Michelin unveils HK and Macau 2017 guide

With the news just released at Michelin’s press conference, we look at the newcomers to Hong Kong and Macau’s Michelin star world.

The Hong Kong Macau 2017 guide features a total of 238 restaurants, including 80 starred restaurants – 61 in Hong Kong and 19 Macau – and 75 Bib Gourmand-rated eateries.

Leading the line-up of new two-starred restaurants in Hong Kong is Kashiwaya in Central, which went straight to two star status exactly a year after its November 2015 opening. The Japanese kaiseki restaurant is the first overseas venture of Japanese chef Hideaki Matsuo, who also owns the three-Michelin-starred Kashiwaya in Osaka.

Also making its debut in the two-star category is Japanese/French restaurant Ta Vie helmed by Japanese chef Hideaki Sato; the restaurant was elevated from its one star ranking in the 2016 edition.

Over in Macau, two restaurants, Chinese eatery Feng Wei Ju and Japanese restaurant Mizumi, climbed up one rung to the two-star category. Feng Wei Ju specialises in fiery Chuan-Xiang cuisine from the regions of Sichuan and Hunan and Mizumi is led by three renowned Japanese chefs who fly in fresh produce from Japan daily.

International director of the Michelin Guides, Michael Ellis commented on the surge in high end Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong, with Japanese chefs eyeing the city as one of the best places to open overseas outposts.

“This phenomenon is reflected in the 2017 selection of the Michelin Guide, with two stars awarded to the Hong Kong branch of Kashiwaya, a restaurant from Osaka, and one star awarded each to Sushi Wadatsumi and Sushi Tokami, two establishments from Tokyo with second addresses in Hong Kong,” he said.

Other newcomers include contemporary French restaurant, Épure, private kitchen-turned-restaurant VEA by young chef Vicky Cheng and cocktail scene veteran Antonio Lai; as well as teppanyaki specialist IM Teppanyaki & Wine and Cantonese restaurants Yat Tung Heen and Spring Moon in the Peninsula Hotel. Yat Tung Heen is one of the oldest restaurants in Hong Kong, dating back to 1928.

In Macau, three Cantonese restaurants, Lai Heen, Ying and Pearl Dragon also earned one star for the first time.

This year, there are no new three Michelin star restaurants, with the six in Hong Kong – 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, Bo Innovation, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Lung King Heen, Sushi Shikon and Tang Court and two in Macau – Robuchon au Dôme and The Eight – all retaining their status.

Michelin is rapidly expanding its editions in Asia, with the first Seoul guide announced yesterday, and Shanghai and Singapore guides also launched earlier this year.