Why Fook Lam Moon is still Hong Kong's ‘tycoons' canteen’
Cantonese delicacies were made to perfection, and the ‘char siu’ and crispy chicken were delicious
This article was written by Harrison Jacobs for Business Insider
For more than half a century, Hong Kong has been a city where the world’s wealthy come to play, do hundred-million-dollar business deals, and wine and dine.
Perhaps no restaurant in Hong Kong is more synonymous with wealth than Cantonese eatery Fook Lam Moon, which has earned the nickname “the cafeteria for the wealthy” and the “tycoons’ canteen”.
It's the kind of restaurant where real estate magnates, top politicians, and famous actors and actresses from Hong Kong cinema dine on Chinese delicacies such as barbecued suckling pig, abalone and fish maw.
Like The Ivy in Los Angeles, Fook Lam Moon and its clientele attract reporters and paparazzi looking for morsels of news on the city’s elite. Rolls-Royce Phantoms, McLarens, Porsches, and Maseratis pull up to the restaurant's entrance before regular patrons are whisked off to private dining rooms for elaborate dinners of 10 courses or more.
The prices are fit for the clientele as well. A set dinner for 12 people can cost nearly US$4,000. The most expensive banquet ever thrown at the restaurant cost nearly US$130,000 for 120 people. Even more casual dinners between business partners routinely run up a tab of US$60,000 or more, according to the South China Morning Post.
But there’s a reason for the hype. The restaurant’s menu of Cantonese delicacies and comfort food is impeccable. British lifestyle magazine The Glass went so far as to call the restaurant “the gastronomic equivalent to a prized family heirloom”.