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Gambas a la plancha, pulpo a la Gallega, chorizo de Córdoba... If none of these sound familiar now, they will soon, writes Angie Wong

It’s over; we’ve finished our year-long iodine-infused fascination with Japanese restaurants. Before that, we were fixated on Italian, fusion-confusion, and burgers. Now, all hail the era of small-bites, bold flavours, sharing is caring, hold-the-bread style dining. Enter tapas.

One of the greatest charms about consuming tapas is the strolling from bar to bar to find each kitchen’s finest dishes. For some its pimientos de Padrón, others are known for their gambas al ajillo. The idea behind each one-bite wonder is to fill your belly with something that is tasty and will absorb your afternoon alcohol consumption. Yum cha was created for the same reason: little helpings of food to go with your morning tea. Having little portions of many different dishes is also a very Hong Kong-way of eating, breaking from the Western practice of appetisers followed by a main and dessert to serve small plates of shareable bites as soon as they fall out of the frying pan.

So is Barcelona about to land in Hong Kong? Soho seems to think so: two new tapas bars have opened, each within steps of old horse tapas hot spots Boca and Enoteca. Other restaurants, such as Bricolage 62, The Catch, and The Fringe Club, have added tapas to their menus to entice drinkers to drink more. According to Jasmine Laurens of The Catch, on Peel Street, the tapas on their new menu pushes the cocktails: they dish up salty baby calamari with spicy tomato sauce to bring on the thirst, much like a bowl of salted roasted nuts would.

But it is more than just drinking that is encouraging restaurant groups to look seriously at the idea of tapas. This cuisine has a social history: originating in Italy and Spain, both massive wine drinking and producing countries, tapas also help develop, promote, and celebrate wine culture. “Let’s face it, you don’t go to Boca for a beer,” says Time Out’s wine expert, Alistair Nicol.

Plus, in a sense, tapas is the perfect meal for the undecided. “Dining has changed,” says Rob Cooper, owner of three tapas hotspots: Enoteca, Bacar, and soon-to-open Cicada. “Tapas fits our lifestyles right now, you don’t want to sit in a pub for dinner, and you don’t want to sit in at a white-cloth restaurant either. People are moving away from traditional restaurant and bars, especially in the Soho area, where most people work late and eat later,” he says. Coincidentally, his new tapas wine bar is named Cicada after the bug that keeps you up all night with its singing.

Cooper says tapas is not only blowing up in Soho, but all over Asia. Serving it just makes sense, as it comes with high beverage consumption, and with Soho’s free-market real estate ethics, every extra coin helps. In fact Soho veteran Boca is rumoured to be moving from its famously vertically challenged location because rent is biting too much into its budget (it has increased from $160,000 to $240,000 per month). At $38 for a bowl of olives, you’d have to sell a lot of olives…

Newcomers like The Catch are ready to grab some of the action, though, thanks to new tapas dinner menus. All the usual suspects have received upgrades, with garlic shrimp getting some roasted corn succotash on the side, the potato pancake with salmon getting liquored up with Absolute Vodka, and creamy lentils being added to the super-sized seared scallops.

Another newbie on the tapas block, Tapeo, on Wyndham Street, has planned out a menu for beginners: ham and cheese croquetas, tortilla of prawn and piquillo pepper, a wicked pork belly with aioli, and pork chop with cauliflower purée (although this one’s more of a Hong Kong invention, we think). The former Mink space has been transformed into a 24–seater with a wrap-around counter facing the open kitchen and imported chefs. Do try out their chorizo, as they sear the fresh paprika-blessed sausages, which aren’t the pre-cooked kind that resemble beef jerky you get in many other restaurants here.

Traditionalists on the other hand will appreciate Boca’s menu, which is loaded with Barcelonian classics. Their salted cod with potato, garlic, and feta cheese is a staple, as are their sautéed garlic mushrooms and grilled sardines served simply with sea salt and…garlic. Spot the recurring theme?

They also have an experimental tapas selection that is actually not that far removed from what newer tapas bars are serving in Seville: deep-fried chicken croquetas with mashed potato, seared scallops wrapped in Serrano ham with cava butter, and eggplant with goat’s cheese and sundried peppers don’t seem that far-fetched.

Bricolage 62 has a great happy tapas hour deal: three tapas from a menu of six plus two glasses of wine for $198. Choose from razor clams with lemon and oil, marinated mushrooms, and Belgian endive with white anchovies. At these prices, they are pretty much giving the food away.

But the best deal in town has to be the one just launched at The Fringe Club – plates go from $20 for mixed olives to $50 for potato wrapped shrimp fritters. The wild mushrooms in white wine and Thai fish cakes, though not Spanish natives, are also well worth their price tag. Not to mention the lovely Astroturf rooftop…

And although Cicada hasn’t opened yet, the menu is already making us salivate. When they open in late October, they’ll be departing from traditional Spanish favourites and introducing a pan-Asian style of tapas, which looks promising. A quick preview reveals a dumpling station serving everything from pan-fried gyozas to spicy Tibetan momos. The skewer bar, much like the rest of the menu, is very Indian-inspired, with some Korean, dai pai dong, Japanese, and vegan bites thrown into the pot. Look out for Cicada in the spot where the former Eat Right shop was, on Shelley Street.

Well, Soho may never have the same walk-and-eat culture Barcelona has, but it certainly knows how to reinvent itself to give us exactly what we want: a little bit of everything.