Chris Lucas takes on Hong Kong at his next restaurant

Prolific restaurateur Chris Lucas owns Japanese venues (Kisume), South-East Asian (Chin Chin), French (Maison Batard) and Italian (Grill Americano). But his growing stable includes nothing from China’s wide spectrum of regional cuisines. His next venue Wishbone corrects that.

Part of a gleaming new $1 billion office tower on Bourke Street, it will offer up an outsider’s vision of Hong Kong dining that melds the city’s dense urban lifestyle with throwbacks to its glamorous yesteryear. Wong Kor Wai’s 1960s-set film In the Mood for Love, buzzy Temple Street Night Market, and older neighbourhoods such as Wan Chai are all on the mood board.

When it opens in October in the CBD, Wishbone will be the restaurateur’s 13th Melbourne venue – and his first on its west side. Lucas has never crossed the dividing line of Swanston Street but says: “Midtown feels like it’s on the cusp of something new, with people like [beauty retailer Mecca’s] Jo Horgan helping drive that shift alongside major projects like 435 Bourke Street.

“The opportunity to work on something of this scale, something that is transformational for an area, is incredibly exciting.”

Reached via a laneway entrance, the three-level restaurant will experiment with Cantonese hallmarks such as dim sum and wok cooking. Tradition is not a word that’s guiding the menu.

“[Wishbone diners] will be eating Cantonese food but also we’ll have other elements in there. It’s not really traditional Cantonese food,” says chef Dan Chan.

The Hong Kong native (currently at Tombo Den in Windsor) is leading the laboratory of menu ideas, drawing on experience working at Japanese venues Yakikami (also in Windsor) and Yardbird, a Hong Kong hotspot, as well as Melbourne’s own Supernormal.

But there are some Cantonese non-negotiables he’ll honour, including dim sum, available as a small selection at lunch and dinner, and at yum cha service on weekends. Glossy char siu pork and crackly roasted pork will be part of a contingent of roasted meats. Duck is still a maybe due to the amount of space needed. The fast and furious energy of Hong Kong’s beloved street food stalls, known as dai pai dongs, are the third touchstone. A core dish of black pepper beef wok-tossed with potato might be reinterpreted as a honey and black pepper steak.

More playful ideas include a nod to Sichuan province’s mapo tofu that might see a mala (spicy, numbing) dressing paired with milky stracciatella cheese. Prawn toast might be made with youtiao, the long round Chinese doughnuts, and mayo amped up by the Japanese condiment yuzu kosho.

“Like all of Chris’s restaurants, it’s a take on Hong Kong, on street food, on Cantonese – and a very Melbourne take on all those things,” says Celia McCarthy, general manager of brand for the group.

Diners will be greeted by sweeping archways and statement windows, one of which shows off a large red Perspex staircase. Mid-century Hong Kong design references reign supreme across the 120-capacity split-level space, designed by DKO Architecture, also responsible for Tombo Den.

A team was recently dispatched to Hong Kong to source light fittings, cutlery, crockery, host desks and more.

Chan says that Hong Kong’s food scene is just as dynamic as Melbourne’s, incorporating different influences to make something new. But he’s still nervous about how people will respond.

A key challenge in recreating Hong Kong’s street food will be cooking on woks in the all-electric kitchen, part of the building’s green energy design. But Chan says the group’s Geelong outpost of Chin Chin has gone through the same learning curve.

Lucas is working on another restaurant in the same tower that will open this year. The theme? Greek, honouring his heritage.

Wishbone opens October 2026 at 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne