Diner’s Diary | Top Hong Kong restaurants and their inconvenient toilets - outside in market or mall, or needing a staff escort to pass security doors
Upscale restaurants may offer million-dollar views or boast Michelin stars, but still can’t meet a basic need when nature calls – a toilet conveniently located under the same roof
Hong Kong restaurants are notoriously tight for space, with tiny kitchens allowing more diners to be squeezed in to pay the rent.
That might explain why some have weird locations for their restrooms.
Serge et le Phoque, by the Wan Chai wet market, has fantastic French food but the bathrooms aren’t in the restaurant – customers have to use the public ones in the car park next door. It’s a Michelin-starred restaurant, but it seems the inspectors are only concerned with the food. The Michelin guide says: “The decoration, service and comfort levels have no bearing on the award.”
Fujiyama Mama, a funky Japanese restaurant in the Peak Tower on The Peak, has only two toilets – one for men, one for women – outside the restaurant, and shares them with a Cantonese restaurant on the same floor. There are also hundreds of tourists who may need to make a pit stop here before they get to the observation deck on top.
The line for the women’s – or shall I say woman’s – washroom was long when we went recently.
