Hou Ma Hong Kong?

I'd be lying if I didn't say how much I get from the buzz of Hong Kong.

Yes, yes, I know it has a vile side, and will pull you kicking and screaming backwards if you're not careful and only spend your days working and nights (and some afternoons) drinking yourself into silliness.

But I was there for just a week in August 07, hardly an opportunity for complete ruin, so when drinks were suggested at Bonnie Gokson's newest venture, restaurant and bar Sevva (penthouse level, Prince's Building, Central) one evening, and being a sucker for good design and cocktails with a view, along I went. Even if the name is ever so slightly annoying - a play on the word savour but which really is fine pronounced as it's spelt.

Name aside, the view is spellbinding, and best enjoyed outside on the enormous terrace, which hugs around the restaurant within. In all my travels, I’ve yet to come across anything quite like this, surreally lit by the glow of lights spilling out of hundreds of still operating offices in surrounding towers, through the night.

It's ultra Hong Kong: mega-storey's above ground, beautifully designed (Calvin Tsao of New York based Tsao & McKown Architects), in the heart of the action and with the harbour on the horizon, attracts a banker-boy clientele, and the wait staff are just that wee bit snooty. After all of that, I would have been exceptionally disappointed if the drinks had been been below par.

But they weren't. My campari-soda (retro bitters do it for me) never tasted sweeter. However, I wonder about the banker-boy clientele these days. Something tells me their last hurrahs likely occurred NYE circa 2008.