Hotels

Bar Avoca Hong Kong news: Mondrian Hong Kong hotel’s drinking den is launching the ‘Avoca Art Series’. This will be an ongoing programme of cocktails created in collaboration with artists and served in hand-crafted, individually numbered collectible glassware. Each edition is limited to 200 glasses. Each glass is yours to take home. The inaugural edition, King of Kowloon, launches the week of 23 March 2026, coinciding with Art Month and Art Basel Hong Kong.

Bar Avoca Hong Kong: King of Kowloon

The first edition is built around the legacy of Tsang Tsou-choi (1921-2007), better known as the King of Kowloon. For half a century, Tsang covered the district in dense calligraphic script: lamp posts, pillar boxes, drain pipes, walls. His work was never officially sanctioned and rarely exhibited. It was, in the most literal sense, street art, part obsession, part protest, part performance. He is now considered one of Hong Kong’s most consequential cultural figures, and his work is held in major collections worldwide.

The cocktail named for him uses Hong Kong gin and dry vermouth as its base, extended with oolong tea soda and finished with toasted coconut foam and charred coconut flakes. The coconut is a deliberate reference: coconut candy was the street snack of Tsang’s era, the kind of thing sold from carts in the neighbourhoods he claimed as his own.

The glass was designed by Kwan of Soekjing Studio. Using a ceramic decal process, Kwan has rendered the effect of ink released into water, a visual echo of Tsang’s brushwork that captures something of how his calligraphy looked mid-stroke, mid-impulse. The result is a glass that works as a functional object and as a piece in its own right. Each is numbered from 1 to 200.
Launching week of 23 March 2026 | 200 numbered pieces | HKD 198

Bar Avoca Hong Kong: locally inspired drinks

Avoca’s cocktail programme takes Hong Kong’s street food and snack culture as its raw material. Every drink on the menu has a local reference point, something eaten from a cart, ordered at a cha chaan teng, or brewed at home, and the bar’s job is to find the technique that brings it into the glass.

The ordering experience reflects that same thinking. Avoca’s Liquid Menu presents thirteen cocktails through written descriptions and a tableside cube housing thirteen micro-atomisers; each loaded with a signature drink in spray form. Guests spritz directly onto the palate or onto a scent strip before choosing. Menu cards map the key ingredients of each cocktail alongside the Hong Kong food or drink that inspired it. It is a sensory system as much as a menu, and a direct expression of the bar’s philosophy.

The Egg Waffle washes rye whisky through egg waffle batter and arrives with a homemade mini waffle on the side. The Sesame and Peanut Butter Sour reworks a pavement staple into a whisky sour. The Clay Pot Negroni takes its depth from the clay pot rice of dai pai dongs across Kowloon. The LGM Mary macerates tequila blanco with Lao Gan Ma black bean chilli oil, blended into a zero-waste clarified Bloody Mary.

Mum’s Tea, a floral blend of Fino Sherry, Chrysanthemum Vermouth, Chinese Wine Reduction Cordial and Wolfberry, evokes the homemade tea brewed in Hong Kong homes and cha chaan tengs for generations. The Yum Cha Fizz distils the ritual of morning dim sum into jasmine tea, jasmine gin, plum bitters and lychee. Ginger Pudding turns a classic Cantonese dessert into something sippable, with ginger vodka, spiced syrup and cream foam.

Behind the bar, a rotary evaporator enables custom redistillation and bespoke flavour extractions. A curated food menu, inspired by Hong Kong favourites with an Asian twist, runs alongside.
“Each drink is a tribute to the vibrant culinary legacy of this city,” says Beverage Manager Rolf Flaminiano. “These cocktails celebrate beloved local ingredients and evoke cherished memories. We want to bring a taste of Hong Kong to our guests in a new and exciting way.”

The bar’s approach has been recognised across the industry. Avoca holds a Top 20 placing at the Best Bars Awards 2025, a Top 100 Tables listing in the South China Morning Post 2025, and a Top 10 recommendation from Wine Luxe Magazine 2025, alongside Best Cocktail Programme and Best Bar Readers’ Choice at the Time Out Bar Awards 2024 and Best Cocktail Bar Gold at the Hong Kong Best Bars Awards 2024.

Month of art at Mondrian Hong Kong

The Art Series launch coincides with Mondrian Hong Kong’s wider Art Month 2026 programme, which runs across the property and the Corner Shop, a free street-level exhibition space directly opposite the hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. During March, the Corner Shop hosts Two Dragons Fighting Over a Pearl by Hong Kong scenographer LCM (4-15 March), an immersive installation supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and The Lullabies That Lived by Filipino transfeminine multidisciplinary artist Bunny Cadag (23 March onwards), which opens with a one-time rooftop performance on 23 March.

Art Basel Hong Kong VIP ticket holders receive 10% off at Avoca throughout the fair (25-29 March). The Art Series Edition 1 cocktail is also included in Mondrian Hong Kong’s Art Exploration Stay Package, available 22-29 March.