Nestled within Shek Tong’s Tsui’s boutique hotel One-Eight-One, The Praya refers to itself as a “neo-Chinese” restaurant. This does not equate to “fusion” or “East-meets-West” cuisine; instead, the restaurant takes inspiration from global ingredients and cooking techniques in order to reinvigorate traditional Cantonese cuisine.
The Praya opened quietly in the spring of 2023 as a champion of both local ingredients and sustainability, The eatery’s spacious, snazzy interior has been designed using biodegradable wood panelling, reclaimed wood accents, and windows made with low-emissivity glass.
The restaurant’s culinary team have recently introduced a host of new dishes to the à-la-carte menu, and we kicked off our tasting with the pulled roast duck (HKD288/HKD528), a take on the deep-fried dim sum favourite of taro dumpling, here elevated with hand-pulled duck. This a tasty if heavy dish, with the accompanying locally made vinegar needed for balance.
The threefinger threadfin with cuttlefish, house-made chicken broth, and yuzu (HKD388) features threadfin sourced from a sustainable fish farm in Sai Kung and takes its cue from the classic Cantonese dish of steamed chicken skin with shrimp paste. It’s a laborious process to craft this recipe, beginning with dry-ageing the fish skin for a day. We enjoyed the bouncy texture of the threadfin and cuttlefish combo, yet found the flavour of the delicate yuzu-scented broth to be overpowered by the oily robustness of the fish.
Tradition meets innovation once again with the marble goby with lychee, strawberry, and pine nuts (HKD288/HKD528), with the fruity sauce offering a deliciously refined version of the sweet-and-sour sauce we all know and love.
The chargrilled Ibérico pork char siu (HKD228) glazed with smoked honey has been a signature of the restaurant since its opening. This char siu veers from the norm with a flavour that’s more umami than sweet, and the texture is more tender than usual owing to Ibérico pork’s unique ratio of fat to lean meat.
Although it sounds tempting on paper (and is equally attractive in press photos), the one dish we weren’t so enamoured with at The Praya was the fresh beef skirt steak in house-made beef-bone broth (HKD588). This beef cut looks and tastes like the brisket that features in Hong Kong’s famous noodle dish, here also accompanied by daikon. Our serving was topped with far too many slices of tendon, which were chewy and off-putting.
Our verdict of The Praya
The Praya does a fine job in honouring the past whilst looking towards the future with its recipes, presentation, and techniques. Although we feel some of the dishes could be tweaked a bit to appeal to both local and Western palates, as is the case with the interior design, we respect the restaurant’s ethos.
The Praya, 3/F, One-Eight-One Hotel & Serviced Residences, 181 Connaught Road West, Shek Tong Tsui, WhatsApp 3181 1666, book here
| Order this: Ibérico pork char siu, braised grouper fish head with potato noodles, marble goby with lychee, strawberry, and pine nuts, walnut financiers Menu: The Praya à-la-carte menu Price for two: HKD1,200–1,600 | Atmosphere: chic, featuring a striking 1960s Bauhaus design that marries old and new Perfect for: local flavours with a twist |
This review is intended to offer an individual perspective on the dining experience and should not be considered as a definitive judgement of the restaurant’s overall quality or reputation. The views expressed in this review are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions of Foodie.
