Where to Eat in Central, Hong Kong

This is an early list from Supper Social, opening for diner votes, and positions cannot be bought. Know two of these? Pick one.

See the full list: Restaurants in Central

In Central, dinner can cost less than the taxi there or more than the flight home, sometimes in the same building. The district runs on two speeds. One is a bowl of noodles eaten at a shared table in a few minutes flat. The other is a tasting menu forty floors up that takes a long stretch out of your calendar and a good part of your salary. Both are worth doing, ideally in the same week, and some of the most interesting meals are in buildings where you can climb from one to the other by lift.

$: noodles, macaroni and a queue

Kau Kee has fed Gough Street for about ninety years, and its following still lines up outside. It is basic, tables are shared, and the beef noodles are the reason: several cuts, your choice of noodle, in broth or a spicy sauce. Add a milk tea. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which the queue had worked out already.

Mak's Noodle traces its line to Mak Woon Chi, crowned the wonton noodle king of Guangzhou. His son, known as Skinny Mak, ran a stall on Gilman Street before opening this shop on Wellington Street. Order the small bowl, as everyone does: four bite size wontons, springy egg noodles and a flounder based broth. The portion is small on purpose. Order a second.

Sing Heung Yuen is one of the last dai pai dong in Central, under canopies on Mee Lun Street near PMQ. The order is fixed by custom: macaroni or instant noodles in tomato broth with egg or luncheon meat, then a crispy bun with lemon and honey or condensed milk, and a Hong Kong milk tea.

$$: roast goose, dim sum trolleys, curry and hot chicken

Yat Lok puts each roast goose through more than twenty preparation steps and a marinade it keeps to itself. The family business has run on Stanley Street for over a decade. Order goose by the quarter with lai fun in clear broth and a drizzle of goose fat. It holds one Michelin star, which at this price is the most useful star in Central.

Maxim's Palace still sends dim sum trolleys round the vast, chandeliered hall at City Hall, with Victoria Harbour in the tall windows. The queue is part of the ritual. Bring a big table and no plan, and point.

Bombay Dreams has been on Wyndham Street for more than two decades, touring the regions of India with Northern Indian specialities at the centre. There is a vegan menu and there are whisky flights, which covers most of a group's arguments before they start.

Honky Tonks Tavern is a cocktail bar that feeds you properly. Entered from Man Hing Lane, it serves Nashville style hot chicken and freestyle thin crust pizza with toppings that would not survive a committee, plus natural wine and a slushie that changes with each batch.

$$$$ Cantonese, done properly

The Chairman runs differently from most restaurants: bookings open online on certain days only, and guests choose from set menus emailed ahead. Ingredients are mostly organic, from local farms and fishermen. The order is the steamed crab with Huadiao wine and chicken fat on Chen Cun rice noodles. One Michelin star, on the third floor of The Wellington.

Duddell's is restaurant, bar and gallery at once, hanging serious art beside Cantonese cooking at 1 Duddell Street. Its crispy skin chicken is ladled with hot oil hundreds of times and has to be ordered in advance, so plan it like a flight. Steamed flower crab on Chencun rice noodles is the other call. One Michelin star.

Mott 32 is the original, in a basement under the Standard Chartered Bank Building, designed by Joyce Wang to mix New York industrial with Chinese tradition. The brand has since gone from Las Vegas to Dubai. Here, order the 42 day applewood roasted Peking duck and the Iberico pluma char siu.

Lung King Heen fills the fourth floor of the Four Seasons with harbour views and Cantonese cooking that holds two Michelin stars. Dim sum is the highlight, the double boiled soups arrive brimming, and organic sparkling teas stand in for wine if you need them to.

Wing is named after Vicky Cheng's Chinese name, which means eternity, and sits one floor below his VEA at The Wellington. The tasting menu is contemporary Chinese on European technique: crispy sea cucumber spring roll, botan shrimp with Chiu Chow sauce, king crab leg with crispy cheung fun. Online bookings open a month at a time, so set a reminder.

The counters

Sushi Shikon seats eight at a centuries old hinoki counter in The Landmark Mandarin Oriental. Head chef Satoshi Tada, trained under Masahiro Yoshitake, ages fish for deeper flavour, with produce flown in from Tokyo. Three Michelin stars, Edomae omakase, and a polite request to leave the perfume at home.

