Where to Eat in SoHo and Sheung Wan

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

See the full list: SoHo · Sheung Wan

Hollywood Road does most of the work here. At the SoHo end the streets climb, the rooms are loud and the French dining rooms sit a staircase apart. Follow the same road west, past the antique shops and the Man Mo Temple, and it drops into Sheung Wan, where the rooms go quiet and the grills get hotter. So pick the street first and the mood second. A few addresses on these streets are filed under Central on our site. We mark them, because the map doesn't much care and neither will your appetite.

Elgin Street and Peel Street

BELON belongs to Mina Güçlüer now. Born in Istanbul and trained in Berlin, she joined as a chef de partie, worked her way up and runs the kitchen as head chef. She calls the cooking sincere modern French, and the Michelin Guide gives it one star. An à la carte menu now sits beside the chef's selection, so brioche beef tartare with caviar no longer comes with a commitment. Book the kitchen counter if you like to watch.

Ho Lee Fook is on the same stretch of Elgin Street and makes no effort to keep its voice down. Gilded lucky cats and mahjong tiles cover the walls, Canto pop from the eighties plays on, and the open kitchen sends out creative Cantonese cooking with plenty of wok hei. Order the crispy three yellow chicken with sand ginger dip, and ask which dishes need ordering in advance.

Chôm Chôm has held its Peel Street corner for over a decade, and a refresh brought new cocktails, bia hoi style beer on tap and a tighter menu of Vietnamese street food plates. Walk ins are welcome, which suits a room built for standing about and staying longer than you said you would.

Hollywood Road, the SoHo end

Neighborhood is down an alley off Hollywood Road, and chef Lai, a Hongkonger trained in the US, runs it busy and casual. Around twenty seafood heavy small plates rotate, and the large sharing platters (salt baked chicken rice with giblets and morels, or Hokkaido kinki paella) need ordering in advance. It holds one Michelin star.

Honky Tonks Tavern is at 75 Hollywood Road, entered from Man Hing Lane. The promise is short: cocktails, Nashville style hot chicken and freestyle thin crust pizza with toppings nobody's grandmother would approve of. Natural wine and a slushie that changes with each batch round it out. A bar that feeds you properly, rather than a restaurant with a bar.

Gough Street and Mee Lun Street

One block downhill from Hollywood Road sit the pair on our lowest price tier, a few steps apart.

Kau Kee (filed under Central) has sold beef noodles at 21 Gough Street for about ninety years, and its following still lines up in the street. It is basic and tables are shared. The point is the beef, in different cuts, with your choice of noodle, in broth or a spicy sauce, plus a milk tea. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which changes nothing about the queue.

Sing Heung Yuen (filed under Central) is one of the last dai pai dong in Central, trading under canopies on Mee Lun Street, near PMQ. Everyone orders the same thing: macaroni or instant noodles in tomato broth, topped with egg or luncheon meat, then a crispy bun with lemon and honey or condensed milk, and a Hong Kong milk tea. Nobody has improved on it yet.

PMQ and Bridges Street

LOUISE was opened at PMQ by Julien Royer, of Odette in Singapore, and Loïc Portalier now runs the kitchen. The space runs over two levels in colonial dress: a drink at the bar downstairs first, then French cooking upstairs with one Michelin star. The roast Hong Kong yellow chicken, with rice cooked in chicken fat and a green salad, is made for sharing.

Jean-Pierre takes Belle Époque Paris as its brief on Bridges Street: Art Nouveau motifs, scarlet velvet and candlelight. The menu stays classic, with beef tartare, duck confit and onion soup gratinée on silver platters, plus Poulet de Simone, local three yellow chicken stuffed with button mushrooms and roasted until golden. The Michelin Guide lists it.

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

Queen's Road Central

Yakiniku Great chose Hong Kong for its first branch outside Japan, and the Tochigi house set up at 255 Queen's Road Central. It deals in Kuroge wagyu, from chuck and tongue to misuji, the marbled cut from behind the shoulder blade, and the staff grill it for you, which saves everyone from your technique. Order from the menu or hand it over to the omakase.

Cat Street and the west end of Hollywood Road

Mora is Vicky Lau's restaurant on Upper Lascar Row, better known as Cat Street, and soy runs through all of it. The soy milks and tofu are made in house, and they turn up as bean curd tartlets, koji marinated suckling pig and a tofu pudding shaped as a Mont Blanc. The room is calm and cream coloured, and the cooking holds one Michelin star.

Man Mo Dim Sum is named after the temple down the road, which is the last traditional thing about it. Swiss born chef Nicolas Elalouf fills handmade dumplings from France, Italy and Thailand: truffle Brie, foie gras xiao long bao with fig jam, tom yum xiao long bao. Wine comes by the glass, carafe or bottle, which is one more rule broken.

Pound Lane

Bouillon Bistro Parisien hides a family run Paris bistro on a Sheung Wan lane. Chef Johan Ducroquet cooks the classics from organic, artisanal produce, from beef tartare and duck leg confit to Rossini beef with foie gras and truffle sauce. The wine list runs to 160 references, mostly from family owned wineries, so the family theme holds all the way to the bill.

Wing Lok Street and Queen's Road West

Yardbird is Matt Abergel and Lindsay Jang's yakitori house on Wing Lok Street, and it is always full: book online or expect to queue. Over twenty kinds of yakitori use local three yellow chicken from beak to tail, grilled over binchotan, including thyroid and ventricle for the curious, with crispy meatballs in tare and egg yolk for everyone else. One Michelin star and a long Japanese whisky list.

CALL ME AL is named after the Paul Simon song, and it is the Queen's Road West restobar of Beckaly Franks of The Pontiac and Ezra Star of Mostly Harmless. Comfort food leans American and European, from Polmard beef tartare and spicy rigatoni to confit duck leg, with easy cocktails and Old World wine. A neighbourhood room for people who would rather not be impressed, just fed.

Pick by mood

• Loud table: Ho Lee Fook, Chôm Chôm, Neighborhood, CALL ME AL
• French table: BELON, LOUISE, Jean-Pierre, Bouillon Bistro Parisien
• Counter or grill: Yardbird, Yakiniku Great
• Quiet room: Mora
• Dim sum: Man Mo Dim Sum
• Cheap and quick: Kau Kee, Sing Heung Yuen
• Drinks that feed you: Honky Tonks Tavern

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 walking: the SoHo and Sheung Wan area pages, the Central list for Kau Kee, Sing Heung Yuen and Honky Tonks Tavern, the SoHo guide, the Sheung Wan guide, Japanese in Sheung Wan, 50 Hong Kong Restaurants Worth Knowing, next door in Where to Eat in Central, 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.