Food review: West Villa Restaurant in Causeway Bay

West Villa Restaurant
5/F Lee Gardens One, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay Tel: 2882 2100
Open: 11am-11.30pm (Sundays from 10am)
Cuisine: Cantonese
Price: about HK$350 without drinks or the service charge

the restaurant, which moved to this new space about two months ago, is loud and bright. For the most part, service was efficient but somewhat impersonal.

the menu has some old-fashioned Cantonese dishes.

this restaurant chain is known for its honey-glazed barbecue pork (HK$88 for an appetiser portion), and although it had good flavour, the meat was too firm. We ordered pea shoots with crab roe, but the waitress came back to say they were out of pea shoots, and suggested bean curd with crab roe. What we were served had just a minuscule amount of crab roe, and we weren't sure if the price was similar to what we had originally ordered (which was HK$328) so we sent it back. The bo jai fan (clay pot rice) with wind-dried meats was expensive at HK$328. The waitress served it too early in the meal, so the rice didn't have a chance to develop a crust, which is the best part of bo jai fan.

the daily soup with chicken and fish maw (HK$198) had the milky colour and slightly sticky texture from being cooked long and slow. Fish intestines soufflé (HK$128) was excellent - eggy, light and filled with the well-cleaned intestines. A winter dish of black mutton clay pot with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and mushrooms (HK$298) had a rich sauce. Grilled mushrooms with mushroom sauce (HK$148) had a good assortment of fungi - some of which we didn't recognise, and although they were different sizes and shapes, they were all perfectly cooked. Choi sum with ham in broth (HK$98) was delicate.