Read the full 100 Top Tables 2024 guide here

“It did mean there were some nerves about whether we would get all the award winners to the event, especially since this was an evening event for the first time, when many chefs might be working,” said Parkes. “But we succeeded without giving the game away, and the uncertainty helped generate plenty of excitement on the night.”

There were nine awards presented at the event. The first awarded on the night was a newly introduced category, Best New Interior Design. The inaugural winner was Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic, the French fine dining concept in Central whose interiors were designed in collaboration with Paris-based architecture and interior design studio Gilles & Boissier and French luxury maison Baccarat.

Situated at multi-concept hotspot Forty-Five, Cristal Room was central to the location’s bold claim to be Hong Kong’s “most thrilling new hospitality destination in a generation”. Naturally, the venue also needed to be worthy of Anne-Sophie Pic herself, lauded as the most Michelin-starred female chef in the world.

Both the food and the interiors wowed the dining scene when the restaurant opened in November. Cristal Room’s chandelier seemingly immersed in fire marks one of the most dazzling entrances to a restaurant anywhere in Hong Kong.

The Rising Star award, given to the most outstanding young chef of the year, was handed to Sean Yuen for his impressive work at new opening Dolos, the Japanese-French seafood bistro on Staunton Street in Central.

Yuen – who earned his stripes at the likes of Caprice and Hue – works within the strictures of a chef’s menu-only concept to deliver one imaginative dish after another. Guests can enjoy freshly caught squid with celtuce and a celeriac dashi one week, and squid with roasted home-made cavatelli pasta with a shiso pesto the next. It was this creative reworking of similar seasonal ingredients that so impressed the team at 100 Top Tables.

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The award for Best Service was presented by sponsor Standard Chartered Priority Private and went to Feuille, the “vegetable-driven” (but not fully vegetarian) concept on Central’s Wellington Street founded by David Toutain. “This was a hard one to award since service quality can be a contentious issue,” admitted Parkes.

“Everyone generally agrees how a steak should taste, but people’s expectations around service vary wildly – especially as regards fine dining, when expectations are raised.”

Parkes pointed out that with fewer tables than at many similar establishments, there is less pressure on service staff at Feuille, and that the extra space helps put diners at ease. Special praise was given to restaurant manager Jundrei Santiago, who helps make each guest feel at home and sets impeccable standards for his team to follow.

As part of this year’s evolution, certain 100 Top Tables awards were ceased. One accolade that has only grown in importance, however, is Sustainability Hero – awarded to a person or establishment judged to have gone to great lengths to promote and follow sustainable practices.

The winner this year was cocktail bar Penicillin, whose closed-loop concept aims to reuse as many parts of an ingredient as possible. Unlike many other award winners on the night, Penicillin has been open for a number of years, since 2020, but the venue was singled out for being at the vanguard of sustainability within the bar industry in Hong Kong and setting eco-friendly standards that similar establishments have yet to match.

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Penicillin was not the only bar to receive attention on the night. 100 Top Tables’ award for Best Bartender went to Simone Rossi of DarkSide. Parkes said it was the continuous creativity of the team at the Tsim Sha Tsui venue that deserved recognition. Now director of bars, Rosewood Hong Kong, Rossi may not be behind the counter shaking drinks as frequently as in the past, but he leads his team in delivering thematic menus that never fail to impress.

Whether it is with the phases of the Moon Menu, the Art of Mahjong offering or the latest Yin Yang cocktail menu, Rossi delivers inventive drinks with a noteworthy attention to detail – seen in everything from the physical menus to the custom glassware designed for each new theme.

Another new honour for 2024, the Legend Award, was presented to chef Umberto Bombana, an individual who has made a lasting contribution to Hong Kong’s F&B scene over many years, Bombana was deemed a natural choice. An exemplar of Hong Kong’s “East meets West” attitude, Bombana moved to the city more than 30 years ago, having grown up in Bergamo in northern Italy. Having run the kitchens at the renowned Toscana, Bombana established 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana in 2010. After just two years of operation, it was awarded three Michelin stars, making history as the first Italian restaurant outside Italy deemed worthy of the honour.

“Subsequent acclaimed concepts followed in both Hong Kong and Macau, highlighting chef Bombana’s impact in putting Hong Kong’s F&B scene on the international map,” explained Parkes.

In any industry, a real indicator of quality is to be recognised and acknowledged by one’s peers. Little surprise, then, that the winner of 100 Top Tables’ inaugural Chefs’ Choice award – voted for by the chefs of 100 Top Tables-listed restaurants – was.

Chef Agustin Balbi’s dining room in Central continues to defy labels, marrying its creator’s mixed Argentinian, Spanish and Italian heritage with his time spent learning in kitchens in the US and Japan into something truly original. It is not just the food that has impressed diners and fellow industry professionals, but the service too. Balbi’s time spent in Japan, where he internalised the art of omotenashi (hospitality) shines through in a respectful attitude to guests that few places in Hong Kong match. “No wonder it has proved so popular with customers, critics and peers alike,” reads the entry in this year’s 100 Top Tables.

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As the evening built towards its climax, the penultimate award for Best New Restaurant was given to Causeway Bay’s Leela. Established by chef Manav Tuli, the menu has been described as “stellar” by 100 Top Tables and showcases great dishes from across South Asia. Highlights have included the moreish Lucknowi tokri chaat from northern India, the toothsome chakundar oxtail gosht from Punjab, and the rich Saoji lamb shank inspired by the cuisine of the Kandahar region in Afghanistan.

The Post’s F&B writers praised not only the food but also the interior design by André Fu Studio, with its warm and inviting tones, and the drinks menu by Jia Group’s beverage director, Mario Calderone, which was designed to harmonise with the vibrant flavours on offer.

Last but certainly not least, the final award of the night, for Best Chef, also presented by Standard Chartered Priority Private, went to Tuli for his menu at Leela.

Parkes praised not only the food at Leela but also Tuli’s courage in stepping out of his comfort zone. “Chef Tuli could have dined out on the success of his former restaurant Chaat for years. Instead, he chose to open a new concept – one that would invariably be compared to his old one, which has been so successful,” he noted. “Somehow he has produced a new concept and menu that is at once familiar yet entirely distinct. It’s tremendously impressive.”

100 Top Tables 2024: the winners

• Best Chef – Manav Tuli, Leela

• Best New Restaurant – Leela

• Chefs’ Choice – Ando

• Legend Award – Umberto Bombana

• Best Bartender – Simone Rossi, DarkSide

• Best Service – Feuille

• Sustainability Hero – Penicillin

• Rising Star – Sean Yuen, Dolos

• Best New Interior Design – Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic