And the film…?

The film was interesting, melodramatic and a mish-mash of styles. That said, I enjoyed it. Takeshi was beautiful. The storyline was interesting - half of it felt like a homage to 1940s Hollywood ’show within a show’ musical while the other half was like a Wong Kar Wai film without the cheeky humour. Half the movie is shown in flashback when the the waif-like lovers are living in poverty in Beijing. The other half is set in the present day where the lovers are now both big stars reunited on the set of a film directed by the woman’s now lover. She refuses to recognise her old flame; he’s determined to win back her love etc. etc. The films two halves have very different looks , apparently because they were shot by two very different DOPs. The director did a Q and A afterwards, and he said that he wanted to make a musical where the storyline is believable. Valiant effort, didn’t entirely pull it off.

Purple Lotus definitely deserves that Super-V rating. I’ve been dining there since it first opened its door for business in 2004. Superb yumcha if you haven’t been able to make it. The food is vegan friendly in line with Buddhist philosophy. The spinach and lycii berries congee and the black sesame glutinous rice ball (pudding) are sensational!

My partner Andrew and I ate at Purple Lotus recently one Sunday afternoon, and were well impressed with both the quality of the food and the number of different choices available. We’d definitely recommend it!

i just had yum cha here yesterday and was absolutely blown away! i would rate this extremely highly - it could even be my best yum cha experience ever. the dishes taste even better than the meat versions they’re modelled off. i’m going back for sure!

I am really keen to try the yum cha because everyone raves about it. Was tempted to give Purple Lotus a Super V, but held back because I’ve only been there once. Will definitely going to give the yum cha a try now.

[…] First, Purple Lotus is moving into the coveted Super V category. The upgrade comes because we tried their yum cha, which was great, and because of their lovely staff and reliable normal menu. Also, I consistently get good, unprompted feedback from other readers about Purple Lotus. […]

K… I keep forgetting to tell you that since our first visit I’ve become a bit of a groupie.. I did the Yum Cha again and I still haven’t made it though all of the options..we’ll have to go again..

i was devastated when purple lotus turned into a regular yum cha. devastated. why!?!? why?!?!? why?!?!?

There is no sense in this madness, although Kathryn told me your theory about a lot of restaurants being under the pump in Sydney due to food prices rising with the drought. I miss the taro cakes and the little plates with fruit at the end.

I was gutted when I discovered the Purple Lotus had shut down, there are few enough vegan-friendly places that we can get to as it is. My husband and I had our wedding reception there in 2005; the service was excellent, the staff happily added to the festive occasion and as we had several drinkers in our party they allowed us corkage on wine and champagne.

If anyone knows whether they’re planning to relocate, or have seen them elsewhere in town, please post here, I’d love to find them again. The yum cha was second to none.