Daytrip, a London-based design studio, stripped back a railway arch restaurant to raw utilitarian surfaces, then layered in glossy finishes and splashes of red and green. The result is Cafe Kowloon, a modern Cantonese spot in east London that feels atmospheric and slightly cinematic without trying too hard.
The spatial setup matters. Customers enter through Wonton Charlie's, the restaurant's daytime noodle bar, creating a progression from casual to elevated dining. It's a common tactic in hospitality design, but Daytrip executes it cleanly. The contrast between unfinished materials and polished detailing keeps the space from feeling either too precious or too industrial. It breathes.
The color restraint works in their favor too. Rather than drowning the room in red and gold clichés, Daytrip uses those hues as punctuation marks. The effect reads more London gallery than dim sum palace, which makes sense for a restaurant that wants to do traditional food in a contemporary context.
What Daytrip understood here is that authenticity in restaurant design doesn't require nostalgia. You can respect a cuisine while treating the space around it like an actual design problem. Cafe Kowloon proves that approach works.