Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant
Categories: Chinese, Vegetarian [Edit]
Neighborhood: Inner Sunset754 Kirkham St
(between 11th Ave & 12th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122 (415) 682-0826
- Hours:
Tue-Sun 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: None
95 Reviews for Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant
One of Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant's Favorite Reviews
Taste soo good almost make me eat the plate hehehe..
Don't forget to order the fried rice with pine nut and spinach!
yummm
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This is the best vegetarian Chinese good i have ever had. Even though the chicken nuggets are Chinese i really liked him. The fired rice tasted just like fired rice, lol, but the only difference is that its is more healthy.
The service was nice and friendly. Plus the prices are very affordable. Should definitively come here for good vegetarian Chinese food.
Found out today Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant, is not vegetarian.
They serve chicken & lamb.
Change your name, it's misleading.
-2 Cool Yelp points for you
uhhhh edit: apparently the 'chicken' and 'lamb' are made from um soy? I was tricked. +1 for them, minus a bajillion cool points for me. ME = FAIL
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This is as good as Chinese Vegetarian food gets in the Bay Area. I've been to Golden Lotus and Long Life Vegi in Berkeley among other places (which I also love), but this place stands out because it is way less greasy, food comes out very fast, and it's just freakin delicious. Black pepper steak and chicken nuggets are my faves. The only drawback is that they've raised their prices lately (now dishes are mostly in the 7.95-8.95 range) - but still reasonable.
I came to try the food and when I learned that they don't use any onion, garlic, or leeks I was very concened that they would have no flavor.
I was wrong.
Theis place was wonderful, the service was great and everythign was very tasty!!!!! Who knew one could cook without garlic?
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This review is done as a matter of defeating some prolonged proscritanation and is not a reactionary review that was posted before even finishing to digest the food. Also, I eat my share of burritos al pastor and I smother cold cereal with honey; this is a omniovore's opinion.
The food at Enjoy Vegetarian is exemplary of its culinary constraints and respectful to its Buddist tradition.
Enjoy Vegetarian is one of the few restaurants I frequent and it is a rare treasure to have in the Inner Sunset. The tranquil atmosphere of the establishment is as cozy as the paint scheme and the ambiance is devoid and absent of the loud, obnoxious sort who would commonly buy into the ethical menu at EV.
So, what's available? Why..everything. Fish, pork, steak, the usual suspects of vegetables, and then a cornucopia of yam leaves and Asian vegetables you probably wouldn't find at most Chinese restaurants that have been Americanized into MSG-intensity or non-MSG banality for the pallette.
Without a single pang of fear, order any item and be excited by the textures and flavors utilized in mushrooms, gluten, taro, tofu, and various roots to reinvent the dishes that are mundane and too easily ruined at buffet lines and in over-priced restaurants with sticky floors. The main entrees do not stuff you so much (nor coat your veins with oil to the degree) that you cannot consider the dessert menu; order the mung bean.
As far as entrees go: Sea Bass with Eggplant is king. Shark Fin soup is supberb, the brown rice is delicious, if needed; and always feel free to ask for suggestions about what is most fresh--the service is top rate (ask for Alice or Rachel) and the tea is bottomless.
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This place has quickly become one of my faves. Their knack for creating tasty meat-like meals which have no actual meat in them is a pretty good trick. Eaten here three times, walked away smilin' every time. They have a gigantasaurus menu, and everything I've had has been good. The decor isn't anything to write home about, but it's pretty typical for a Chinese restaurant, I think. If the owner is going to only concentrate on one thing, you want it to be the food. They've definitely done that here. Also, it's not in the heart of the Inner Sunset, so parking isn't quite as bad as it might be elsewhere.
The food here is truly disgusting.
I can only describe the taste of their ubiquitous gluten meat as "musty." It was so bad that we couldn't finish our food and threw it out when we got home.
This restaurant totally fails for me because it interprets vegetarian cuisine as "lack of meat" and not "full of vegetables/grain/nuts oils" (the best part!). The result is that the--really bad!--gluten meat dominates the menu.
Sorry, as a non-animal-product-eater, I am not upset by the absence of "Lemon Chicken" on the menu. So, please don't try to force it to be there and maybe focus on a "Lemon Vegetable-something" instead.
(I swear, I'm not insane! I can't believe I am JUST one of a couple people who find this totally unpalatable--I am totally not a picky eater, either! ...Wow.... )
Kind people work here, by the way. Service is excellent.
the best vegetarian cuisines i have ever had. after dinner, the complimentary dessert was the white fungus with papaya syrup. it was kinda sweet, but going down my sore throat felt so good.
