Hong Kong restaurant interior design embraces wall art, and it’s as Instagramable as the food and drinks

In Hong Kong, murals are finding love on social media feeds and giving work to specialist painters whose art can be found inside city restaurants

Fiery golden dragons adorn the walls of Qi – Nine Dragons in Tsim Sha Tsui. In Central, the walls of Italian hotspot Estro have the feel of an Italian villa

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In Hong Kong, restaurants’ murals are often as photogenic as the food and drink they serve. Muralists like Elsa Jeandedieu, pictured next to her artwork on the outside of Uma Nota in Central, are kept busy.

Published: 7:15am, 24 Nov 2021Updated: 8:29am, 24 Nov 2021

Unless you live under a rock, you will have seen that street art is everywhere in Hong Kong, from Sai Kung to Wong Chuk Hang to Central – where tourists patiently queue to take selfies with the art on the wall of the Goods of Desire store on Hollywood Road. Well, they did before anti-government protests and the pandemic kept them away.

Less obvious is the popularity of murals inside bars and restaurants. In the age of social media, it’s not enough for the food and drink to be photogenic – interiors must be Instagramable, too. Cool wall art is one of the most effective ways to achieve this.

Murals in restaurants, bars and hotels are not a new concept. In New York, they have long been attractions in themselves – think Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel, with its whimsical Central Park scenes, Maxfield Parrish’s brooding monarch at the St Regis’ King Cole Bar, or Edward Sorel’s caricatures at The Waverly Inn.

In Hong Kong, murals are finding love on social media feeds and fostering a new wave of muralists. No single aesthetic dominates, but a greater freedom to express themselves has persuaded artists to create bolder, more sophisticated creations than have previously been seen in the city.

Elsa Jeandedieu working on one of two murals at Estro.

Among them are the paintings at contemporary Italian hotspot Estro, in Central on Hong Kong Island. The space, inspired by the living rooms of Italian villas, is a swirl of earthy, autumnal tones and organic shapes, envisaged by architect and interior designer André Fu.