Featuring: Old Bailey, Blue Supreme, Pinot Duck…
THE weather is (slowly) cooling down, Hong Kong’s citizens are wending back from extended summer holidays and new restaurants rustle up in anticipation of brisk autumnal trade.
Hong Kong favourites, JIA Group (behind cool hangouts, Chachawanm, Duddell’s, Mak Mak, Rhoda) has opened the doors of its latest venture in the upscale new Tai Kwun complex – the former Hong Kong prison and police station. Dishing up a taste of Jiangnan cuisine, which is to say anything south of the Yangtze River including Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzxhou and Yangzhou, Old Bailey steers clear of super hot and spicy and instead focuses on cooling, healthy plates, including the much loved Longjing tea smoked pigeon, Mala Iberico pork xiaolongbao, ten treasure duck, double-boiled lion’s head pork meatballs and hairy crab roe.
With an airy dining room and spacious outside terrace with fans spinning lazily overhead, this is a much needed revamped corner of Hong Kong which successfully retains the charm of the past. Old Bailey, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Rd, Central.
Amid the ironmongers and antique shops of Tung St lies Blue Supreme like a vibrant neon oasis. Completely open fronted, it emits hipster-chic with a pages-long beer menu divided by flavour profiles, along with cool music and exposed ironwork. The food is kept simple with 10 or so dishes, including scrambled eggs with salmon roe and king salmon (it’s breakfast for dinner but works really well), duck confit burger with fennel and pomegranate, and brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, bacon and green apple. Each dish comes with a recommended pairing of beer, or you can veer off-piste and peruse the wine list, which again lists expressions by intensity, as opposed to country of origin.
After wading through the above excellent dishes, the jewel in our dinner’s crown came in the form of a playful milk and cookies dessert that was exactly how it sounds. The just underdone cookies were washed down with mint-flavoured milk, which really shouldn’t work but somehow does and acted as a refreshing finale to what was a rather beery dinner. More of a local hangout than a destination eatery, Blue Supreme is a welcome addition to one of Hong Kong’s coolest neighbourhoods. Blue Supreme, 21 Tung St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong; phone +852 2323 3633.
For die-hard burgundy fans, Pinot Duck offers up that fail-safe pairing of all manner of duck and pinot noir, and has now branched out from Stanley Plaza to Wan Chai. Plump for the signature whole or half Peking duck, roasted in the custom-made oven with ceramic walls to retain the high heat needed for the trademark crispy skin and tender juicy meat. Otherwise, other trusty dishes include mini duck burgers, duck tacos and classic duck wraps. The wine list includes hearty offerings from Burgundy, California and New Zealand, and on the beer front nothing beats the frothy favourites from local Hong Kong brewery Moonzen. Pinot Duck, G/F, 18 Lun Fat St, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; phone +852 2891 1177.