In Hong Kong’s Beefbar, the new addition to the Beefbar exclusive franchise located in Monaco, Mexico, Cannes, Mykonos and other posts around the world, the food is held to a great standard, as is evidenced by the establishment’s prized inclusion in the guide Michelin. The 1-star restaurant’s signature dishes designed by Chef Andrea Spagoni include refined choices such as the red prawn tartare with caviar and black tomatoes, the Hokkaido scallop Carpaccio with ponzu sauce, or the sea bass ceviche with saffron, fennel and mandarin. But make no mistake –for all its kale salads, guinea fowl raviolis and Brittany blue lobsters, the Beefbar is true to its name, from the milk-fed veal fillet tartare with tarragon and praline, to the broiled cuts of black angus (American and Australian), Wagyu-crossed, or certified Kobe cuts of beef.

Naturally, Hong Kong’s Beefbar’s environment would have to accommodate the passion for eating out and the passion for feasting on a menu proudly and hedonistically based on meat. It would also have to reflect how this primitive instinct to find sustenance in meat can be made into a sophisticated art form, which was the goal and obvious achievement of architects Emil Humbert and Christophe Poyet, whose interior draws on gentlemen’s and wine tasting clubs, while also skillfully taking the concept further.

One thing that is immediately clear is the design’s awareness of the restaurant’s place, both in the universe of haute cuisine, as well as in the lustrous modern metropolis of Hong Kong itself, and is based on premium materials, such as black wood panels, leather fittings, burnished bronze, a marble bar, and furnishings by Stellar Works. Orchestrated in exquisite geometry, they can easily make for an either inviting and playful or a strict and removed scene that speaks to the social dimension of dining. The openwork, dyed wood paneled ceiling adds depth to the space, which counters the formality of its materials and colors with a bold scarlet dividing wall, which distinguishes between a private and social space. The lighting, also designed and custom-made by Humbert and Poyet architecture, is discrete and elegant, whether it is based on sconces and overhead fixtures, or sculpted into the marble wall panels.

Overall, Beefbar’s design highlights the raw intensity as well as the cultivated passion of fine dining. It is, to put it in beef terms, at once raw and extremely well done.