Hong Kong's Hot Tables

Hon

g Kong's restaurateurs would rather draw a veil over the past 12 months. The effects of SARS on the domestic and tourist markets saw many a steel shutter come down for good. Hundreds of staff were laid off (or worked unpaid). And at the height of the outbreak, going out for a meal was like visiting a clinic: a sober experience of sterile swabs and face masks. The arrival of an international culinary superstar and the continuing emergence of local ones are therefore a much needed boost for the city's recovering dining scene.

Brand-new at the InterContinental Hong Kong hotel is Spoon, tel: (852) 2721 1211, the latest restaurant by Alain Ducasse, who has nine Michelin stars to his name. Diners here can expect a free-form improvisation of flavors and textures, where the inspiration is just as likely to be Asian or Mediterranean as it is Gallic. The menu is also flexible: instead of sticking to a starter, main course and dessert, diners can tailor a meal from long lists of ingredients, accompaniments and sauces.

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Spoon will be a formidable competitor to the city's other top-league restaurants, but other contenders are emerging from unexpected quarters—among them the low-key Renaissance Harbour View Hotel. Located in the shadow of the more fashionable Grand Hyatt, the Renaissance is home to Scala, tel: (852) 2802 8888, a fine-dining restaurant that regulars say has long served the best Continental cuisine in Hong Kong but is only now starting to win critical attention. Chiefly responsible for this is the young, talented local chef Ricky Cheung: how someone who has never trained in Europe can show such intuitive understanding of European food is anyone's guess, but Cheung pulls it off marvelously. His lobster bisque is possibly the finest you'll ever try.

Across the water in Kowloon, buzz is also starting to gravitate around Giampaolo Maffini, chef at the Harbour Grill, tel: (852) 2996 8433—a deceptively bland name for an astonishing restaurant in the mid-range Harbour Plaza Hotel in Hung Hom. Hong Kong's chattering classes might never summon up the will to go to this nondescript district of tower blocks and train lines—more fool them, for Maffini's talent is a rare one. His soups (oyster with Pernod; cauliflower with caviar) are masterful and original; the racks of lamb are so good they defy description; and his duck with Savoy cabbage is simply brilliant.

Don't bring guests to either Scala or the Harbour Grill if you're looking to show off Hong Kong's most fashionable rooms—you'll want Spoon for that. But if you're entertaining people who love fine food, you're in for a surprisingly good time at any of them. With any luck, there'll be more culinary discoveries over the coming year, too. It certainly couldn't be any worse than the last.