AMMO Café, Hong Kong, China

In a city that is still hell-bent on thrusting up silvery skyscrapers at every street corner, it’s almost a relief to stumble into the newly opened AMMO Café in Hong Kong’s Admiralty quarter. Set in a low-rise, mid-19th-century British ammunitions compound, the café is the sophomore project for locally-based interior designer Joyce Wang, following her breakout renovation work on the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Taking cues from Jean-Luc Godard’s sci-fi classic Alphaville, Wang has created a grand statement space, lining the high-ceilinged room with chandeliers made of burnished copper plumping pipes, bent copper mesh and rods, and copper ribs, all of which are obvious nods to the building’s history. In the kitchen, Tony Cheng has concocted an east meets west menu that includes angel hair pasta with uni, slow cooked eggs with toro and sea urchin, and langoustines wrapped in Vietnamese rice paper and basil.