We were invited out to dinner on Sunday evening for some good old faux meat. (As an aside: it's so nice, as a vegetarian, being friends with vegans! You never have to worry about where they're going to invite you to dinner.) Not having eaten at Whole Vegetarian before, which in its previous incarnation was known as Bo Kong, it was quite a treat to eat at a place where EVERYTHING is vegan. Generally I am restricted to one or two dishes like the classic Buddha's Feast at other Chinese restaurants, but the standard bok choi, mushrooms, baby corns, etc in a beige, bland sauce gets boring after a awhile. But here, oh the options!
Our steamed rice came in some kind of classic 80s cartoon character giant thermos pail that got a laugh out of everyone and the rest of the dishes arrived fairly quickly (within 15 min or so of our ordering?) A must have dish: the sauteed shitake mushrooms - a giant plate heaped with shitake mushrooms in the most delicious sweet & sour sauce! (take that previously unresolved craving for sweet & sour chicken for the past 9 years) There was also the best fake chicken drumsticks I have ever had. Crunchy fried on the outside, amazing meaty texture on the inside and a big bamboo stick in the middle to simulate the bone! The fried bean curd in black bean sauce was also a dish worth repeating. Rolls of bean curd fried and served with mushrooms and bell peppers.
We also had the spicy fried green beans, which were not spicy at all much to my disappointment, though most of our table still enjoyed them, particularly the faux ham that came with them (which was not mentioned in the menu listing). We also had the chili tofu in sesame oil. This was the most disappointing of all of the dishes that we had in my opinion: giant tofu cubes that had no spice at all and were drenched in the same beige, flavorless sauce I have come to know and hate. The last dish we sampled was to my recollection called something like faux steak in black bean sauce. Another faux meat, fairly peppery, in a black bean sauce with cauliflower and broccoli. Well-received by all our table. Oddly enough at this point, I was more excited to see some simple steamed veggies on the table!
For 6 people, we had steamed rice + six dishes and ended up with a small container of leftovers. The meal came out to about $34 per couple (including tax and tip) which was pretty hard to beat for an evening out. Not to mention the post-dinner cookies included with the meal :) I would definitely return!
Apologies again for the lack of photos.
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