At lunchtime on any weekday, a steady stream of Quarry Bay office workers thread their way past construction sites towards Taikoo Shing. There are several restaurants in the area, most serving decent food at fair prices. Amid the grey walls of Taikoo Shing, the bright, mustard-yellow exterior of Vegetarian Kitchen stands out. Although it is a vegetarian restaurant, meat eaters will find the food is varied and hearty. The Chinese menu is extensive, with many seasonal specialities. The English menu lists only 33 items, with few fresh vegetables and one-third of the menu devoted to rice, noodles and congee. If you do not read Chinese, go with someone who does or you will miss out on a lot. A large selection of dim sum is available all day - steamed, pan-fried or deep-fried dumplings, fried spring rolls and braised gluten in various forms. We chose several dishes which were heated to order. The dumplings were a bit stodgy - overcooked vegetables bound together by too much cornstarch, with thick wrappings. The spring rolls were slightly greasy, with a sweet, rather heavy, taro-based filling. A cold plate of assorted bean curd and gluten was delicious and showed the versatility of these two Chinese vegetarian staples. Both are bland, which allows them to absorb the flavours of the sauces they are cooked in. One pressed bean curd dish resembled roast pork (char siu ), while gluten in curry and sweet-and-sour sauces was rich and flavourful. The favourite dish for our party of five was 'sweetcorn-fried eggplant', so named because the eggplant was shaped to resemble an ear of corn. It had been dipped in batter and scored like corn kernels before being deep-fried. Trimmed stalks of mustard green were put at the base of the 'cobs' as the stem and it was wonderful for $48. A complete contrast to this was steamed eggplant. The vegetable had been peeled, sliced thin, then steamed with light soy sauce. It was subtle and delicate, and very tender. As with a lot of Chinese vegetarian food, many dishes are meant to resemble meat and do so with varying success. When our platter of mock chicken ($78) came, we could not believe it was made from mashed yellow beans. The surface was scored to resemble skin, and it even had a tail. The texture was astonishing: dense yet tender, it had the toothsome bite of real chicken, with a smoky, ham-like flavour. It came with a dipping sauce of minced ginger and scallions in oil. Stir-fried Sichuan lotus pieces for $40 were crisp, sweet and spicy. The one dish that was disliked was stir-fried and baked vegetables with coconut in a curry sauce ($50). It contained many vegetables - broccoli, potatoes, choi sum and mushrooms, but the sauce was heavy and the curry flavour bland. Dessert is free and we chose warm, tender bean curd (dau fu fah ) and red-bean soup, neither too thick nor too sweet. One useful tip. On the first Saturday of every month, anyone over 65 may bring in a group of friends and the whole table will be charged half-price. A meal for five cost $400. Vegetarian Kitchen Shop 514-5, G/F Hing On Mansion, Taikoo Shing, Tel: 2569-0086
