The first paleo diner in Hong Kong had to be all the way in Sai Ying Pun ... of course. Yes, I wish it was a bit closer to Central. But Sai Ying Pun has become SOHO's hipper younger sibling with quite some interesting eateries, cafés, bars and restaurants. 

How paleo is The Awakening? The meat is grass-fed. Sweet potato and cauliflower are staple sides. They serve bulletproof coffee. And all their desserts are gluten and table-sugar free. Oh yes, and the chef Mike Boyle was a personal trainer at the young age of 18 before he established himself as a chef at the Venetian in Las Vegas and later at other well known restaurants in Hong Kong like Bistecca and AVA. So it's legit paleo. They actually refer to themselves as Paleo Plus allowing gluten free grains and legumes into their menu in moderation. Chris Kresser will be happy to hear that. 

It was so overdue. There was finally a real paleo devoted restaurant since late last year and I was taking my sweet time to move my sweet derrière to check that place out. Well, I was hoping the Sai Ying Pun MTR station was to open around 2015 and I could get over there easily. But the MTR is a tease and after a long Friday workout I decided to just head over there for lunch.

I was pleased that they offered lunch sets consisting of soup 'n' salad buffet + main. Although I was eyeing their a la carte ostrich steak I nevertheless went for their lunch set and chose salmon as a main. The soup 'n' salad buffet is not very grand in terms of choice. That day the soup was pumpkin soup. 

When nood food started its soft launch at selected Pure Yoga studios I naturally thought their target group were the yogi crowd: health concious vegetarian or vegans and serial detox juice cleansers. But then nood started supplying Pure Fitness studios and things got more interesting. Animal protein in form of whey protein in smoothies, and chicken/ tuna in salads, wraps or sandwiches were added to the nood spread. 

I got to talk with one of the people behind nood, Moises Mehl, and although he himself is a raw vegan chef he supports the idea to cater for various lifestyles and eating habits. And that's what they did when they opened up a café bistro in SOHO, a place  trying to accommodate main health diets: (raw) vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free and nut-free. And they have the labelling to prove it . 

Although Hong Kong has a wide range of feeding joints a pure Paleo restaurant is not yet included in there. 
But with a few little tweaks and/ or accommodating service you can eat Paleo at lots of restaurants. Here are some of my suggestions for Central area :

The Fast: 
Great Burger Union
This is a fast food joint which uses grass-fed beef from (god bless) New Zealand. You can choose the burger-in-a- bowl option which means salad instead of a bun, and you can customize your burger by choosing additional toppings and a sauce.
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Multiple locations
www.gbu.hk

The Familar:
Wagyu Lounge
They offer beef from Australia so there is a good chance that it's grass-fed. I like to come here for brunch or lunch. For brunch I always order steak and eggs and just chuck the toast. But go for medium to well done. They never get medium-rare right. Their set lunch is pretty decent. You can choose from 3 starters and 3 mains. Usually there is always a meat option which can be easily tweaked to Paleo. 
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LG/F, Hollywood Commercial House
3-5 Old Bailey St., Central
Tel.: 2522 1438
www.casteloconcepts.com/locations/hong-kong/wagyu-lounge-hong-kong

The Fancy:
Wild Grass
This is the closest thing to a Paleo restaurant you can get in Hong Kong. They try to source their ingredients from local organic sources. Of course it has to be sustainable and the dishes are prepared under the nose-to-tail-eating concept. Oh yes, that's a Paleo concept. Their beef is OBE beef, a brand which stands for happy, wild-roaming, grass-fed, organic, Australian cows. So why isn't it Paleo? Well, since it's European Mediterranean-ish cuisine they cannot stay off bread, cheese and other gluten-stuffy desserts. But this restaurant got it mostly right ...  and the wee bit which is not right for you, you can always leave on the side of the plate
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1/F, 4-8 Arbuthnot Road, 
Central, Hong Kong (map)
(beside the escalators by The Centrium)
Tel.: 2810 1189
http://wildgrass.hk

Have other suggestions? Leave a comment or send an email. 

Linguini Fini will always have a special place in my heart since this is where I had my first grass-fed hanger steak and officially stopped being pescotarian and turned Paleo.

Linguini Fini does lunch reservations which saves you the scramble for a table during lunch hour. And since they belong to the ihm group, which also launched the local organic produce online store Homegrown Foods, their steaks are mostly grass-fed and they try to get their organic veggies from local sources. 

Another small perk is that they don't add the usual 10% service charge but leave it up to you how much you actually want to tip. 

It's a good place to go when you already have your Paleo diet dialled in and are not much tempted by pizza, pasta and Italian desserts. The only reason why it was safe for a me, a weakly willed Paleo pup, to go there was because I am gluten intolerant, so I'm (mostly) used to staying away from that stuff anyway. 

So here is what I came for: The Executive 3-Course Lunch for HKD 198