The global downturn may be starting to bite but Hong Kong's luxury restaurants are confident the appetites of the wealthy will still stretch to Christmas dinners at prices of up to HK$136,000 a head.
On the day that the government was announcing details of its food voucher plan for the needy, the five-star Langham and Langham Place Hotels were offering to fly in a top chef from London to cook a banquet for five in a hotel suite or client's home for about HK$680,000 - or HK$136,000 a head.
Meanwhile, swanky restaurant Aqua is advertising what it calls the ultimate Christmas feast - a flamboyant seven-course dinner at HK$10,000 a head. The offer, throughout December, includes limousine transfer to the restaurant in Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, and a gift for each guest.
The menu, by chefs Eugenio Riva and Tatsuya Iwahashi, includes Australian Coffin Bay oysters with Beluga caviar, premium black truffles, Ise lobster, Boston lobster, foie gras, guinea fowl breast and Kobe beef.
All this is washed down with wines including Bollinger Grand Annee 1999 champagne and a Chateau d'Yquem 1996 from Bordeaux.
Angela Lee, Aqua's director of sales and marketing, said it had been designed to be extravagant and was aimed at a 'very small number of affluent people who want to really splash out and enjoy a truly memorable Christmas experience'.