Preserving tradition in lean times

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-19 16:40

 

Zhao Liping, a director of the Guangzhou Restaurant, said prices for family reunion dinners in his restaurant would go down by between 10 to 20 percent, despite the increasing cost of ingredients like meat and vegetables.

Many restaurants that used to prepare generous amounts of shark's fin, abalone, fish maw and other expensive seafood for the festivities in the past are now busy stocking ingredients for more modest, home-styled servings, Zhao said.

Ou Jinwei, the assistant general manager of Qiaomei Restaurant in Guangzhou, said her eatery requires a minimum spending of 880 yuan for a VIP room on the eve of the coming Lunar New Year, comparing with at least 1,000 yuan for last year.

Similarly, the Guangzhou catering industry association has forecast that many restaurants in Guangzhou, Guangdong province will attain an occupancy rate of 80 to 90 percent on the eve, compared with a 100 percent rate last year.

In Shenzhen, many restaurants said they were not fully booked for the occasion, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

Total turnover of the catering sector in Shenzhen this year is expected to drop by 30 percent from a year before, Chen Shaohua, secretary general of the Shenzhen Catering &Service Industries Association, was quoted as saying.

Restaurant bookings in Beijing for dinners priced at 400 yuan to 500 yuan per person have also dropped by more than 30 percent, Zhang from the China Hotel Association said. Dinners at prices ranging from 80 yuan to 150 yuan per person are the most popular, he said.

Established brand restaurants such as the Jinyuan branch of Donglaishun, a 105-year old Muslim restaurant known for its mutton hot pot, said it still has room for parties on the eve of the new year.

South Beauty, a homegrown restaurant chain targeted at well-heeled consumers, said on the website that it would provide gifts to patrons making advanced bookings as part of efforts to boost sales. The price of its dinner for 10 persons ranges from 1,880 yuan to 3,580 yuan.

Bian Yi Fang, one of Beijing's oldest Peking roast duck restaurants, has 90 percent of its private rooms reserved for the eve of Spring Festival in all of its seven branches in the capital, two weeks before the festival. According to Luo Wei, Bian Yi Fang Group's media coordinator, the situation would have been better if not for the recession.

"In previous years, our private rooms would have already been completely booked out by now," Luo said.

Quan Ju De, one of the country's largest Peking roast duck groups, has also seen 60 to 90 percent of its private rooms booked for the eve of Spring Festival at its various branches, the company said in a statement to China Daily last week.

But restaurants in Shanghai seem to be bucking the trend.

Shanghai resident Sun Junhua said she has tried several restaurants near her house in Gubei in early December and was told that all the tables had been booked.

"The Shaoxing Restaurant told me that all the tables had been booked even for the five days after Spring Festival," Sun said.

At the end of December, Sun finally landed a restaurant further away from her house.

In Lubolang restaurant at Yuyuan Garden, which offers authentic Shanghai cuisines, all the tables had been booked three months ago, staff said.

The Xiao Nan Guo on Hongmei Road, too, has no vacant private rooms, with only tables opened in its public dining hall after 7:30 pm for the second round of diners for reunion dinners, its reservations department said.

"While people may not eat out at other times, they make it a point to do so for the reunion dinner," said Qian Yibin, executive chef at the Gutai Restaurant on Yanping Road.

"Our tables have long been booked. I never worry about business," Qian said. "Many people believe that they should give themselves a good treat at year end."

 

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