Yuan Fu Vegetarian
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: None
25 Reviews for Yuan Fu Vegetarian
I do not go out of my way to seek out tofu or any of it's relatives, so I was shocked to find myself enjoying this place so much. We got the Peking duck which was really good. With all of the standard fixings of the original dish, you could have fooled me. We also had a veggie dish - shiitake mushrooms with asparagus, nicely flavored.
I liked going here because the meal wasn't too heavy and I felt like I was eating something somewhat healthy. I am really intrigued by the other traditional Chinese dishes on the menu but with imitation meat - they sound worth a try!
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only ate here once, but really enjoyed it! wish I lived closer...
the decor/atmosphere is in need of some help, so that's why only 4 stars
My friend and I were bored and wanted to try something new, hell even something vegetarian. But come on, I'm a meat eater. I earned my card at the Carnivore Crew at OGG. You would have to be drunk and/or retarded to mistake meat substitute for real meat. It's like being with a transexual hooker and thinking that it's like being with a real woman...er...not that I would know. Hell, it's like thinking that a Sony Robodog is the same as a real dog.
We started off with the cold appetizer sampler which consisted of various forms of tofu and soy products as mimicking meat. There was "chicken", "chinese sausage", and "meat spring rolls". It was a good mix and tasted pretty good. It still wasn't meat. The restaurant comped us a plate of the spicy pickled cucumbers which was very tasty. We also had their "peking duck" which tasted good but was obviously not meat and wasn't even close to duck. You don't get that same crispiness of the skin that you do with animal fat. The onions and the hoisen sauce are the same as well as the wraps. We did have to supplement it with some chili oil. It left me wanting real peking duck. We also had the General Tso's "chicken" and broccoli. It had a nice crispy batter coating and a spicy sauce. Still it wasn't meat.
The service was excellent and water was refilled in a timely fashion. The waitresses were very nice and on point. The location of the place is a suspect looking strip mall, but a lot of good restaurants typically are located in suspicious looking strip malls. The decor is like an old school chinese restaurant complete with booth seats. Prices are pretty fair. Two people, three major dishes, 40 bucks.
If you are vegetarian, you'll like this place. There is no reason that you wouldn't. If you're a self-respecting meat eater, you will be able to tell the difference and will probably start craving real meat. Still, you might like this place as well, the food is good. I ran into the problem of not being full, but because I ran out of space in my belly that would accept more tofu and soy. The place had a lot of customers of all ethnicities.
Note: I would not recommend drinking alcohol after consuming large amounts of tofu. I suffered an olestra-like effect and it was not cool.
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The food is worth three stars, but since its all vegetarian, and its decent, I gave it four stars.
This place has a similar menu as any chinese restaurant, only that its the vegetarian version. Any entree that you find at your typical neighborhood Chinese takeout restaurant will have the vegetarian version here. The dishes here are probably healthier than their meat counterparts.
At first, I thought the food was good. I had the appetizer sampler, which was good. However, as I started getting more entrees, it seemed to be that they were basically the same soy/tofu pieces, but prepared in different ways (fried, different sauces, marinated, whatever you can do to soy) . The appetizers were basically soy/tofu items, but since they came out first, I was not soyed out yet. By the time I was soyed out, I noticed that the appetizer & the entrees were basically....SOY patties. Since soy is basically straight up protein, I got very stuffed.
This place is worth a try, and I will return, but only when I go with vegetarians. I do not plan on going here except with a vegetarian.
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3.5 Stars
I am a major fan of vegetarian Chinese cuisine. (It must be the mock meats.) I had dinner here. Kung Pao Shrimp and Schezuan Chicken. In my opinion, the prices are a little high ($9-12 for each entree) for vegetarian food. Produce and mock meat aren't costly. I think Yuan Fu is a tad cheaper than Vegetable Garden though. The Kung Pao Shrimp was delicious and pleasantly spicy (extra hot as I requested). This dish had an overwhelming amount of green peppers, which I'm not too keen of. The Schezuan Chicken is passable. It was like a Chinese slaw of sorts with shredded carrots, celery, and chicken. The chicken had a sweet spam-like flavor, but the dish wasn't too flavorful in the first place.
