Feast or FamineFed-up restaurant owner working on blacklist of no-show guests to share with restaurants Hong Kong-wide

Restaurants in Hong Kong are struggling to stay afloat amid the coronavirus social distancing rules, their revenue slashed and diners afraid to go out

Yet they still face no-shows – customers who book tables but don’t turn up. One owner has responded with lifetime bans and plans for a name-and-shame register

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Hong Kong restaurants‘ capacity was cut in half during the coronavirus lockdown. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 12:15pm, 1 May 2020Updated: 12:15pm, 1 May 2020

When Hong Kong restaurants were ordered by the government to operate at half capacity and maintain a minimum 1.5-metre space between tables as part of social distancing measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, the already small capacity of many was reduced even further.

Couple that with the reluctance of many Hongkongers to leave their homes, and restaurateurs are hurting even more. So it doesn’t help them when people make bookings and then don’t show up, without even calling to cancel.

No-shows have long been a problem for restaurants. Danny Yip of The Chairman – recently named #2 on the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants – says their worst night was a year ago in April, when there were six tables of no-shows.

He says the six tables would have amounted to 20 guests in a restaurant that normally seats about 65, so this meant a revenue loss of close to one-third. The guests had confirmed the booking in advance, but didn’t show up on the night, and when staff called to check on their whereabouts, their phone calls went unanswered.

Danny Yip of The Chairman (right) once had a third of his booked customers not show up in one night. Photo: Jonathan Wong

When something similar happened last month to Anthony Ng of Nikushou, a yakiniku (grilled beef) restaurant in Causeway Bay, he didn’t mince words when he posted about it on Facebook. At the time, restaurants were still under orders by the government to operate at half capacity, a rule that has since been lifted although they still have to maintain the 1.5 metre gap.

Ng says that for two consecutive nights, there was one party of no-shows, at a time when they could only seat about 25. He posted: “I’ve decided to put those people who made reservations at Nikushou but didn’t show up during the pandemic hardship perpetually on our blacklist. Because they are inconsiderate a**holes and only deserve to eat garbage.”