For the full review and more photos, head over to http://toroamtheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/food-review-eight-treasures-vegetarian.html
Last week I had my first vegetarian dining experience, with an 8-course meal to boot! Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant is a family business that sells purely vegetarian food, and they've been running for 9 years now at a three-storey shophouse in Chinatown.
3rd storey of the shophouse
As part of the OpenRice tasting, we were treated to their Chinese New Year 8-course set menu for 8-10pax, which cost $368+.
Sharks' Fin with White Fungus and Wolfberries: First up was this soup, which was a good take on the actual sharks' fin soup, and much much more eco-friendly! The sharks' fin is the white strands in the above picture, and is made of konnyaku jelly, which withstands heat better than agar. The white fungus has a QQ texture and there were enoki mushrooms inside.
Fruit Salad Veg. Chicken: The chicken is made of potato while the skin is actually beancurd skin. To cater to the vegans, the mayonnaise is made without using eggs.
Thai Style Veg. Cod Fish: The fish is served looking like a cod fish. It is made of wheat and soybean, and the texture is made to feel like you're chewing on fish meat! The Thai sauce is also made in house, and it was just nice to give you a little kick of the spiciness.
Veg. Abalone Mushroom and Tou Pau with Seasonal Greens: The presentation was quite nice, with the broccoli at the outer rim and abalone slices layering on top of the mushrooms. Once again the abalone is made of konnyaku, and the mushrooms were really juicy and had that earthiness taste.
Cereal Veg. Prawn: This is my favourite dish out of the many good ones! The prawns are also made of konnyaku, and the texture was ON POINT! If I was blindfolded and unaware that this is vegetarian, I'd have thought I was eating the real prawns. The batter wasn't too greasy, but I'd have preferred it a bit thinner.
Fragrant Yam Ring: It was a good dish overall. There were mock chicken meat in it and it was very tasty too!
Braised Yee Fu Noodles: A common dish served at wedding dinners, I like this dish because it was delicious, with the noodles having the wok hei and stir-fried with lots of veggies!
Honey Sauce Veg. Pork: Zenna, the boss's daughter who was hosting us, very generously let us try this signature dish even though it's not part of the CNY set menu. Firstly, the appearance of the dish can already win you over. It looks just like the actual pork belly, and you can see the distinct layers! Secondly, the taste was equally good too! The konnyaku jelly used to make the 'meat' was soft, yet retaining some bite to mimick the actual pork meat. Highly recommended!
Rainbow Yu Sheng Veg.: This was supposed to be the first dish but we decided to leave it till the end. This was pretty much the same as the normal ones you can find out there, just that the 'salmon' is also made of konnyaku jelly! It looks just like salmon sashimi (though it's cut more rectangularly) and tastes as slimy and chewy too! Now you don't have to worry about whether the fish is fit for consumption, given the recent spate of freshwater fish incidents.
Fruity Mango Pudding: I thought this mango pudding was a bit sweet. Other than that it's an appropriate dessert - something light and refreshing after so many dishes. (:
Overall, Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant is the place to try tasty vegetarian dishes that will impress even the non-vegetarians! It changed my impression of vegetarian food. They use a lot of soy beans, konnyaku jelly in their food which are healthier too, and don't use egg, onions or garlic. For those of you who are interested to visit them during the upcoming CNY period, they are open every day and reservations are strongly encouraged!
Thank you Zenna for being a wonderful and friendly host and OpenRice for the tasting!
Supplementary Information:
Good place to go for vegetarian food, for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
Recommended Dish(es):
Cereal Veg. Prawn,Honey Sauce Veg. Pork,Braised Yee Fu Noodles
Table Wait Time: 0 minute(s)
Date of Visit: Jan 06, 2016
Celebration: 團年飯
Spending per head: Approximately $38
Dining Offers: 試食活動
Other Ratings:Taste
4 |
Environment
4 |
Service
4 |
Clean
4 |
Price
4Recommend