Now in its fourth year, Hansik Goo continues to exemplify excellence in modern Korean cuisine, seamlessly navigating its latest transition from head chef Steve Lee to Park Seung-hun without missing a beat. This isn't just about maintaining standards; it's about setting them. The restaurant’s cuisine, which is consistently executed with precision and elegance, continues to evolve—as evidenced by the third iteration of its signature samgye risotto, and beckons us to return time and again.

With a culinary narrative deeply connected to its Cantonese roots, it’s no wonder that The Chairman is so well-loved in Hong Kong, resulting in online reservations that require the swiftest fingers. Under the stewardship of restaurateur Danny Yip and the prowess of chef Kwok Keung-tung, the restaurant continues to advance as it unearths more local or forgotten ingredients and collaborates with the likes of Sezanne in Tokyo and 102 House in Shanghai. The restaurant’s global acclaim is well-deserved, but its heart and home are undeniably in this city, making it a source of pride and a treasured dining experience for us all.

Crowned Tatler Dining’s Restaurant of the Year and bearer of the Best Service award in 2023, Mono continues to be a winning dining destination in Hong Kong. Chef Ricardo Chaneton leads the charge as a true ambassador, constantly innovating this unique tale of Latin American heritage and flavour with passion while contributing to the global culinary dialogue. Be it in the chocolate they make from scratch with Ecuadorian cacao pods, the ever-popular masa madre sourdough workshop series or the overseas collaborations with Toyo Eatery from the Philippines and Meta from Singapore, to name but a few.

Dismiss any preconceived notions of what an Italian restaurant should be before stepping into Estro. Here, chef Antimo Maria Merone reimagines his Neapolitan heritage with a creativity that borders on sorcery, especially when it comes to pasta and seafood which, much like the restaurant itself, are a visual spectacle. An awardee in the Tatler Dining 20 list for two consecutive years, Estro elevated its game this year through collaborations with London’s Da Terra and Tokyo’s Bulgari Il Ristorante Luca Fantin, reinforcing its status as a purveyor of unique culinary experiences in Hong Kong.

Caprice, a bastion of French fine dining in Hong Kong, consistently graces the Tatler Dining 20 list. Guided by the culinary brilliance of chef Guillaume Galliot, it turns special occasions into memorable feasts, leaving diners longing for more reasons to celebrate. The experience is heightened by a wine list and cheese selection that are a connoisseur’s dream. This year, Caprice dazzled at the awards edition of Tatler Dining Kitchen alongside chef Vicky Cheng and celebrated Galliot’s 20th anniversary in Asia with a gastronomic jubilee with luminaries including Julien Royer, Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, and Bruno Verjus.

Finnish chef Eric Räty is playing a fascinating game of culinary twister at Arbor, deftly blending Nordic and Japanese cuisines with creativity and meticulous precision. Expect to be wooed by multi-course tasting menus, where Nordic sushi meets a show-stopping pigeon dish, and brioche so fluffy, it practically levitates. Räty's interest for Asian cuisines has also sparked collaborations with esteemed establishments such as Tokyo’s Hommage and Osaka’s La Cime, positioning Arbor at a pivotal point where cultures converge to create something extraordinary.

Chef-restaurateur David Lai isn’t one for playing it safe. His menu is a daily carousel of surprises—think homemade aged bottarga with persimmon or Chiuchow marinated foie gras with pickled onions. Yet, amidst these flights of fancy, the salt-baked chicken with rice remains a comforting constant. This year, Lai’s collaboration with JL Studio’s Jimmy Lim showcased how the finesse of fine dining can match the ease of a bistro so wonderfully. At Neighborhood, each dish feels like a foray into uncharted territories, thrilling for both chef and diner alike.

For that priceless feeling of being spirited away to another era, many things have to come together in perfect unison: the setting, the service, the food and the details. Magistracy Dining Room, the jewel in the crown of Black Sheep Restaurants, gets this right, foremost thanks to its awe-inspiring setting of the grandiose courtroom of the former Central Magistracy in Tai Kwun. And don't be fooled by the seemingly traditional British cuisine on offer here: executive chef Matthew Kirkley brings his expertise and eye for precision to age-old recipes to elevate them to a higher plane altogether.

With a deep respect for Chinese culinary traditions, chef Vicky Cheng shines as an innovative spark and a masterful interpreter of classics, skillfully crafting dishes that embody the enduring elegance of Cantonese cuisine. At Wing, Cheng celebrates Chinese ingredients in all its glory, with standout creations including homemade century eggs with oysters and chilli sauce, and a crispy sea cucumber spring roll. His commitment to Cantonese cuisine extends beyond his kitchen, having collaborated with Mosu in Seoul to fuse Korean and Chinese flavours, and Gaggan Anand in Bangkok, further expanding the horizons of Cantonese cuisine.

