My Hong Kong
As the buzz around the East Asian cultural mecca amplifies, who better than two savvy, on-the-ground locals to curate an insider’s guide to the city’s essential experiences.
Carol Tam
Creative consultant, DJ and cultural strategist
A Hong Kong-based creative whose global sensibility has been shaped by the cultural landscapes of both Asia and the US. Born and raised in San Francisco, Tam has used her Fine Arts education as the keystone for transforming visionary concepts into tangible realities across projects in music curation, fashion and events. As a DJ for leading fashion houses and private events, she weaves rare finds with timeless classics to craft immersive, genre-blurring soundscapes—a methodology which extends to her broader creative approach—one that lives at the intersection of culture, storytelling and contemporary relevance.
EAT
Lin Heung Tea House
A beacon of old Hong Kong that has been serving dim sum since 1926. The experience is gloriously unfiltered—think stainless steel teapots, communal tables and a cart service that captures the city’s unique verve. Come for the lotus leaf rice, har gow (shrimp dumpling) and siu mai (meat dumpling); stay for the steam, the clatter and the comfort of a Cantonese tradition amid a constantly evolving metropolis.
160 Wellington Street, Central; +852 2116 0670
For Kee
Pork chop rice is the drawcard at this small, unassuming neighbourhood staple. And its loyal brigade of regulars know the drill with the restaurant’s signature dish, ordering iced milk teas and fried eggs to accompany the tender cuts and steaming grains. The atmosphere is decidedly casual, with compact seating, quick service and honest, no-fuss flavours. Call it everyday Hong Kong on a plate.
Shop J-K, G/F, 200 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan; +852 2546 8947
Oi Man Sang
Since 1956, the Sham Shui Po stalwart has been dishing out Cantonese street food with all the grit and charm of a classic open-air stall: salt and pepper squid, steamed razor clams heavy on garlic, and salted egg yolk prawns fly out of the kitchen, flames fed by kerosene. It’s rowdy, communal and firmly local—a place proffering an unvarnished taste of Hong Kong, never trying too hard but always delivering.
Shop B-C, G/F, 1 Shek Kip Mei Street, Sham Shui Po; +852 2393 9315
SHOPPING
Beaureguards
A retail retreat within the Rosewood Hong Kong hotel specialising in fashion and lifestyle essentials. Founded by Kim Bui Kollar and Kelly Wong, the store prides itself on sourcing and supporting Hong Kong creative talents, alongside unique global finds. The pieces on sale reflect purposeful design—whether preparing for a luxe coastal escape or hunting for an upscale souvenir.
18 Salisbury Road, 6th Floor, Rosewood Hotel Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui; rosewoodhotels.com
Vinyl Hero
Hidden within the rush of the Kowloon district, a rare holdout that never acquiesced to the algorithm. In a compact 30 m² space, Paul Au has built a shrine to the analogue era in the form of stacked floor-to-ceiling vinyl, culled from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. There’s no curation for curation’s sake—just knowledge, deep digging and dust. Call ahead and come with ample time to browse.
Flat D, 5/F, Wai Hong Building, 239 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Sham Shui Po; vinylhero.com
DRINK
Montana
Channelling the sun-soaked, rhythm-propelled energy of 1970s Miami, it’s all about Cuban classics served with world-class hospitality. El Presidente, Montana Daiquiri and Piña Colada serve as headline cocktail acts, delivering the fuel for some dancefloor shimmying to the soundtrack of pure Latin funk and disco. No fuss—just good times, unpretentious vibes, and drinks that hit just right.
Shop A, G/F, 108 Hollywood Road, Central; montanabarhk.com
ART
WKM Gallery
Founded in 2023 by William Kayne Mukai, WKM has injected energy into Hong Kong’s art scene, spotlighting an astute mix of emerging and established artists from Hong Kong, Japan and beyond. Its design ethos fuses Japanese minimalism and industrial grit, while honouring ma—the vital space between artwork and observer.
20/F, Coda Designer Centre, 62 Wong Chuk Hang Road; wkm.gallery
FITNESS
Family Form
Family Form’s studio represents swelter raised to a whole new level. The mat-based, infrared-heated, sculpt-led workout—founded by Lindsay Jang and Helen Kim, and hosted in The Upper House hotel—is as intense as it is restorative, designed to keep you constantly moving. Practitioners can use hand or ankle weights during the 55-minute sessions.
