Reviews Veggiezen

My go-to veggie fix!! Does not taste like it at all!
✅ Good food
✅ Good price

I used to really watch what I eat. I was a l strong advocate of healthy living. And I get qualms when I dine in with family and friends. Yes, I could get in the way of their orders. This changed about 3 years ago.

Veggiezen serves everything vegetarian may it be vegetables or veggie meat Chinese style. Though the menu was quite extensive for a no meat, none of what I had impressed me.

The dishes lacked strong flavor. The veggie rice for example was green but tasted plain. The radish cake was ordinary without chili. The dumplings had a fragrant taste but still unappetizing.

No wonder I no longer eat as much healthier options.

I'm giving it a 5 because it's the first time ever I enjoyed eating different varieties of vegetarian meals. I'm a vegetarian and so far, it's the only vegetarian resto I can think of should I be asked to recommend one. I'm not fond of soup-dishes, but I enjoyed it here. ' had 2 soup dishes, both with subtle taste but surprisingly appealing to the palate. A lady recommended to order quekiam and cuapao, and the taste did not disappoint.

Veggiezen is a small Chinese vegetarian restaurant. Decor is simple and clean, and can seat 30pax max. Parking is limited so if you're going there as a big group, I suggest you carpool. J. Abad St. is weirdly one way in where the restaurant is. If you're familiar with Mokshah or Texas Chicken, Veggiezen is nearby.

What I love the most about this place is their unique Pandan Tea (free and bottomless, so what's not to love, right?) Now for the food. We ordered the Oakwood Mushroom (P100), it's coated and deep-fried mushroom with vinegar dipping sauce. It's an appetizer but somehow in the 2 times that I've eaten there, it's always served last.

Fortune Bag (P120) and Quekiam (P90) are 2 of their best sellers. Fortune Bag looks fried, but it's not. It's steamed tofu skin buns stuffed with minced mushrooms, marinated tofu & carrots. It's very very good especially when eaten steaming hot. Marinate is light soy and mirin (I think) so it's a bit sweet to the taste. Quekiam is a deep fried tofu skin log with vegetable stuffings, it's quite good versus other local vegetarian quekiam I've tasted so far.

Raddish cake (P50) and Fresh Lumpia (P70) are common dishes in Chinese restos. For raddish cake, though price may look relatively cheap, it's also because of its super small servings. One order will give you 3 pcs of 1.5" cubes of raddish cake. Unfortunately the small serving is not enough to be remarkable. It's just a plain mushed up raddish made into a cake. It would have been better if they added a few shitake mushrooms for taste.  Fresh Lumpia is also unremarkable. I didn't get that "ding" moment when I ate it. Grandmother's fresh lumpia is still the undefeated champion, I suppose. (of course there's bias! )

Tokwa w/ Okra (P115) is small and tasteless dish. If you want real vegetables, go for their French beans and golden mushroom (P125). It's sauteed vegetables with a hint of vegetarian patis. Yummy! :)

On the carbs side, we had the Garden Pasta (170). It's something like pesto carbonara only tastier. WARNING: All of their rice dishes are very very small. Veggiezen Fried Rice (P85), their signature dish is very good, but again, very small. I suggest for those who love to eat rice to get some steamed rice as well because their claim that it's good for 2-3 persons is not true. It's good for 1 guy or 2 girl appetites. We also got the Spicy Fried Rice (P85), (yes, ganyan kami katakaw sa rice), and it's like dry kimchi rice. Spiciness level is around 2 out of 10.

Overall, price is cheap, but servings are a bit small. It's an ideal place for people who want to switch over to vegan lifestyle or eat healthy for a meal. If you're on a budget and you want to feel full, this is not the place for you. But if you're looking for a healthy and delicious meal, this is it! :)

*Sorry no photos, I've refrained from doing too many food porn. Hahaha! Just try it to believe.

