Get ready for the dining event of the year

On November 17th, we'll be hosting the fourth annual Hong Kong Tatler Best Restaurants awards party, where we'll be revealing the new Top 20 Restaurants and seven special awards. Not least, the event will mark the launch of the 33rd edition of the dining guide, which will cover over 200 restaurants, bars and cafés in Hong Kong and Macau. Here's what you need to know about the culinary soirée of the year.


THE EVENT

Guillaume Galliot, David Bassuluy, Tam Kwok Fung and Adolphus Foo

For the last three years, the awards night has been an opportunity for everyone in the F&B industry to celebrate the most talented and innovative individuals and restaurants, and is an evening powered by plenty of fine champagne and delicious canapés in a beautiful setting. For one night, Hong Kong and Macau's greatest chefs, sommeliers, and industry professionals will gather in one place—so it's a pretty safe bet that your favourite chefs might not be in the kitchen on November 17th. This year, the event will be hosted by The Seafood Room in Causeway Bay, kindly sponsored by Laurent-Perrier, S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, Peroni, and Li TV.

Take a trip down memory lane at our previous events, held at: 

All the recipients of 2016's Best Of Awards, with the Edipresse Media Asia team

This will be the third year we have run the highly anticipated Readers' Choice Award for Best New Restaurant, with a record number of shortlisted entries. All we can say is that this year—just like the American presidential elections—the final tally of votes for the winner and the runner-up were extremely close. 

This year, in addition to our usual awards for Best New Chef, Best Pastry Chef, Best Interior Design, Restaurateur of the Year and Best Cocktail, we are adding one more. In recognition of the efforts of those who work hard to celebrate and promote our own culinary heritage, we are presenting the inaugural award for Local Champion

Best of Awards 2016 
Best of Awards 2015
Best of Awards 2014


TOP 20 BEST RESTAURANTS

Richard Ekkebus with Michel Lamuniere

The 2017 edition of the guide will mark the 5th year of the Top 20 Best Restaurants list, which is a compilation of the year's top dining experiences. It's a reference to what we thought were the most outstanding restaurants, based on criteria such as quality, consistency, and perhapst most of all, whether or not they surprised us or brought something new and exciting to the table.

Every year, the list changes—with a few veterans among the 20 such as Amber, Jade Dragon and Caprice. Will they stay in this illustrous list for the fifth year running? 

This year, we have a total of seven new entries to the Top 20 list, and one restaurant re-entering the fray after a brief hiatus—it's a real testament to the dynamic nature of our dining scene.

It's become something a tradition to produce a unique short film for the awards night each year, and this year is no different. The concept is always conceived in-house by our editorial team, and everything is shot and edited by our talented videographer and his crew. Click through to see videos from the past three awards nights.


2013: SPOT THE GOLD MEDAL

In the first year, it was a whimsical production that featured our gold BRG medal as a recurring motif. 

For this debut video, we put out a unique trophy for all of our award winners featuring our Best Restaurants fork, knife and chopsticks logo rendered into a heavy gold medal set into a crystal base. In the video, the medal makes subtle appearances in every restaurant that made it onto the Top 20 list; part of the fun is guessing where it might appear next and in what form. With just one sample to use throughout filming, our BRG medal has gone through all of Hong Kong and Macau’s best restaurants – it has been heated in a blisteringly hot Josper grill at St Betty, dunked into freezing ice in Gaddi’s, used as a chopping board for steak tartar at Café Gray Deluxe and fashioned as a wheel for a trolley of petits fours in Tate.


2014: THE TATLER TASTING

We had already pulled it off once – the inaugural 30th anniversary cocktail event celebrating the 2014 guide kicked off with a special 5-minute video where we filmed all of our Top 20 Best Restaurants in various scenarios with our special gold Best Restaurants Guide (BRG) medal making a cameo in each scene. This year, we got to thinking – why not create a lengthy tasting menu featuring all of our favourite dishes from each of these 20 restaurants, and create a visual degustation through the region’s best kitchens and dining rooms?


2015: LIFE OF A FIVE-YEAR-OLD CRITIC

In a special short film first shown at the 3rd annual Hong Kong Tatler Best Restaurants Guide awards night, we sent two pint-sized restaurant reviewers on their first mission – to Caprice at The Four Seasons. Keanu and Oscar were treated to chef Fabrice Vulin’s signature tasting menu, which included dishes such as royale langoustine a la plancha, ravioli, wild mushrooms, watercress coulis and Kristal caviar; and Japanese wagyu beef served with thick-cut chips. Pastry chef Nicolas Lambert’s whimsical desserts went down a treat, as expected. 

Click through to the next slide to watch a trailer for our next video. 


2016: A TRIBUTE TO HONG KONG

That's all we're saying for now. Check back on November 18 for the full video, after it's shown at the awards night! 


 

Stay updated with all the updates from Best Restaurants Guide 2017 with the hashtag #HKTBRG2017 and follow us on InstagramFacebook and Twitter .