When I was still a secondary school student, I usually went to the bus stop in front of this restaurant to take the bus home. Just knowing that it is a veggie restaurant, and I was not particularly interested in the cuisine, I did not pay any attention then. I was surprised to know later that they had such a long history, opening in 1905. Today, we came to Wanchai to try it out.
Even though it was already 1:30pm, the restaurant was packed, but the staff helped to arrange a table for us. Having renovated, it has a neat ambience, with bright lighting, and some Chinese calligraphy decorating the walls.
Starting with the most common, Buddha’s Vegetarian Pot Stewed Delight 佛門齋滷味 ($72 for small), it is an assorted mix of different delicacies, using wheat gluten to make vegetarian char siu, duck kidney, chicken, plus the different flavors of sweet and sour, curry, and oyster sauce gluten. Apart from the sweet and sour gluten, which is quite nice, the rest are only mediocre.
We also order two dishes, including Fried Pipa Bean Curd 琵琶豆腐 ($88) and Braised Monkey’s Head Mushroom with Broccoli 鮮猴頭菇扒西蘭花 ($90). The pipa bean curd is quite nice, with the deep-fried minced bean curd balls soaking up the oyster sauce which is quite nice, and there are also some choi sum on the side for complement.
The monkey’s head mushroom has a good texture, and no wonder many people would use this to replace meat as it has certain similarities in taste. The chef cooked this together with some straw mushroom and broccoli, but the broccoli unfortunately has not been soaked and cleaned well, and we did find a worm which apparently put us off.
To go with the dishes, we have Congee with Sweet Corn and Diced Mushroom 粟米菇粒粥 ($55). The portion is enough for two people, with the congee having a nice cotton texture, with the sweet corn and diced mushroom giving a bit of crunchy bite and fragrance.
Service is decent, but we can at the same time see a neighborhood ambience from the chats and dialogues between the staff and customers. The bill on the day was $329 and while the food is not particularly impressive, it is an anchor and should be cherished as an old HK establishment.
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