Our waitress was friendly, but very patronizing. When we were ordering she acted as if we had never had vegetarian food before. (I informed her that we were both vegetarians.) She pointed out twice that everything was vegetarian. Gee, I thought they served seafood here. When Kung Pao Shrimp arrived she stressed how spicy the dish was - "Be careful! Very Hot!". I just didn't like to being talked down like a child. Regardless, I didn't take down stars for the service.
It was an okay meal, but I wouldn't come back. For one, it's out of my way, and I've had better vegetarian Chinese food elsewhere. Harmony Cafe in Georgetown is a good alternative.
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Yuan Fu is Vegetable Garden's less-healthy sister located a couple miles up the Rockville Pike. Where as VG is driven more by health consciousness and a more zen approach to Chinese vegetarian cuisine, Yuan Fu is driven by taste.
And taste it does.
The fake meat at Yuan Fu is to die for. The "chicken" dishes are almost all consistently wonderful. The orange and sesame chickens are the best. Crispy and not drowning in sauce.
The real attractions are the moo shu and "Peking duck" fare. The pancakes are light and fluffy and make a heavenly partner to the amazingly well done Chinese cabbage, onion, and fake meat of the moo shu (believe it or not- the "pork" one is the best and I HATE even the idea of pork- fake or not). The "Peking Duck" is the most amazing thing on the menu. Slabs of well textured mock duck (wheat gluten based as opposed to yam and soy for the other dishes), fresh cilantro, spring onions, and a wonderful hoisin sauce--all wrapped around the heavenly pancakes.
The curry dumplings (more turnovers than dumplings) must be added to your meal as well.
There are only two minor drawbacks to Yuan Fu- the staff can get a bit overworked and snippy and there is no tea selection (hope you like decaf Green!).
A great journey out to the 'burbs--even your meat-eating friends will dig it.
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Great restaurant! I highly recommend the squid impression. Their lunch is cheap and you can get rice with 3 accompanied dishes similar to what you can get at a chinese place in the mall. This way you can try a variety of things at once. The only reason I gave it a 4 stars instead of five is because their service could be better. One time my friend and I stopped by for dinner. Granted we were the last ones to leave, but that doesn't mean they can turn on their vacuum and started vacuuming (which was exactly what they did!) Also, another time my friend and I went for dinner on Mother's Day. The servers were quite pushy, but I mark that up to them being busy.
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I'm no vegetarian, so eating at Yuan Fu was like eating Spam - you don't really know what you are eating, but it sure is good. With offerings like Kung Pao shrimp, Peking Duck and Triple Delight, this is a typical "fine"dining Chinese restaurant, minus the grease and meat. If you're a vegetarian who likes imitation meat, this is a great choice. If you're a carnivore, after perusing the menu, you'd probably think, "Why would I get imitation meat when I can get real meat for cheaper?"
Food - After eating the equivalent of a whole cow in the past few weeks, I needed to detox. After comparing reviews for Yuan Fu and Vegetable Garden on Yelp, we decided to go with Yuan Fu b/c I liked the name - I kind of imagined an older Chinese lady going, "Yuan Fu?" (You want food?), whereas Vegetable Garden made me think of my parent's backyard. We started with a bowl of hot & sour and wonton soup ($2). Both were savory, meatless versions of those I'm used to. My wife ordered something something shien chicken ($12) and I ordered the szechuan string beans ($9), my favorite detox dish. The portions were generous, the veggies were incredibly crisp, the sauces light and tasty, and the faux meat was surprisingly good. The most telling evidence of the goodness of the sauce? I poured the sauce over my leftover rice. Yet, I still rather empty inside--perhaps from the lack of meat? I think it was that the sauce had virtually no grease. Healthy, sure, but I'm just not used to brown sauce w/out little pockets of grease floating in it. The "meat" dishes start at $10 and the veggie-only dishes start at $9.
Service - We went for an early dinner on Sunday at around 4:30p.m. and the restaurant was practically empty, so I can't say how effective/efficient the service is. In fact, the waitress was bored so she was staring over at us from time to time, which was a little creepy. Still, everyone in the restaurant was very friendly but they did treat us like we didn't know what to expect when we walked into a restaurant with Vegetarian in the name.
