The first surprise at Terrace Boulud comes as the lift doors open.
Directly opposite, two rounded, timber-framed windows show a landscape blurred by motion, as though glimpsed from a moving train. For a moment, there is the sensation of travelling rather than arriving.
It is an elegant introduction to Daniel Boulud’s contemporary French brasserie on the rooftop of Landmark Prince’s in Central, Hong Kong. Designed by Malherbe Paris, the restaurant draws on the golden era of the French brasserie and the romance of vintage sleeper trains, but this is no exercise in nostalgia.
Inside, the railway references slip into the architecture. A procession of rounded timber frames runs through the dining rooms, creating the rhythm of a railway carriage. Mirrored sections of vaulted ceiling catch the light overhead, while timber, brass, rattan, mosaic and woven surfaces bring warmth and texture.
Elsewhere, the mood becomes more tropical. Hong Kong artisan Cecilia Lai’s handcrafted botanical installation stretches along one wall in an intricate mass of woven leaves and plant forms. Above, dozens of glowing globes and slender cylindrical pendants hang at varying heights, forming a luminous canopy.
And then there is the real foliage.
Palms and tropical plants appear among the tables and continue beyond the glass, lining the wraparound terrace. From inside, Hong Kong is glimpsed through layers of leaves. Malherbe calls it a “tropical brasserie”, and the description fits.
Past reception, the bar is immediately to the right, and it is glorious. A great sweep of richly veined green onyx, almost luminous against the timber and woven textures around it, it is both the visual and social heart of the restaurant. We begin here with a glass of French champagne.
Straight ahead, glazed doors lead outside; dining spaces unfold to either side, and the terrace wraps around the restaurant beyond. The progression feels effortless: arrival, bar, dining room, terrace, Hong Kong.
I had met Hubert de Malherbe, founder of Malherbe Paris, at Terrace Boulud’s opening party, when the restaurant was full and the city glittered outside. Returning for lunch gives me the chance to look properly.
There is surprisingly little obvious brasserie shorthand. Malherbe hasn’t attempted to transplant a corner of Paris to Central. Instead, familiar French references meet something looser and more tropical: rattan, woven craft, palms and botanical forms alongside marble, timber and brass. The sleeper-train references are equally subtle. They suggest travel without turning the restaurant into a train.
And then there is the setting.
For many years this rooftop was Sevva, one of Hong Kong’s great social gathering places. Terrace Boulud inherits its extraordinary position high above Central but has given it a completely different identity.
The terrace wraps around the restaurant, surrounded by lush tropical planting and enormous parasols, with Hong Kong unfolding beyond. You are not so much looking down upon the city as sitting within its architecture.
Norman Foster’s HSBC Main Building rises close by, its exposed structural frame still one of Hong Kong’s great architectural statements. Below, the historic former Supreme Court sits beneath its dome, while glass towers climb around it.
Then the city opens towards Victoria Harbour and the mountains beyond.
Come evening, the view changes again. Office windows become grids of light, rolling neon animates the surrounding towers, ferries move across the harbour and the nightly Symphony of Lights plays across the skyline.
On the day we return for lunch, however, Hong Kong has other ideas. It rains. The terrace is slick with water and tantalisingly out of reach. Palm fronds tap against the windows as towers disappear into low cloud, briefly reappear and vanish again. So we stay inside.
At the centre of all this is Daniel Boulud, born on his family’s farm outside Lyon and based in New York since 1982. His restaurants have taken his French culinary foundations across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and that geography finds its way onto the menu here.
Boulud has organised it around four muses: La Tradition, rooted in the classics of French brasserie cooking; La Saison, following the market and seasons; Le Potager, reflecting his appreciation of vegetables and produce; and Le Voyage, drawing on the influences gathered through a life spent cooking around the world.
There are the French anchors, vol-au-vent, pâté en croûte and seafood from the raw bar and grill, but perhaps the most intriguing expression of Boulud’s arrival in Hong Kong is a fifth muse: DB x MO Dim Sum.
Hong Kong shrimp dumplings come with scallion XO sauce. A cabbage and sweet mustard bao plays with the flavours of New York pastrami. Pig trotter and truffle soup dumplings look towards Boulud’s Lyonnais roots.
Hong Kong, New York, and Lyon, somehow all sitting comfortably at the same table.
Terrace Boulud is also Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong’s first restaurant concept beyond the walls of its historic flagship, and the partnership makes sense. Boulud and Mandarin Oriental already have history together, including Café Boulud in Toronto and the former Bar Boulud at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London.
Here, however, the result belongs very specifically to Hong Kong. Lunch moves into afternoon tea, aperitifs, dinner and drinks as the restaurant changes with the city outside. Tropical greenery becomes silhouetted against illuminated towers; the harbour darkens and Central begins to glow.
By the time we leave, the rain is still falling. The green onyx glows behind us, palm fronds brush the windows, and Foster’s HSBC building fades in and out of the weather.
Back at the lifts, the landscape is still slipping past those timber-framed windows.
Wanted
