Dining news: Jay Khan of Coa unveils photography exhibition, Leela hosts four-restaurant collaboration, and more

Chef Akira Black will helm the kitchen at his namesake restaurant at The Henderson on March 27 and 28 for Palette to Palate: The Art Series, an art-inspired dining experience. Japanese precision meets Korean flair in this five-course menu, where dishes arrive with striking, gallery-like presentations.

The evening opens with a trio of starters nestled on a bed of grass: Wagyu steak tartare, tuna belly, and the AB garden pizza layered with black truffle, Korean zucchini, yellow radish, eringi mushroom and beetroot. Roasted quail follows, before a comforting classic of snow crab claypot rice. Dessert comes in sculptural form with the AB Cigar, with smoked coffee mousse and strawberry jam finished with a dusting of sesame powder. The menu is available for dinner on both nights, priced from HK$1,388 per person.

See also: Snowboarder-turned-chef Akira Back plays a new game in Hong Kong

Akira Black
Address: 5/F, The Henderson, 2 Murray Road, Central, Hong Kong

Drink your way around the world at Wing Lei Bar’s upcoming guest series. The bar is bringing together leading mixologists from six global cocktail capitals for a weekend of guest shifts, conversations and cultural exchange. The two-day event begins on March 13 at Wing Lei Bar’s plush lounge inside Wynn Palace, where reimagined classics from the Unity menu, including the Cantonese-leaning Not Quite a Penicillin and the tropical-tinged Miami Vice Negroni, set the tone for the evening.

Guest appearances follow from Bangkok’s Opium, Singapore’s Night Hawk and Native, and New York’s Sip & Guzzle. On March 14, the programme opens with a panel discussion on the staying power of the classic cocktail, before New Delhi’s Vacancy, Jakarta’s Modernhaus and London’s Archive & Myth bring the event to a close with a final round of pours. With a line-up this international, consider it a very good excuse to head to Macau. Wing Lei Bar & Friends Vol 2 is free to enter.

Leela is set to host two collaborations bringing together chefs from Penang, Singapore and Bangkok.

On March 22, its lunch service gets a wok hei-charged lift as Manav Tuli brings Indian flavours into conversation with Cantonese cooking. Leela’s reinterpreted Indian classics will be served alongside dishes by chefs Kim Hock Su of Restaurant Au Jardin, Wayne Liew and front-of-house Paul Liew of Keng Eng Kee Seafood, and the team from Hong Kong’s Dragons’ Den, whose cooking looks to the city’s golden era of dining.

Then on March 23 and 24, Leela shifts into a Southeast Asian groove as Tuli is joined by chefs Chalee Kader, Num Weerawat Triyasanawat of Samuay & Sons, and Pak Yamoo from Bangkok’s Sōma for a lively exchange of Indian and modern Thai flavours.  

You may know Jay Khan as the mind behind bars such as Coa and The Savory Project, two venues that have helped shape Hong Kong’s modern cocktail landscape. Now the acclaimed bar owner and mixologist is turning his attention to another creative pursuit: photography. Khan’s first exhibition, The Pouring Shadow: Contrast and Balance, opens at Sin Sin Fine Art on March 20 and will run for two months.

What began during the pandemic as a quiet experiment has since evolved into a thoughtful body of work. Living with colour blindness, Khan is naturally drawn to contrast, light and shadow, taking early inspiration from the late Hong Kong photographer Fan Ho. His images linger on life’s quieter moments: a shop cat stretched out on warm pavement, a view from an aeroplane window, or fleeting portraits encountered while travelling. Consider stopping by Sin Sin Fine Art for a glimpse of the world through the lens of one of Hong Kong’s most attentive observers, this time with a camera rather than a cocktail shaker. See more of his art at jaykhanphotography.com.

Sin Sin Fine Art
Address: Unit A, 4/F, Kin Teck Industrial Building, 26 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

At Mono, chef Ricardo Chaneton is turning the spotlight away from the pass and towards the people behind the scenes. Running from March 20 to 28, ‘Many Hands at Mono’ is a special menu conceived with the restaurant’s team, celebrating the often unseen artisans who shape the dining experience, from those who sow and harvest ingredients to the hands that knead, craft, guide and serve. Each dish reflects the personality of its creator, reinterpreting Latin American ingredients through unexpected combinations and thoughtful details. The menu will be available for both lunch and dinner.

Chesa has long been quietly serving diners from its snug corner of The Peninsula, drawing regulars back with a dependable formula of quality, comfort and warm hospitality. Now, the restaurant is entering a new chapter. Subtle but thoughtful updates mark this evolution. Alpine-inspired décor deepens the charm of the cosy timbered dining room, while a programme of traditional Alpine music adds another sensory layer to the experience. The menu remains firmly Swiss, now expanded with refined takes on classics such as wiener schnitzel and Swiss cervelat sausage salad. And for dessert, the Mont Blanc brings a touch of theatre: chestnut cream pressed to order over meringue and vanilla ice cream.

Sheung Wan’s fragrant dried seafood streets. Quarry Bay’s ever-photogenic Monster Building. Stanley’s Murray House. You may know them as some of Hong Kong’s most recognisable landmarks, but at Dio, they’re also the starting point for a cocktail. The bar’s latest Sippable Memories menu distils neighbourhood stories into drinkable form, expressed through ingredients, flavour pairings and thoughtful garnishes. Local liqueurs such as rose water dew and osmanthus wine anchor Canal Road Flyover, a floral, aromatic cocktail named after Wan Chai’s famed villain-hitting underpass. Meanwhile, Bonham Strand offers a fruit-forward nod to the city’s traditional sweet soups, blending monkfruit wine with Chinese yam, red dates and goji berries.

Uncle Quek is expanding its Southeast Asian repertoire beyond the Straits, bringing Malaysian and Indonesian flavours into the fold. The new menu reflects the combined vision of chef Barry Quek, whose cooking draws deeply from the region’s culinary traditions, and head chef Terry Lam, who brings a distinctive approach shaped by classical Western technique. Straits-inspired ingredients find their way into a series of reimagined pasta dishes. The asam laksa linguine nods to the restaurant’s regional roots, while chicken offal Hokkien spaghetti introduces a southern Chinese accent, tossed with a housemade sambal-style chilli sauce. Desserts also venture further afield. A coconut torrija with chendol ice cream pairs Spanish-style French toast with the beloved Southeast Asian iced dessert, while a dessert trio features collaborative creations from Indonesian bakery Rumah. The new menu is now available for both lunch and dinner.

See also: The taste of influence: 3 Hong Kong creators cooking up culture, identity and ambition

Uncle Quek
Address: 6/F, 8 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong

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