I'm overcome with sadness. After 35 years, our friend's family has made the difficult decision to close down Metropol Restaurant (名都酒樓). While business has recovered from the tough years of 2019 through the Covid pandemic, the family is sitting on unrealized gains on the restaurant space and that math just ain't gonna get better. The restaurant's coming closure before the end of September has been announced, and owners and staff can be proud of the institution that together they have built - hence the use of the term 光榮結業. While I cannot pinpoint the exact date I first dined here, it would probably have been within the first week or two of me arriving in Hong Kong at the end of May 1995. My office was in Pacific Place then, and it was a regular affair to go to lunch at Metropol whenever visitors from other offices arrived in Hong Kong. What I didn't realize until years later is that the restaurant - part of the Heichinrou (聘珍樓) group which started in Yokohama more than 140 years ago - is owned by the family of an alumnus of my high school in Tokyo.
The space is large, able to host banquets of 100 tables with at least 10 diners per table. Lunch here is alwas a boisterous affair, as the place would be buzzing for a few hours - building up gradually from 8 a.m. when their breakfast service begins. For our visitors from outside Hong Kong, it's a real culture shock and quite an experience.
