Two years ago, getting a table for a weekday lunch at some of Hong Kong’s swankiest restaurants in Central was next to impossible as bankers wooed clients and closed deals. Today, people can simply walk in at most of them as banks tighten purse strings and deals dry up.
“My favourite restaurants to take clients to are so easy to get into now. It shows how bad dealmaking is,” a Hong Kong-based banker said. “Getting a table at Sushi Saito meant I had to wait weeks. Now I can reserve one for tomorrow.”
Michelin-starred Sushi Saito at the Four Seasons Hotel, which serves traditional Edomae sushi, charges around HK$4,000 (US$518) for a lunchtime meal for two.
The Michelin website says seats at the restaurant “are always hard to come by – the reservation hotline only works during specific days and times". However, when contacted on Thursday, the Japanese restaurant had spots available for lunch for the next week, and it is not alone.
Caprice, the Four Seasons' French restaurant with three Michelin stars, had tables available for lunch from the coming Wednesday. Three Michelin-starred Sushi Shikon has tables available for lunch throughout December.
“It is certainly much easier to get in at these restaurants, and they aren’t full even at peak hours,” a Hong Kong-based investment banker at another global bank said.
Senior bankers also like to take their clients to chef Umberto Bombana’s 8½ Otto e Mezzo Italian restaurant at Alexandra House in Central.
"It is easy to get into 8½ now," a Hong Kong-based private banker said. "One of my favourites." However, bankers said even private bank clients are not keen to be taken out to lunch so much these days because they are feeling economically gloomy.
Bank employees across the harbour in Kowloon said some restaurants were less full after the demise of Credit Suisse, which occupied 10 floors at International Commerce Centre, as its retained investment bankers have moved to the UBS offices in Central.
Some restaurants at ICC like Tosca di Angelo at the Ritz Carlton are a lot less full than they used to be, bankers said. Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Natixis have offices at ICC.
However, high-end Chinese restaurants are outliers. Bankers say this is because deals with mainland clients are picking up, and also due to an ongoing resurgence in post-Covid outbound travel.
“Chinese fine dining is more popular because of cross-border activity,” the second investment banker said.
Unlike Sushi Saito and Caprice, the Four Seasons’ Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Lung King Heen is booked out until at least the end of the year.
Reservations at The Chairman, a Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, remain notoriously hard to get. A representative for the restaurant said it is currently fully booked until March.
Tin Lung Heen, a Cantonese restaurant at the Ritz Carlton in Kowloon, is also increasingly popular.
“This makes sense because conversations in Hong Kong are only about China now, maybe a little bit of Taiwan. Deals for the rest of Asia are being looked at from Singapore,” a banking analyst said.
The value of total receipts from the restaurant sector fell 1.3% year on year in the third quarter to HK$26.7bn (US$3.4bn), according to data released in November by Hong Kong’s census and statistics department. The government expects the improved outlook for the Chinese economy following fiscal stimulus measures to support the sector.
The Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, mid-range restaurants like Peking Garden in Alexandra House, which had been less busy in recent years, are bursting at the seams. Seafood restaurant Dot Cod remains popular among bankers for weekday lunches. A meal for two at the restaurant will set diners back about HK$1,500.
Western restaurant Jimmy’s Kitchen, which reopened in March after closing during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a busy lunch spot in Central soon after its comeback but has a few empty tables now. A meal for two at Jimmy's is about HK$1,000.
Clubs like the American Club, Hong Kong Club and China Club are still frequented by bankers who are members. Club Batard, a new private members-only club, is gaining popularity, bankers said, though memberships are said to be still available. Batard could not be reached for comment.
Budget constraints
A large part of the slowdown in high-end dining is due to a reduction in corporate entertainment budgets.
“We have noticed the corporate lunches are practically gone – they are very few and far in between and they are much tamer than before Covid,” said Chester Grucza, training and development manager at Deadly Rabbits Concepts, a Hong Kong-based restaurant group. “There’s plenty of meetings, but usually one-on-one or small tables.”
“I was told several times that budgets to take clients out by real estate firms were cut to a director level and slashed by more than half. At one company, from HK$2,000 weekly to HK$500,” he said.
And as banks tighten client-entertainment budgets, spending on team events is also low. For instance, a global bank in Hong Kong has asked employees above a certain level to contribute HK$1,000 per head for themselves and for junior employees towards their annual Christmas party. Another global bank held an offsite earlier this year that bankers paid for themselves.
A change in the way meetings are conducted since the pandemic and trends around health and work-life balance are also responsible.
After many in-person meetings were replaced by video conferencing, bankers say coffees and breakfast meetings have taken the place of long lunches or after-work drinks in the post-pandemic world. Additionally, some bankers and clients are cutting back on alcohol for health reasons, and many younger bankers do not drink at all.
"According to several of my wine merchants, there’s much less of the alcohol spend too," Deadly Rabbits' Grucza said. "Maybe that’s subjective, but the health trend also means that people are drinking more selectively. At our newest outlet, non-alcoholic alternatives are nearly a third of all mixed drinks revenue."
(Additional reporting by Sara Velezmoro)