Water Lily

Water Lily is not the sort of place you could stumble across by chance. It sits above a parade of takeaways on Chorlton’s Wilbraham Road. From the street, you can’t tell if it’s packed to the rafters or dead as a doornail which puts off passing trade. Fortunately, Water Lily doesn’t rely on walk-ins. Those in the know book ahead for vibrant and colourful Hong Kong cooking.

The interior is suburban-opulent with water features and swinging lanterns and there is a surprisingly good cocktail list that’s more fancy-city-centre-Chinese than local restaurant.

Dishes are colourful but stay on the right side of lurid and flavours are big and bold. There’s a good mix of Chinese favourites like crispy aromatic duck and sizzling Cantonese-style fillet steak as well as offerings with more personality.

The aubergine pockets stuffed with prawns in a traditional Sichuan Yu Xiang sauce are a Water Lily speciality and the satay fatty beef roll with glass noodle clay pot is a lot more appetising than it sounds.

Confidential Guides is a sucker for the crispy shredded chicken in honey soy sauce and the salt and pepper everything are all strangely addictive.

Water Lily is a definite cut above most neighbourhood Chinese restaurants. Don’t be put off by its lofty location – its standards are high too.