VEA points every seat at the open kitchen across an imposing counter, so you watch Vicky Cheng work. His eight course menu runs on a Chinese and French idea, each course a story about Hong Kong food culture and his childhood. Cocktail pairings are offered. One Michelin star, on the thirtieth floor of The Wellington.

Nagamoto serves one omakase only. Kyoto born Teruhiko Nagamoto builds ten to thirteen kaiseki courses on shun, ingredients at their seasonal peak, and changes them every month, while staff explain each dish and the chefs shave katsuobushi in front of you. One Michelin star, on On Lan Street.

Torikaze takes its motto, one skewer, one lifetime, from Tokyo master Yoshiteru Ikegawa, who apprenticed at Toriyoshi. Chef Ryo Matsui grills over Kishu binchotan high in Gloucester Tower, with local three yellow chicken on the omakase and oyakodon or chicken broth somen on the shorter menu. Fairly priced for the address, which is saying something up there.

Rooms with a view, or an occasion

Caprice frames Guillaume Galliot's French cooking with harbour views from the sixth floor of the Four Seasons. Three Michelin stars, prix fixe menus only, a vegetarian option, and a cheese selection the inspectors single out. Take your time over the wine list, because it will take its time over you.

Amber is where Dutch born Richard Ekkebus took the dairy out of a French kitchen and kept three Michelin stars anyway. Set menus, with vegetarian versions, run through produce such as aka uni, Ping Yuen chicken and blue lobster, on the seventh floor of The Landmark Mandarin Oriental.

Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic hangs a crystal chandelier high in Gloucester Tower. Head chef Marc Mantovani, at Pic's side for more than ten years, runs a six course menu of her signatures, French at root with subtle Asian touches. Two Michelin stars, with the city spread out below.

Arbor is Finnish chef and owner Eric Räty's Nordic kitchen, 25 floors up in H Queen's, cooking with Japanese precision. Menus list dishes in single words, such as pigeon or acerola, and leave the explaining to the plate. Two Michelin stars, set menus only, and madeleines worth saving room for.

Ta Vie is Hideaki Sato's room at The Pottinger, and he sums up the cooking as pure, simple and seasonal: a French heart and a Japanese soul. Crispy paella with kegani crab, roasted milk fed Aveyron lamb, house sourdough and cultured butter, with Asian wines and sake on the list. Three Michelin stars.

Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco sets an ocean scene at 1 Duddell Street in mother of pearl, turquoise and a whirlpool of metal fish. The seafood led menu pairs produce from around the world with local vegetables and French technique, and the open kitchen puts on a show. One Michelin star and a long wine list.

Two Central tables, one tap. Which would you go back to? Vote

Also on the list

• Estro: Antimo Merone's Neapolitan tasting menus. One Michelin star.
• MONO: Ricardo Chaneton's Latin American cooking with European technique. One Michelin star.
• Hansik Goo: Korean sharing menus at The Wellington. One Michelin star.
• Whey: Barry Quek's Singapore memories through European technique. One Michelin star.
• La Petite Maison: French Riviera plates for the middle of the table at H Queen's.
• The Aubrey: izakaya and cocktail bar on the 25th floor of Mandarin Oriental.

Stack your meal: one building, several kitchens

Central's towers stack restaurants the way other cities stack car parks. If the first room is full, the lift is your second option.

• The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street: Hansik Goo, Whey, The Chairman, Wing and VEA, from the lower floors up to the thirtieth.
• 1 Duddell Street: Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco, Estro and Duddell's, one floor apiece.
• Four Seasons, 8 Finance Street: Lung King Heen and, two floors up, Caprice.
• The Landmark: Amber and Sushi Shikon at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental; Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic and Torikaze high in Gloucester Tower.
• H Queen's, 80 Queen's Road Central: Arbor up top and La Petite Maison at street level on Stanley Street.
• 18 On Lan Street: MONO and Nagamoto.

How this list works

It is an early editorial list, built from our own research, and it will be reordered as diner votes come in. Positions cannot be bought. More on how the list works.

Keep going: the Central area page, fine dining in Central, Asian restaurants in Central, Japanese restaurants in Central, the Central guide, 50 Hong Kong Restaurants Worth Knowing, up the hill in Where to Eat in SoHo and Sheung Wan, and the rest of Hong Kong.

This is an early list, opening for diner votes, and positions cannot be bought. Pick between two and help set the order: vote here.