Rubin Verebes is the managing editor of Foodie and is very opinionated. Transforming his hobby of eating and drinking into a career, he shares his account of Hong Kong’s F&B scene and the worldwide state of dining in Rubin’s Take, a monthly opinion column.
HKD35 for unlimited still or sparkling water at a fine-dining Causeway Bay restaurant.
HKD45 for one bottle of filtered water at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui.
HKD88 charged for a bottle of sparkling water at a Soho-based Mexican restaurant.
HKD98 found on the receipt after a dinner at a sushi restaurant in Central.
I enjoy dining out in Hong Kong, and even when I have to gulp and shutter my eyes when the bill comes, I equate high prices for my dinners with quality.
Yet, in recent years, diners have become alienated with that feared question, “Would you like still or sparkling?”, without the automatic offer of free water, or required to pay a set fee to enjoy bottled or filtered water. I just want tap water at your restaurant.
In some countries, like England and Wales, restaurants and licensed premises that serve alcohol are required by law to provide free tap water to customers when requested. Hong Kong does not rule this way, and our plastic- and price-conscious selves have not caught up with modern times.
Restaurants are suffering in Hong Kong, and I can understand the want from restaurateurs and business owners to stretch margins further by granting customers the choice or obligation to pay for bottles of water. A customer can buy a 20-pack of European sparkling water for HKD240 online, coming in at HKD20 each, whereas restaurants can sell a bottle for up to HKD100.
I have no problem with restaurants tending solutions to stretch their profits in order to sustain and thrive in Hong Kong. However, the tricky questioning and commonplace mandatory fee-charging for paid water are the issues.
My issue is of choice: a choice to drink the fresh and clean tap water sourced from local and mainland Chinese reservoirs and a choice not to consume a bottled water product sourced across seas that feeds into rising carbon emissions.
Drinking Hong Kong tap water is very safe, according to the government. The city imports up to 80% of its local water demand from Guangdong’s Dongjiang river. The water is tested 160,000 times a year at 20 water-treatment centres in Hong Kong. I don’t believe that our tap water is unsafe to drink and that we must pay for water when dining out.
Claire Pearson is the global growth director for BELU, a sustainable drinks business and social enterprise based in the UK and Hong Kong, an “environment-first brand with a social conscience,” Claire says.
The company is supporting the fight against climate change by providing filtered water systems serving still and sparkling filtered water on tap to restaurants and bars that want to provide enhanced drinking water.
BELU’s purpose in Hong Kong is twofold – “being good for the planet and helping the hospitality industry be more sustainable” – and 100% of BELU’s net profits are given to their social impact partner WaterAid to transform lives in water-poor communities worldwide. To date, they’ve raised over HKD55 million.
“BELU launched in Hong Kong in 2021 after an approach from The Upper House, who were seeking a sustainable water solution for their restaurant, Salisterra, and were attracted by our purpose-led business model,” she states in an interview with Foodie.
By partnering with a range of Hong Kong venues, such as Mandarin Oriental, Mott 32, Bar Leone, Aaharn, Pizza Express, and EAST hotel, BELU provides chilled, still, sparkling, and hot filtered water, with no need to consume water in single-use plastic or glass bottles.
BELU is supporting the fight against climate change through providing filtered systems to restaurants and bars, thereby offering both the venues and diners an option to drink better and reduce carbon emissions. The carbon-filtering technology eliminates taste- and aroma-impairing factors and fine particles.
Every bottle of BELU filtered water served at The Upper House and other Hong Kong restaurants and bars saves more than five kilograms of CO2, removing the need to import glass bottles of water by ship. With every 500 refills of BELU filtered water, one can save as many carbon emissions as a flight from London to Hong Kong.
“Since the launch of BELU at The Upper House, the hotel has saved 90,000 single-use glass bottles from being shipped across the world, minimising their water-service carbon footprint. We hope to inspire more businesses to move away from [importing and selling] single-use bottles from Europe and other places in Hong Kong.”
A choice should be bestowed on the restaurant to provide customers with both tap water and filtered water (BELU rents the filtered water system to the venues, and the venues then choose to charge for the water or provide the service for free).
With prices for BELU water in Hong Kong ranging from free of charge, to HKD8, to HKD30 for free-flow, filtered water might seem like a middle ground between customers wishing to stick to tap water and those seeking more premium experiences when dining out.
Chef-owner Anthony Cheung of newly reopened Casa Cucina & Bar uses BELU; he finds that the environmental aspect and budget-balancing for both restaurant and customer are important in switching from popular European water brands to the water solutions provided by BELU.
“At the old location of Casa [Cucina & Bar], no one ever ordered our bottled water; customers only drank tap water. We hoped that 30 percent of our revenue came from drinks, but it’s realistically only 10 percent.”
“We wanted to make money from beverages on the business side, whilst giving customers the choice to drink better. You would not drink tap water at home, so why would you drink tap water in the restaurant?”
Anthony sets the free-flow charge of BELU filtered water at HKD12. “We charge a similar price to the free-flow of tea served at yum cha. It makes sense to customers. We want [BELU water] to be an easier entrance to a better-quality water.”
After a 30-minute conversation with Claire, I admitted she had won a new fan of BELU’s water project in Hong Kong. The matter of choice is key for dinners, and the mission of restaurateurs in the city may be dictated by those fed up with being forced to pay for water.
Personal budgeting and the climate crisis are key issues that affect Hong Kongers and should be addressed both personally and in our community: how much should we spend on dining experiences and how our money travels to either worsen or better the world we live in.
Filtered water that benefits the planet has a place in the food scene, but spending HKD100 for bottled water without other options at a restaurant or bar? No, thanks, I’ll stick with tap.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author’s and do not represent or reflect the views of Foodie.
