The ever-cosmopolitan Hong Kong has a stylish new restaurant dedicated to Basque cuisine following the fine efforts of WANG design agency. The venue on Aberdeen Street, formerly the district’s Police Married Quarters, is divided into two distinct sections, with a main space called Isono and a more formal dining area known as Vasco.

Downstairs at Isono, the large dining area is dominated by a central horseshoe tapas bar clad in marble and lit by an Art Deco inspired feature – a style which continues throughout. There are some earthy themes within a generally shiny place; the flooring is composed of outlying sections of reclaimed wood planks and baked brick in the middle, and the influence of the Mediterranean cuisine is echoed in the colour palette which uses olive green and dark timber. Structural steel columns have been left exposed and a Brutalist mezzanine level added to house the Vasco operation. Up here it’s much more private, with patterned glass obscuring the view from below without completely cutting off the area visually. The centrepiece follows the shape of Isono’s bar, in this case an exclusive private dining room with a prime view of the films projected onto the double-height wall.

Photography, Edmon Leong