At Agora, A Celebration of Deep Spanish Terroir from Mountain to Sea

Chef Antonio Oviedo combines his cooking chops as seen at 22 Ships with a consideration for history and sense of place at JIA Group's newest fine dining venue

Spanish fine dining has always had a tenuous foothold in Hong Kong since the closure of Fofo by El Willy in 2017. But the world has changed since then, and Agora, newly opened by JIA Group in Tai Kwun, is less concerned with “explosive smoked salmon air bags” and 62°C eggs—as our review at the time humorously details—than with a pure expression of the length and breadth of the Spanish terroir.

Antonio Oviedo of 22 Ships, who we identified as a rising star in the F&B scene back in 2020, is the face of this new venture, having buffed the credentials of the Wan Chai tapas bar into a neighbourhood gem. Agora is a far cry from the no-frills bustle of Ship Street, though, as one's first step into the Tai Kwun venue will reveal.

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Above Chef Antonio Oviedo (Image: Agora)

Above Collective Studio uplifted the heritage space with subtle interventions of concrete and red marble (Image: Agora)

Residing in the former prison complex's D Hall, the 24-seater restaurant is set behind a series of arched columns. Inside, Collective Studio has worked around strict preservation requirements to uplift the heritage space with subtle interventions of concrete and red marble—the latter material comprises the entire chef's counter in the middle of the space. Combined with the dramatic arched brick ceiling, the resulting interior resembles a cloistered underground church akin to those found in the underground dwellings of Gran Canaria; or, indeed, an ancient Greek agora, an open public space where artistic, social, economic and political ideas could be exchanged.

It certainly feels a million miles from Hong Kong, which perhaps allows the Madrileño chef the space to weave impossible-to-find native Spanish ingredients into his 10-course Menú Gran Ágora. There are percebes (gooseneck barnacles) paired with hake in a salsa verde; the intestine of the Espardenya sea cucumber, placed delicately atop Morcilla pig’s blood sausage and teardrop peas in a dish called Mar y Muntanya (“sea and mountain” in Catalan); and kokotxa (chin of cod) covered in a pil pil sauce and topped with Oscietra caviar.

Above Gazpachuelo with white asparagus, mandarin and green olive (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

Above Mar y Muntanya (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

Oviedo also takes care to ground his cuisine in Spanish gastronomic history. The bread course recreates the candeal loaves of Castilla y Leon—known historically as the bread basket of Spain, and home to a tradition whereby grandmothers would prepare dough to bake in a communal oven. Each loaf would be stamped with a marker for ease of identification; at Agora, naturally, the identifier is an upstanding, serifed letter A. The Verdial de Velez extra virgin olive oil it's dipped in is even more redolent of history: the bottle from which it's poured details that the centenary olive trees, found in subtropical Málaga, were the product of a grafting experiment by Phoenicians who landed on Spain's southern coast thousands of years ago.

Above Percebes (gooseneck barnacles) to be paired with hake in a salsa verde (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

Above Bomba rice paella with deep-sea carabinero prawn and prawn aioli (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

Then there are the familiar touchpoints, like jamón ibérico, here paired with flat beans and migas breadcrumb mix; and a puck of Bomba rice paella with the perfect ratio of crunchy soccarat crust alongside a deep-sea carabinero prawn and prawn aioli. The meat course is a style of steak only found in the Basque Country: txuleta, or dry-aged Rubia Gallega beef ribeye from superannuated cows—pushing 18 years in some instances—which results in concentrated beefiness and well-distributed marbling.

Spanish provenance extends to the tableware, for which JIA Group commissioned Spanish artisans to create bespoke cutlery, ceramics, and shimmering resin plates that sometimes reveal the blood marble of the table beneath.

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Above Dry-aged Rubia Gallega beef ribeye, or txuleta (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

Above The beef is paired with garlic and red pepper (Image: Gavin Yeung/Tatler Dining)

The wine menu, too, is a showcase of Spain's winemaking culture, and is curated by sommelier and general manager Anton Marquez to highlight the diversity of Spanish grape varietals and terroirs. Wineries like Pazos de Lusco, López de Heredia, and Familia Joan d'Anguera are just some of the 90 Spanish labels on offer.

If anything, a unique sense of place, both in space and time, pervades a meal at Agora; and a feeling of conscientiousness and a connection to greater things than one's own self—a note at the back of each menu notes that an extra one percent of the bill is donated to chef José Andres’ World Central Kitchen, a non-profit organisation that is currently providing meals to war-torn communities in Ukraine, among other causes. It's a conversation starter, and we're here for it with open minds, appetites, and all.

Agora

Spanish | $ $ $

Shop 14, G/F D Hall, Tai Kwun 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

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Topics

ANTONIO OVIEDO 22 SHIPS AGORA NEW RESTAURANT SPANISH CUISINE TAI KWUN JIA GROUP WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN

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At Agora, A Celebration of Deep Spanish Terroir from Mountain to Sea