Why thoughtful restaurant design is so important – even in dense Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, where space is always at a premium, the best dining rooms are often the ones that understand how much a meal is impacted by its surroundings. Lighting, table size, chair height and furniture layout all start shaping your experience before the first plate arrives. Thoughtful execution lends a sense of ease and generosity, while less considered choices can distract from even capable cooking.

At Dieci, those choices are woven into the experience from the moment you walk in. Upon stepping through the arched doorway and beneath the beamed ceilings, the city recedes into a more enclosed, cocoon-like room where dim light falls softly on alabaster walls. Before taking your seat, you pass only a few tables – each set for a maximum of three people – and there is already a sense of privacy and ease that sets the tone for the meal ahead.

The tables, for instance, are calibrated to what Lee calls “two forearms and a little bit longer” – 25 by 25 inches, to be precise – wide enough for plates, glasses and a phone without endless rearranging. The chairs look simple at a glance, but the curved backs are designed to feel gently enclosing, and the “ears” can hold a bag if you do not want to tuck it on the small stool at your side. They are “small details that make people comfortable without them noticing”, says Lee.

Light is handled with the same discipline. In the era of social media, plenty of restaurants chase photogenic drama and end up with harsh spotlights that cast unflattering shadows on both diners and dishes. Dieci takes a different route: warm, diffused lighting that picks up the yellow tone of the wooden tables and the ivory of the walls, making the room feel inviting rather than stagy. The large mirror along one side adds to that softness, creating an illusion of extra space while allowing guests to catch a server’s eye with a glance.

That sense of domestic warmth continues in the corner room, where an open kitchen table recalls the familiarity of a family home. It costs the restaurant the space of two additional tables, but that trade-off fits the broader idea of a place built around sharing. As Olivieri says, “It’s a formula: good food, good design, good service, good branding – it has to be everything together. If you lack one of these, it will be noticed.” For a restaurant built on the idea of putting dishes in the centre of the table, the logic is simple: table spacing and sightlines can colour a meal just as surely as seasoning.