The Pass is a New Way to Try Old Favourites

There’s a new dining concept coming to Hong Kong, and it’s hidden in plain sight. Demurely called ‘The Pass’, it’s part pop-up and part dinner-party, held in a secret Central location.

The premise is simple: for eight consecutive Saturdays, the intimate, bohemian 20-seater space will be taken over by a new Jia Group chef. Each menu will be something unlike the chefs’ usual repertoires, allowing them the freedom to showcase their ‘hidden talents’ in the kitchen. At a special preview, chef Nathan Green of Rhoda, served up six, individually plated, white-table-cloth-worthy dishes, a far cry from Rhoda’s casual and communal style. It was a completely different experience, having Green’s food away from the smokey hustle and bustle of Rhoda, we were able to really appreciate what he was doing- and appreciate the surprising play of flavours and textures that he does so well.

Josh Hartland of Mak Mak is kicking the series off, followed by Aaron Gillespie of 22 Ships and Ham & Sherry, Green, Mick Bolam of 208 Duecento Otto, Rungruoj Chang Somboon of Chachawan, Ronald Rodrigues of Kaum at Potato Head Hong Kong, Fung Man Ip of Duddell’s, and finally, Aberdeen Street Social chef Chris Whitmore. You can see each of the chef’s menus, and book your tickets at Ticketflap. Oh, and all the dinners come complete with free-flow Terrazas wines, cocktails and digestifs, naturally.

Obviously, it’s always exciting to see chef’s working in a new light – but in Hong Kong this programme has a far more important purpose. It’s putting the limelight back on established restaurants, the ones that were flooded with patrons the first month of opening, and then swiftly forgotten about with the next round of ‘must-try’, ‘it’ restaurants. Even if you’ve never been to any of the original restaurant’s before, I’d highly recommend checking out The Pass, you can even book the whole space out if you’d like – a perfect spot to host a little dinner party, no clean-up required.

Book your tickets through Ticketflap, the first dinner is September 9, 2017.