A shrine to classic vegetarian treats

If vegetarian Chinese cuisine brings to mind images of wobbly tofu and overcooked broccoli you could be forgiven for bolting past the strangely named Healthy Mess vegetarian restaurant in Wan Chai, and going straight to the nearest burger bar.

I, too, used to belong to that group of vegephobics who never finished her greens. As times change, though, I have converted to a Virtual Veggie, save for the occasional lapse - usually for liver and bacon.

Healthy Mess has been going for eons, and has strong Buddhist support, both in its philosophy and clientele. On the walls hang calligraphy scrolls, and at the back are a small altar and various votive offerings around a statue of Kuan Yin. (The inverted swastikas that make up the main wall motifs are not anti-Semitic symbols, but an ancient Buddhist emblem often seen in temples.) The Chinese name of Healthy Mess translates as 'healthy vegetarian food'.

At the entrance to this small Hennessy Road eatery is an extensive selection of take-out dim sum and Chinese sweets. People queue up on the pavement by the serving hatch for lunch boxes of 'sweet and sour' tofu, juicy meatless siu mai and superbly crafted fruit-shaped pastries.

Small peaches and gourds, coloured in day-glo green and orange, are stacked next to delicious glutinous rice sweets filled with red beans, finely ground peanuts and waxy melon paste.

The decor is distinctly no-frills, as is the sturdy - often chipped - white crockery. But who needs frills when all around are friendly staff rushing about with steaming dishes of what look like classic Cantonese cuisine? Healthy Mess excels in disguising bean curd so that it looks and tastes realistically like meat; this is a forte of Chinese Buddhist restaurants.