Are you always on the hunt for the best new restaurant openings? Us too, which is why we like to periodically round up the most intriguing new openings to have caught our attention, some of whom may already be welcoming guests, and some of whom are still building buzz. Below you’ll find the most exciting restaurant openings in the Asia-Pacific region for the coming months – restaurants 100% worth investigating, from chakra-inspired, multi-course dining to some of the world’s finest steaks.
Pavlova at Sara Dining.
Aptos
Aptos opened in a renovated 19th-century church in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia in May. There, chef Justin James, formerly of Eleven Madison Park in New York, Vue de Monde in Melbourne and Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide, serves a 16-course tasting menu of native ingredients to just 14 diners per sitting, taking them on a gastronomic and short literal journey – the experience is enjoyed in different spaces, moving from the lounge to the library, to the kitchen to watch the chefs at work, to a higher floor for sweet treats. Abundant Australian art (the space used to be a gallery) and ceramics further cement the sense of place.
Photo credit: Henry Trumble
Don Pedro
This recently opened Argentinian steakhouse in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood promises to transport diners to Buenos Aires, with premium beef cuts sourced from the same suppliers as Don Julio in the Argentine capital, a multiple Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants winner, and free-flowing malbec – they even offer a malbec flight. When it comes to the steak, however, they keep it simple (choice is overrated anyway). There are just two options: a 340g boneless ribeye and a slightly smaller tenderloin, both of which spend a significant amount of time in the dry-ageing fridge. Smaller bites include housemade charcuterie and empanadas, and a nourishing-sounding bone broth tea.
Gaggan
Gaggan Anand is a chef who’s not afraid to change things up, and so it is at his flagship, 15-cover Bangkok restaurant, where he has closed and reopened this month with a new menu and a very important new rule: no phones or cameras allowed for “most of the meal”. While the internet blinks in confusion, Anand has crafted a menu inspired by chakras – 25+ courses over three hours, accompanied, of course, by some of his favourite tunes (ain’t no party like a Gaggan party). If you want to get an idea of what he’ll be serving, head on over to his Instagram, where you can see the menu in sketch form; or don’t – letting it be a surprise seems in the spirit of things. Anand also has plans for a new restaurant in New Delhi, called Raga, in the coming months.
Milli
Set across two floors at the top of the National Gallery Singapore, Milli is a new dining and entertainment destination from the team behind Bae’s Cocktail Club, chef LG Han of Labyrinth and Vijay Mudaliar of Native bar. With views over Singapore’s skyline, the Milli experience unfolds from lunch all the way through to as late as 4am. In the Sky Dining & Bar space, Han and Mudaliar offer a modern interpretation of Singaporean cuisine and cocktails, with dishes such as oyster omelette soufflé and lobster laksa cheong fun, while the Lounge offers non-stop party anthems until the early hours, often spun by guest DJs. Where you start and end the night is up to you.
Ninetta
The tagline for Ninetta, a new Italian trattoria in Hong Kong from chef Antimo Merone (pictured far right with Graziano De Gregorio and head chef Marco Xodo) of Michelin-starred Estro, is “Italian food for everyone”. While details of the menu remain scant ahead of the restaurant’s opening in late June, you can expect pan-Italian cooking at an accessible price point – so think all your favourite antipasti, pastas, secondi and desserts. The vibe is definitely 1980s/90s, we’re told, in terms of the interior design and playlist. Other features include an open kitchen with a pasta-making station, which always transfixes, and an outdoor terrace. We think it sounds molto divertimento (a lot of fun).
Sara Dining
Opening in August, Sara Dining looks set to become a must-visit destination restaurant on Australia’s New South Wales coast. Located in the village of Berry, two hours' drive south of Sydney, this restaurant and farmstay, part of the Linnaeus Collection, will see chef and co-owner Alex Prichard leading the kitchen, having swapped city life at Bondi’s Icebergs Dining Room and Bar to get closer to the produce out in the country. The restaurant is promising a full farm-to-fork experience, so expect the freshest picks to land on your plate straight from the farm and gardens surrounding you, and what is sure to be a great night’s sleep in peaceful surrounds.
Tate Dining Room
Another reopening, this time for chef Vicky Lau. Her two-Michelin-star Tate Dining Room has been located on Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road since 2017, but on 27 June it will have its last dinner service before closing and reopening at a thus far undisclosed location later in the summer. Knowing Lau, you can be sure that Tate 3.0 (she opened the first iteration of the restaurant on Elgin Street in 2012) will be a timely evolution of her elegant French-Chinese concept – her seasonal tasting menus are currently ‘odes to’, with each course focusing on a different ingredient, such as blue lobster or hydrangea.
Tiffany & Co. Blue Box Café
Understanding that everyone wants to say they’ve had breakfast at Tiffany’s, the jewellery brand is set to open a branch of its Blue Box Café at its new flagship in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. Chef Agustin Balbi of Michelin-starred Ando will be responsible for the food, with the café offering several different culinary experiences: breakfast, afternoon tea and all-day dining, plus brunch on the weekends. The breakfast includes a multi-course experience called quite literally, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (tick), while the all-day menu includes a signature burger and lobster linguine. A place to feel special.
