The roast beef trolley waiter is one of the hardest-working members of staff at the Mandarin Grill. All through lunch and dinner, the gleaming silver cart is wheeled across the room.
Hungry diners' faces light up when they see its smooth arrival, the domed lid lifted back with a flourish before the waiter carves their cut of choice (rare, medium or well done; thick or thin) in front of them.
It's good to see the roast beef trolley alive and well in Hong Kong. As well as the Mandarin Grill, they can be seen at Amigo's in Happy Valley, Lawry's in Causeway Bay and Hugo's at the Hyatt Regency in Tsim Sha Tsui, as well as a smattering of private members' clubs.
For a while the roast trolley fell out of favour in its spiritual home, London, where it was particularly popular at Simpson's in the Strand in the second half of the 19th century. But there, too, the trolley has become fashionable again in a return to high-class, elegant values, and younger chefs have put this traditional mainstay back on the restaurant floor.
The trolley at the Mandarin has been in situ since 1975. Giovanni Valenti, who joined the Mandarin Grill as manager in 1979 - and is now concierge ambassador for the Mandarin Oriental hotel - remembers it being in constant service ever since. 'It adds a certain theatre to the dining experience,' he says.
This one is a particularly beautiful design: entirely silver plated with art nouveau detailing and clawed feet. It's the same design as the one at the Raffles Grill in Singapore, which the staff buried in the Palm Court garden when the Japanese occupied the hotel during the second world war and dug up afterwards.