Solstice Culinary Space is Hong Kong’s new shrine to the sun, a two-storey playground in Central where the solstices are baked into everything from the ceiling curve to the charcoal tiles under your feet.
Hidden above Lyndhurst Terrace, the 340-square-metre space by Norwegian design studio Snøhetta is conceived as a slow, cinematic time-lapse of the year’s shortest and longest days. The idea is simple but surprisingly transportive: winter downstairs, summer upstairs, with light, colour and texture doing most of the storytelling.
Solstice Culinary Space pulls together three venues: Solstice Cooking Studio and SOL Restaurant share the fifth floor, while Uncle Quek – a more casual, convivial spot – takes over the sixth. In the Solstice Cooking Studio, Snøhetta leans into the Winter Solstice, wrapping the room in deep charcoal and indigo tones that feel like lingering dusk. Ceramic tiles, stainless steel and tactile surfaces invite you to touch, stir and sear, making the studio as much a laboratory for serious home cooks as a stage for chef-led classes.
Move further into SOL Restaurant and the palette shifts almost imperceptibly into lighter woods, terracotta tiles and reflective mirrors, as if someone has gently turned up the sun. Natural light pours through open windows, bouncing off warm, neutral finishes to create a relaxed, almost terrace-like atmosphere in the middle of Central.
At either end of the space, sculptural lighting pieces stand in for the sun and moon, quietly anchoring the concept in celestial theatre. The main dining room’s concave ceiling is the showstopper: a soft arc that mirrors the sun’s path and diffuses both daylight and concealed LEDs into a warm, even glow.
Look up and you’ll see how seriously the team treats time. Linear LEDs trace the ceiling curve, mimicking sunlight and moonlight as the day wears on, shifting the mood from bright and airy lunch to low-lit, cinematic dinner. It’s a subtle move, but it turns the dining room into a quiet observatory where the main spectacle is the changing light, not just what’s on the plate.
One floor up, Uncle Quek channels the solstice as festival rather than phenomenon, riffing on the tradition of friends and families gathering to mark the turn of the seasons. The design stays connected to the story below – think warmer tones and unfussy finishes – but loosens up the mood for casual bites, shared plates and louder tables.
“Solstice Culinary Space aims to be an experience as much a restaurant,” says Emily Yan, Director, Snøhetta Studio Hong Kong (Asia Region), “it is a journey through time, a reflection of nature’s rhythms, and a celebration of transformation in all its forms.”
