By night Dragon-i is home to the rich and the beautiful. Models prowl in packs, the finance boys compete to buy ever bigger bottles of ever more expensive champagne, the It Girls lounge at tables resting their Louboutin clad feet while they sip grey goose poured from a bottle so big that it makes them look the size of Borrowers... By day though, Dragon-i is a whole different story. Book for lunch for a table full of not Dom, but dim sum. If it's cool enough to sit outside, bag a table on the large terrace perched just above Wyndham Street which you share with a flock of twittering birds housed in a giant black birdcage. If the mercury's rising, seek sanctuary inside the sleek, glossy restaurant decked out with sunken leather sofas and red Phoenix print lanterns - the perfect fusion of East and West.
Then for the main event, time to get stuck into the dim sum... For the bargain price of HK$188 you get as much dim sum as you can manage and unlimited tea. And we're not talking low grade, buffet eat-all-you-can, this is little parcels of deliciousness ordered straight from the a la carte menu. Don't miss the Shanghai Dumplings with Ginger Vinegar, the Baked Barbecued Pork with Sesame Puff or the Steamed Rice Paper Rolls with Fresh Prawns. Dragon-i is the ideal stop off to refuel after a hard morning's antiques shopping on Hollywood Road giving you the sustenance to tackle an afternoon's sightseeing or an excuse to do nothing but lie by your hotel pool like an overstuffed dumpling.
Be sure to return after dusk to see all evidence of dim sum swept away, and the Jeroboams of Champagne being wheeled out complete with sparklers to a soundtrack of cooing models and thumping music spun by the best DJs in town.
www.dragon-i.com.hk/
UG/F The Centrium,, 60 Wyndham Street,
Central, Hong Kong.
+(852) 3110 1222
Google map: bit.ly/MLFcHM
* Natalie is our local for Hong Kong. You can read all about her here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/hong-kong-local-natalie-robinson.jsp and follow her tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/travellers/natalierobinson
She also has her own blog at: www.3badmice.com/
Is this your business?