Amelia Hong Kong

Though we can't travel right now, we were whisked back to our trip to San Sebastian last year when we visited a San Sebastian Michelin-starred restaurant's second location in Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui.

We visited Amelia San Sebastian in 2019 during our weeklong trip to San Sebastian in mid-2019. Chef-owner Paulo Airaudo was born in Argentina to Italian immigrants and has worked in many well-known places such as Arzak, The Fat Duck, and Magnolia in Italy. Amelia is named after Chef Airaudo’s daughter Amélie.

While we were in San Sebastian, we actually met Chef Paulo, who told us about his plans to open a new restaurant in Hong Kong.

It's been a tough environment to launch something so big, but Amelia opened in December 2019, right in the midst of social unrest and the beginning of the pandemic.

We visited in early January, and serendipitously found out Chef Paulo was at the restaurant but about to catch a flight back to Spain! We were thrilled to have a chance to catch up briefly with him.

He explain to us that the concept at this Hong Kong location is more casual, more "tapas" style compared with Amelia San Sebastian, which felt more French stuyle higher end food but made using Spanish ingredients.

The Food - Winter A La Carte Menu

The a la carte menu includes a number of small plates and larger plates, all meant to be shared. There's homemade bread with butter or bone marrow, seasonal soups, a number of different Spanish Iberico hams, and lots of creative plates. I remember obsessing about the homemade bread in San Sebastian, which I enjoyed immensely with the butter.

Our table of six had the luxury of ordering many things to try! Here's a look at our meal.

General Thoughts

The quality of the food was great and overall we really enjoyed our meal. Favorites included the crispy sweetbread, wagyu beef with black truffles, and the signature goat cheesecake, though everything was quite good.

All in all, I'm really happy that Chef Paulo decided to venture out and open a restaurant in Hong Kong. These are difficult times, and I really hope they succeed. For now, as I can't travel, I'm thrilled to have a little slice of San Sebastian just a ferry ride away.