Updated July 30, 2010

OVERVIEW
On first acquaintance Hong Kong can overwhelm. Navigate its teeming, tightly packed sidewalks and you’re met at every turn with neon signage, steam-filled canteens, and a fast pace comparable only to New York City.
Once this first sensory wave has rolled over you, though, take a deep breath and start swimming with the current, because you’ll find Hong Kong is a place to delight in. Utterly safe and fantastically well organized, it offers little moments of perfection. You may find them on a plastic stool enjoying a bargain bowl of beef brisket soup or simply gazing at the thrilling harbour vistas. You’ll find them taking afternoon tea in the cool of a five-star hotel lobby or enjoying balmy open-air beers in the party zones.

Hong Kong can nudge you out of your comfort zone but usually rewards you for it, so try the stinky bean curd, sample the shredded jellyfish, brave the hordes at the city centre horseracing and join in the dawn tai chi. Escape the city limits and other experiences await – watching the sun rise from a remote mountain peak, hiking surf-beaten beaches or exploring deserted islands.

The Skyline
Widely hailed as the world’s best skyline, the giddying high-rises along Victoria Harbour glitter at night time and stand proudly in front of a dramatic range of mountain peaks. Our skyline boasts 43 buildings that are more than 200 metres tall, with 30 of those built in the last decade. According to an algorithm used in the Almanac of Architecture and Design to measure the “impressiveness” of the world’s skylines, Hong Kong tops the list easily, defeating New York by 84,922 points to 35,811. Blade Runner clichés aside, it still takes our breath away.

TOP 7 things to do in HKG

• 1 The Peak
Ride the hair-raising tram for unbeatable harbour and city views

• 2 Victoria Harbour
Float on one of the world’s busiest and most exotic harbours. Crowded beside your fellow city-dwellers on an old wooden bench, with the twin skylines of HK Island and Kowloon twinkling down at you, there’s nowhere more emphatically Hong Kong than a cruise across the harbour on the upper deck of the Star Ferry. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re heading to or from home in Central or Kowloon, in its simple, age-old way, this 122-year-old Hong Kong institution unites passers-through and lifetime residents alike, in the democratic promise of a cheap ride to the other side.

• 3 Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple
Divine the future alongside worshippers at the city’s most interesting temple
at on one of the world’s busiest and most exotic harbours

• 4 Temple Street Night Market
Stock up on memorabilia beneath the glare of bare bulbs

• 5 Kowloon’s Markets
Fashion, bargain-basement computer goods and even flower and goldfish markets
• 6 Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade
Spectacular harbour and skyline vistas day and night
• 7 High Tea at the Peninsula
Dainty nibbles and fine tea while soothed by a string quartet at one of the world’s top signature hotels.

RESTAURANTS
Don’t make the mistake to miss dim sum . Above all, Hong Kong is known for its dim sum (點心), delicately prepared morsels (rice flour stuffed balls) of Cantonese cuisine served from a never ending procession of carts and eaten with tea.
Dim sum is usually eaten for breakfast or lunch and is often the focus of family get-togethers on Sundays. An excellent place to go for dim sum is City Hall in Central – just be sure to ask for the dim sum restaurant. If you go to some restaurants in the more local areas (such as Kennedy Town) ask if they have an English menu. In such restaurants customers are often required to write their requirements on a tick-box sheet and hand them to the waiter.

Cafe Deco
With its spectacular harbour views, Art Deco furnishings and live jazz from 19:00 to 23:00 Monday to Saturday nights, this place need not have made too much effort with the menu. But the food, while an East-meets-West eclectic thing, is above average, with the bistro dishes, sushi and sashimi plates and oyster bar scoring extra points. Breakfast and brunch are served from 09:30 to 14:30 Saturday and Sunday.

Café Gray Deluxe
Fully booked weeks before you have to get lucky for a table.
Man Wah
City’s best dim sum
Lung King Heen
Is world’s only restaurant with Chinese cuisine and 3 star Michelin !!!
Sevva
Serves comfortable food and reasonable prices.
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Serves innovative French cuisine
Isola
Amazing Italian food
Hutong
If the crispy lamb doesn’t impress you then the view will
Spring Moon
Amazing dishes and service
Cafe Deco
With its spectacular harbour views, Art Deco furnishings and live jazz from 19:00 to 23:00 Monday to Saturday nights, this place need not have made too much effort with the menu. But the food, while an East-meets-West eclectic thing, is above average, with the bistro dishes, sushi and sashimi plates and oyster bar scoring extra points. Breakfast and brunch are served from 09:30 to 14:30 Saturday and Sunday.

