipated Peak Galleria revamp. Already open now are Gordan Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen & Bar, Anglo-Indian restaurant Rajasthan Rifles by Black Sheep Restaurants, high-end Japanese eatery 37 Steakhouse & Bar and dessert specialist Mina House. Other food-related shops include huge sweets emporium Candylicious from Singapore and new concept Cow Cow Kitchen from Japan’s Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory.
There will be 60 new merchants in total; on the non-F&B side, we can look forward to the world’s first Monopoly-themed attraction, Monopoly Dreams, Build-A-Bear Workshop from the USA and Wooderful Life, the flagship shop for this Taiwanese purveyor of sustainable wood products.
118 Peak Road, The Peak
ZEST by Konishi
Chef Mitsuru Konishi’s current passion project is sophisticated French-Japanese restaurant ZEST in Central (in the spot formerly held by Philippe Orrico’s ON Dining), which features two levels: a lounge where guests can sip away on craft cocktails paired with bento boxes and bar snacks (complimentary between 5–8pm) and, one floor below, a dining room showcasing fine-dining à-la-carte and tasting menus. Chef Konishi has quite a pedigree, with experience spanning from two-Michelin-starred L’ATELIER de Joël Robuchon in Tokyo to our own Michelin-starred Wagyu Takumi. Exciting stuff.
28–29/F, 18 On Lan Street, Central, 2715 0878
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