Health Conscious
Naha (G1015 Yiu Sing Mansion, Stage 10, Taikoo Shing, 2816 6969) opened in June and brings you Okinawan cuisine from Southwestern Japan. The Okinawa diet is known for being particularly healthy and vitamin-rich, and Naha promotes the health-conscious character of its dishes. You’ll still find some deep-fried menu items here, but Naha uses vegetable oils and dishes like the Okinawa seaweed tempura ($58) are made with thin, tender seaweed. The sea grape ($52), a seaweed known as ‘green caviar’, is a low-calorie option that’s also a traditional Okinawa dish. The tofu in the traditional sautéed Okinawa bitter gourd with pork ($62), another traditional offering, is made with Okinawa seawater which has an unusually high salt concentration – making the tofu saltier. Décor here is minimalist but features the dyed cloth of traditional Okinawa Bingata artwork. The drink menu includes 22 types of Awamori wines (720ml bottle $320-$880). Open Monday-Sunday 11:30am-3pm, 6pm-11:30pm.

Regala Café and Dessert Bar (G/F, Regal Kowloon Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2313 8788) is proving that it really isn’t impossible to eat out and healthy. They’re launching a new series of ‘Low Calorie and Healthy Set Meals’ with a menu complete with printed calorie counts for each of its dishes, calculated by professional nutritionists. Sample dishes include appetizers like the Thai pomelo salad with shrimps and scallops (100 calories), soups such as the chilled cucumber gazpacho with mint (43 calories), grilled honey and mustard chicken on grain rice (296 calories) as a main, and desserts like the baked low-fat blueberry cheesecake with wild berries (114 calories). A set menu of two courses costs $88 per person, three courses $108 per person and four courses $128 per person, available from noon-11pm.

Sheung Wan Eats
Newly opened Graze Café (G/F, Chao’s Building, 143-145 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan, 2850 7766) offers homemade food, great coffee, fine wines and a homey atmosphere. In the upstairs dining area called The Attic, listen to music while browsing through provided novels and magazines. The Attic also houses a ‘Creative Corner’ displaying art from local artists and features a new artist every month. Graze imports organic Green and Black chocolate bars from the UK in a wide range of flavours like cherry and espresso. Popular dishes here include couscous with grilled vegetable salad ($32), beef cannelloni ($35) and the Graze grilled chicken bagel sandwich ($28). ‘Smoothies with spirit’ or alcoholic smoothies will be available once the café gets its liquor licence in August. Open Monday-Friday 8am-10pm, Saturday and public holidays 9am-10pm, closed on Sundays.

The word ‘café’ may conjure up images of sandwiches and cakes, but newly opened Walker Café (Shop No 1, 51-59 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan, 2545 6663) offers something different. Go for Japanese lunch sets, like the cheese-hearted tonkatsu pork ($45) served with Japanese curry or teriyaki sauce, hand-made udon with boneless US prime short ribs in Japanese curry ($48), and sesame sauce cold noodle ($48). Why not take friends for the buy-six-get-one free set meal during lunch and dinner? From now until December 31, you can get 10% off all café purchases. Open daily 8am-9pm.

Hungering for a burger? The Burger Joint (Shop F, G/F, 27 Hillier Street, Sheung Wan, 8200 2747) is serving great alternatives to your standard McDonald’s fare. Homemade sauces top off burgers like the Aloha ($56) made with juicy beef, fresh spinach or lettuce, red onion and grilled pineapple with honey mustard. The Meaty Monster ($62) is just that, albeit with spinach or lettuce, bacon, caramelized onion and garlic mayonaise. Vegetarians don’t despair; the Porto-burger ($56) made of portobello mushrooms incorporates grilled zucchini and peppers inside crispy rosemary breads with a balsamic vinegar sauce. There’s also the option of building your own burger. All burger sets include fries or chips and soft drinks. Open Monday-Saturday 11am-9pm, Sundays 12-6pm.

Seafood Steal
Aussie seafood restaurant The Quarterdeck Kowloon (Shop OT G53, G/F, Ocean Terminal Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2735 8881) is offering a special ‘Ten Dollar Oyster Night’ promotion set to last through the summer. With every meal you order, select up to a dozen fresh oysters for $10 each. Sounds like a good deal to us. The offer is good 6pm-10pm Monday-Wednesday, excluding public holidays.

A Sweet Affair
The Place (555 Shanghi Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, 3552 3200), the restaurant at Langham Place Hotel, wants to help you with that chocolate fix. Everyday from 3:15pm-5:30pm, indulge in this restaurant’s tempting afternoon tea buffet featuring four-layered Valrhona chocolate fountains alongside a spread of finger sandwiches, salads, soba, cold-cuts, dim sum, congee, and other desserts. Go on weekends and public holidays for a true chocolate heaven, as The Place will serve chocolate cakes, ice creams, pralines, puddings, mousses, waffles, and even chocolate pasta and sushi. The tea buffet costs $99 for adults and $59 for children Monday-Friday, $118 for adults and $78 for children on weekends.

Innovative Food, Japanese Traditions
Japanese restaurant Harakan (G/F, Shop 1, Sunning Plaza, 10 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, 2882 8616) dedicated to promoting Japanese Hara culture and known for its fresh sushi and robatayaki, is celebrating its 3rd anniversary by launching a special Hara Menu and Harakan 3rd Anniversary Set. Included on the new menu is tuna bone jelly with vinegar sauces ($120 up per set), imported weekly from Japan and served only on Fridays and Saturdays on a first-come-first-served basis. Six new offerings on the Harakan menu are accompanied by the same number of secret-recipe sauces; offerings include pork knuckles with a special walnut sauce ($90 per set), and fresh half lobster with oba sauce ($180 per set). The Harakan 3rd Anniversary Flagship Dining Set ($498) lets you try each of Harakan’s flagship products, ranging from toro sushi to chazuke with mentaiko.

A Pie With That Pint?
Monday night is the Dublin Jack (17 Lan Kwai Fong, Central 2543 0081) night with a promotion that lets you order a pie of the evening and pint for $98. Look for favourites like cottage pie made of minced beef and mashed potato, the steak and mushroom pie topped with puff pastry, and the seafood pie made with salmon and scallops, also topped with puff pastry. They are made to accompany draft beers Guinness, Kilkenny, Carlsberg and Holsten. The pie and pint promotion runs from 6-11pm.

New in TST
Lulu Bar and Restaurant (Shop 2, 5 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2312 0468) invites you to celebrate their opening with some very low prices on their drinks. Through to August 31, house spirits will cost only $10 a glass during happy hour – and from your second glass onwards, you pay happy hour prices no matter what the time of night. Lulu opened in June and serves a mix of Asian and western foods alongside its drinks menu. Snack-sized tandoori chicken skewer with sour cream and mint sauce ($55) and the Madras lamb legs served with naan bread ($72) are proving to be popular dishes. We were fans of the chicken wings (six pieces $48, 12 pieces $80), which were crispy and not too oily. Happy hour prices range from $20-$50. Open Monday-Saturday 4pm-3am, Sunday 5pm-2am, happy hour ends 9pm.