BARS

Finds
Cool , sleek and unpretentious. 2nd floor LKF tower, 33 Wyndham rd., Central HKG
Aqua Luna
A restored wooden junk crossing the harbor serves cocktails while you admire the skyline.
Dragon-I
Packed with models and after hours fans.
Volar
Ugly people go elsewhere..
Kee Club
Good luck passing the bouncer

Finally don’t leave the city before visiting the iconic Mandarin Oriental even for a drink and Four Season for a cocktail…

Savas kazantzides
Travel Connoisseur
 

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SAN FRANCISCO (updated July 28, 2010)

Asia SF

Those lovely ladies who serve you? They’re not. Not women, that is, nor drag queens. The sexy creatures who bring the food and dance seductively atop the long red bar are ‘gender illusionists’. The food is inventive Cal-Asian, with small plates and shareable portions. A restaurant, lounge and club all in one, Asia SF’s crowd is a compelling mix of local party-goers and wide-eyed businessmen. Signature cocktails. Very popular, so reservations are essential.

Café Claude

Owner Stephen Decker purchased Le Barbizon café in Paris and shipped it to San Francisco one piece at a time. The result, set in an alleyway and resplendent with French style and attitude, is as close to a true French café as can be found in America. Dishes include salad niçoise and steak tartare.

Café Flore
Fresh-faced boys and girls crowd Flore’s gorgeous patio day and night to check each other out and feast on local favourites (brunch is a must). Deep house and lounge tunes pump from the DJ booth when Brazilian and Hawaiian musicians aren’t taking the stage.

Caffe Trieste
This is one of the city’s great cafés, a former hangout for Kerouac and Ginsberg and is where Coppola is said to have written the screenplay for The Godfather. The dark walls are plastered with photos of opera singers and famous regulars. There are muffins, pastries and sandwiches to eat, and the lattes are legendary, as are the opera sessions held here on a Saturday afternoon.

Beach Chalet & Park Chalet
A perfect spot for sunset cocktails, the Beach Chalet, a historic Willis Polk-designed building on the coast, is home to a fine restaurant and brewpub. The ground-floor walls are awash in WPA (Works Progress Administration) frescoes by Lucien Labaudt depicting notable San Franciscans, among them sculptor Benny Bufano and John McLaren. The views of the ocean from upstairs are stupendous.
The newer Park Chalet, which faces Golden Gate Park, doesn’t have the views of the Beach Chalet. However, the more mellow atmosphere makes it ideal for whiling away a sunny afternoon in one of the Adirondack chairs arrayed around the beautifully landscaped lawns, or cooling off with a beer after a walk along Ocean Beach.

Waterbar
Pat Kuleto, a restaurant entrepreneur, designer and vintner, has designed and built more than 175 restaurants worldwide. He is co-owner and designer of the highly regarded Boulevard, Farallon, and Jardinière in San Francisco and Martini House in St. Helena. He is also the proprietor of his namesake Kuleto Estate Winery in the Napa Valley.
The main floor at Waterbar features dramatic, 19-foot tall, five-foot diameter, floor-to-ceiling circular aquariums filled with an eye-catching array of fish and marine life from the Pacific Ocean, while walls of vividly illuminated fish tanks display a gallery of fresh catches available on that day’s menu. The extravagant cascading raw bar, towering with shellfish and lit through glistening ice, sets the tone for the raw bar dining area. A hand-blown glass “caviar” chandelier serves as the focal point in the bar area, adding a festive sparkle to the proceedings, and the open kitchen fills the main dining room with a lively — and deliciously aromatic — brasserie ambiance.

LAS VEGAS (updated July 28, 2010)
In Vegas restaurnants inside the huge hotels are the obvious choice. However, here are some indie choices which are very interesting…

Aureole
Vegas is full of dramatic restaurants, but where else can you dine within sight of a four-storey, 4,500-bottle wine tower, up and down which float harnessed wine angels, fetching your choice on demand? The food, orchestrated by Charlie Palmer and overseen by Vincent Pouessel, is also a delight, with seasonal American dishes including caramelised Sonoma duck and fennel steamed Alaskan salmon. Megan Romano’s ethereal sweets make breaking your diet well worthwhile.

Firefly
This popular tapas bar is populated by a parade of pretty locals almost every night of the week. Music (downtempo to Latin house) competes with sangria-fuelled chatter, as small plates – scrumptious bacon-wrapped dates, mushroom tarts, shrimp ceviche – emerge from the busy kitchen. The loungey scene and reasonable prices conspire to let you spend as little or as much as you’d like.

Craftsteak
The selection of meats (grass-fed veal, lamb shank, filet mignon, braised short ribs) is impressive, but the sides and the quiet invention shown in the kitchen both elevate Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak from more run-of-the-mill casino steakhouses. Ingredients come from small family farms and other below-the-radar sources, and you can tell. It’s all served in a cultured atmosphere, if a slightly noisy one.

Flex Lounge (CLUB)
This enduring venue attracts a very diverse crowd within the gay community. The drag/stripper revue on Fridays and the hip hop party on Saturdays are the most popular events, but there’s something going on here most nights.
the detour: the short, Italianate menu, available for eat-in or takeout, is cultured, and the wine and beer lists are both excellent.

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