Entertainment
  • Full Archive
  • Covers

Search Parties

  • Print
  • Email
  • Share
  • Reprints
  • Related

A mixture of relief and surprise will accompany your arrival at Hong Kong's Restaurant 131, tel: (852) 2791 2684. Relief because finding it involves reaching a remote village that even locals won't have heard of. Surprise because what awaits you when you finally get there is a dream of southern France, not a slice of southern China. Complete with manicured lawns, shuttered windows, carriage lamps and oil paintings, the reservation-only Restaurant 131 has become one of Hong Kong's most sought-after dinner venues. Actor Jackie Chan has been known to book the whole restaurant, and the guest book reads like a Hong Kong Who's Who. This is not simply a result of its intimate ambience (with room for no more than a dozen or so, an evening there has the air of a private party). It's also due to its sequestered location on Tolo Harbour—within sight of rocky islets and earshot of lapping waves—as well as the superb cooking of Gary Cheuk, who presents a changing degustation menu nightly. Then there's the sheer delight of stumbling, with your loved one, upon such a gorgeous little place in the dark: if romance isn't kindled amid the crystal and candlelight of this country hideaway, it may never be.

Connect to this TIME Story

Interact with
this story

  • Facebook







Get the Latest News from Time.com
Sign up to get the latest news and headlines delivered straight to your inbox.

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
JOHN D. HUTSON, one in a group of retired military officers pressing Obama's transition team on Dec. 4 to set a standard for the treatment of detainees by U.S. government agencies




Entertainment
  • Full Archive
  • Covers