ASIA
Restaurants with views in scenic, bustling Hong Kong
Eating out is an obsession in Hong Kong. The nightly culinary scene in this compact metropolis always seems to bustle with activity.
Hundreds of restaurants, large and small, are stuffed with diners sitting shoulder to shoulder, adroitly lifting chopsticks to savor dishes as prosaic as kung pao chicken and as exotic as tiny duck tongues. Travelers can spot trays of cooked chicken feet, claws still attached, and marvel at cooks stretching sheets of doughy flour and water into noodles.
But visitors to this former British colony often want their dining experiences served up with a spectacular view of Victoria Harbor, the city's watery highway separating Hong Kong Island from Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong's patch of urban land attached to mainland China.
During the day, the best vistas are from atop Victoria Peak, a green cone of a mountain with all of Hong Kong unfolding below. After dark, some of the best panoramas are from Kowloon looking toward Hong Kong Island. Diners can survey the daily 8 p.m. light show that features 44 of the city's skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbor.
On Hong Kong Island
Lumière/Cuisine Cuisine: This 16,000-square-foot eatery, which opened in the 88-story International Finance Centre mall in 2005, is divided into two parts. The Cuisine Cuisine side serves traditional and nouvelle Cantonese fare. Signature dishes include braised fish maw and goose web with oyster sauce ($58) and imperial bird's nest soup with minced chicken ($62).
The Lumière side serves spicier Sichuan plates such as crispy fragrant duck leg ($23) and seared Chilean sea bass, cooked in the ancient Sichuan style ($30). For added spiciness, a few Latin American dishes, such as crab buñuelos (crab cakes for about $17), are included.
Cuisine Cuisine's décor is high-brow midcentury with cedar and silver; Lumière also uses cedar as well as gold and red tones for a rich Chinese feel. A wall of windows gives diners a sweeping view of Kowloon and the harbor below.
Hours: Noon to 2:30 p.m., 6 to 11 p.m., daily.
Address: 3101-3107, podium level 3, International Finance Centre Mall, Central, Hong Kong.
Contact: 011-852-23-933-933.
Isola: In the same skyscraper as Lumière/Cuisine Cuisine, this Italian restaurant is a popular lunch and dinner spot.
White is everywhere: white walls, white linen tablecloths, white laser-cut metal partitions that look like stiff lace curtains. Even the umbrellas on the outside patio overlooking Victoria Harbor are white. So much white gives Isola a certain laid-back feeling in keeping with its Italian roots. It's a good spot to enjoy the sweeping view beyond the plate-glass windows.
Diners can watch the chefs cook in an open copper kitchen complete with pizza oven. Specialties include homemade black ink tagliolini with clams, mushroom and asparagus pesto ($20) or large rigatoni with a half Boston lobster in the shell ($30). The upstairs outdoor bar is popular after work with the business crowd.
Hours: Noon to 11 p.m. daily for food; bar open until 1 a.m. daily
Address: 3071-3075, Podium Level 3, International Finance Centre Mall, Central, Hong Kong
Contact: 011-852-2383-8765
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