We can always tell that DH has a pleasant surprise for us when he calls home for us to pick him up for lunch. So off we went downtown in rush hour traffic. Never mind, gas is cheap, eh :rolleyes: !!

Li Jin is on the top floor of the Pavilion where the classy restaurants are. The minute we walked in, my kids sang, “Mom, I think we’d better leave our jewelry at the door. It’s gonna get expensive!” Bwahaha, my kids are sharp!

We were famished so we just picked the first thing we saw in the set menu. Right off the bet, I fell in love with this beautiful appetizer, Pickled Lotus Root, served in a dainty white dish. The colors of the white lotus root, red chilli and orange slices jumped right out at me.

Tastewise, the lotus root slices are crunchy and slightly tangy. I confess I was so busy admiring the natural perforations of the lotus root that I almost forgot to put it into my mouth.

Next came the 2 Roast Meat Combination - char siew, or barbecued pork, and siew yoke, or roast pork with crispy skin. This was lovely but too salty for my tastebuds and to be eaten without rice.

The Yeen Choy Soup with Century Egg and Whitebait was pretty good but again I would’ve preferred it low-sodium. Yeen choy is also known as leaf amaranths, I think.

The thing I liked about the Claypot Fish Slices were the whole onions and garlic that has been braised to a flavorful softness.

When the kids saw “lobster” on the menu, they were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Sweet Sour Lobster.

When it came, My 12-year-old took one look and went, “How old is this lobster, Mom?” I said, “I don’t know, why?” and she went, “It must be an infant, it’s so small!”

Bwahaha, indeed a smaller lobster I’ve not seen! There was hardly enough to go around. Whatever little meat there was clinging pathetically to the shell was pretty tough.

After the lobster-sized anticlimax, we were in for another disappointment in the Deepfried Soft-Shelled Crab. I’m not sure if deepfried is supposed to mean soft but this wasn’t crunchy like I expected.

You wouldn’t believe the sigh of relief from my kids when dessert finally came. This has been the most hilarious meal we’ve had out. We laughed at every dish that came to our table as we prepared to ‘fight’ for each piece .

The servings were so-oo small we felt like the Cratchetts in “A Christmas Carol”, an entire family picking off one tiny turkey drumstick the size of a pigeon drumstick!

The dessert was supposed to have been Tau Foo Fa, or soybean curd but the waiter informed us that the recipe didn’t turn out well and couldn’t be served.

So they brought us the Sago Honeydew Dessert instead in a super large serving! Hopefully this would tie us over till we could go grab a burger downstairs afterwards. Very refreshing, loved the shaved ice!

In spite of everything, I have to say their food presentation is very pleasing to the eye. And we loved the beautiful Tienchi Floral Tea. That’s our glass teapot sitting right there with a candle below to keep it warm.

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