In Hong Kong, Wing Isn’t Just a Restaurant — It’s a Love Letter to Chinese Cuisine and the Art of Welcome
On a quiet corner in Hong Kong’s Central district, behind unassuming doors that reveal nothing of the alchemy within, there’s a restaurant that doesn’t just serve food—it tells stories. Wing, the brainchild of chef-owner Vicky Cheng, has long been whispered about in culinary circles. Now, with the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2025 from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the whispers have become a global chorus.
For Cheng, this recognition isn’t just about another notch in an already storied career. It’s about the quiet, sacred act of making people feel seen. “Hospitality is everything,” he tells me over tea one humid Hong Kong afternoon. “It’s not just the food on the table—it’s the moment the guest walks in, the way we anticipate, the way we listen.”
This ethos pulses through Wing like a second heartbeat.
The space itself is as meticulous and meditative as Cheng’s dishes. Soft lighting. Ceramics that feel heirloomed. The quiet theatre of the open kitchen. Every detail has a reason. Every gesture has intent. Wing’s 11-course tasting menu reads like a memoir—each dish a chapter, each flavour a memory recalled and reimagined. It’s deeply Chinese, yet unbound by convention. Think local pigeon aged with precision, or sea cucumber transformed with French technique, a nod to Cheng’s earlier culinary training.
The Private Dining Room
But Wing’s story didn’t begin with awards and acclaim. It started with a late-night supper club, hosted quietly in the upstairs dining room of Vea, Cheng’s first restaurant. No menu. No rules. Just an instinct to cook what he loved, for the people he admired. “It was intimate,” he says. “There was no pressure. And maybe that’s what made it special.” From those candlelit nights grew a movement—and eventually, a restaurant that now holds the No.20 spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, winning the Highest New Entry award in 2024.
And still, it’s not the accolades that guests recall. It’s the warmth. The service that feels like an embrace, not a performance. The host who remembers how you take your tea. The moment when a dish arrives just as you wonder if you’re ready for more.
“This is hospitality,” says William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. “Wing captures something you can’t fabricate—it’s intuitive, soulful, and unmistakably personal.”
There’s poetry in the name, too. “Wing” is taken from Cheng’s Chinese name, representing hope, perseverance, and the quiet strength to keep going. It’s not just symbolic. It’s the spine of the entire operation.
Olivia Flynn, Global Brand Manager for Gin Mare, puts it simply: “They’ve turned dining into memory-making. That’s hospitality at its purest.”
As the culinary world turns its gaze to Turin this June for the 2025 awards ceremony, Wing remains exactly what it’s always been: a place where stories are cooked slowly, seasoned with soul, and served with grace. Not just a restaurant—but a feeling you carry long after you’ve left the table.