Room 3904, The Upper House, 88 Queensway, Admiralty; familyform.co
LOCAL DELICACY
Flagrant Sauce
Each batch is produced locally in the Chai Wan neighbourhood, starting with fermentation of fresh chillies, salt and koji. Embedded in Hong Kong’s vibrant culture, it marries traditional Japanese techniques with bold local creativity—culminating in a spicy sauce as distinctive as the city itself.
Gavin Yeung – Bar owner and lifestyle writer
At a time when Hong Kong bars were courting foreign blow-ins, Gavin Yeung was focusing his energy on pressing domestic affairs: the revival of Cantonese spirits. After being mesmerised by the elaborate label on a bottle of Wing Lee Wai’s yuk bing siu—a port-fat macerated rice wine popular in the ’50’s—the Vancouver-born epicurean found himsef being sucked into the orbit of a long-forgotten world, one where Cantonese liquor once held sway. The footprints of this journey of discovery lead straight to the Peel Street door of Kinsman, the nostalgia soaked temple to traditional local tipples that Yeung co-founded in 2023. When he’s not hatching proprietary cocktails such as Ode to Moiyan, a sour-style concoction using MIng River baijiu. or Bocca Tigris, a liquid salute to Hong Kong’s nomadic ocean tribes, Yeung is busy penning stories about his adopted city’s cultural moves for a raft of international and regional titles.
EAT
Caffè Parabolica
Under the old Repulse Bay Hotel, this relaxing spot combines Bauhaus design with Japanese sensibilities. The menu features excellent coffee, bistro fare, and pastries that wouldn’t look out of place in a trendy Tokyo neighbourhood—Yeung’s go-to is squid and mentaiko spaghetti with an iced Americano.
Shops 106A & 107A, G/F, 109 Repulse Bay, Repulse Bay; caffeparabolica.com
Sushi Zinc
Hong Kong is full of omakase restaurants, but this one does things differently. Located in Shau Kei Wan—far from Central’s glitzy dining complexes—it’s helmed by wunderkind Zinc Leung, serving seafood plucked mostly from Hong Kong’s own seas, from mantis shrimp (Ninepin Islands) to grouper (Po Toi Island).
Unit A1, G/F, Pak Ling Mansion, 5-7 Miu Tung Street, Shau Kei Wan; +852 9867 5271
Luk Yu Tea House
A 92-year-old tea house offering a glimpse of yesteryear Hong Kong. Its Art Deco interiors remain nearly unchanged since 1976. The dim sum selection includes crab meat noodle soup and steamed chicken “big bun”, served by septuagenarian waiters in mandarin collars.
24–26 Stanley Street, Central; +852 2523 5464
DRINK
Wing Lee Wai
Founded in 1876, this family-owned brand sells Chinese wines and liqueurs, including the pork-fat-infused yuk bing siu and white glutinous rice wine with aromas of popcorn and wheat.
124 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan; +852 2544 1172
The Chinnery
Opened in 1963 inside the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, The Chinnery retains its mahogany-walled charm, colonial spirit, and silver-haired bartenders. It serves Indian-by-way-of-Pall Mall cuisine in an atmosphere Don Draper would have adored.
1/F, 5 Connaught Road Central, Central; mandarinoriental.com
Paragon
Walking intothis new bar is like entering the cosy, well-appointed living room of that audiophile friend who also has a knack for mixing up classic cocktails. Opened by the team behind Michelin-starred restaurant Neighborhood, it’s modelled on the mid-century-inspired listening bars of Tokyo, with jazz hits from the Great American Songbook wafting out of a vintage JBL Paragon soundsystem, from which the bar takes its name.
41 Peel Street, Central; @parago.hk
Ned Kelly’s Last Stand
For a riotously good time, head to (by some accounts) Hong Kong’s oldest bar. Named after the infamous Australian outlaw, it’s a survivor from the city’s pre-Handover days. Every night, a live jazz and blues band takes the stage in a charmingly claustrophobic space, where you’re often rubbing shoulders with visitors from all around the world. Still, the big band does a damn good job at making sure everybody is having the night of their lives.
11A Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui; +852 2376 0562
DAY TRIP
Lei Yue Mun
A historic fishing village at the eastern mouth of Victoria Harbour, the cluster of low-rise houses is reminiscent of the city’s roots before it became the world’s largest collection of sckyscrapers—and the humble attitude of the residents is reflected in the no-nonsense seafood restaurants. Venture further into the strip and you’ll pass the Tin Hau Temple and a decommissioned granite quarry that’s now a cinematic backdrop for wedding shoots.