Testina has been an understated, dependable favourite among the city’s gourmands since it opened at the beginning of 2022, and its first entry into our Tatler Dining 20 marks two years of continual refinement of their wheelhouse—namely Italian nose-to-tail cuisine. With Hong Kong’s borders opening up, Marco Xodo has been able to welcome Diego Rossi and Pietro Caroli, the founders of parent restaurant Trippa Milano, alongside a host of other prominent Italian chefs like Matteo Fontana of Da Vittorio Saigon and Federico Sisti of Frangente Milano. In doing so, Testina has categorically proven that offal deserves its place among other fine ingredients on white tablecloths around the city.

Chaat may be under new leadership in the kitchen, with chefs Gaurav Kuthari and Dhiraj Kumar taking over the helm from our 2022 Chef of the Year, Manav Tuli, but a table here remains one of the hardest to snag in the city—a true sign of the high standards implemented across the board. Kuthari and Kumar haven’t rested on their laurels: new additions to the menu, like the melt-in-your-mouth lehsuni salmon tikka and the lamb chop nihari, are sure to win new fans over. We’re excited to see what Chaat’s next chapter holds.

Settling into her third year in the role of head chef, Archan Chan's growing confidence at the helm of Ho Lee Fook is becoming ever more apparent. Cue a riot of colours, smells and flavours in Chan's masterful interpretation of Cantonese cuisine, replete with the requisite amounts of 'wok hei', or breath of the wok. Boisterous service and punchy interiors make this restaurant consistently one of the hardest to book in the city.

There are a number of self-proclaimed French-Chinese fine-dining restaurants in Hong Kong, but few are able to execute with the same finesse as Vicky Lau at Tate Dining Room. An artful eye and a steady hand are the secrets behind Lau’s fanciful creations, which include a tofu orb encasing fresh crab and caviar, and the signature pigeon pithivier. Wine pairings are perfectly matched to the lightness of the cuisine here, with each meal presenting a nuanced portrait of femininity expressed through the medium of food.

The boisterous flavours of the Punjab abound at this deeply personal restaurant to Black Sheep founder Syed Asim Hussain, whose roots trace back to the region. Chef Palash Mitra does a fine job of staying true to Punjabi flavours while at the same time daring to venture into unfamiliar territory, as he did with a Canto-Indian crossover with Archan Chan of Ho Lee Fook at last year’s edition of Tatler Dining Kitchen. Other collaborations saw Mitra invite New York’s Dhamaka to Hong Kong, as well as flying over to London to cook at Carousel. A love of spice, it seems, knows no borders.

Shane Osborn’s flagship restaurant isn’t the flashiest or the most assertive, but that’s because it doesn’t need to be. His culinary ethos at Arcane is quietly confident, built up over the course of a decade this year, centred around the core tenets of freshness, sustainability, and unpretentious flavours. With chef de cuisine Sebastian Lorenzi at the helm, Arcane has cultivated a coterie of regulars, but remains as approachable to first-time diners as ever, slowly but surely converting them to the beat of locavore cuisine. “As consumers,” he says, “we all have the power to affect change. And it starts with what you choose."

At VEA, chef-proprietor Vicky Cheng approaches the study of French-Chinese cuisine with similar conviction and zeal as when the restaurant first opened in 2015—except, in 2024, he has the added benefit of nine years of experience at its helm, making possible such flashes of genius as geoduck paired with zucchini and lemon verbena, and aged preserved turnip accompanied by Noirmoutier potato and black truffle. There’s a sentimentality to every menu here, too: look for how guests’ faces light up at the sight of the traditional candy and coconut wrap, presented hawker-style, to be convinced.

Barry Quek treads a fine line when it comes to balancing the punchy flavours of his native Singapore with the nuances of Scandinavian-style cooking, where he trained, and he does so with grace, making Whey one of our panel’s favourites in this past year. In addition to this expert blending of influences, Quek continues to champion local ingredients in an homage to Hong Kong’s wealth of quality produce in dishes like threadfin with potato mousse and coconut XO, and three-yellow chicken done three ways. We keenly await the culture-spanning plates where he takes his unique brand of cooking in the year ahead.

In the realm of fine Chinese cuisine, Man Ho is as a steadfast ally, promising a reassuringly excellent experience time after time. Under the guidance and mastery of chef Jayson Tang, traditional techniques and recipes are honoured, showcasing a deep respect for authentic flavours as he fervently explores new culinary territories. Collaborations with esteemed chefs including Chan Siu-kei and innovative minds like Archan Chan from Ho Lee Fook, have played a pivotal role in elevating the restaurant’s cuisine further, as it continues to celebrate Chinese ingredients and reimagine Cantonese classics most deliciously.

Having steered the Amber ship for 19 years now, culinary director Richard Ekkebus isn’t content with just cooking haute cuisine anymore, or even taking fine-dining into its next chapter of dairy-free gastronomy, as he did with the restaurant’s total revamp in 2019. Last year, the Dutch native steamrolled ahead with girding Amber’s reputation as a centre for cultivating talent by way of a blockbuster 16-hands dinner that brought back kitchen alumni from across the globe. This was followed shortly by a sustainability-minded collaboration with SingleThread Farms in California, which coincided with Amber’s own release of a lychee beer made using surplus local lychees. For all the criticisms of fine dining as being lavish and frivolous, just look to Amber for proof that it can also be a vehicle for positive change.