• 4
• green veggie - wanchai

i came here with the hk meatfree meetup group before and remember the food as being flavourful without being too salty. dining alone this time, i ordered a claypot set (hkd98), which came with two small starters (kimchi and a choice of one of three - i tried 海帶素玉絲, kelp and bamboo shoot and something else, which was nice), soup, a claypot dish and buckwheat tea. almond dessert was on the house. i chose the claypot dish that the wait staff said was most popular - "rice steamed mountain mushroom with cloud ears and lily buds in stone pot" 金針雲耳蒸猴頭菇煲仔飯. it comprised cloud ear fungus, monkey head mushroom, red dates, orange-day lily??? and a few stalks of choy sum. it was delicious, with mushrooms likely to fool meat-eaters, but because of the generous, almost overflowing, helpings, i found it hard to thoroughly mix the ingredients with the rice and soy sauce, as what one normally does with claypot dishes, which made the rice at the bottom pretty dry and flavourless towards the end. i'd also have preferred that the 飯焦 or burnt rice stuck to the pot had been slightly more "burnt". finishing the entire claypot set proved a struggle for me and on my next visit i will probably order less or come with companions so that we can share dishes. staff were extremely friendly and attentive, clearing dishes and refilling tea, and checking with the chef if they were unsure of any question posed. while i was there, an english-speaking girl, probably a tourist, came in. she wasn't feeling well and just wanted a bowl of hot soup, and as a vegan not used to chinese-style veggie restaurants seemed rather distressed with the meat/seafood sounding names on the menu. i chipped in and reassured her several times that this was a vegetarian restaurant, and staff went out of their way to check if the dishes she had in mind could be prepared without egg or dairy. later on i overheard her ordering another bowl of the same tofu soup, and what impressed me was hearing the counter staff confirming with kitchen staff that this should be egg free as well. with hkd8 tea charge and 10% service charge, my dinner came to hkd117; not the cheapest, but it was a very pleasant, relaxing experience.