This is a favorite of Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who captured its appeal in a nutshell. “However familiar it is to Hong Kong residents, visitors are thrilled by its collection of Chinese art, its nostalgia, its glimpse of another age,” he says. “With Shanghai Tang and the China Club, David Tang has done a remarkable job in offering the West a vision of China that perhaps doesn’t exist and never has existed but that we all wish did exist.” The club is housed in an old bank building, right in the middle of Central, and has an awesome collection of Chinese memorabilia, including paintings, furniture, bric-a-brac and posters from Chairman Mao’s disastrous Cultural Revolution. The food is excellent, but it is for the overall experience that most people go; arrive early and sip a cocktail at the long bar, decked out as a Shanghai club might have looked in the roaring ’20s. Try to snag a private booth. Officially it is a members-only club, but any capable concierge can arrange reservations.

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Über designer Philippe Starck’s most striking creation in Hong Kong is still wowing people some thirteen years after it opened. Felix restaurant and bar, near the top of the Peninsula hotel, looks fresh and continues to be one of the places to head for early-evening cocktails, or when the urge for a Pacific Rim–inspired meal strikes. Felix is known as much for what Starck didn’t do as for what he did. Controversially, unthinkably even, he opted to draw blinds over windows that had an absolutely stunning harbor view; instead of a full-on vista, there was merely a hint of the ocean and neon beyond. It worked. Big time. Sadly, the view from the men’s restrooms is not quite what it was: although the twinkling panorama of Kowloon looms large, since the airport moved to Chek Lap Kok, there is no aerial activity to observe.

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A fabulous deck-high view of the world’s busiest harbor; interesting cuisine from the ever-inventive Alain Ducasse; slick five-star Hong Kong service. What’s not to like? The menu is typical Ducasse: a modern twist on familiar dishes, in this case with plenty of Asian influence. Specialties from chefs in the open kitchen are duck foie gras with a pear-ginger chutney; roasted black cod; Australian Wagyu beef; and saddle of lamb on the spit with garam masala gravy and crispy rice.