CHECK THIS OUT: Vegetarian Chinese at VeggieZen

Just last week after teaching my evening Zumba Class at Beyond Greenhills, I was dragged to dinner by one of my favorite girls, Nadia. We haven’t spent time with each other in so long that she promised to take me to a vegetarian restaurant to make sure I won’t say no. She lived close by so it wasn’t hard for her to find a quiet place for us to catch up. And so we, together with Nic, tried VeggieZen for the first time.

The place, which first opened in March 2014, served Chinese and Taiwanese food dishes all of which were suitable for vegetarians. The store had a shelf with a few vegetarian food products–something, I noticed, most small Chinese restaurants had. The place was brightly lit, with wooden tables and chairs. The atmosphere, quiet–except maybe when Nadia and I started talking and laughing. There were three groups who came, ate and left immediately during our stay. Not crowded at all and a good choice for family lunches. Food prices are very affordable and the menu had a lot of options too.

We went mostly with what our server recommended:

THE VERDICT

The food was OKAY especially if you compare it to Spring by Ha Yuan. I specifically liked the Fortune Bag. The Zen Rice, frankly, tasted a bit odd to me. But given the affordability of the items on the menu, I’d still give the place three and a half stars. Half point for being purely vegetarian. But please note that as I write this, the restaurant is still on its Soft Opening phase. There will probably be a lot of improvement once they hit their grand opening so go give them a try.

VeggieZen is located at 713 J.A. Santos Street, Little Baguio, San Juan

Check out their Facebook fanpage for more information.