The SoHo district, situated between the MTR Central and Sheung Wan stations on Hong Kong Island, is of course a great place to seek out fine dining. In addition to the usual American-style and continental restaurants, there are dozens of establishments serving more unusual and distinctive cuisines. Given that it’s a blue summer, revisiting these restaurants might seem a little unoriginal, so this time I’d like to introduce another restaurant that blends contemporary art with fine dining – Popsy Modern Kitchen.
Jennifer, founder of Popsy Modern Kitchen and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, leads a team of Michelin-starred chefs in creating contemporary European cuisine that seamlessly blends art and gastronomy. To complement the new summer menu, the restaurant has been specially redecorated to resemble a small indoor summer garden, with walls and ceilings adorned with colourful flowers. Furthermore, a variety of seasonal summer ingredients have been used to create a range of refreshing dishes. I recently visited for dinner with friends, specifically to experience this sensory journey. Below, I’ve selected a few of the most memorable and delicious dishes to share with you.
▲ The Raspberry Foie Gras features a velvety foie gras terrine as its centrepiece, paired with tangy and sweet raspberries, mango purée, chocolate beans, a purple chicory salad and an Italian balsamic vinaigrette, served with crisp toast—leaving no sense of heaviness whatsoever.
▲ Uni & Crab Meat Risotto: A creamy risotto made with fresh sea urchin, crab meat and cherry tomatoes, enhanced with a unique lemongrass butter sauce for an exceptional flavour.
▲ ‘Double Trouble’ is an incredibly generous dish; it looks as though there are three main courses. It features crispy pearl chicken thighs stuffed with mushrooms, cabbage leaves wrapped around pearl chicken breast stuffed with foie gras, and fried scallops with a fresh vegetable salad. It may not look quite as impressive as some of the other dishes, but the flavours of each component are certainly not to be underestimated – you really need to savour them properly.
▲Reinvented Tartare Beef tartare served with avocado purée, crispy toast, radish, microgreens and a special grape vinegar sauce. Fresh, tender beef, served with a runny egg yolk to mix in—it’s simply impossible for this to taste bad. Personally, what I appreciated most was the avocado purée on the side and those few drops of grape vinegar sauce, which truly added the finishing touch. The addition of avocado to the beef gives the tender meat a rich, buttery quality. Meanwhile, the dabs of grape vinegar sauce counteract any sense of greasiness. Although the portion is generous, one person could easily polish off the entire plate.
▲ Dancing Queen: Lightly seared peony prawn sashimi served with squid ink angel hair pasta, wild mushrooms and crab roe, topped with a lobster sauce foam. When served, the squid ink angel hair pasta was still warm and al dente; paired with the light lobster sauce foam, the dish was rich in savoury flavour yet left absolutely no feeling of heaviness in the stomach. The lightly seared peony prawn sashimi, placed atop the pasta, made for a main course brimming with the freshness of the sea.
▲ Given that Popsy Modern Kitchen’s selling point is its delicious works of art, I feel I must mention their desserts, each of which is as beautiful as a piece of contemporary art. Of the three, the first dessert on the left was the biggest surprise: the ‘Coffee Galaxy’, featuring a coffee cream butter cake as the centrepiece, accompanied by meringue crisps, chocolate crispies, mascarpone cream, coffee jelly, and a medley of red and mixed berries. Before tucking in, add a splash of Jack Daniel’s whisky from the perfume bottle beside it to infuse the ingredients with a hint of liquor, making this dessert all the more intoxicating. Next, the centre dish is ‘Crescent Moon’, featuring a vanilla cheesecake paired with crushed almond biscuits, poppy seed crisps, custard cream and chrysanthemum tea jelly with a raspberry sauce – another dish you simply must try. If you’re a chocolate lover, then I’d recommend this must-try ‘Chocolate Symphony’ to you. This dish brings together six chocolate dessert elements, including Earl Grey chocolate Italian foam coffee, sea salt caramel chocolate tart, soft-centred chilli chocolate, dark chocolate ice cream, truffle chocolate cups and white chocolate bars. It fulfils six of your wishes in one go – no wonder it’s called the Chocolate Symphony!
The new menu is only available for three months, after which it will change, so if you’re keen to experience the ‘Eat More Art’ ethos at Popsy Modern Kitchen, be sure to book a table soon.
*Popsy Modern Kitchen*
Address: 5th Floor, The Wellington, 184–198 Wellington Street, Central
Tel: 2907 8188
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 12pm–3pm and 6pm–11.30pm
Closed on Sundays from 11.30 pm to 3.30 pm
Website: http://www.popsymodern.com
Chinese (Hong Kong) 
Chinese (China) 
English 
Japanese 
Korean