How did designer JJ Acuña usher Hong Kong’s legendary Dragon-i into its next chapter?

Few venues have shaped Hong Kong’s nightlife like Dragon-i. Since its opening in 2002, the Lan Kwai Fong institution has been a fixture of the city’s social life, drawing everyone from party scene regulars, foodies, fashion insiders and business circles to international celebrities. More than two decades later, founder Gilbert Yeung has ushered the legendary venue into its next chapter with a sweeping redesign—one that looks to Hong Kong’s past while reimagining how the city experiences nightlife today.

For James “JJ” Acuña, the Filipino founder and creative director of JJ Acuña / Bespoke Studio, the commission was deeply personal. Dragon-i was not just another hospitality project. It was part of his own life in Hong Kong, a place he frequented with friends and one that had long been woven into the city’s cultural landscape. Being entrusted to aid with its transformation was a responsibility he regarded as both a challenge and an honour.

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Standing out in Hong Kong’s dynamic dining scene takes more than exquisite plates and fine vintages. The restaurants that truly captivate deliver on every level. Think intuitive service that anticipates needs without ever hovering, an ambience that welcomes solo diners and raucous groups with equal grace, and interiors so thoughtfully curated they’re impossible to ignore. After all, in a city overflowing with culinary excellence, it’s the spaces that engage all the senses that earn a place in both memory and camera roll.

Spanning heritage charmers steeped in old-world glamour, boldly themed venues that feel plucked from a film set, and spaces so unmistakably Hong Kong they could exist nowhere else, here are ten of the city’s most photogenic restaurants, each one a masterclass in making every corner, every plate and every moment worthy of a second look.

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Prenetics, the Nasdaq-listed consumer health company behind direct-to-consumer premium supplement brand IM8, has secured up to US$1 billion in growth financing from global VC firm General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF). 

As part of the deal, CVF will fund up to 70 per cent of IM8’s monthly marketing spend in exchange for a capped return, calculated based on each month’s “cohort” of newly acquired customers. The fresh capital will enable IM8 to “invest more aggressively in brand and marketing,” according to a statement by Prenetics.

“For a year, investors have asked whether we were spending too much on customer acquisition,” said Danny Yeung, CEO of Prenetics and co-founder of IM8, in a statement about the financing. “Now the proof is public: every dollar we have ever spent acquiring customers has already returned US$1.44 in gross profit—and that number rises every month, because these are subscribers. The right question was never whether we were spending too much; it’s whether we were spending enough.”

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Every era has its beauty euphemism. Ours has settled on “natural beauty”—a phrase that suggests ease, restraint and authenticity, even when it is being used to describe highly technical aesthetic work.

In aesthetic clinics, on treatment menus and across social media, the word “natural” has become a form of reassurance. Natural means not too much and not too obvious. It also means fresher, clearer, more rested, perhaps lifted or rebalanced—but not so altered that anyone can identify the intervention.

It is also a slippery word. Natural to whom? Natural for which face? Natural in which city, workplace, family setting or camera environment?

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