Hong Kong’s best Japanese bars – the exclusive hidden hangs mixing jazzy vibes and creative cocktails with matcha, shiso, artisanal gin and whisky highballs
Luxurious, low-key decor and award-winning bartenders at hip hang-outs including Wan Chai’s Mizunara, Causeway Bay’s B.a.r. Executive Bar, Bar De Luxe near Lan Kwai Fong and Bar Buonasera in Tsim Sha Tsui offer an awesome atmosphere for Japanophiles and cocktail connoisseurs
Hong Kong’s love affair with all things Japanese is well-known. At the city’s best sushi restaurants customers pay dearly to eat fish flown in daily from Tokyo, and whether it is soufflé pancakes or kakigori, Japanese desserts routinely trend on social media. Japanese-style highballs have been enjoying a resurgence of late and the country’s whisky and, increasingly, its gin are favourites of connoisseurs, too.
Less heralded but with an equally devoted following are Hong Kong’s Japanese-style cocktail bars. Deliberately inconspicuous, these establishments are often harder to find than many of Hong Kong’s so-called “speakeasies” and tend to be tucked away in anonymous commercial buildings.
Typically headed by Japanese bartenders, they adhere strictly to notions of traditional Japanese culture. Trademarks include a long wooden bar, dark furnishings and the gentle harmonies of a soft jazz soundtrack. But an authentic experience requires more than just these superficialities.
“It’s very difficult to define the Japanese style of bartending,” says Masahiko Endo, chief at Wan Chai’s Mizunara, “but I would say we’re more focused on how to make a cocktail. It’s about the process.”
An award-winning bartender, Endo moved from his hometown of Fukuoka to Hong Kong when Mizunara opened in 2015. He stresses that what matters most is not necessarily the drink itself but the manner in which it is made. “Many people think the cocktail itself is most important, and how you make it doesn’t matter. But the Japanese style is more focused on how we move, how we prepare, what kind of shaking we do. We find beauty in the style. It’s like the tea ceremony.”
Fittingly, one of Endo’s signatures at Mizunara is nagomi (HK$250), meaning harmony or peace. A mix of Hibiki whisky, matcha tea, elderflower and a dash of hazelnut syrup, it is a particularly smooth concoction. The mellow sweetness of the whisky is balanced by the bitterness of the matcha, while the finish leaves a pleasant nuttiness.
As with many elements of Japanese culture, tradition is hugely important. Ichiro Hiidome, founder of B.a.r. Executive Bar, started bartending 33 years ago. While studying mechanical engineering as a student he took a part-time job at the renowned Ichiro Hiidome, (now rebranded The Okura Tokyo). So taken was he with the bartending he witnessed there that he forsook a likely career at Toyota or one of Japan’s other industrial giants and decided to make bartending his profession.