Curry lovers are bidding farewell to a host of their favourite holes-in-the-wall. As the latest government regulations kick in, restaurant owners face a choice of either closing down or spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with the new rules. By the May 10 deadline, the dust from the frenzy of renovations and upgrades should have cleared.
Among the stayers is the India Curry Club, which faces its future with a new name (The Curry Club), new management, a doubled space, and $300,000 worth of kitchen and other upgrades. The 13-year-old Club on the third floor of the Winner Building on Wing Wah Lane, off Lan Kwai Fong, will still serve the same favourites, such as chicken tikka masala ($43), mutton sagwala ($42) and fish tikka ($60).
Owner Prasanna Gopalan, who was one of the original founders of Club Sri Lanka on Hollywood Road in 1986, will hire out one of her rooms for private parties and also does outside catering for $100 to $140 a head.
Some fellow Indian restaurants have not fared as well, as the deadline for regulatory compliance looms. Spice Island on Wellington Street has closed down, so has the Shalimar Club on Stanley Street. Johnston Mess, owned by the Maharani Club, is also on the to-go list.
Some are closing down because they do not want to spend the money, others because for a variety of other reasons, they simply cannot comply with the new rules.
Guest chef offers food for wine buffs One to note on the promotion food diary this month is the menu of guest chef Brian Leonard, from The Kendall Jackson Winery in California, at The Verandah in Repulse Bay.