Feast or Famine

Why I am thankful for Hong Kong restaurants during the pandemic, and how they’re helping to soothe my itchy feet

With travel still severely restricted, more people in Hong Kong are discovering or rediscovering how amazing restaurants in the city can be

Unlike other places where strict lockdowns mean restaurants are still a no-go zone, we have been able to eat out – and we have plenty of cuisines to choose from

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A restaurant packed full of people having lunch in Pacific Place in Admiralty. From tasty Thai dishes to fancy French fine dining, at least we have plenty of great restaurants to choose from during the pandemic – even if we can’t travel freely just yet. Photo: May Tse

Susan Jung trained as a pastry chef and worked in hotels, restaurants and bakeries in San Francisco, New York and Hong Kong before joining the Post.

Published: 12:15pm, 2 Jul 2020Updated: 6:48pm, 2 Jul 2020

I was asked by a food writer friend in the Philippines to give him a quote for an article he was writing. He wanted to know if I could think of anything positive that’s come out of the coronavirus lockdown.

It’s hard to say something positive about a virus that has killed so many people, put so many out of work, closed so many businesses and plunged so many economies into free-fall.

Still, ever the optimist, I was able to think of one small thing that I realise won’t matter to everyone: that people in Hong Kong have found a new appreciation for the city’s restaurants. Because we can’t travel, we eat at restaurants closer to home.

Since the start of the year, I’ve cancelled long-planned trips to Malaysia, Japan, Brussels and France – and that’s not including any of the more spontaneous trips I probably would have taken. We can’t even go to Macau right now – normally an hour’s ferry ride away – without undergoing a two-week quarantine when we get there, and another quarantine when we return.

An aerial view of Hong Kong’s Central and Western district. With travel restrictions still in place, more people are discovering or rediscovering how amazing restaurants in the city can be. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

In more normal times, many of us in Hong Kong travel a lot – it’s the easiest thing in the world to hop on a plane and be, a few hours later, in another country. During any long weekend, you could count on business areas being far less busy thanks to people leaving the city on short breaks.