Lily Soup Shop
Tucked in a quiet corner of Leighton Road in Causeway Bay, Lily Soup Shop is an ideal place for lovers of home-made soup, MSG haters and weight watchers.
We started with a dish that all other diners seemed to be ordering, deep fried beancurd ($38). The reason for its popularity was clear - the beancurd was brown and crispy outside, and soft and warm inside. It was delicious dipped in soy sauce.
We ordered three types of soup - papaya, Chinese red date with fish ($28), pak choi and Chinese almond with pig's lungs ($28) and watercress with sun-dried chicken kidney ($58). The pak choi soup was the tastiest, its homey flavour similar to the dish my mother cooks.
The papaya soup was fine, but the flavour of the papaya overwhelmed any traces of fish and Chinese red date. The sun-dried chicken kidney in the watercress soup was too subtle.
We ordered four steamed rice dishes - topped with chicken and mushroom ($32), minced pork and salted fish ($32), minced pork and marinated vegetable ($32) and frog and mushroom ($48). The four of us judged the minced pork and salted fish favourite, the others too plain in comparison.
We also tried two vegetable dishes - stir-fried tong choi ($42) and boiled spinach with garlic ($45), both of which were enjoyable because they weren't oily.
The dessert list is long, covering most local Chinese desserts such as red and green bean soup and sweet potato soup.
We ordered warm soup of winter melon, fungus and sun-dried longan ($20) as well as a soup with coconut and pear ($38). But they sounded more tempting than they tasted, and both were too sweet.
Dining at lunchtime offers savings. For $50, you can have a soup ($28), a steamed rice dish ($32) and boiled vegetables.
Service was fine until it got very busy, when the waiters and waitresses were unable to cope with customers' demands. Shop owner Sister Lai is friendly and helpful. She offered us free dessert, but it only came after we had finished ours. Dinner for four totalled $480 including 10 per cent service charge.
Lily Soup Shop, G/F, 64 Leighton Road,Causeway Bay. Tel: 2882 7300. Open: 11am-midnight. $$
