Located in the hip triangle of St. Francis’ Yard in Wan Chai, this half-shop, half-restaurant sells all the ingredients used in the cuisine: the idea being that anyone can recreate the meal at home. The protein part of most dishes comes out of a tin—seems lazy, but it’s a tin that’s been created by double Michelin-starred Italian Moreno Cedroni. Here’s how it works: when you order the tuna belly, the pasta is cooked in store but the tuna is heated in the can and served next to the pasta on the plate. Other tinned options include cuttlefish with green peas.
Located in the hip triangle of St. Francis’ Yard in Wan Chai, this half-shop, half-restaurant sells all the ingredients used in the cuisine: the idea being that anyone can recreate the meal at home. The protein part of most dishes comes out of a tin—seems lazy, but it’s a tin that’s been created by double Michelin-starred Italian Moreno Cedroni. Here’s how it works: when you order the tuna belly, the pasta is cooked in store but the tuna is heated in the can and served next to the pasta on the plate. Other tinned options include cuttlefish with green peas. Cheap wine, good food and a relaxed atmosphere: sounds simple, but it’s such a rarity in this town that Spuntini feels like a real find.
As you enter this private kitchen, you’re struck by the impressive collection of bric-a-brac: a stuffed fawn, a Mona Lisa by the piano, twigs and ripe plastic grapes hanging from the ceiling. Three long wooden tables sit three parties of 10 or more, and the set menus are almost identical every night. To start, a ginormous Byzantine seafood platter piled high with crabs, prawns, crayfish and clams—sheer heaven for fruits de mer. Unfortunately, the quality of the meal went downhill from there. The salad was totally supermarket.
As you enter this private kitchen, you’re struck by the impressive collection of bric-a-brac: a stuffed fawn, a Mona Lisa by the piano, twigs and ripe plastic grapes hanging from the ceiling. Three long wooden tables sit three parties of 10 or more, and the set menus are almost identical every night. To start, a ginormous Byzantine seafood platter piled high with crabs, prawns, crayfish and clams—sheer heaven for fruits de mer. Unfortunately, the quality of the meal went downhill from there. The salad was totally supermarket. The lamb and chicken were left in the oven for a bit too long—tough. Nevertheless, seeing as it’s not humanly possible to finish that excellent seafood platter, you definitely won’t leave feeling unsatisfied.
It says Japanese BBQ, but to be precise, this is a Taiwanese chain of Japanese-style Korean barbecue restaurants. Occupying three floors of a tong lau on quaint St. Francis, its interiors are unlike its Chinese exterior and name—the rooms are totally Japanese style with dark woods and professional mood lighting, creating a look like any sleek, Zen and sexy upscale yakiniku bar-resto in Tokyo or Taipei.
Unless you’ve spent a lot of time eating Chinese abroad, particularly in North America, you’re probably not hurting from that commonly held western nostalgia for the “everything deep-fried and dripping in sauce” brand of American-Chinese cuisine. So Dining Wok, which serves up American-style Chinese takeaway chow, may seem a little pointless in well, China. But hey, there is no denying there is a market for it (hello, homesick ABCs).
Part of the growing restaurant district just above Queen’s Road in Wan Chai, Tapas Bar is located on the steep hill known as St. Francis Street. A walk up reveals a dark hole-in-the-wall that’s both strangely inviting and somewhat repelling. A mishmash between a local pub and a private kitchen, Tapas Bar treads an odd middle ground. Our dining companion put it perfectly: “Tsui Wah tapas”—a selection of Chinese-inspired European dishes, ranging from the absolutely delicious to the absurdly bland.
