Designer dining: It's a minefield in this city. In the past few months, we've sat ourselves down in too many places where the surroundings are flashy but the food is at best ordinary, too often misguided fusion dabblings, and at worst close to inedible. We haven't seen such a major outbreak of style over substance since the plague of excesses in the bad old bubble years.

So we must confess to having approached Hizuki with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, it's new (since March), it's been featured in most of the vernacular magazines, and it has exactly the kind of cutting-edge look that appeals to the late-night crowd for whom ambience is the only requisite and food quality a very distant second on their scale of priorities.

The design references in the first-floor dining area are northern European, with plenty of sleek wood, dark stone and glass. An open kitchen to one side displays just enough steel to let you know they mean business. The walls are paneled, except in the alcoves, which have plush brown padding. The chairs are Scandinavian, chic but comfortable. The lighting is strategic, but not so discreet that you can't identify what you're eating.