Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

For pictures and the full review, click here! Otherwise, read on...

Overall: 7.5/10 (HGW didn't allow a 0.5...)

My parents and I are fond of going to Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant for dinner as it is very close to my place. The extensive menu built around traditional Chinese favourites and a lot of mock meat means you can easily make repeat visits without having to repeat the same dishes. I am not a fan of the antiquated furnishings, but judging by the fact that there's always a healthy crowd in the restaurant, no one else really cares either. The staff is also efficient.

Lotus has an ala carte menu as well as buffet options during the week. I am not a fan of buffets - never had a good one barring perhaps Sunday brunch at the Beaufort. And I’m not sure what all the fuss is about for The Line @ the Shangri-La either... But I’ve sidetracked. Quality > quantity for me, always. Lotus is no exception - I find the quality of its ala carte items far exceed that of its buffet, though I must say the buffet boasted quite a huge variety of food, and my parents enjoyed it.

I'll be doing a review of the ala carte items my parents and I ordered for dinner last week. And thanks to Justin from Lotus, we also got to try two complimentary items from the buffet :)

Ala carte

Curry mutton

The curry mutton was probably the best dish we had and certainly my parents' regular favourite. As non-vegetarians, my parents were very impressed by the rich taste of the curry that recalled the meaty flavour of mutton. The curry sauce was the right level of spiciness as well, especially since I can't take extremely spicy food. The "mutton" was very tender and reminded me of the texture of mutton that has been cooked over a long period of time. Definitely recommended.

Vegetable in special soup with mock ham slices

The highlight of our next favourite dish was the broth, which tasted light, flavourful and healthy. The health benefits and the sweetness of the dish were enhanced by the addition of wolfberries. The stronger flavour of the slightly salty and soft mock ham slices rounded up the dish nicely.

Veg snow fish in soya sauce

We also enjoyed the veg snow fish in soya sauce. The texture reminded me of very soft fish that was pan-fried, with a light soya sauce that was not too salty. The thin, wilted strips of ginger on top of the fish did not add much flavour though.

Braised tofu served in hot plate

If you are craving a meat substitute, this will be very dissatisfactory because the “chicken” was way too soft. But more importantly, the sauce was not flavourful and definitely needed more generous doses of fresh black pepper. My parents gave me free rein to order the dishes and they were actually surprised to find out the dish was supposed to contain black pepper.

Buffet

Laksa and Chicken rice

As mentioned, Justin from the restaurant gave me two complimentary dishes – The laksa was spicy and flavourful. But the chicken rice left much to be desired - I didn't like the slightly sweet beancurd skin that constituted the “chicken meat".

Conclusion: Would certainly make repeat visits to Lotus whenever I get a craving for traditional Chinese food.





For pictures and the full review, click here!

It was our Staff lunch & we decided to go lotus again after a year's break. The food was good as ever. The Shark's fin soup was excellent, not too salty or starchy and just the right flavour. The butter prawns (fritter-styled) is a must try and so are the dim sums which came piping hot. The hor fun & hot plate pepper chicken were quite good while my colleagues who are fond of curry said that the mutton curry was value for money as well. Only the sweet & sour pork was not up to par with the starch taste coming through slightly strongly.

Overall, the food and service was great and the waitress were really attentive though none of us could speak Chinese and their English at best, basic. We will definitely be returning.

“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”

The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.

100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.

Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.

We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.

So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.

The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.

The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!

The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.

The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.

Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.

Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.

The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.

The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358++, from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

Like the buffet on weekends. Yet to try their steamboat buffet on weekdays which my friend & his likes it

Their international buffet is worth to try, wide varieties and portion is just right so as to try each dishes. Must try their Ma La Mian.

Dedicated to HC and BA

First..i hate vegetables...logically i rather spend my money on meat than veg...well, that's me

Second, this place is actually a decent place for vegetarians..nice hotel.

I'll keep it short, this is one of the places you can find almost everything to be in vegetarian form and alot of effort has been spent to make sure vegans enjoy main stream food, i just don't know how to appreciate it.

Buffet is value for money as drinks are also included with S$23 a pax

JWNY

This restaurant is probably famous for its buffet. Price per pax was around $20+. The place is classy. Buffet have a very high standard look. Food were nice and creative. It's a pity I'm not a buffet eater. Thus would consider coming back for its normal meals. Their buffet food left a good impression in me. :)

Reservations are advised as it gets crowded at times (esp dinner).