Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

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).