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February 9, 2017

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Try some vegetarian luxury for that special night

By Xu Wenwen | February 9, 2017, Thursday | Print Edition

ACCORDING to traditional Chinese medicine, certain vegetables should be taken as main meals in spring — because the young shoots are tender and it’s when animals are giving birth.

And after eating big during the Chinese New Year which has just ended, it’s a good time to ease the stomach with a vegetarian meal.

Vegetarian food is healthy and can be made in delicate and fancy ways as a treat for big days such as Valentine’s Day.

Today, Shanghai Daily lists four of our favorite vegetarian restaurants in Hangzhou worth considering if you are there on February 14.

Yun Lin — meaning cloud and forest — is the original name of Hangzhou’s Lingyin Temple, one of the most well-known Buddhist temples in the country.

Close to temple, the restaurant is part of the luxurious Amanfayun Resort. It is surrounded by lush greenery and the atmosphere inside the restaurant, with traditional upturned eaves, is tranquil. It is the most expensive of its type in Hangzhou.

Decorated with Chinese calligraphy and lanterns, dishes are served in the Western restaurant style — one set for each customer. It is priced at 500 yuan (US$73) or 800 yuan for 10 courses.

The menu changes seasonally, but a wide variety of mushrooms and tofu are served year-round.

Yun Lin’s food is the Buddhist vegetarian style — no shallots, scallion, onion, garlic, egg or milk. The waitstaff have learned Buddhism. An English menu is available.

This restaurant focuses on being natural: Tables and chairs are bamboo, and natural light dominates the interior during the day. By night, a few lanterns decorate the space.

Romantic, isn’t it?

 

Address: No. 22, Fayun Lane

Tel: (0571) 8799-7220

As well as the standard vegetables, some vegetarian restaurants serve dishes that look like meat.

Often made with tofu, such dishes have been created for meat-lovers who need to eat vegetables in certain situations — such as after worshipping Buddha.

Tai Su offers this kind of dish as well as common vegetables. But don’t doubt it is a vegetarian restaurant — even when you see “Kung Pao Chicken,” “Fried Pork” or “Boiled Fish” on the menu, because indeed they are made of tofu, gluten or mushroom. Something novel for that special date.

Also recommended are the soups. Chinese-style vegetable soups need to be stewed for many hours and different ingredients are added according to strict timing.

Exotic soups include Korean bibimbap, Indian potato curry, Thai Tom Yum Gong and some desserts.

The menu is only in Chinese, but the photos explain a lot. The average cost is about 80 yuan.

 

Address: 4/F, PowerLong Plaza, the crossing of Jiangnan and Huoju avenues

Tel: (0571) 8770-1619

One of the delights of Hangzhou is that with less than a 20-minute drive from downtown one can escape the crowds and traffic and relax among the forests and water.

Roots Resort sits in such a place in Xu Village, in scenic Jiuxi, with its cascading water. Cross the village’s murmuring stream and step over a few large smooth rocks and you come to a closed gate.

Ring the bell and when staff open it, be ready to lose yourself exploring gardens, vegetable fields and stables that let visitors get up close and personal with the resort’s rabbits, horses and alpacas.

The resort offers detox programs, vegetarian, tai chi courses and rooms embraced by nature.

Its vegetarian restaurant serves courses ranging from Chinese fried dishes and Vietnamese spring rolls to Mexican tapas and Italian pasta.

Chefs seldom fry leafy vegetables, preferring to serve them raw or lightly boiled with olive oil drizzled on top. Many dishes feature organic vegetables grown right at the resort.

Each set is priced at 288 yuan or 488 yuan, plus 15 percent service charge, per person. English menu available.

 

Address: No. 47, Xu Village, Jiuxi

Tel: (0571) 8659-9399

Wujie serves vegetarian dishes inspired by traditional Chinese cuisine in an upscale dining environment.

It’s more expensive than ordinary vegetarian restaurants in town — a bowl of rice costs 10 yuan, and average meal costs is more than 200 yuan.

But the dishes are well worth the cost. They are artistically presented and use the freshest ingredients — a deserving treat for Valentine’s Day.

Specialities to surprise diners include Chiloe, made with a special ingredient called Chilean Antarctic seaweed, which looks like bunches of mini green grapes. The seaweed is prepared with three different dressings — sesame, spicy and Caesar.

Most dishes are light.

Recommendations include layered avocado and beetroot salad topped with pine nuts, rice ball stuffed with mushroom and steamed with a lotus leaf, and fried lotus roots.

For something heavier, try the vegetable curry with tofu boiled with edmame in chili.

Wujie also serves a vegetarian afternoon tea featuring cakes and macaroons. If any dish uses eggs or dairy products, that fact is carefully noted on the menu. English, Japanese and Chinese menus are available.

 

Address: 2/F, 2nd zone of The Mixc, 701 Fuchun Rd

Tel: 4009-201-517

Hangzhou


 

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