COVID-19 outbreak forces famous Hong Kong snake meat restaurant to shut
09 April, 2020
A famous Hong Kong snake meat restaurant, She Wong Yee, will shut its doors this month after a lot more than three decades running a business, as COVID-19 keeps customers away.
Located in the usually bustling Causeway Bay shopping district, the restaurant is best known for its long-simmered snake soup, which includes been praised by the Michelin guide and is listed in its Bib Gourmand category for affordable dining.
Restaurant manager Lo Cheong Hei said business began to drop following the Chinese New Year holidays in late January, as the amount of coronavirus cases crept higher, and more Hong Kong people stopped going out.
"After the Lunar New Year, our business plunged over 70 %," Lo said.
The restaurant was now losing up to HK$200,000 (US$25,800) a month right after paying rent and salaries and purchasing ingredients.
Hong Kong's economy, already facing its first recession in ten years due to the US-China trade war and months of often violent anti-government protests, has been dealt an enormous blow by the coronavirus.
Nearly 1,000 people in Hong Kong have tested positive for COVID-19 and four of them have died.
Many shops, bars and restaurants have been forced to close, at least temporarily, including the Jumbo Floating Restaurant featured in a James Bond movie and indie club Hidden Agenda: This Town Needs.
She Wong Yee customer Dino Wong lamented its imminent closure.
"The meals the restaurant serves is delicious," Wong said. "There will be one less place we are able to eat this delicacy and that is a real pity."
Lo, who spent some time working in the restaurant for twenty years, said he hoped it could open again 1 day.
"Aside from my home, it is the place I am most mounted on," Lo said.
Source:
TAG(s):