Vegetable-meat products just gave me an impression that it’s nothing more than just being a desultory substitute of meat. Many attempts of tinkering with the meaty flavor may have been done but it does not really capture the meaty taste that a tissue and fat can provide. However, a touch of change happened very recently, there’s one vegetarian restaurant humbly situated at Jose Abad Santos st. Little Baguio San Juan, a part of Manila I rarely visit that changed my impression of the vegetarian food. So, I thought it’s worth the explore. 

The Highlights:

VeggieZen Fried Rice: The best tasting and the best looking fried rice my gustation sensory have ever perceived. The herbs just worked its magic to result such a joyful strong flavor without the unpleasant pungency that gets stuck in your tongue. I mean, it tastes mild as I chew it but as it passes down my throat, my brain recognizes right away the lovely aroma herbs blended perfectly with the rice.

Tibetan Pasta:  Spicy Seafood Marinara? It looks like one and it tastes exactly like one, the only ingredient missing to complete its disguise are the prawn slices..This is a luscious and spicy pasta without giving you the scary calories. The chef did a great job on the organically homemade tomato sauce.

Winter Melon Soup: You could never underestimate the power of snow ear fungus aka. white fungus. It has that gentle, rubber-like texture (literally it crunches into pieces in the mouth) and that mood-changing flavor is just relaxing. This soup is certainly a comfort food.

Oakwood Mushroom: No one left the plate empty after this dish was served Lol. Crispy coated mushroom sided with cane vinegar.Whoah! food love baby! This plate of crunchiness can indulge your cravings for finger-munch food — the guilt-free way :) !

Satay Yuchi: VeggieZen just nailed it! I wouldn't think that satay sauce which is typically paired with grilled meats such as chicken or beef would taste so amazing with mushrooms! I absolutely love this lovely wrap of satay sauce and veggies!

Taiwan Bopis: Looking at the texture you would think its made of finely chopped pork lungs and heart, many vegetarian restaurants use veggie meat to replicate the real meat. But VeggieZen chose to be using non processed ingredients. Vegetable meat may tastes good for some but nothing beats plant-based cooking. The owner of the restaurant disclaims this is a bit salty but honestly it isn’t very salty at all.

Skewers: I have tried skewers from vegetarian restaurants that are using veggie meat and I didn't like it. But this grilled food definitely doesn’t taste meatless for a non-meat skewer, I love it!

Mushroom Teriyaki
: Shiitake mushroom? Teriyaki? What? It tastes as great as it looks. It never tries to taste like real meat and it still taste like a shiitake mushroom with an extra ordinary meaty character!

Monkey Mushrooms Or Yamabushitake: Awesome flavor, appetizing sauce along with the green leafy vegetables and that natural oil embracing the chicken gizzard-like mushrooms. I kow it seems weird, maybe it’s just my taste buds but I think its texture is like a tenderized chicken gizzard.

Panna Cotta: Unfortunately, I don’t master distinguishing many concoctions used for desserts except for dairy of course! I wasn’t able to ask the owner of the restaurant if they use agar agar which is a substitute of gelatin for vegetarians. It does taste more condensed for me so, it must be gelatin free. Nevertheless, this Panna cotta proves “simplicity at its best!” Simple but never boring! The shiny sweet beans on a vanilla cream feels like HEAVEN.

Tokwa With Okra: It smells great and it taste good, not exactly my favorite but I truly love the herbs absorbed by the okra! This wobbly full-flavored tofu is well paired with rice :).

There are 5 more of their delicious vegetarian meals I tried that you might want to try as well :). And by the way, they have such pretty restaurant with warm and soothing colors from their chairs to the dishwares. Also you would enjoy their tamarind juice!

This restaurant opens at 11am until 10pm. They serve appetizers like tokwa noodles, chicharon, Tsai Tsa mien,  bola bola and sibut soups. I really like their spicy fried rice and fresh lumpia. Not too costly:) One of the good thing also about this place is that they have wifi available.