Each year, the T.Dining panel discusses its top picks for 20 of the most representative restaurants that contribute something truly exceptional to the local dining scene. Here are the results
This year marks the seventh edition of the Top 20 Best Restaurants—a list we painstakingly compile each year in the hopes of presenting a distillation of Hong Kong and Macau’s most exciting dining experiences. It’s a gargantuan task that requires the T.Dining panel to consider 12 months of meals and partake in a rigorous reviewing process that involves more than 200 restaurants across both cities. So, what does the Top 20 list represent? Crucially, this is not your traditional restaurant ranking. Every restaurant on the list is representative of a particularly exceptional dining experience that we felt was worthy of special mention that year. Our panellists were free to comment on and discuss their nominations, downvoting venues they felt lacked the right criteria for the list, as well as showing their support for the restaurants they felt went above and beyond. And so, after months of anonymous visits, blind voting and deliberating, we are proud to reveal our definitive Top 20 for the year, in no particular order. An asterix (*) denotes a new addition to this year's list.
See the 2019 Top 20 Best Restaurants list, or find out who took home the Best Of The Year awards
1. Happy Paradise
Fun and flair go hand in hand at May Chow’s tribute to Cantonese cooking, where dishes take references from tradition and go running at full speed in a wildly different direction—and it works every time. Where else in the city can you order a feast that includes shiitake tacos with garam masala and soy glaze, mapo tofu dip with ginger scallion pancakes, and pan-fried pig’s brain with burnt pear vinaigrette, all in a neon-lit square of a space that, aesthetically speaking, is one part karaoke dive bar and one part video game arcade? It’s living proof that we’re dining in a time where the rules of fine dining are being shattered—minus the tablecloths, besuited staff and flurry of amuse-bouches and petits fours, Chow’s food is right up there with the best.