Lilydale Palace

Gaz found a voucher in the local papers one day, a buy one main get another free discount voucher for Lilydale Palace restaurant and suggested we gave the restaurant a try. We were quite apprehensive about going to the restaurant since there were some mixed reviews on the net. Some reviews were quite complimentary about the delivery service, and there were some downright negative about rude service, bland food and long wait.

I was quite excited on finding another local Chinese restaurant nearby our hood so we made our way there for dinner. There is actually another Chinese restaurant right next door, also serving Hong Kong style cuisine, and there were about three or four tableful of customers dining there. I got a little side tracked peering into the restaurant but eventually we went to Lilydale Palace. It looked like an old timer in the place, and possess a certain familiarity. The decor, music, ambience is what you will expect of an old fashioned Chinese joint which may not be big in aesthetics but great on food.

We ordered the deep fried salt and pepper calamari, and steamed duck with mushrooms and seasonal veges. The duck came piled with veges and mushrooms covered with brown sauce. The duck was meaty and not too fatty. The veges were fresh and was great with the sauce and rice.

The batter on the calamari had little burnt patches here and there, but overall the dish was tasty. It just became a little greasy on the palate towards the end but that is expected when we had to finish the whole dish between the two of us.

I had expected a long wait for the food because of the feedback from the reviews, but was pleasantly surprised when our dishes arrived at the table less about fifteen minutes after our order. Overall the food tasted quite good although the prices are slightly higher than other HK restaurants closer to our place.