Requiem for American Restaurant

Every now and then, we lose a mainstay of Hong Kong life, and the city's inhabitants shed a communal tear before moving on. Back in 2014, my local pub, The Chapel, shut its doors for the final time, facing an impossible rent increase from a greedy landlord. In 2016, South China Morning Post ceased publication of its iconic weekly periodical, HK Magazine, a purported victim of the internet age and modern times. Alas, 2018 has decided to continue the "even year curse," for this morning, I learned some very sad news: American Restaurant, one of my top Hong Kong eateries—and a true classic—is suffering the same fate.

My twenty-sixth birthday party in 2012

What's worse, we won't even get a chance to say a proper goodbye, one grand last meal to toast all the good times. You see, the restaurant closed months ago for what we were told were mere renovations. I couldn't wait for it to open again, but unfortunately, I was clinging to a false hope. For whatever reason—the official explanation has not yet been given—the Wan Chai favorite is not re-opening. After sixty-eight years of hosting locals, expats and tourists alike, American Restaurant is no more.

It was a regular crowd pleaser when my out-of-town guests came to visit, and I always found the place to insert it on their itineraries. In fact, just last night I was working on plans for my next globetrotter, Maddie, who's planning a zippy trip at the start of August. And Friday night dinner was meant to be one of those grand group affairs on Lockhart Road.

There was no better way to start a Saturday night.

I've been frequenting this place since pretty much the start of my Hong Kong adventures. I read about it in my Frommer's guide during those early days and took the opportunity to visit right away. Its review was all the incentive I needed:

"Despite its name, the American Restaurant has served hearty Pekingese food since it opened right after World War II. Little changed over the decades and often filled with noisy, celebratory patrons, it has an English menu listing almost 200 dishes but the perennial favorites have always been barbecued Peking duck, beggar's chicken, sizzling prawns and the sizzling beef hot plate..." 

The story goes that the confusing moniker was a 1950s marketing ploy to lure Yankee sailors whose ships were often anchored in Victoria Harbour, so they'd feel welcome entering the place during their port calls. I guess it worked, and in time, the restaurant's reputation grew so sterling that hardly a Hong Kong guide book was printed that didn't recommend it. Over the next nearly nine years since my first dinner, it was never long between meals. And the memories are seemingly endless.

Sizzling prawns and mutton with my dad and sister

My mother and I enjoyed a dinner there in 2010, while my dad and sister got to visit a few days after my thirtieth birthday. And, appropriately, when my friend Samantha and her navy friends had a port call in Hong Kong in 2011, this was the natural spot for a farewell feast just before they had to return to their ship.

With Sam and her Navy friends in 2011

In 2012, I met Sarah—who would become one of my best pals—for the first time at a Friday night dinner convened by our mutual friend Ally, whom Sarah was visiting from England. When Rusty and Britney came here in 2013, their time in town coincided with the weekend trip of a quartet of Villanova freshman studying abroad in Singapore. Of course, I took the opportunity to unite Wildcats across generations, mixed with a healthy dose of my Hong Kong friends. That meal, as usual, was pure magic.

Dinner at American Restaurant was always a hoot!

And I still remember Jen heroically cracking open the beggar's chicken when she and Shea came to Hong Kong in 2015, kicking off a Wednesday evening in Wan Chai that naturally delineated into a major night on the town.

Cracking open the beggar's chicken like a pro!

I coordinated a veritable smorgasbord there when Joe came to visit in January 2016, and I was back again when Ryan, Mary, Pat and Kevin were in town a couple of months later. And whenever an old timer returned to Hong Kong after having moved somewhere else in the world, this was usually the venue for the reunion. It was just so loved by, well, by everyone. 

How the sizzling platter usually ended each meal: empty

In fact, it's the only restaurant that's hosted more than one of my Hong Kong birthday parties, as I organized both my 2012 and 2014 gatherings on the cacophonous second floor. It was also the venue for the celebration of both the second and third anniversaries of my arrival in Hong Kong, the latter on the more hushed ground floor—but a repast to remember nonetheless.

My twenty-eighth birthday dinner in 2014

The menu was indeed colossal, but after a visit or three, you figured out your favorites. And as it turned out, Frommer was right all along. Peking duck was the stalwart, and no meal was complete without the delicious, slightly oily fowl wrapped in light pancakes with plum sauce, scallion and cucumber.

Peking duck!

The chili prawns were truly the stuff of legend, poured by the waiter onto a scorching pewter platter with a deafening, spicy sizzle, often inducing coughs among the diners huddled round those enormous tables. Its less peppery cousin, the sizzling beef—another favorite—was equally photogenic.

The cough-inducing cloud of chili from the sizzling prawns

And then there was the beggar's chicken, always the most dramatic of main courses, which needed to be pre-ordered at least a day in advance. It was cooked overnight in clay, so the guest of honor had to wield a cumbersome mallet, smashing the round bundle to reveal the delicious contents ensconced within.

Another beggar's chicken

Rare for a Chinese restaurant, even dessert here was unforgettable, assuming, of course, that you exercised some level of restraint while ordering your mains and had enough room left for it: candied apple and banana dumplings, piping hot to start but briefly dunked by your waiter in ice water before serving, so that the outer shell was cool but the fruit inside still warm and gooey.

Candied apple and banana dumplings

Yes, this place will be sorely missed, and I'll go to sleep tonight hoping I awake in the morning to discover the past day was just a horrible nightmare. And perhaps in my dreams, I'll once again be feasting with all my family and friends on some of the most delectable food I've ever had the good fortune to enjoy.

Thanks for the memories, American Restaurant!