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This is a bright and friendly restaurant in a neighborhood setting. As a new vegetarian I may not yet be used to fake meat! So please accept this review as such. My friend (who is not a veggie) liked this place better than I did.
I thought the chicken drumsticks, recommended by the server, were kind of weird and stringy. The sauce was ordinary sweet and sour. The ribs with diakon were actually amazing fake meat, but the sauce was kind of strange and not to my taste. Some of the problem may be that no onion and garlic is used (not favored by Buddhists who feel it interferes with meditation).
We very much liked the eggplant and tofu, and adored the rice with spinach and pine nuts. That rice was a ten. Thanks, Elsa.
I will be back and will try other choices on the menu. More later.
I love vegetarian Chinese food and this is the best I've had since the Buddhist Temples in China. The vegetarian meat dishes actually startled me because they tasted so much like meat. I'd recommend the vegetarian shark's fin soup and the appetizer platter.
This place is OK. not the best food, it's stuff my mom makes at home. The place is kinda crowded but the service is quick and the waiters are nice. The food is not really worth the price. The sweet walnut shrimp is $15 and there's about 10 shrimps. Not worth it if you ask me. But if you do eat there, the salty fish with tofu is yum. you want absolutely delicious vegetarian food? try Ming's, but go for take out.
Our favorite vegetarian restaurant close to where I live. It's getting so crowded especially on the 1st and 15th Chinese lunar calendar year. Long story short, these dates are specially reserved for practitioners of Buddhism to attain enlightenment by not eating meat thus not killing animals. Hope that enlightens some of you now. Sorry for lack of information.
So, this place has really good choices for vegans out there. Just been there today and enjoyed eating the curry eggplant with pumpkin. It's really good albeit a bit spicy for my taste. We also had sharks fin soup (of course it's not real) which tasted quite delightful and the pretty bland tomatoes beef noodle.
Definitely going back for more. The only con is the wait can be pretty awful since it's just a small premise with around 10 tables. If you can wait 20-30 minutes, this vegetarian restaurant is the place for you. Oh, the folks are friendly too.
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The dishes, their favors, and texture are pretty varied as far as Chinese vegetarian dishes are concerned. The ingredients seems really healthy. The services are great.
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The best fried fake chicken ever. I love discovering fun places in the neighborhood. Rachel C and I ate like majesty and the whole thing was 30 (fake) bones out the door. The staff is friendly and their recommendations were perfect. I can't wait to go back!
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I went there with my family on a Saturday night. This place is packed!!! I don't normally try vegetarian restaurants in SF but this place is starting to change my mind. I can't believe how creative they get with the food ingredients. The texture of their sea bass and pepper beef tasted no different from the real thing. My husband would've gotten fooled if we didn't tell him it's all veggies in the beginning. This place is out of no where but their food is definitely going somewhere. Kudos for the chef!
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AN EXCELLENT PARTY TRICK.
I say this because this restaurant almost convinved me that what they were serving was meat.
I'm not a vegetarian, and my rating is not based on other vegetarian spots. It's based on my dining experience itself. The Kung Pao Chicken and the Eggplant & Tofu in Basil was so good, even my carnivore boyfriend gave it kudos.
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ENJOY - a hidden gem in San Francisco.
When my sister told me about this place, I immediately said, "no way!" The reason for this answer is because a couple of years ago, I've tried a restaurant located at the exact same location she mentioned.
She raved about this place. Since I have to be on a be a vegetarian diet twice a month, I'm always searching for good vegetarians around the neighborhood. I decided to give this place a second chance. I'm glad I did because the restaurant has changed ownership! She's right, it is superb!
What I liked about this place: food is great. We tried the shark fin soup (tastes better with vinegar) and Bean curd rolls. Because I have two little boys, I ordered the fried drumsticks, and shanghai rice cakes. Everyone, including my boys loved all the dishes! The service is great, friendly and patient waitresses.
What I don't like about this place: parking. It's nestled in a residential area, so hard to find parking, especially on weekends. Only one large table, a tight fit if you have a big group.
I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great vegetarian restaurant.
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There are generally two kinds of vegetarians: the ones who really miss eating meat and go out of their way to find every sort of meat substitute, and the ones who disdain the very idea of meat and so find things that look or have names similar to meat unappetizing. I'm not really in the first camp, but I'm also not an extremist/purist. That's why I like Enjoy so much.
If you're in the second camp, you will hate this place. Everything is imitation something or other. