My most memorable moment during six days in Hong Kong involved slipping through a puddle in a fish market while jogging with two pastors to catch a ferry after a beery lunch. That particular misstep cost me an ankle and my physio several hours of her life, but it did reaffirm something important: change is afoot in Hong Kong, but it is, and always will be, a hell of a town.
From steamy hole-in-the-wall joints slinging brisket noodles that could bring a monk to tears, to fine-dining temples with more chandeliers than sense, the city cranks the flavour dial straight up to eleven. If you’re like us, you will eat too much, drink too hard, stay out too late, and thank yourself for every second.
This list isn’t exhaustive by any means, but it is tried and true. Follow in our footsteps (but maybe swerve the Aberdeen Fish Market footrace) and you’re sure to have a pantheon-worthy week of indulgence.
Sham Shui Po dining
Restaurants
Lung King Heen
A legend of fine dining, Chef Chan Yan-Tak became the world’s first chef to earn three Michelin stars at a Cantonese restaurant: Lung King Heen. Perched above the harbour, four floors up the Four Seasons Hotel, its name translates as ‘view of Kowloon’.
Chef Chan overcame the odds to rise from economic hardship to the pinnacle of culinary excellence, holding onto the three-star rating for fourteen years. The experience is nothing short of exquisite, with fresh, simple ingredients executed with meticulous precision.
Commencing with a tea ceremony, each course felt like a rite of passage, with standouts such as the marinated red jellyfish in sesame oil, or the braised whole South African abalone with goose web in oyster sauce, bordering on the religious. For a special dining experience of the upper echelon, it’s hard to do better.
8 Finance Street, Central; fourseasons.com/hongkong
Lucy King Heen dining room
Wah Lam Noodle Restaurant
Looking for a post-midnight feed for less than a fiver? Or to blow away the cobwebs with brisket noodles and an eye-opening dose of chilli oil? There are few places more fit for purpose than Wah Lam Noodle Restaurant, which opens from 7am to 3am.
It can be a bit difficult to locate, tucked away on a quiet by-street, but it’s well worth the effort. Fragrant, beefy broth is the speciality here, generously laden with thick, textured noodles and bold flavour. You can top it off with beef tendon, fish balls and squid balls if the spirit moves you. Wrap the meal up like the locals do with a potent mug of yuenyeung – a blend of black tea and coffee mixed with condensed milk – and you’ll be fit as a fiddle.
5–11 Thomson Road, Wan Chai
Grand Majestic Sichuan
In London, Sichuan cuisine is often presented as pugilism, leaning heavily into high-spice chilli and numbing black pepper, so that you feel pounded about the jaw by the time you leave the table. If visiting Hong Kong, make sure to drop into Grand Majestic Sichuan for a masterclass in Sichuan finesse, where balance is established through contrast.
Dishes like wok-fried whole crab and grouper fillets in a sea of chillies teeter like a tightrope walker between Ma (numbing), La (hot and spicy), Tian (sweetness), and Xian (savouriness). And it’s very extra, too; perfect for a date night, with red velvet upholstery, marble floors, Gucci wallpaper and lavish chandeliers, it could have served as a backdrop in a Baz Luhrmann film.
The waitstaff have an eye for the theatrical (think flaming tableside hot pots) and a nose for good wine. Don’t be surprised to find yourself sipping a grower champagne alongside your bamboo shoots.
Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road, Central; grandmajesticsichuan.com
You will eat too much, drink too hard, stay out too late, and thank yourself for every second
Lin Heung Lau
This dim sum tea house goes way, way back, to Guangzhou in 1889. It’s been a hot commodity in Hong Kong since it launched its current incarnation in 1996 after several locations, and reopened in April 2024 after a 20-month refurbishment.
Famous for its traditional trolley service, there’s a lovely chaotic pace driving the engine of this yum cha legend, with pushcarts delivering steaming jewels of dim sum across its two-storey dining room. Fuel up with tea for an energising, energetic lunch.
160–164 Wellington Street, Central
Ho Lee duck
High Island Seafood Restaurant
This one’s a bit remote, but it’s worth it for the journey as much for its beautiful archipelago-side setting and seafood gleaned from the locals’ latest catch. Those who venture off the beaten path in Hong Kong will be richly rewarded, as was the case with a kayaking tour that culminated with multiple beers and a fishermen’s bounty for the ages at High Island Seafood Restaurant.
Fat knuckles of sea urchin arrived steaming, looking almost vulnerable on top of a bed of egg custard. Astutely deep-fried pork chop was served ssam-style in a springy bed of Chinese lettuce, to be wrapped and inhaled ravenously. Glistening waters and fresh air of the harbour just amp up the hunger.
Sha Kiu Tsuen, Leung Shuen Wan, Sai Kung; yauleyseafood.com.hk
Ho Lee Fook
This is the restaurant that started it all for the Black Sheep Group, and helped to make the empire a household name among Hong Kong’s expat scene. The name plays on Cantonese slang, roughly translating as ‘good fortune for your mouth’. Spell it out phonetically in English and, well, you get the picture.
Interiors are loud and proudly local; lots of Warhol-esque pop art, red motifs, mahjong and lucky cats. Dishes are hauntingly delicious. Chongqing chicken wings took no prisoners, immersed in a plunge pool of facing heaven chillies. Steamed live razor clams arrived split open on their hinge and drenched in a mess of glass noodles and ink-orange aged garlic and soy sauce.
Wine pairings are enlightened and draw heavily from China’s undersung vineyards. This place is all about the good times. Before we managed to tear ourselves away from the table, our waiter joined us for three rounds of shots.
