Chinese restaurants in Australia were once culinary juggernauts bustling with hungry locals and tourists devouring East Asian cuisine like it was going out of fashion.
When the coronavirus outbreak swept across the globe, it did just that.
Restaurant managers at Chinatown precincts across the country said revenue plummeted by up to 90 per cent and some businesses collapsed almost overnight.
Coronavirus panic, coupled with travel bans preventing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese-Australians returning home, has left the surviving businesses struggling to stay afloat.
Restaurant Supervisor May Su stands in the usually crowded award winning Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown on Wednesday
Pictured: An empty level of the usually crowded award winning Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown this week – which has witnessed a 50 per cent drop in clientele in the past week as the coronavirus continues to spread
A restaurant waiter prepares tables during a quiet lunch trade at the popular Jiang Nan Gallery in Sydney on Wednesday
Pedestrians including the woman in this picture centre-right wore face masks in Chinatown as they fought off infection
The Golden Century Seafood Restaurant has attempted to reassure customers and keep them coming through their doors by screening its employees and providing hand sanitiser (pictured on display at the restaurant on Wednesday)
Chef Jacky An prepares a dish for customers at the award winning Golden Century Seafood Restaurant now struggling to keep the trade flowing
At lunchtime in Sydney’s normally busy Chinatown, the award-winning Golden Century Seafood Restaurant was deserted on Wednesday.
Mangers reported a drop in clientele of 50 per cent in the past week alone.
In a bid to keep customers coming through their doors safe, the restaurant is screening all its employees daily, cleaning down surfaces hourly and providing hand sanitiser.
Out on the street, a young woman was pictured alone on a pavement usually bustling with people – her only company a street performer in a clown outfit.
Stall holders were left awaiting customers, while pedestrians wore face masks as they fought off infection.
The spread of the deadly virus is particularly worrying in Sydney and New South Wales as a whole, where 22 of the 57 confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia are located.
A customer service worker at the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown has her temperature tested before working at the popular Sydney eatery on Wednesday
Out on the street, a young woman was pictured alone on a pavement usually bustling with people – her only company a street performer in a clown outfit.
In the normally busy Chinatown, the popular Yum Cha restaurant was on Wednesday completely empty during the lunchtime trade
A woman is seen sitting alone at a restaurant during the lunch trade in the Chinatown district of Sydney on Wednesday
Globally, more than 95,000 people have been infected throughout 84 countries.
In Melbourne, the problem has hit Chinese businesses similarly hard with China Bar restaurant in the eastern suburb of Box Hill among those closing doors because of a lack of custom.
Restaurant owner Jerry Mai pleaded for help reviving the economic fortunes of the industry in an impassioned social media post.
Two people in masks sit among a sparsely populated crowd of people in Chinatown on Wednesday
Stall holders were left awaiting customers on an eerily quiet day in Chinatown on Wednesday
A woman walks along a quiet Dixon Street in Sydney’s Chinatown. One Melbourne restaurant owner has pleaded for help reviving the economic fortunes of the industry in an impassioned social media post
He focused not on the travel ban, but diners in Australia who were choosing to stay away over virus concerns.
‘The industry that I love so much is in need of help – Chinatown and Glen Waverley are ghost towns right now, diners are staying away because of fears of illness,’ he said.
On Monday, Parramatta Phoenix Chinese was placed into voluntary administration after steadily losing customers since the virus began to spread in January.
A waiter at the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant sprays down and wipes a hand railing to help reassure customers
A restaurant supervisor oversees display in the wine cellar of the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant, which has seen its clientele numbers hit hard by the coronavirus
A man sits outside a store while using his mobile phone in the now quiet Chinatown district on Wednesday
The western Sydney yum cha staple is the only restaurant in the Phoenix Restaurant Group to collapse, with locations in Zetland, Rhodes, Sydney CBD and Brisbane still trading.
‘The director has indicated in initial discussions that one of the factors in the fall in turnover of the restaurants is a reaction to the coronavirus,’ voluntary administrator of Parramatta Phoenix Christopher Darin told news.com.au.
Another Asian restaurant, Mister Dee’s Kitchen in Darlinghurst has also gone into liquidation.
Pictured: A quiet street in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Ashfield. Chinese businesses across Sydney are struggling to keep their doors open as sales dwindle amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak
Pedestrians wear face masks in the Chinatown district of Sydney as they walk through the rain on Wednesday
Andrew Spring from insolvency firm Jirsch Sutherland said more businesses were going to suffer at the hands of the virus.
‘No doubt there’s going to be some collateral damage,’ he said. ‘Even if things were to improve immediately, it’s still six weeks of pain businesses have to recover from, so I suspect we will see a lot of businesses that are going to have this as the actual reason (for going under).’
In the days after the coronavirus travel ban was put in place in early February, the owner of Star Capital Seafood in Chatswood on Sydney’s lower north shore told Daily Mail Australia he was closing shop.
Owner Michael Lam said he made the decision following weeks of poor sales as well as the prime minister’s move to ban non-citizens from flying to Australia from China.
Parramatta Phoenix Chinesae restaurant was placed into voluntary administration on Monday after losing clients in reaction to the coronavirus
‘Business has become terrible, usually by 11.30am the place is full and now we are lucky to get four or five people,’ he said.
On December 28, bystanders reportedly refused to give CPR to a Chinese man who had a heart attack and died over fears he had the coronavirus.
The 60-year-old man died from a cardiac arrest outside a Masuya Suisan restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown that night.