Best for drinks
CAFÉ GRAY DELUXE
Level 49, The Upper House,
Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty
Sitting in the clouds on the top of Hong Kong’s most salubrious boutique hotel, the Upper House, Café Gray has movie-set style. It’s somewhere George Clooney would sit sipping a cocktail with the city lights twinkling in the background. With a European menu, wines from little-known vineyards and impeccable staff, and views of Hong Kong Park, Victoria Harbour and the hilly peaks beyond Tsim Sha Tsui, it remains popular. Catch sunset in the bar with a Hong Kong Highball in hand.
Best for Asian cuisine
FOOK LAM MOON
43-45 Johnston Rd,
Wanchai
Whelk (a saltwater mollusc), bird’s nest, abalone: if it’s traditional Cantonese gastronomy you’re after, the Chui family restaurant, opened in 1972, is where it’s at to this day. This four-storey restaurant with the requisite round tables, chandeliers, carved wood panels and serious staff is the self-professed restaurant for the city’s elite. Tycoons, politicians and celebrities front up here to spend big money on the luxurious ingredients, of which millions of dollars’ worth are said to be in stock at any one time.
Best for executive toys
The GURUS SHOP
8 Cheong Ming St, Happy Valley
Big Boys’ Toys could be another name for the Gurus Shop. This contemporary place with window shopper- friendly floor-to-ceiling glass is a nifty gift shop for the (very) well-off man about town. Leica cameras, coloured binoculars, Rolex watches and Dyson propeller-less fans are stylish and practical, but you can let loose with some downright hedonistic items: the Angry Lego motorbike helmet holders, for example. The bee’s knees of gifts is surely the Romain Jerome moon DNA watches, which are made with parts of the Apollo 11 spacecraft. They’ll set you back about HK$1 million!
Best for Chinese fashion
SHANGHAI TANG
1 Duddell St, Central
Born and bred in Hong Kong, this global boutique for high-end Chinese-inspired luxury should top your list of retail must-dos. Oodles of space, grand ceilings, immaculate staff and the signature ginger lily scent pervade so that the place oozes wealth and sophistication. If your budget allows a splurge, this is the spot for tasteful gifts and souvenirs, the ones you’ll want to keep forever: colourful cheongsam Chinese-style dresses, tailored suits, horoscope cufflinks, jewellery boxes, silver-plated chopsticks and beautiful pens.
Best for culture
PEDDER BUILDING
12 Pedder St, Central
Sitting narrowly on Pedder Street, surrounded by modernity, this charming eight-level heritage building with a colonnaded arched facade is one of Hong Kong’s elderly darlings. Upstairs, there are upmarket galleries such as contemporary Gagosian, and Chinese art specialists Pearl Lam and Hanart TZ Gallery. Other truly good finds here include The Lavish Attic, a luxury men’s accessories boutique; Burgundy Etc, a cellar devoted to the famed region; and Red Chamber Cigar Divan, a smoking lounge owned by Sir David Tang (founder of Shanghai Tang), with wood-carved furniture, antique artwork and 300 Havana cigars to puff on.