Dining is one of the things to do in Hong Kong. Half the population dines in the city's estimated 9,000 eateries every day. Not only is the food excellent, but the range of culinary possibilities is nothing short of staggering. Hong Kong also has what may well be the greatest concentration of Chinese restaurants in the world. In a few short days, you can take a culinary tour of virtually every major region of China, dining on Cantonese, Sichuan, Shanghainese, Pekingese, Chiu Chow, and other Chinese specialties. Some restaurants are huge, bustling, family affairs, countless others are mere holes in the wall, and a few of the trendiest are Shanghai chic, remakes of 1930s salons and opium dens, or strikingly modern affairs with sweeping views of the city.
Back in the 1980s, Hong Kong's most well known, exclusive restaurants, both Chinese and Western, were located primarily in hotels. That's not surprising when you realize that first-class hotels were accustomed to catering to well-traveled visitors who demanded high quality in service, cuisine, and decor. In a welcoming trend that began near the end of the last century, however, enterprising, ambitious, and talented chefs began opening establishments in ever-greater numbers, often in modest but imaginative surroundings or in swanky digs on top floors of high-rises. These included ethnic restaurants as well as eateries offering completely unique dishes, with limited but intriguing menus. A cluster of these restaurants even created a whole new dining enclave, located on the steep hill alongside the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator that connects Central with the Mid-Levels. Dubbed "SoHo" for the region "south of Hollywood Road," it blossomed into an ever-growing dining and nightlife district, making it Hong Kong's most exciting culinary scene.
Today, what began as a trickle in SoHo has now engulfed virtually all of Hong Kong. Restaurants stretch from the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district all the way to SoHo and beyond. Knutsford Terrace, an alley in Tsim Sha Tsui that has been struggling to establish itself as a Kowloon dining mecca for more years than I can remember, has finally succeeded, with one packed venue after the other offering alfresco dining. All shopping centers offer a long list of dining possibilities, some quite excellent, and with Hong Kong's never-ending land reclamation and development, you can expect more restaurants to have opened before you finish reading this book. With such an explosion of new restaurants, even local foodies have trouble keeping up.
Unfortunately, the small-time entrepreneurs who served as catalysts for today's culinary explosion probably wouldn't make it in today's competitive climate, at least not in SoHo or any other place where rents have risen dramatically. Today, Hong Kong's restaurant business is mostly a group thing, with most trendy newcomers part of a well-marketed chain.
On the other hand, there has never been as many dining possibilities as there are now, with French, Italian, American, Mexican, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and other ethnic eateries available even in far-flung parts of Hong Kong. Other welcome trends are the inclusion of vegetarian and healthy foods on many menus and the growing popularity of crossover, East-meets-West fusion cuisine, which capitalizes on ingredients and flavors from both sides of the Pacific Rim. And of course, hotel restaurants remain among the best in town, from legendary classics to innovative cutting edge.
I'm convinced that you can eat as well in Hong Kong as in any other city in the world. And no matter where you eat or how much you spend, it's sure to be an adventure of the senses. Little wonder, then, that a common greeting among Chinese in Hong Kong translates literally as "Have you eaten?" In Hong Kong, eating is the most important order of the day.
