It all started with Janet's email - "Girls do you want to try the dim sum at Lili? They have a promo that's ending soon." Naturally the replies were fast and furious. And within a few days of the email we went to Lili for lunch. The promotion was "All you can eat dim sum" at Lili Cantonese Restaurant at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila for Php 555++.


It was my first time to eat at Lili. I was amazed at the beautiful restaurant. It felt like I was entering a richly appointed house rather than a Chinese restaurant.













private function rooms


We each had different patterned plates by Raynaud limoges "villandry" collection. Definitely not typical for a Chinese restaurant.








This was the menu to choose from. I checked all of them!

Lili dim sum menu

We had to finish everything. As in no left-overs, no take out. It's hard to find good dim sum in Manila. I really hoped it would be good. The roast pork was good but not as good as Choi's.

honey roasted barbecued pork


pork & shrimp dumpling w/ flying fish roe "siu mai"


The "xiao long bao" or soupy meat dumplings were just mediocre. It was a far cry from the ones at Peking Garden.

Shanghai pork dumplings "xiao long bao"

The spareribs were good if not for the huge chunks of fat. There was actually more fat than meat.

spareribs w/ plums

I ordered only 1 basket of squid and still no one ate it. It was quite tough and rubbery.

squid w/ garlic

All the dumplings and buns were good but nothing spectacular.

shrimp dumpling "har gaw"


shrimp stuffed spinach dumpling


chicken & mushroom bun


barbecued pork bun


dim sum galore

The baked barbecued puff pastry were the BEST! The crust was very flaky and the pork filling had just the right sweet & salty flavor. This was even better than the ones I've eaten in Hong Kong. We re-ordered this over and over again. We must have eaten 3-4 pieces each. If you ordered this a la carte, 3 pieces cost P180.

baked barbecued puff pastry

The ham sui kok at H.K. Choi is much better.

glutinous dumpling w/ meat "ham sui kok"


shredded taro & vegetable spring roll


steamed beef rice roll

Where's the sausage in this supposedly Chinese sausage in glutinous roll?

Chinese sausage in glutinous roll


wok fried turnip cake


wintermelon soup


salted chicken wings


vegetables w/ oyster sauce


fried rice w/ diced chicken & salted fish



After all the ++ after the base price of P555 we ended up paying P700 per person. It was definitely not worth the food we ate. If we ordered the same amount of dim sum in another restaurant we would probably pay half the price. Anyway we enjoyed the baked barbecued pork pastry and the company and that's important thing.


Lili