3–5 Elgin Street, SoHo, Central; holeefook.com.hk
Bars
Argo
Designed by AB Concept, Argo looks like a spaceship decided to open a cocktail bar and got really into botany. There’s curved marble, mirrored ceilings, glowing terrariums and a rotating liquor vault that feels like it might house the nuclear codes.
The Field Guide menu leans into rare ingredients and global geekery, with cacao fruit, local honey and spirits you’ve probably never heard of but will absolutely pretend you have. It’s clever, theatrical and dangerously drinkable. Order the quaffable Argo Martini, nod thoughtfully, and pretend that you live here.
Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance Street, Central; fourseasons.com
Fukura kanpachi
Fukuro
Pop quiz. It’s post-midnight and you’re in need of an umami fix in Hong Kong’s drinking district. Where do you turn? Fukuro translates from Japanese as ‘night owl’, and is all about that late-night izakaya dive vibe. Fix up and look sharp with an extended highball menu featuring next-level long drinks, alongside a curated list of Japanese whiskies and sakes.
If you need to stop the bleeding with some quality eats, there are plenty of chopped-and-screwed classics, such as a chicken tatsuta sando with crispy chicken thigh, cabbage, pickles and milk bread, or Mentaiko pasta with spicy cod roe, nori and sakura ebi. Just don’t expect to remember everything.
1–5 Elgin Street, SoHo, Central, Hong Kong; fukuro.com.hk
The Chinnery
Step into The Chinnery and you’re stepping into a slice of Hong Kong history that’s aged as gracefully as its 30-year-old Glenfarclas. Opened in 1963 and named after the British painter George Chinnery, the bar has long been a haven of wood-panelled calm, secreted away in the Mandarin Oriental; all leather banquettes, silver tankards and the kind of hush that feels earned.
Women weren’t admitted until 1990, but the atmosphere today is less boys’ club, more whisky temple: there are over 120 single malts behind the bar, from Taiwanese Kavalan to obscure Islay bottlings, all curated with quiet reverence. It’s a bar for those who don’t need to shout to be heard, and one that proves old-school doesn’t have to mean out-of-touch.
5 Connaught Road Central, Central; mandarinoriental.com/hong-kong
Bar Leone
We’d be remiss not to include this on our list, as it’s hands down the most famous cocktail establishment in the city, famously becoming the first ever bar to debut at number one on Asia’s 50 Best Bars.
If you can manage to maintain your patience in the queue, you’ll be spoiled with perfect Italian-inspired serves and an interior styled like a Roman neighbourhood dive, decked out with vintage jerseys, Italian posters, a warm mahogany bar, and framed football memorabilia, especially that of AS Roma, seemingly the fave.
11–15 Bridges Street, Central, Hong Kong; barleonehk.com
Upper House dining
Aqua Luna
Well, it’s not exactly a bar, but you might have your most memorable drink aboard Aqua Luna, a painstakingly restored Chinese junk with crimson sails and a flair for the dramatic.
Board at Central Pier, grab a cocktail, and glide across Victoria Harbour like a mildly tipsy pirate. It’s part cruise, part bar, part Instagram flex, the kind of place where a negroni tastes twice as good purely because you’re sipping it on a boat shaped like a dragon and pretending you’re in a movie montage.
2 Concorde Road, Kai Tak, Kowloon; aqualuna.com.hk
Where to stay
The Upper House
You don’t land fifth in the World’s 50 Best Hotels without turning a few heads, and The Upper House has been doing just that since it opened in 2009. Designed by André Fu – his first project, no less – the 117-room property set the tone for a career that’s shaped the modern identity of Asian luxury hotels.
Rising above Pacific Place in Admiralty, just up from the grit and neon of Wan Chai, guests reach the hotel via a series of theatrically lit escalators that give way to an interior of oak, bamboo and soft light. The real draw, though, is the space: vast wraparound rooms where every texture, fitting and finish feels obsessively thought through.
On the 49th floor, Salisterra serves Mediterranean plates with panoramic views – but this is less a hotel with a view than one you’ll struggle to tear yourself away from.
From £527 per night. 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong; thehousecollective.com
Kerry Hotel panorama
The Kerry Hotel
If you’re the kind of traveller who likes a little room to roam, The Kerry Hotel should be on your radar. Set on the Kowloon waterfront in Hung Hom, it’s got the best of both worlds: a quieter, more expansive harbourfront location, and cinematic views across the water to Hong Kong Island.
The hotel’s 546 rooms – many designed by André Fu – are modern, minimal and bathed in natural light, while a 25-metre outdoor pool sits just above the promenade, flanked by cabanas and harbour breezes. Hung Tong serves up modern Cantonese plates that are as striking as the design, and there’s plenty to explore on foot – from the nearby ferry terminal to the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
The vibe is urban resort, and for the price, it punches well above its weight as a place to hang your hat.
From £157.50 per night. 38 Hung Luen Rd, Hung Hom; shangri-la.com/hongkong/kerry
Four Seasons Hong Kong
Even in a city with no shortage of luxury hotels, Four Seasons Hong Kong is in a league of its own. Seven Michelin stars across its restaurants should tell you most of what you need to know – including three at Caprice, two at Noi by Paulo Airaudo, and three at Lung King Heen, the first Chinese restaurant ever to be awarded that coveted third star.
Add to that Argo – one of the world’s best cocktail bars, designed to incredibly high spec by AB Concept – and a destination spa and rooftop infinity pool, and you’ve got one of the most complete hotel experiences anywhere on the planet. Rooms are elegant, service is precise to the point of psychic, and its position next to the IFC mall makes it as convenient as it is luxurious.
If you want to feel like your finger is on the pulse of pulsating Hong Kong, you've chosen well. Come for the food, stay for the pool, leave feeling like royalty. f
From £516 per night. 8 Finance St, Central; fourseasons.com/hongkong
