Is there any way back for Hong Kong’s crisis-hit restaurant sector?

Hong Kong’s restaurant sector is in crisis, with a wave of closures, shrinking margins and residents lured by cheaper options locally and across the border. In the first of a two-part series, the Post looks at the industry’s troubles and whether it can reinvent itself.

Hong Kong’s Metropol Restaurant has been bustling like the good old days in recent weeks as diners seek a last taste of favourites such as “har gow” and “siu mai” before its dim sum trolleys trundle away and it closes for good in September.

Among them on a recent weekday at the 35-year-old Chinese restaurant was white-collar worker Christina Wong, 50, a regular when she was a teenager.

Wong went for a “farewell lunch” with her husband Jonny Au but found that her fond memories of the restaurant in the Admiralty neighbourhood and reality did not match.

The couple spent more than HK$450 on tea and food – “more expensive than expected” – with the bill including a 10 per cent service charge, a mandatory HK$20 per person fee for tea and a small dessert that cost nearly HK$50.

“For the same price, we could have had two meals in Shenzhen. I didn’t even feel full this time, as many items were already not available [at about 2.30pm],” Au said.