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Omega Just Unveiled 9 Watches in Its New Constellation Observatory Collection
The line-up shows up a bevy of metals and colours, too, as well as two new calibres.
Omega’s latest watch is in a universe of its own.
The Swiss watchmaker just unveiled its new Constellation Observatory Collection today, the next step in its Constellation lineage and the first two-hand hour and minute timepieces to ever earn Master Chronometer certification. And if you were paying attention to any of the dazzling watches spotted at the Oscars this year, you would’ve caught a glimpse of the new line already: Sinners star Delroy Lindo rocked one of the models on the Academy Awards red carpet, giving us a pre-release preview of the collection.
Developed at Omega’s new Laboratoire de Précision (its chronometer testing lab open to all brands), the collection houses a set of nine 39.4 mm watches. The watches underwent 25 days of scrutiny there, analysed via a new acoustic testing method that recorded every sound emitted from the timepiece to track irregularities, temperature sensitivities, and more in the name of all things precision. (Details such as water resistance and power reserve are also thoroughly examined.) This meticulous process is all in the name of snagging that Master Chronometer label, meaning that the timepiece is highly accurate and surpasses the threshold for ultra-high performance. The Constellation Observatory Collection has now changed the game, though, thanks to its lack of a seconds hand.
“Until now, precision certification has required a seconds hand,” Raynald Aeschlimann, president and CEO of OMEGA, said in a press statement. “The development of a new acoustic testing methodology has made that requirement obsolete. It is this breakthrough that has enabled us to present the Constellation Observatory, the first two-hand watch to achieve Master Chronometer certification.”
In addition to notching its place in history, the collection also debuted a new pair of movements: the Calibre 8915 and the Calibre 8914, each perched on a skeletonised rotor base. The former’s Grand Luxe iteration will appear on the 950 Platinum-Gold model in the collection, which offers up that base in 18-karat Sedna Gold alongside a Constellation medallion in 18-karat white gold with an Observatory dome done in white opal enamel surrounded by stars. The second Calibre 8915, the Luxe, will find its home on the other precious-metal models in the line, either made with the brand’s 18-karat Sedna, Moonshine, or Canopus gold seen across the case, the hand-guilloché dial, and, of course, the movement itself. (Lindo chose to rock the Moonshine Gold on Moonshine Gold iteration, priced at approximately $86,000, for Sinners‘s big night at the Oscars.) As for the Calibre 8914, it can be found in the collection’s four steel models.
Each model is a callback to myriad design features on past Omega models. That two-hand dial, for one, comes from the 1948 Centenary (the brand’s first chronometer-certified automatic wristwatch), while the pie-pan dial (seen in various blue, green, and golden hues throughout the line) and that Constellation medallion caseback both appear on watches from 1952. The star adorning the space above 6 o’clock also harks back to 1950s timepieces from Omega. And to finish off the look, you can opt for alligator straps in a variety of colours, or perhaps a gold iteration to match the precious-metal models; the brick-like pattern on the 18-karat Moonshine bracelet was also inspired by Omega watches from the ’50s.
We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for any other Constellation Observatory timepieces (or any other unreleased models from the brand) at the rest of the star-studded events headed our way this year—perhaps the Met Gala?
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Best Combustion Supercar: Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider
A modern classic in the making, combining naturally aspirated power with elegant restraint to deliver performance that feels as refined as it is visceral.
In a year when carmakers of all persuasions sheepishly extended hyperbolic electric targets, it’s fitting that the monastic puritans of Maranello—who, lest we forget, won’t finally yield to the sin of battery power until October with the Elettrica—opted to make combustion their major power play.
As an uncertain future of AI omnipresence barrels towards us, the 12Cilindri—an analogue, open-topped tribute to Ferrari’s late-’60s/early-’70s grand tourer, the Daytona—represents a defiant fade into the past, a pause for breath, a fleeting return to The Good Times when nascent technology provoked excitement rather than existential dread.
Guiding this automotive nostalgia trip is, as the nomenclature suggests, a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine, generating an unceasing wave of power as it sears towards the 9,500 rpm redline with relative nonchalance. That’s because the 12Cilindri is not a mouth-foaming attack-dog. It scales performance heights with the refinement of the finest Italian works of art; its “Bumpy Road” mode facilitates comfy al fresco GT cruising, and even the imperious powerplant is mannerly at most speeds.
