Vegan / Vegetarian

This dish didn't impress. With just 3 florets of broccoli and few cubes of pumpkin (as well as carrots, potato and edamame beans), this tastes just like a Japanese curry don with a few vegetables thrown in. The toasted pita also felt a little redundant.

Similar to the Chickpea Rice Burger, this fills you up pretty quickly so I wouldn't recommend getting this as part of the 8-course set as well.

Rice burgers ain't new, but rice burgers made with black rice and dragonfruit-flavoured rice is something (though I'd say the latter is purely for aesthetics). The rice patties are sticky and chewy, but I'd preferred them more charred on the outside for an added crisp. The chickpea patty was quite bland on its own and needed the cheese and mayo for a flavour boost. With a side of crispy fries, this dish is simply a carb overload so I wouldn't recommend getting this as part of the 8-course set.

Though I must say the service here is pretty top-notch, I mean they even provide disposable gloves (bottom right) for you to hold the burger!

May we all take a moment to admire this beauty 😍 The vibrant colours here really freshen up the generally boring and distasteful look of salads. Freshly cut fruits and vegetables aside, what stood out most was the made-in-house blueberry dressing - it's berry-sweet, mildly tart and very refreshing. I also enjoyed the candied nuts that added a nice, sweet crunch 😋

My first dining experience at elemen was a great one. Not only was the food delicious, it's also wholesome and value-for-money. Oh, not forgetting the superb service from the friendly staff too.

I'll gladly order the 5-course set (available from Mon-Thu only) the next time I return. It starts off with the elemen Appetiser, in which the sweet-sour vine tomato, creamy-nutty charcoal beancurd and sweet-umami edamame mushroom all tickle your tastebuds differently. This is followed by your choice of salad OR soup, main, beverage and dessert.

On mains, get the Blue Flower Tofu with Black Truffle Wild Rice. The tofu was incredibly soft, but I was more fascinated by the pretty blue interior that made me go "omgggg". I love the truffle-perfumed rice too - it's nutty, fragrant, and cooked till just rice to land a chewy bite.

This dish now allows you to share your love for Cream of Mushroom with your vegan friends. The soup is thick, starchy, and mushroom-y - it's really umami and flavourful. There isn't a lot of ingredients (just three pieces of tofu, cherry tomatoes, broccoli and seaweed), but the soup is the star here.

Similar to Greendot, Veggie House offers a lineup yummy vegetarian dishes like bento, noodles, and mini hotpot. The Su Gu Cha Rice Set ($6.80) comes with a medley of soy products, mushrooms and mock meat in a clear, herbal-y soup that's very comforting; and the Spring Roll Set ($3.80) is likened to Vietnamese Spring Rolls, with minced soy and fresh vegetables as the stuffing instead of vermicelli and meat. I love the latter a lot, especially with the tangy chilli sauce they come with!

My only gripe is the heavy use of disposables :(

And no I don't mean that it's all vegetables, this stall has minced soy stuffing in their ytf items just like the real thing (in which minced pork or fish paste is used). The soup is very much lighter and less salty, hence making this taste very clean. But I'd say the star of the show here is actually the dry noodles - the chewy U-mian tossed in the sweet and savoury sauce is yummilicious 😋

You've heard of burgers with vegan patties, or burgers with lettuce wrap instead of buns, but have you heard of tofu burger?

Tofully Yours ($12.90) is the brainchild of Well Dressed Salad Bar & Cafe comprising 3 layers of fried tofu with mushrooms, vegan ham, cheese, egg, spinach, tomato, cucumber, ketchup and mayo. There's also a vegan version where nut cheese and vegan mayo are used and eggs are omitted. While these may just be your normal everyday ingredients, I liked how they presented it in the form of a burger and I love how the ingredients don't fall out of place with each bite/cut because of the added friction of the tofu skin (yay science).

This cafe offers vegan cakes as well and I'd really love to try some day!

I have always been very excited to try zoodles (simply shredded zucchini) but I guess this just didn't quite meet my expectations. This zucchini linguine with walnut "meatballs" ($20) arrived shockingly huge in amount, consisting of what I guessed was 5 zucchinis worth. Brownie points for generosity, but the zucchini weren't sufficiently dried, hence diluting the tomato sauce coating each strand and leaving a pool of water at the base. The "cheese" was also bland, and partly soggy due to the wetness of the dish (perhaps they could've used nutritional yeast to add some flavour to it). The meatballs, too, weren't too my liking, maybe I'm just not used to it.

Also, their toilet needs a higher level of cleanliness.

I absolutely love vegan food for their innovativeness in ingredients usage and uniqueness in taste, and I'm so glad that nomVnom creates great vegan burgers that are also affordable.

Terrific Light ($9.90) comprises of a cauliflower veggie patty, guacamole, lettuce and tomatoes. The patty was deep fried to a nice crisp, but the interior was mushy and hence not substantial/satieting. The guacamole was also a little tasteless, making this burger a little on the bland side. However, I've tried their Beetroot Hummus ($8.90) previously and that tasted way better - it has a flavourful mushroom patty, creamy hummus and bits of beetroot, making it taste more satisfying. Each burger also comes with a shot of apple cider vinegar that is meant to wet your appetite, so do drink it first before devouring your burger!

What I really love about this burger joint is the variety (they've over 20 burgers!) and affordability (most burgers cost less than $10 and students can even get 20% discount!). Probably some hits and misses with their burgers, but I'll definitely return again to sample others and try to choose a more filling burger with stronger flavours next time!

Like I've said before, what distinguishes a good leicha from a normal/bad one is the tea gravy. Can't find any fault with the veges here (they're fresh, crunchy and not greasy), but this stall's tea gravy is sadly diluted (just look at that big bowl of green water). Price wise it's affordable ($3.50 per bowl, +50 cents for brown rice, and I made a bad choice of adding $1 for more vege because that was just an overkill).

Sunnychoice's stores carry a wide selection of natural/organic products. Within their store, there is also a cafe area where diners can enjoy healthy vegetarian dishes such as vegetarian bak kut teh and vege sushi.

As a Hakka, I simply cannot resist getting the thunder tea rice (although the price tag of $8.50 is quite a turn off). Fortunately, it was a good bowl of thunder tea rice in terms of aesthetics and taste. The colours of the vegetables were very vibrant and varied, and each ingredient tasted fresh and crunchy. Most importantly, the tea gravy was extremely fragrant and flavourful - its shade of green is darker than normal, but it wasn't bitter to taste. Great work there Sunny Choice, you've done my ancestors proud.