Miramar spending millions to tempt mainland taste buds

Miramar Group, the hotel flagship of Lee Shau-kee's Henderson Land Development, plans to 'export' its Cantonese gourmet restaurant brand across the border as a key part of an HK$940 million expansion plan over the next seven years.

Cuisine Cuisine, the company's upmarket Cantonese restaurant at International Finance Centre in Central - dubbed 'the canteen for senior government officials and corporate bigwigs' - will have its first outlet in Beijing by the middle of next year.

That will be followed by a further nine openings at a total cost of HK$300 million on the mainland by 2017, general manager Romain Chan Wai-shing said in an interview.

The company's other Cantonese restaurant icon, Tsui Hang Village, will also open in 10 cities over seven years, at a cost of HK$100 million, he said.

Hong Kong-listed Miramar Hotel and Investment is a member of the Henderson Land Group, with a diversified business portfolio covering hotels and serviced apartments, property investment, food and beverage and travel services in Hong Kong, the mainland, and the United States.

'Cuisine Cuisine and Tsui Hang Village are no strangers to solo travellers,' Chan said. 'Very often, we see a few solo travellers walk in Cuisine Cuisine with their shopping bags and walk out with a HK$100,000 bill for a dinner.' A classic example of a lunch party, he said was a table of 10 mainland travellers dining at Cuisine Cuisine who washed down a menu of abalone and shark's fin soup with half a dozen bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild.