We will be in Hong Kong for 2 weeks on the way home from Europe. We would like to try out 1 or 2 top restaurants but I am trying to avoid taking a jacket. We will be there the first 2 weeks of October. Can I get away with a nice long sleeved shirt?

For top Chinese restaurants no need.

Thanks Hanuman. Any suggestions of a top Chinese restaurant? What about for top European restaurants?

For Chinese food most of the restaurants in Hong Kong are good. My personal favourites are:

Lei Garden restaurant for Cantonese style food. My favourites there are the extra crispy roasted pork for the 1st appetizer and Geo Duck soup(preordered 24 hours ahead) for one of the main dish. The rest of the food in the menu are very as well but the above two dishes I ordered every visit.

http://ihs.microweb.com.hk/~design/l..._chef_en.html#

Hong Kong Old restaurant for Shanghainese style food. My favourites are the drunken pigeon and the emperor shark's fin soup(the very best IMO and preordered 24 hours ahead).

http://www.hkoldrest.com.hk/

For Western food I've eaten at most of the top hotel restaurants and most of the time I was wearing a sport jacket or suite. From memory I recall that smart casual is the rule but some might require jacket and tie so no harm in calling and ask before hand.

Here's a better link for Lei Garden: http://tinyurl.com/3f75z8

Enjoy!

The only restaurant I know of in Hong Kong which <i>requires</i> a jacket for men is Petrus, an excellent French restaurant n the Island Shangri-La with great views. If you like French food, it is worth going to, but if you don’t have a jacket, there are several other good, less formal French restaurants in town.

At some of the more expensive restaurants, jackets are not required, but as this is a business town, and there are lots of business dinners here, you will see men in business suits, esp on weekdays evenings. You could certainly get away with a dress shirt, you might want a tie as well (they don’t take up any room). But you probably want dress shoes as well, can’t see you rolling in there in sneakers or anything, so all this is beginning to take up room in the suitcase… I would think that someplace like the Grill Room at the Mandarin, which is very good but also a big business dinner place, you would have more business suits than not, but at someplace like Felix or Nobu, you would not find nearly as many jackets.

There are lots of very good restaurants here in the more casual range, for French I would go to Chez Patrick (chezpatrick.hk, I like their Wan Chai outlet). Do you have a food preference, esp for Chinese (you did not specific)? I am not a huge fan of Cantonese, but there are lots of other good regional Chinese here (including a wonderful Hakka place). There was a pretty good thread recently on Chinese restaurants which I posted some of my favourites on, you might search for it, it was called something like “Hong KOng Hotels and Chinese Restaurants”. For non-Chinese, there are hundreds of good restaurants, and representatives of all the top “chains” (you know Alain Ducaisse, Nobu, Joel Rubechon, etc). I almost always agree with the top-end reccos of the Luxe Guide, there was also a recent thread called “restaurant reccos Hong Kong and Phuket” where I posted some favourites (note that Veda, an Indian restaurant is now closed). M on the Fringe is a place I never get tired of, even though it has no view and has been around like 20 years (http://www.m-onthebund.com/at_the_fringe), and I am a big fan of Ingredients.

All due respect to Hanuman, many of us try to avoid ordering shark’s fin these days, even us Hong Kongers are becoming politically correct….it’s no longer on the menu even at many company and political banquets here (my company has instituted a policy of not serving it at banquets). It is not good for the sharks, who end up being killed just for the fins, and left littered all over beaches of SE Asia.

Thank you Hanuman and Cicerone. I have no definite preference. Just wanted somewhere nice for at least our last night which will cap off 7 weeks of travel ( mostly in Italy). I might opt after all to take a jacket. My idea was to travel as light as possible this time and also a friend has asked me to buy him a jacket in Italy so I did not want to carry too much. I have eaten in the Grill Room Cicerone you mentioned. That was some time ago and was at lunch. I was very impressed. Have also eaten at Gaddis and the main restaurant at the Intercontinental when it was the Regent. I have not eaten at a top Chinese place in Hong Kong. So lots of choice so thanks for that and I will also check out those recommended sites.

If you have not been back to the Mandarin in the last 12 months, then the Grill as you knew it has been totally redone (they closed the entire hotel and redid it). Not that you need to repeat yourself (and the Grill is not Chinese) as they are so many good restaurants.

I personally love the Shanghainese restaurant on the top floor there (<b>Man Wah Restaurant</b, just lovely d&eacute;cor (something that is hard to find with formal Chinese restaurants here, lots of big chandeliers and gold fixtures mostly), and if I wanted a formal restaurant for a Chinese meal, that is where I would go. Nice view if you ask for a window table on the Chater Garden side. You can also have a drink before or after at the M Bar next door which has nice views too, a nice evening all in all. Nobu is where Yu used to be at the Intercontinental (still miss Yu, in my opinion it was better and not so stupidly expensive).

I don’t think you could go wrong with <b>Spring Moon</b> at the Peninsula Hotel.

I also would recommend <b>Lumiere/Cuisine Cuisine</b> which is in the IFC Centre. A good mix of Cantonese, Sichuan and South American; sounds weird but works really well. I would not call it top-end for price (others might, but it is not when compared to a place like Petrus or Nobu, it’s not inexpensive however), the food is excellent and they have a pretty nice view. http://www.lumiere.hk/. The view is better from Lumiere (or at least easier to see), and Cuisine Cuisine is more formal.

There is also <b>Bo Innovation</b>, which I have had two quite just OK meals at, but many, many people here rave about. See the website and you can decide. It’s French-Asian fusion. boinnoseki.com

Finally, you might consider the <b>Green T House</b> in Cyberport. It’s nouvelle Asian, very good, unusual. The chef worked at Citronelle in the US at one point. http://www.green-t-house.com/hong.html

That's really helpful Cicerone. Thank you for that. No it was some years ago now when I ate in the Grill Room and yes I did know the hotel had been renovated. I have a feeling I might end up at a top Chinese restaurant on one night and a European one another night. Or maybe fusion as you suggest. Lots of good choices! Thanks again.

Sorry, I also should have mentioned (am losing my mind these days) that for a memorable meal, if a friend or your hotel can get you in, I would definitely consider the <b>China Club</b>. This is theoretically a private club, but I have been to numerous birthday parties, going-away parties and corporate functions there, and no one I know is a member (you can usually book through a friend of a friend, that is how I have done it, word is that hotel’s can get tourists bookings). It is on top of the old bank of China building and has an art-deco colonial Shanghai decor. The have a nice bar and a library with a little terrace and view. The food is quite good, and there is a guy who makes noodles at your table. A good place for a last-evening celebration, IMO.

The China Club
13th Floor, Old Bank of China Building
Bank St
Central
Tel: (852) 2521-8888

That sounds absolutely perfect especially as my partner is potty about art deco anything! I will see if I can get the hotel to get us in. If not there are plenty of others. Thanks so much for that particular suggestion!

Cicerone, do you know if there is anywhere on the web I can view China Club? I tried but without success. I assume it is different from the Hong Kong Club?

Peteralan -

Don't think they have a website. But you can see the Wiki entry here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Club

You can also find images inside by googling &quot;'China Club' Hong Kong&quot; for images.

Yes, the China Club and Hong Kong Club are very different. I don’t think that the China Club has a website. Also don’t confuse it with the China Tee Club in the Pedder Building.

Thank you both so much. I really hope I can swing it! It sounds perfect.