Gourmet Dining Group was not willing to talk numbers or how the coronavirus and protests have affected its restaurants, but said it is taking advantage of several initiatives to weather the tough situation with people wary of going out to dine.

The group’s stable of restaurants includes the two-Michelin-star Arbor in Central, the one-Michelin-star Epure in Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, and French pastry brand Dalloyau (several locations).

The group’s spokeswoman said that the coronavirus pandemic is “one of the most challenging crises that the [food and beverage] industry is facing; we are trying our best to retain consumers’ confidence and meet their changing dining patterns as the virus spreads”.

While Gourmet Dining Group’s restaurants were already adhering to high standards of hygiene, food quality and service, she points out the restaurants’ tables are widely spaced, and that there is the option of dining alfresco at Epure.

Dalloyau has bistros and cafes, and is encouraging diners to buy takeaways or order delivery of meals, such as pastas, burgers and salads. In addition to the regular six-course menu offered at Epure for HK$1,488 (US$190), since November the French restaurant has been serving a four-course menu for HK$988.

Two Hong Kong-based restaurant consultants, each of whom has their own establishments, suggest restaurants become more lean and flexible in their operations, and think about creative ways to offer value to diners.

Ivan Fernie has worked in the Hong Kong restaurant industry for more than two decades, and recently opened a second branch of Ask for Alonzo, a trattoria serving Mediterranean cuisine, in Tai Hang – the location was chosen to avoid the anti-government protests that frequently block the main east-west artery and adjoining streets on Hong Kong Island. With rent the biggest expense for restaurants, operators must find more understanding landlords, Fernie says.

“Landlords need to understand that you don’t need to open a restaurant in Central to be successful,” he says. “You need to have a good relationship with your landlord so they will reduce rent temporarily or permanently. Swire have been brilliant. They have been going to their tenants and saying, ‘We’ll offer you a discount’.”

The protests that started in June also caused a trend of people eating more in their neighbourhoods.

“This gives an opportunity to local restaurants to give real quality and they can meet the people coming to their outlet,” Fernie says. “Hong Kong is a transient place; it’s different to have true loyalty from people who have lived for generations in a neighbourhood. They also have more reasonable landlords.”

Fernie says expats with large expense accounts are gone, which makes it harder for high-end restaurants to survive. Still, how does he explain what happened to Rech by Alain Ducasse, which offered five-course set menus for HK$1,288, featuring seafood from France, that seemed like good value for a Michelin-starred restaurant?

“Was it making more [money] before the protests? Or was the restaurant already struggling when it opened and the protests were the straw that broke the camel’s back?” Fernie says. “Also, how much does the restaurant mean to them [hotel owners] to keep open in Hong Kong? Mostly it’s monetary based. The high-end restaurants are struggling. The Tsim Sha Tsui restaurants are being kept alive by hotels, but what is their occupancy now?”

One restaurant that has benefited from customer loyalty is Haku, a Japanese restaurant with a European twist inside the Harbour City luxury mall. It opened about two years ago and has been doing well these last few months, executive chef Agustin Balbi says. He also credits its small size, which means guests are more likely to have made a reservation than walk in.

Restaurant consultant Caleb Ng Pak-wah, of Twins Kitchen, anticipates there will be a wave of closures in the near future, especially of fine-dining restaurants.

“It will be tough to pick up business because hotels are struggling without tourists,” he explains. Ng believes Rech by Alain Ducasse closed because 50 per cent of its clientele were probably tourists. “If there were no protests and just the coronavirus now, more restaurants would probably survive,” he says. “We had eight months of protests followed right after by the virus.”

He believes people still need to go out to eat, but many will choose to dine in more casual places with price-sensitive menus, and may dine out only half as often. “A recession is coming, so this is just the beginning. Towards the end of the year the economy could get worse. For the [food and beverage] industry and retail it is the worst now, but for other sectors it could be three to four months from now, like banking and real estate … fingers crossed,” Ng says.

He says when news of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, broke, Hongkongers were concerned about it, having experienced the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak 17 years ago. “The number of cases is low, not like South Korea or Japan; we overreacted a bit, but in a good way,” Ng says.

The government’s suggestion for people to stay home for the first few weeks hit the hospitality industry immediately, and forced Ng and other restaurants operators to rethink how they run their businesses.

 “We changed our operational hours to close earlier, which means less staff in the evenings; we are doing more takeaway, and [we are] more price-sensitive. People started returning to their workplaces over a week ago and Ng, who owns Interval coffee bar and a cafe called Common Ground in Central, has seen a 10 per cent increase in lunch customers compared to more than two weeks earlier.

He doesn’t think this is the end of fine dining in Hong Kong, but says fine-dining restaurants need to be more flexible and offer a set menu at a lower price, or with fewer courses, and give diners the option of paying extra to add indulgences such as uni, caviar and truffles.

 Both Ng and Fernie stress the importance of making takeaway dishes available on delivery platforms, as there are people who don’t want to cook or cannot cook. “Fried food is good, curry and stews, as the taste won’t be affected too much while being delivered,” says Ng.

 Fernie has seen Ask for Alonzo’s daily revenue more than double through diners ordering takeaways, especially for delivery to residential addresses rather than offices. When all is said and done, he is still betting on Hong Kong. “I’ve been here since 1991 and Hong Kong’s resilience is unmeasured,” says Fernie. “You have to believe Hong Kong will find a way to make it work.”