A nice veggie restaurant

Cuisine Greater Taipei Restaurants
1

I, a confirmed and unrepentant eater of dead animals, was taken recently to a veggie restaurant the other week. A real Buddhist-type one – no onions, chillies, ginger, any of that “stimulating” stuff.

I was NOT looking forward to it AT ALL, let me tell you. How pleasantly surprised I was, therefore, when I found the food to be quite wonderful.

A lot of you will probably recognize the name – King Join – there’s one on Siwei Rd. just south of the Renai traffic circle and another in the Yongkang St. area, which is the one I went to.

It used to be a regular meat restaurant, one of those ornate red, gilt and wood places, but apparently the owner just got tired of it and decided on a change.

We had a set menu that included … hell, I don’t know what it was, but was it ever good. The hotpot is in one of those northern Chinese copper thingies with the tall chimney and the bean-based stock was outstanding – best I’ve ever tasted. And the rice with … things in it! Again, I’m not up on the veggie scene, but it had little red seed things in it, lots of toasted pine nuts, other seed-type things – If that sounds like your kind of thing – Alien, Sir Donald – I’d pay a visit.

Cost was around NT$1,500 for four (I think. I’m like the royal family and never carry anything as dirty as money around with me). No alcohol, but they serve their own sour plum juice, which I like very much.

Hmmm, should I become a food writer? Perhaps not! :shock: :shock: :stuck_out_tongue:

2

[quote=“sandman”]

Hmmm, should I become a food writer? Perhaps not! :shock: :shock: :P[/quote]

Egon Ronay, Michelin Guide, your days are numbered…

3

I went there before and wasn’t too pleased. I am one of those meat eaters, but I love vegetarian food once in a while. However, King Join wasn’t anything special. Didn’t help it that we had meant to go to Thai Heaven (which was either too busy or closed) and my bf would have preferred to get his daily lump of meat and a bottle of beer. We realized too late that it was all vegetarian, and the food really wasn’t special (maybe just not that night?).

I never felt like going back.

Iris

4

I looked all round Yong Kang Jie for that place last night. Admitedly, I was a bit hazy about the name and was looking for a place called Captain Jacks, but apart from a standard garden-variety buffet I didn’t see a veggie place int he whole area. Noticed you said it used to be a fancy ‘red wood’ traditional style Chinese place. Does it still look like that, because I did see one of those places?

Brian

5

Yep, its still done out in red and gilt and has a distinctive yellow and red sign. Its on the same street as Cafe Mykonos, but further south:

Li Shui St.
Lane 16
No. 2
Tel: 2321-9078

6

Ah, I know where it is then, I just didn’t spot that it was veggie.
Cheers
Brian

7

This ultra-strict vegetarian, who hasn’t swallowed a morsel of flesh in more than a quarter of a century (I was still very young when I underwent conversion!), has eaten at the Yongkang branch of that restaurant chain. It wouldn’t be at the top of my list of veggie joints here, but I’d say it’s well worth a visit. It’s very upmarket, and does have some outstanding dishes, as well as some that I didn’t quite take to (my hosts were out to impress, so they ordered almost everything on the menu – fortunately, the portions are small). I second Sandman’s recommendation of the wonderful rice – I’d be happy enough to feed on just that for my dinner most nights. The decor is rather splendid and the service is excellent (they are evidently highly proud of their food, and were very glad to give detailed explanations about the more unusual dishes). If there were a place like that close to my home, I’d probably become a regular patron.

8

There’s more than one place to see a list of taipei veggie restaurants on the internet. But, this one has a place near my apartment:

http://www.happycow.net/asia/taiwan/taipei

9

I wasn’t sure were to post this, but here seems as good a place as any.

I just made a web page to assist newly arrived vegetarians in Taiwan get food that meets their dietary preferences. It includes a number of phrases with Chinese characters, English translation and pinyin. When I first came to Taiwan I was a vegetarian and my Chinese wasn’t too great. I remember I often had a few headaches getting the food that I wanted. I hope people find this helpful.

Vegetarian food in Taiwan taiwan.8m.net/vegetarian.html

Please feel free to print it out and use it.

10

And if you wantto try another great veetarian restaurant and meet some other veggies in Taipei, click here:

forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?t=8877

Brian