Lobster A Gratis?
It’s a buffet to end all buffets, and it comes with free lobster! The Café of The Sheraton Hong Kong (20 Nathan Road, Kowloon, 2369 1111) is offering a promotional Boston lobster dinner buffet through to the end of August: every adult-priced dinner buffet comes with a Boston lobster with garlic confit served over ginger rice and spring onions. And when a buffet not only gives you lobster but also offers five kinds of sashimi, roasted prime rib, braised beef and red wine ravioli, slow roasted duck with Grand Marnier sauce, and desserts ranging from chocolate mousse cake to white wine jelly, the price tag may very well be worth it. Sundays-Thursdays the cost for adults is $398, children $199; Fridays and Saturdays adults $418, children $209. The dinner buffet is served from 6:30-10pm daily.

A Birthday Special
If there are any good ways to celebrate turning a year older, one of them has to be giving everyone you know a good deal on food. Zest (57 Wyndham Street, Central, 2526 7993) is celebrating its first birthday in style, by offering an $88 set three-course lunch through to August 31. The meal gives you a choice of soup or salad, the option of grilled sea bass, onion and mushroom pasta, or crispy chicken, and a dessert of cheesecake or chocolate parfait. The offer is good from Monday-Friday only, and bookings are a must. Also go to Zest for their summer brunch menu and offerings like the baked ricotta loaf with roasted stone fruits and vanilla syrup ($69) and brioche French toast with homemade orange curd ($69). Lunch is served Monday-Saturday 11:30am-3pm, dinner from Monday-Saturday 6-11pm.

Food Expo
The 18th Food Expo organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council is coming to the Convention and Exhibition Centre (1 Expo Drive, Wanchai, 2582 8888) from August 16-20; and that means you’ll have access to a high concentration of good food from around the world. Themed exhibition zones include one for health and organic foods; another for bakery products and sauces; an area devoted to beverages and restaurants; and one for snacks and dairy products, among others. Learn what Hong Kong is doing in the global food arena and grab some tasty titbits. The trade hall is open to the public August 18-20. Entry tickets cost $20 during the day, $10 at the fair after 6pm, August 16-19.

More Space to Sit
A brand new Ebeneezer’s (G/F, 52 Lockhart Road, 2157 0009) has just opened in Wanchai, confident it can seat all who flock there for good kebabs and late-night munchies. The branch seats 25 (many more than its Lan Kwai Fong counterpart) but August 20 will mark the opening of another Ebeneezer’s in the Gold Coast which will seat approximately 70. An expanded menu features pizza sold by the slice as well as 10-inch regular and 13-inch large-size pizzas. Try the popular meat express with roasted lamb, roasted chicken, and chicken tikka ($75, $110), or the chicken tikka ($65, $95). Slices cost $25. Go there for the option of naan bread or stuffed potato bread, aloo paratha, with your curry ($10 extra). New additions to the menu include the following curries: dal makhani, or black lentil with kidney beans, with rice ($35); chana masala, or chickpea curry, with rice ($35); and aloo gobi, or potato and cauliflower with rice ($35).

A Taste of France
La Mer Brasserie (1/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham Street, Central, 2523 0200) has brought in new chef Laurent Rospars to enhance their French cuisine. With the aim of sharing French food with everyone in Hong Kong, Rospars has created a group of new and more casual set lunch menus at La Mer, with selections that change every two weeks. The Epicurean Group of which La Mer is a part has also taken over Le Tire Bouchon (B/F, 45A Graham Street, Central, 2523 5459) and introduced a new dish – Longe d’Agneau a L’Estragon ($185), made with tender lamb mignon with a reduction of shallots, tarragon and lamb jus. La Mer Brasserie opens for lunch from Monday to Saturday 11:30am-3pm, dinner Sunday-Wednesday 5:30pm-12am and Thursday-Saturday 5:30pm-1am.

Strolling Through TST
No time to get out of Hong Kong, but feel like a holiday? TST’s Spice (2/F, 1 Knutsford Terrace, TST, 2191 9880/2191 9886) has been open for four months and boasts an atmosphere that feels Thai. Spice is now offering a new set lunch menu, with options including a soup of the day, main course, and soft drink. Try the Malay eggplant curry with rice and naan ($38), sweet and sour sole fillet with jasmine rice ($58), or seafood fried noodles with chilli paste ($68). Adding $10-$25 can upgrade your beverage not only to coffee or tea, but also to a pint of draught beer or house wine. Spice is open Monday-Friday 11:30am-2:30pm for lunch and Sunday-Thursday 6pm-12am, Friday-Saturday 6pm-1am for dinner.

The Friar Tuck (Shop No 5, 2/F, Knutsford Steps, 1 Kimberley Road, TST, 2317 7308) is an area institution – it’s been in TST for the past 10 years and on the Knutsford Steps for the past five. The Friar Tuck may be well known for cocktails and drinks, but now offers 12 different tea set menus every Monday-Friday from 2-5pm, for only $32 each. Look for old favourites like fish and chips with tartar sauce, shrimp cocktail salad, baked escargot on mushroom with garlic butter and buffalo chicken wings. All tea sets include a cup of coffee or tea. The Tuck is open Monday-Friday 2pm-3am, Saturday and Sunday 4pm-3am.

