Cafe Gray Deluxe

J W Marriott Hotel Hong Kong Cum The Upper House, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s love affair with Gray Kunz started in the 1980s, when he ran Plume in The Regent hotel, and was reignited when he returned from New York to helm his eponymous ‘café’ (really a gourmet restaurant) at the top of a new boutique hotel last year. No sooner had the doors opened than a parade of food lovers arrived to admire the city views, the decor and the cuisine. Kunz, who visits periodically rather than overseeing his brigade on a daily basis, has drawn up a menu that’s essentially European, grounded in fresh and organic ingredients and spiced with ideas from America and Asia. So the coq au vin comes with pearl onions, bacon and spätzle, while the lobster thermidor sits next to Chinese mustard greens. The service is swift, genuine and relaxed, the flavours delicately balanced and beautifully composed and intelligently complemented by a wine list that gives full measure to the word ‘extensive’. All in all, eating here is a rich experience, in all senses.