PB Eats… Vegan Hong Kong 

So Hong Kong’s vegan and veggie scene is booming.. and yes, Hong Kong is a meat eaters paradise and will always be, but the past few days were nothing short of heavenly for me. I am so impressed with all the options! 

Breakfasts were in the hotel – and by that I mean in my room. I had brought two avocados with me from London.  With some fresh bakery bread and a bottle of Tabasco, avo sandwiches were the perfect breakfast.  

So I tried a number of places, and there are so many more I want to try when I come back. So in no particular order..

Loving Hut, Wan Chai

Ok. I lied. No particular order after this one – Loving Hut was my favourite. 5 minutes walk from Exit A3 at Wan Chai MTR and you’re there. 

There is a VAST menu, but I was drawn to the set meals for $58 that include 3 veggie dishes, rice and a drink. 

The first time I went for pumpkin with black bean (so frigging delicious), radish with veggies (cooked radish is a revelation!) and marinated vegan shank (really really tasty). I also went for a cold malt tea.  They also have hot lemon water that you can help yourself to. 

I think the vegan shank was made of seitan, which made it really chewy – not bad at all to be honest, it was full of flavour! 

The next day I went back (and yes, I will go back quite a few more times), and went for the tofu with pickled veggies (delicious), vegan ‘steak’ (still undecided) and braised cabbage (yum). They also have this killer chilli sauce that hit the spot.  This time I went for the hot malt tea, which I preferred over the cold. 

Both meals were so tasty – very filling and nourishing, and for that price, you can’t go wrong. 

I also got a takeaway for one evening – noodles with veggies and ‘soya slices’. Mock meat – this time I didn’t like them, but the rest of the dish was tasty.  

Now. HK is known for their egg tarts and the last time I was here I was literally living on them. Flaky pastry, custardy filling, and when they are freshly baked, oh my. Addictive for sure. 

Loving Hut do a vegan version that is extremely popular. So I ordered a portion to take away one day. I’m always sceptical of veganising these things but I was very pleasantly surprised. How they did I don’t know and I don’t want to. Crumbly pastry, creamy filling, really nice mouthfeel. Success! 

My other dessert from there was Laughing Cow ice cream (nothing to do with the website). There were a whole load of flavours but if there is a dessert with sesame, especially black, it’s mine. The ice cream was rock hard and took a while to defrost. But once it thawed – super success. Creamy, distinct flavours of both white and black seeds without any hint of bitterness… wowza. 

So Loving Hut is excellent, and I look forward to returning! 

Happy Veggies 

This restaurant is slap bang in the middle of Nathan Road, in a building devoted to restaurants. 

They don’t speak much English, but thankfully the menu is in English. I absolutely loved this page… super handy, and helpful for both customers and staff 

You have an option of the tea you can have – I chose Pu’er. I wanted something relatively light so went for the braised/cooked lettuce (my love for which is almost the same as avocados) with ginger. Slightly flavourless to be honest – I had to pimp it up with salt. They do make it clear though that they use less salt; so I can’t really blame them. I also ordered dumplings stuffed with carrot, cabbage and mushrooms. They came with a vinegar did. Slightly chewy, bursting to the brim with lots of veggies, and a proper HOT chilli sauce. The combination of dumping, vinegar and chilli was excellent! 

Really polite and sweet staff (some of whom are deaf too). I liked it here and I’ll go back. 

Veggie Family 

Another highly recommended place in Happy Cow. A small restaurant, I went relatively early so got a table – even though it was pretty packed. 

 

So what I didn’t realise is how mock meat heavy the menu is. I wanted to try their dumplings – so went for the Shanghai style dumpling. What arrived was a dish swimming in a supposedly chilli oil and peanut sauce. Peanut – yes, and yummy. Chilli – not a trace. The dumplings were stuffed with some kind of mock meat. It was ok but my gut didn’t appreciate it the next day. I also went for their sour and spicy shark fin soup. This was much better, the shark fin was some kind of agar agar/konjac thingi – will have to google this. Tasty, and it did what it said on the tin. It was hot, spicy, sour and very filling.  

Maybe it is just me and what I ordered, but I’m in two minds whether I’ll come back. Tongue was happy at the time, gut wasn’t (too much info? I have more 😆), so maybe not.  There are more places I can try out. 

Hui Lau Shan

Not a restaurant but a chain specialising in mango and coconut based drinks. I used to love these and have them all the time, so when I saw one outside the TST ferry pier, I went in to order my regular – mango and coconut with sago. 

Past memories – this used to be sweet and refreshing, the perfect balance of the fruits. But this time? Just didn’t taste the same. I found it tooth numbingly sweet, waaay to much mango for the coconut and a ginormous amount of sago. Some memories are best left in the past. 

Last but not least, need to mention Pacific Coffee for a killer soya latte, good soy milk, good coffee, this cup was massive – and it was only a medium. 

So that is all (sheesh. No. That was a lot of food) I had in Hong Kong – there are a few places I will visit on my return – LN Fortunate Coffee, Greenwoods, LockCha tea house.. Arrgh. So many restaurants, so little time!