How buffet restaurants will have to change post-coronavirus in Hong Kong and beyond

One local F&B manager believes that buffets need a holistic overhaul and the days of cheap food and quantity over quality are over

Others are more upbeat about buffets’ prospects, citing Hongkongers’ enthusiasm to get back to them after Covid-19 forced closures

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The buffet at The Market at Hotel Icon in Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 12:15pm, 19 Jun 2020Updated: 12:22pm, 19 Jun 2020

It is one of Hong Kong’s favourite ways to dine, but is there a future for buffets in the city?

In the age of Covid-19, do you still want to bring your family to a crowded restaurant? Or help yourself to food that others have hovered over and touched with the same serving utensils? Has our eye-bulging gluttony been replaced by a smorgasbord of germaphobia and virus scares?

This is the dilemma faced not just by restaurants. The entire cruise ship industry is rethinking its dependence on buffets. Several American hotel groups already announced they are closing their buffets permanently. In Las Vegas, Caesars Palace is spending US$2.4 million to remodel its popular bacchanal buffet. Even the US Food and Drug Administration is recommending all restaurants discontinue salad bars and cease having self-service stations.

A chef at work at Cafe Kool’s buffet at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong earlier this month. Photo: Edmond So

For major hotels in Hong Kong, the format is a staple. Guests expect a full buffet breakfast; weekend brunch is a weekly ritual for many; and dinner buffet is a regular treat for families when they can’t decide what cuisine to go out for.

One such venue is Cafe Kool at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel, where Mark Bannon, the hotel’s executive assistant manager for food and beverage, says that despite tourist numbers being down significantly, local interest hardly waned.

“We closed Cafe Kool for a few weeks during the [early stages of the] outbreak as everyone preferred to stay home and there were very few tourists in town. We still haven’t resumed the full breakfast buffet yet. But since early May, when social restrictions were loosened, the demand at the restaurant has come back even stronger,” he says.