The Quarterdeck Club

I’d been meaning for ages to try out The Quarterdeck Club at Fenwick Pier, Wanchai, and yesterday Mrs smog and I had a very enjoyable dinner there.

Free tap water

The only sour note at the Eugene Pao gig this evening was that Grappa’s has joined the “I’m sorry we won’t serve you local tap water, you’ll have to pay an extortionate price for some other country’s tap water shipped around the world in bottles” club. This irritates me immensely – surely it is a basic sign of a civilised society that tap water should be available free of charge in restaurants – and I’m reasonably sure that water was freely available previously at Grappa’s so this is a retrograde move. This evening we spent nearly $1300 in Grappa’s and yet I’m left with a bad feeling about the place for the sake of $50 – surely that can’t be good business sense?

I’ve previously written to the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department complaining that if HK wants to be seen as a civilised place and a world-leading city then they really should make it a requirement for all licensed premises to make tap water freely available (as it is, for example, in most parts of the UK). Of course I got a simple “thanks for your input” response, but no expectation of any action.

So I propose two things:
1) I’m going to maintain a “name & shame” list here of all the restaurants I come across which refuse to serve tap water. Please let me know in comments and I’ll add them to the Hall of Shame.
2) I’d like people’s input on running a formal petition to the HK Government on this issue to see if we can get some action. I don’t hold out much hope in this town run by business lobbies, but if we don’t try we’ll certainly not get any progress. What say you all?

The Hall of Shame
Don’t go there if you want a civilised experience

Grappa’s Cellars (Jardine House, Central)
Olé Spanish Restaurant (Ice House St, Central)
Izote Mexican Restaurant (LKF)
Sevva (Prince’s Building – as noted in Time Out)
Phuket’s Thai (Elgin Street)
Red (IFC as noted by China Droll)
Heaven on Earth (D’Aguilar St, ditto)
L16 (the Peak branch for sure; probably the HK Park one also)
Pawn (Johnston Road, as noted by Donna)
WasabiSabi (Times Square, part of the Aqua group so I guess they are all the same)
The Orange Tree (by the mid-levels escalator above Caine Road)

Eugene Pao & friends – Classic Rock

Just back from an excellent gig at Grappa’s Cellars where Eugene Pao & some friends performed an excellent classic rock gig this evening.