10 years of 100 Top Tables: how SCMP’s signature restaurant awards and fine dining guide book have celebrated a decade of culinary innovation in Hong Kong

Mar 31 , 2022

Every year 100 Top Tables profiles Hong Kong and Macau’s best bars and restaurants – this year’s 10th edition adds new awards for wine list, bartender and sustainability. Photo: Lisa Cam

Molecular dining was the cuisine du jour when SCMP’s fine dining awards launched in 2013 – since then we’ve seen the city bloom into a culinary destination of global renown

The Chairman, Dynasty, T’ang Court, Tin Lung Heen, Gaddi’s, Petrus and 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana have all proved repeat winners, with Estro, Chaat and Roganic taking 2022’s top prizes

For the past 10 years, South China Morning Post’s 100 Top Tables has celebrated our city’s innovative dining scene, charting its successes through economic highs and lows. Launched in 2013, long before the pandemic slowed the world almost to a halt, 100 Top Tables was a way to pay tribute to Hong Kong’s fine dining offerings, boost our city’s culinary stature and acknowledge the crucial contributions made by enterprising restaurateurs, diligent chefs and their dedicated staff.

South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu and Winnie Chung (right), editorial director of specialist publications, with host Melody Kwan at the sixth 100 Top Tables awards in 2018. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Ten years on, the Post is proud to continue this tradition. “100 Top Tables highlights Hong Kong’s exceptional culinary culture with an annual guide, curated by our editorial panel for connoisseurs of fine cuisine and executive dinners. This 10th edition honours and celebrates Hong Kong’s F&B industry, which raises international standards of excellence every year, despite the world’s ongoing challenges,” said Gary Liu, CEO of South China Morning Post.

Winnie Chung, editorial director of specialist publications, agrees. “Since we started 100 Top Tables a decade ago, Hong Kong’s dining scene has been through many transformations, but one thing has remained constant: the chefs’ creativity and passion for their profession, and the industry’s resilience in the face of challenges, especially in the past few years. Our chefs have continuously strived to hone their craft and to offer the best in fine dining to Hong Kong, bringing a diversity of cuisines and tastes to diners,” she said.

“Just as the dining scene has evolved, so too has 100 Top Tables. Three years ago, we added individual awards to honour the best chef, pastry chef, rising star, ambience and service. Last year, to acknowledge the burgeoning bar scene, we also added a category for best bars. This year, we are proud to mark our 10th year with new nods to the best wine list, the best bartender bar none, as well as our sustainability hero.”

Winners and senior SCMP staff on stage at the 100 Top Tables 2014 awards ceremony, held at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Photo: SCMP

The landscape of the dining scene in Hong Kong was a little different back in 2013. Molecular dining was the cuisine du jour and many chefs who were alumni of Spain’s matchless molecular establishment El Bulli came to Hong Kong to present avant-garde cuisine to local palates. Most notably we had View 62 by Paco Roncero, Bo Innovation by self-dubbed “demon chef” Alvin Leung, and who can forget the spherical olives at Catalunya?

The 2017 census revealed that with 15,000 licensed restaurants in our city, Hong Kong had one of the highest restaurant per capita rates in the world. That statistic, in combination with the highest per square foot rental prices in the world, makes for fierce competition in the restaurant industry. We’ve sadly said goodbye to many excellent name restaurants – Chez Patrick, Pierre, Spoon by Alain Ducasse, View 62 by Paco Roncero and others besides.

But while we’ve bid farewell to many awesome concepts, many others have opened in their place, and it’s also worth noting that many restaurants in our first book remain in our 2022 guide. Serial winners include The Chairman, Dynasty, T’ang Court, Tin Lung Heen, Gaddi’s, Restaurant Petrus and 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, just to name a few.