The Metropol is to Close

So the Metropol, the huge dim sum restaurant in the United Centre, is to close. Well it's so long since I've been there that I was surprised it was still open. It is decades since I ate there. It was a big impersonal enterprise and the food, in my unqualified opinion, was nothing special.

Still, I had one unforgettable moment there. It was my first large-scale engagement as a public player of the bagpipes.

The band occasionally supplied small groups to do voluntary appearances at district events on weekday afternoons. These were organised by local councillors to amuse their elderly constituents and - as I was often free in the afternoons - I had done several.

But the United Centre do was a serious matter, staged in the evening so we could all turn up, before an audience of hundreds, and attracting a small fee. As far as I remember, the playing part went fine, but I did make one mistake later.

We were to enter the room from a corridor at the opposite end from the stage, where the food came out. We would march through the tables, which consequently had to be done in single file. As the least experienced member I was at the back of the line.

This meant that when we climbed onto the stage I was the last one up and stood on the left-hand end of the row. The plan, which I must admit had been carefully explained in advance, was that as we played our farewell number I would climb down from the stage, turn sharply left, and we would all disappear into the shadows on that side of the stage.

The entrance of the Metropol Restaurant. Photo: Heichinrou.

Unfortunately, in the excitement of the moment I forgot about this arrangement. I stepped down from the stage and set off through the tables, back the way we had come. The band loyally followed and the audience seemed quite happy with this.

As I entered the kitchen corridor, though. I almost collided with a waitress coming the other way. Presented with the wall of Scottish sound, culminating in the spectacle of a large man in a skirt, this woman was terrified; she dropped her tray and fled. Fortunately there was nothing on the tray.

This may seem a rather ungrateful way to mark the demise of an institution which has met the lunchtime needs of generations of office workers, but restaurants are closing all over the place at the moment, amid bitter complaints from the industry that local diners, a flighty and ungrateful lot, are abandoning Hong Kong eateries for cheaper outlets in Shenzhen.

Well, food outlets have always been a hazardous business. The line between success and failure is narrow and easily crossed. One celebrity endorsement or one online complaint can make all the difference.

I note that a legislative member suggested Hong Kong's next rail project could be undertaken at less expense if the builder were allowed to adopt mainland safety standards and wage levels, both of which are lower than local ones.

Perhaps something similar could be attempted in the food business. After all, what are a few food poisonings between friends? What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

Source: Tim Hamlett

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