Location - Located in an unassuming strip mall near the Marlo on the Pike. They didn't seem to have any seating for groups larger than 4 (6 if you're dining with skinny vegetarians), unless they have a backroom and it seems EVERY Chinese restaurant has a backroom.
This was our first vegetarian experience and we rather enjoyed ourselves. Still, for carnivores looking to detox, I'd recommend going to another Chinese restaurant and ordering a veggie dish cooked with no oil - it would be cheaper and almost as good.
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Another fantastic chinese vegetarian restaurant in the DC metro area. The place is in a small strip area- but the food is pretty good. Lunches are cheap and exteremly filling.
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The best vegetarian food I have found in this area! My family and I have been going to them for years, we used to go to the owner's previous restaurant where he was a chef in Rockville 20 some years ago.
My family loves getting the appetizers in a Dim Sum style method of eating. Our favorite order: Crispy Fried Mushrooms (amazing although they dont taste like mushroom), Hot and Sour soup, and Steamed Dumplings. Whenever we go we always want to try something new, however we love our tried and true favorites!
The entrees are good, our favorite is the Yellow Bird - tofu skin with shredded tofu and vegetables inside, served with broccoli.
While the entrees are good the appetizers are definitely our favorite we love to order a variety and share!
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I've never in my life seen so many mock meats on one menu. IMpressive! I ordered the orange chicken, which was delicious. The chicken there is made of soybean protein. My boyfriend ordered the kung pao baby shrimp, which I wasn't too keen on. It was made out of white yam. The other two guests ordered the kung pao chicken - YUM! The other guest ordered a beef dish, but I did not want to taste it as it is made from gluten.
However, I must warn you that the service was ok-ok, so don't expect quick service. Also, just a heads up that there is no alcohol served here.
Another must eat, if you visit or live in the DC area. A place I would return over and over if only I still lived in the area. Very high quality preparation and presentation, with a well rounded selection. My favorite is the fried mushroom appetizer...excellent. You also cannot go wrong with the best veggie spring roll I've ever had and the veggie lettuce cup (refer to menu for actual dish name). Their hot pots are also difficult to resist, especially on a cold winter day in DC. I also recommend the imitation duck with basil dish or their spicy egg plant dish. One thing that really differentiates this restaurant from other Taiwanese/Chinese restaurants is that their food is not greasy....which gives you the feeling that you can eat and eat.
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I came here for lunch the other day expecting a restaurant with your typical vegetarian food. To my surprise, it was a lot better than I expected. Initially, looking at the menu, there were a few listed chicken and beef dishes which kind of threw me off. Vegetarian restaurant...chicken...beef? I was curious, so I decide to get a chicken dish (chicken broccoli w/ cashews). I was expecting to get chicken in my dish, but when I took a bite into what I thought was chicken turned out to be tofu. It still tasted like chicken, which made it very interesting. So, it turns out that all of the "meat" dishes on the menu are actually all tofu. Anyhow, this is a pretty decent place and I would definitely recommend trying it out.
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This is my favorite vegetarian restaurant! The best vegetarian food I've ever eaten. All of their mock meat dishes are so good. The service is fast and friendly but may be a bit pushy when it gets very busy. The owner Mary is so nice and is always willing to recommend dishes or answer any questions. It's a small restaurant and not fancy at all. Great for casual dining. I've taken many people there who were not vegetarians and they've enjoyed the food as well. This place is a must try if you're just visiting. My favorite dishes are the sausage appetizer, corn and asparagus soup, peking duck, sauteed mushroom, curry chicken and orange beef.
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My husband LOVES Yuan Fu. Me, ehhhh. For the all-vegetarian Asian restaurant, I much prefer Sunflower or Harmony. So it's a real treat (for him) when we go there. We got take-out from them last night. He always gets TWO soups: the won-ton and the hot-and-sour. I got a won-ton. It's pretty good. Then I also got some of the sweet and sour cucumbers (they sometimes give you these for free when you eat in). I HATE cucumbers, but surprisingly, LOVE these! In fact, we ate most of these on the drive back to DC. For entrees, my husband always gets the Shredded Pork in Hot Sauce. He can't get enough of that stuff. I can't seem to find a entree that I love, so I always get something different, hoping it will be my fave dish there....last night I got Crispy Sesame Beef with Walnuts. It was ok. Edible, but not good enough for me to save the rest for lunch.
