Coronavirus: Restaurant group temporarily closes hotpot chains as Hongkongers grow wary of communal dining experience

LH Group, one of the city’s biggest restaurant chains, said affected employees would be moved to work at other brands during the closure

Multiple other restaurants have pulled hotpot off the menu after a group outing last week saw 11 members of the same family infected

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Popular hotpot chain Mou Mou Club is temporarily going dark while its owners wait out a scare caused by an infection at an unaffiliated restaurant. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 7:00am, 14 Feb 2020Updated: 7:19am, 14 Feb 2020

A Hong Kong-listed restaurant group has suspended business at all 16 of its hotpot restaurants – about 40 per cent of its eateries – as fears about the communal dining experience spread following a family’s infection with the coronavirus at an unaffiliated restaurant last week.

LH Group, one of the city’s biggest restaurant chains, suspended operations at all On-Yasai and Mou Mou Club hotpot restaurants from Thursday to address the growing concern about aerosol transmission during hotpot dining.

“There are about 200 employees being affected. But the impact does not involve dismissal or unemployment. They will work in other brands [under the group],” company chairman Simon Wong Kit-lung said, adding the firm has about 40 restaurants total.

Hotpot’s popularity has taken a sudden dive in Hong Kong after a group of family members contracted the coronavirus after a group outing. Photo: Shutterstock

“Business suspension will of course bring difficulties to operation. But fighting against the epidemic together is obviously more important than business operation,” he said.

Wong added that he and his vice-president would halve their salaries, amounting to a cut of more than HK$100,000 (US$12,900) each month.