QUAN is a new Chinese fine-dining restaurant in Central, led by chef Justin Yang. It soft-opened in August 2026 at CCB Tower with a tasting-menu format: elevating Fujianese cuisine and highlighting a young chef’s heritage and background.
Chef Yang became known as the runner-up on the Chinese culinary competition, “The Divine Dish” and has also received recognition from the Michelin Guide and the Black Pearl Young Chef awards.
QUAN describes its concept as “Complementary Chinese Dining”, using Hong Kong’s position as a crossroads to frame contemporary Chinese cuisine. The name 泉 suggests a spring or source, which fits the restaurant’s emphasis on Chinese culinary references presented through a modern service model.
The restaurant sits somewhere between a modern Chinese tasting-menu restaurant and a luxury banquet kitchen. The opening publicity focuses heavily on Yang’s young-chef awards, but the food is more interesting when it leans into classic Chinese ingredients and techniques rather than the chef’s competition background.
The restaurant is in a quieter part of Central, inside a modern office building. The dining room is fairly large and has a slightly colonial European feel.
Interestingly, the menu was only provided in Chinese. The English category headings were not especially helpful, but fortunately, in the age of AI, a photograph of the menu is enough to get a rough translation.
The amuse bouche was a thick jelly with some sort of herbal root inside, topped with an intense aged-vinegar sauce. It was not really my thing. The texture was firm and slightly gelatinous, while the vinegar dominated the small bite.
The appetisers were much better.
A light, crisp tart filled with smoked foie gras and sweet peas.
Lightly pickled passion fruit.
Both were big hits. Clean, refreshing and distinct, with enough contrast between the textures and flavours to make the opening courses work.
The fried course was the highlight of the night. QUAN’s take on fish maw was well concieved and well executed: a small piece of fish maw, lightly battered and deep-fried, presented on a plate made from a much larger dried fish maw.
The batter was light and crisp, while the fish maw itself was chewy, almost like rice mochi. A sticky vinegar sauce added sweetness and acidity. It was absolutely delicious and a very effective reworking of a classic Chinese delicacy.
The soup was a classic shark fin soup with crab meat, crab roe, bamboo pith and loofah melon in a rich chicken stock. It was made as a “gung”, or thick soup, with plenty of flavour and a smooth, substantial texture. Rich, filling and absolutely delicious.
Starting into the mains, a soup-filled, deep-fried pigeon leg arrived next. The pigeon had a small amount of mala seasoning, a crisp fried exterior and an incredibly juicy centre. Once you bit through the shell, soup came running out, so the restaurant gave us spoons to catch the soup.
Another massive hit, and one of the best pigeon dishes I have had. The crisp exterior, juicy meat and burst of hot soup made the whole thing feel more like a cleverly constructed snack than a conventional main course.
The fish was less impressive. It was a oil-poached grouper topped with Sichuan peppercorns and dried chillies, served over giant bean sprouts. The fish was cooked very well, but the dish felt a little greasy and lacked the same precision as the fish maw and pigeon.
The vegetable course was napa cabbage slowly braised in a rich dried-scallop broth. A classic comfort dish, with soft cabbage and plenty of savoury depth from the broth.
Another big hit was QUAN’s take on Fujian fried rice. The rice came with slow-simmered beef and just enough sauce to bind everything together. I could taste the heavy use of lard, and it was delicious, although a little rich after the earlier courses. A slight aftertaste of heat rounded it off well.
Dessert was a simple agar jelly flavoured with lightly sweetened tea. Cold, light and refreshing, it was exactly what the meal needed after several heavy and oily courses.
Overall, QUAN was a bit hit and miss, but the best dishes were genuinely excellent. The fried fish maw, shark-fin soup and soup-filled pigeon leg were all memorable, and they showed a kitchen with a good instinct for texture and traditional Chinese ingredients.
The pacing was not quite there. We had a long delay between the soup and the main courses, although we later found out that we had arrived on the restaurant’s official opening night, so I would expect the service to settle with time. The menu is also fairly short, but the pricing reflects that. You are unlikely to leave feeling as stuffed as you would after a full Chinese banquet.
QUAN is worth visiting if you want a shorter Chinese tasting menu with several strong dishes and do not need a huge meal. It still feels like a restaurant finding its feet, but the fish maw and pigeon alone make the opening menu worth trying.
Total Damage: HK$4,300/2 people