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Chinese vegan food is good eating at Yuan Fu.The use of different protein/gluten products is very creative and delicious. The homemade spinach noodles with 'fake' chicken slices or the kuan pao triple delight with portobella mushrooms, asparagus, 'fake' chicken, tofu and peanuts are some of my fav dishes. They also make it really spicy when I requested. Mary is always friendly.
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I went to this place based on Gregory C's recommendation and he's on the ball with his food selection and comments. I thoroughly enjoyed eating at Yuan Fu and so did my dinner companions!
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I drive up to Rockville specifically to eat at Yuan Fu. The food here is great, even for non-vegetarians.
Obviously, for vegetarians, this is a wonderful restaurant because everything is meat-free (it has vegetables, tofu, and other things dressed up to resemble beef, chicken, etc. and they do a pretty good job of making the mock meats). For everyone else, it's just chinese food done well.
Well worth the drive.
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This place is great for an alternative to meat dishes. They create tofu dishes that resemble meat dishes and they do an impeccable job, except for the salt content. The food tastes really good, but is a bit salty. This is the only reason I don't go often. Next time I have a craving for their mushroom and tofu hotpot I'm going to request that it be cooked with less salt.
The atmosphere is casual. The wait staff is really friendly and sometimes gives you a little cucumber salad while you're waiting.
the BEST veggie duck ever.
i've tried fake duck in NYC, LA, DC, Atlanta, and other random cities.
Nothing compares to this duck.
NOTHING.
My mouth has now started watering...
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A great place to fulfill your daily allowance for vitamin D (as in delicious).
Yuan Fu sports an impressive menu of all-vegetarian fare. With fantastic delights like Pineapple Chicken, presented in a half-pineapple or the fried shitake mushrooms (so good), you'll be quite impressed. The best thing about Yuan Fu is the lunch selection. For less than a fist-full of dollars you'll be baobao (full) and on your way out.
Don't miss the sesame balls, a fantastic treat for a buck-fifty.
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I am in love with this place. I keep [mostly] kosher and here I can eat squid, shrimp, and pork without feeling guilty because it's all fake! The food is delicious, but I sometimes feel rushed by the waitress to order because every time I went there she nagged my friend and I every minute or so. They have fresh watermelon juice which is yummy and I love their squid. The staff is friendly and the service is quite fast.
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Yuan Fu rocks! If you are vegetarian, have vegetarian friends or just like great tasting chinese food head to yuan fu. There were few places that would draw me out of DC but Yuan is worth the drive.
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Why don't we have a restaurant like Yuan Fu Vegetarian in the San Francisco Bay Area? I miss the food and I visit Yuan Fu when I fly back to East Coast. I'm a non-vegetarian and I love their food! Full of natural flavors! I love the authetic chinese vegetarian cusine with fresh ingredients and a large variety of choices! My favorite soup is the hot sizzling soup! yum yum...I love all of the appetizers and entrees. Crispy eggplant is so good and I love the crispy mushroom too. A glass of fresh carrot juice is a must during every one of my visits. They have very unique ice cream too, it's called tofutti, no dairy! This is a true vegan restaurant. You get the most out of the food, lots of vitamins, fibers, nutrients, yet you don't miss the taste of meat. I can have their food everyday but it's just too bad that we don't have a restaurant like this in the bay area. Sad......The restaurant is very cozy, fits about 60 peoples. Fast service..you don't have to wait long for your food. This restaurant is a must go if you're in the washington metropolitan area. It's so unique and special, it's worth the drive. Prices are totally reasonable! Great portions! Healthy, yummy, delicious!
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the last time i came to yuan fu was a long time ago, when my parents were going through their vegetarian phase. from what i remember, everything was fresh and pretty tasty. since im back home now, i'm definitely going to check it out again!
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