Mostly Harmless bar review: Ode to grass roots mixology pays homage to 19th century drink-making through a novel approach, at Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun
- With a name inspired by a Douglas Adams novel, Mostly Harmless focuses on fresh, local ingredients and a no-nonsense presentation, while keeping the decor simple
Ezra Star – whose claim to fame is winning industry awards Tales of the Cocktail’s best bar gong for Boston’s Drink – and Daniel Eun (of OBP and 11 Westside, closer to home) teamed up to open Mostly Harmless earlier this year, just before Covid’s cresting fifth wave nudged the bar industry into another pandemic coma. Months later, the establishment remains the city’s premier nightlife opening of 2022.
As Hong Kong’s world-class establishments continue to covet awards of their own and light up social media feeds with ever more visually and technically dazzling drinks, Mostly Harmless is Star’s ode to grass roots mixology.
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Sitting one floor above Dam:a Noodle Bar – which succeeded Okra’s former Sai Ying Pun address – the bar pays homage to 19th century drink-making through a novel farm-to-glass approach. The focus is on fresh, local ingredients and no-nonsense (read: sans garnish) presentation.
The decor is simple by extension: white tiles and steel counters complement a four-item menu which rotates based on fresh ingredients sourced from local farms. There isn’t even a “backbar” for the bartender to work with – all the necessary base spirits and anything that can’t be made fresh on-site is stored discretely above a ceiling shelf or beneath-the-bar counter. When your order arrives, it’s just you, your drink and no distractions.
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On the night that we visit, the menu is scrawled with marker pen across the tiles – Watermelon, Pineapple, Cardamom and Pumpkin. The Cardamom combines a gin and lemon foundation with local medicinal green and black cardamom, plus almonds, for a deep, tart result.
The Pumpkin fuses taro and pumpkin into a riff on the boulevardier that trades some spirit-forwardness for an umami punch that’s ideally refreshing for the summer.
Mostly Harmless is inspired by the “fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers trilogy” of the same name, but unlike Douglas Adams’ relatively bleak examination of Earth, this Sai Ying Pun venue succeeds in highlighting some of the wonders from this corner of our little blue planet.
2/F, 110 Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun
