In Wan Chai, Hong Kong, Bo Innovation might have the Michelin star, but it is its neighbour 5 units away that has bagged the Red Dot.

We are talking about Madam Sixty Ate, the restaurant located in dining and lifestyle complex J Senses building that has recently been serving up exceptional European cuisine (from the kitchen of founder and chef director Chris Woodyard and head chef Andrew Gomez Braham) but is also a delightful setting for it.

“The brief from the client was literally the name ’Madam Sixty Ate’ which is based on its address at 60 Johnston Road, Shop 8. From there we had the luxury of creative freedom to develop the brand identity and story as we liked,” shares Maxime Dautresme of creative agency Substance.

With a clever intertwining of gastronomy and art, Dautresme reimagined the restaurant as the apartment of Madam and filled it with art and artefacts (essentially, Madam’s personal items collected on her travels) that in turn reference back to the culinary world.

Scenes, depicted as murals or within menus, feature characters such as “Sophie the rabbit the size of a pea who, with her siblings, ’hatches’ out of her tiny pea pod. There’s also Pedro the squid-corn hybrid who is discovered by Madam Sixty Ate while dangling her legs off a pier in some fantastical land – he accidentally brushes against her feet in the water.” The stuff of whimsy and fantasy – but no less a solid direction and creative push the restaurant needed to rise above the cluttered Hong Kong dining scene.

Madam Sixty Ate
madamsixtyate.com.hk

Substance
www.substance.hk