Been to an Italian café lately? Focaccino (Shop No 2, Knutsford Steps, 1/F Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, TST, 2375 9138) is serving Italian delicacies with newly launched entrée specialties. Anytime after 3pm, ask for the choice of the day, examples of which include osso bucco, chicken alla romana and veal marsala ($65-$120). For lighter fare, try the focaccia ripiena ($28), sweet focaccia ($16) and original focaccia ($22). Go also for other classic Italian pizzas, calzones, paninos, and salads as well as cocktails and wine from Monday-Saturday 8am-10pm, Sunday and public holidays 11am-10pm.

Vegetarian Variety
Khana Khazana Pure Vegetarian Indian Restaurant (1/F, Dannies House, 20 Luard Road, Wanchai) is fast becoming a well-known Wanchai eatery, and for good reason. The menu’s diversity of dishes is impressive; South Asian specialties like the two-foot long paper masala dosa ($49), a thin and crispy rice pancake stuffed with masala and served with curry, are offered alongside Italian, Punjabi, and Mexican entrees, Indian rice dishes, and three varieties of sizzlers for $78 each. Popular menu items include the South Indian chole bhatere ($59), or chickpeas with deep fried bread, and desserts like the sizzling hot brownie ($54). Khana Khazana now offers a lunchtime buffet and a happy hour special set menu from 3-6pm, for just $68. It is open noon-11:30pm daily.

Food Demonstrations

At Sabah Malaysian Cuisine (G/F, 98-102 Jaffe Road, Wanchai, 2143 6626), order a ‘pull tea’ ($22) to watch a gravity-defying display in which the chef pours tea from one cup to another while widening the distance between them. Amazingly, not even a drop spills while the chef keeps his smile and eyes on the captive audience. Chefs at Sabah also work to make cooking a show: order roti ($18), an Indian bread, to watch the chef ’play’ with the dough, turning a palm-sized ball into a large thin sheet while the he swings and chucks it. Then he places it onto a metal board and fries it until golden. Sabah is open Monday-Saturday 11am-11:30pm, Sunday and public holidays 12pm-10:30pm.

Every 8:30pm at the Peking Garden Restaurant (B 1/F and B 2/F, Alexandra House, Central, 2526 6456), watch a noodle pulling show with your full Beijing-style meal. The chef rolls a trolley out from the kitchen, stations himself before the restaurant’s tables, and pulls dough into 256 noodle strands. Tables get to touch and play with uncooked noodles that are handed out. Peking Garden is famous for its fried noodle dish ($85), served with meat and yellow chives. It’s open daily 11:30am-3pm, 6-11:30pm.

Les Celebrites of the Hotel Nikko (72 Mody Road, TST, 2313 4221) is hosting a special fish loining display on August 22 at 7pm, in which Japanese chef Masahiko Noka will artfully kill and carve a yellowtail into sushi, sashimi, and hand rolls for diners who come for the event. We attended the first staging of this fish loining show at the beginning of August, and can testify to just how impressive it is to watch a skilled chef transform a living fish into dinner. Make a reservation for the show and get a 20% discount on the price of the semi-buffet dinner ($480 before discount). Also of the Hotel Nikko, Café Serena (72 Mody Road, TST, 2313 4222) hosts a fish carving demonstration every Monday evening at 7pm. The tuna usually used for these carvings are massive and pre-frozen as opposed to the live yellowtail you can see at Les Celebrites on August 22. Dinner at Café Serena is served 6:30-9:30pm, $308 Monday-Thursday, $338 Friday–Sunday and holidays. There is no extra charge to view the fish carving, and guests are provided with free sushi, sashimi, and hand rolls made from the carved fish.

L’Eclipse of the Langham Hotel (8 Peking Road, TST, 2375 1133) is bringing Blue Elephant’s Thai cuisine to Hong Kong. Blue Elephant is both a cooking school and restaurant chain that trains its chefs in Thailand and cooks for society’s upper echelons. From now until August 26, L’Eclipse’s lunch and dinner buffets will contain dishes prepared by visiting Blue Elephant corporate chef, Chef Chang, and his assistants. Go for the papaya salad in lemon dressing, prawn, roasted duck, and chicken curries, and an array of traditional Thai foods. Lunch buffet is served from noon-2:30pm; dinner buffet is from 6:30-10:30pm Sunday-Thursday, 6-11:30pm Friday and Saturday.

We sat down with Chef Chang to hear his stories about what it was like to cook for Michael Jackson (he loves his tom yam koong mild), Princess Diana (whose favourite was pad thai and jokingly banged her silverware against the table in anticipation when she ordered it on her birthday at Blue Elephant’s London restaurant), the Crown Princess of Thailand and her party of 600 at an event at Versailles (where Chef Chang cooked outside because of a French worry that fire from the gas stove would burn Versailles down), the Prince of Wales, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. For a full list of the interesting diners for whom Chef Chang has prepared his signature dishes (one of which is green chicken curry), to learn about the intricacies of different Thai foods, and to hear stories of what it was like to learn from a grandmother who worked as a cook in the Thai royal palace, go speak with him at the public classes he hosts on August 16 and 17. Learn Thai cooking from the master himself, as he prepares four dishes using techniques of the Blue Elephant cooking school. Classes for 10-20 participants are held from 4-6pm at a cost of $250 per person, and require a reservation.