Hokkaido corn, ice-cream over a coconut mousse with salted caramel and roasted peanuts.

The dining room, designed by Adam Tihany, features a dramatic double ceiling with 4,320 gold rods suspended overhead. The wine cellar boasts 1,100 labels, and a sommelier who knows how to match wines from the Old World and the New World with Ekkebus' creations.

After hovering at No 4 on the 50 Best Restaurants in Asia list for a while, Amber this year bumped up to No 3.

"I have no idea why," he says. "But I do know we have always been working very hard to stay relevant and not be complacent."

Amber, he says, is "a place that every time you go, you are wowed. It's like marrying a woman and not being bored 12 years later, because you work every day on your relationship."

The work was hardest at the outset 12 years ago, he says.

"At the beginning, people didn't like us in Hong Kong, thinking the restaurant was being too futuristic and untraditional. It took us three to four years to win the heart of the city."

Every week, he says, the restaurant team challenges the status quo.

"We question every element of the restaurant consistently－table finishing, napkins, plates, music. There are many things we try to evolve."