For all the yesteryear romance, progressive technologies and engineering, such as a world-class 8-speed transmission, advanced electronic aids and independent four-wheel steering, are baked into the deal. The 12Cilindri’s clean, stark design somehow toggles between retro and modern; and while vaguely polarising, one can’t ignore its magnetic road presence.
In terms of aesthetics, Ferrari describes the 12Cilindri as being “ready for space”; in many ways, a fantasy vehicle that transports users to another dimension is probably what the world needs right now.
The Numbers
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Power: 610kW
Torque: 678 Nm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
0-100 km/h: 2.95 seconds
Top speed: 340 km/h
Price: From $886,800
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Inside Loro Piana’s First Sydney Boutique
A first Australian address brings the Italian house’s textile-led approach to retail full circle.
On the fourth floor of Westfield Sydney, near the Castlereagh and Market Street entrance—in the space formerly occupied by Chanel—Loro Piana has opened its first Australian boutique. It is a significant address change for that corner of the mall, and a meaningful one for the Italian house, which has sourced Australian merino wool for decades but until now had no retail presence here.
The facade is understated—creamy, tactile, more about texture than theatre. Inside, the store unfolds across a single, expansive level divided into distinct men’s and women’s wings. The separation is clear without being heavy-handed: womenswear leads from soft accessories and leather goods into ready-to-wear, while menswear occupies its own assured territory, with tailoring and outerwear given proper breathing room. Footwear (supple loafers, luxurious slides, pared-back sneakers) is particularly strong, and the sunglasses are a quiet standout: mineral-toned frames with a disciplined elegance that feels entirely of the house.
That same restraint carries into the interiors, where the surfaces do much of the talking. Walls are wrapped in the company’s own linen and cashmere; carpets are custom, dense underfoot, softening the acoustics and the pace. Oak and carabottino wood add warmth without fuss; marble accents introduce a cool counterpoint. The effect is a composed space calibrated around material, proportion and restraint.
The Spring 2026 collection now in store underscores that sensibility. Silhouettes are elongated and fluid; cashmere, silk and featherweight merino move in sandy neutrals, creams and muddied earth tones, with flashes of marigold and pale turquoise breaking the calm. Tailoring is softly structured and projects confidence without aggression. Leather goods arrive in buttery skins that feel almost pre-lived, as though time has already worked its magic.
What distinguishes Loro Piana, particularly in a market that has grown noisier by the season, is its refusal to perform luxury in an obvious register. There are no oversized insignias telegraphing allegiance. Instead, the status is encoded in fibre count, in hand-feel, in how a coat hangs from the shoulder. It assumes the wearer knows and, crucially, does not need to announce it.
Sydney’s luxury landscape has matured in recent years; global houses no longer test the waters but commit to them. Yet Loro Piana’s arrival feels different. It is not trend-driven expansion but material logic. For a country whose sheep stations have long contributed to the house’s fabric story, this boutique reads almost as a thank-you note written in cashmere.
Photography: Courtesy of Loro Piana.
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This Stylish, Water-Resistant Dopp Kit Might Be the Last One You Ever Buy
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If all you’re going to do is look at it, a leather Dopp kit from a fashion house is a fine choice. But if you take travelling seriously—and do it often, for business, pleasure, or both—such a bag will inevitably end up blemished with droplets of water or stained by errant flecks of toothpaste. Get stuck with a cavalier team of baggage handlers, and it can even get soaked in your favourite fragrance or anti-ageing serum.
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And though its clean lines and rugged construction make it undeniably masculine, its greatest feature is borrowed from women’s makeup bags. Like the best of these, BB1 unzips to lie flat, giving you unobstructed access to everything inside. Well, you and the 999 other gentlemen who move fast enough to snag one. $289
Courtesy of Patricks
1. Hanging Loop
The G-hook system isn’t just a stylish handle: You can also use it to hang the bag from a hook or secure it to your carry-on.
2. Two-Way Zipper
The closures are water-resistant in both directions, meaning liquids won’t get in or out.
3. Fold-flat Construction
BB1 opens to 180 degrees, letting you scan its 4.2-litre capacity at a quick glance.
4. Technical-Fabric Shell
The durable recycled-nylon is easy to maintain and woven to survive splashes and leaks from your go-to products.
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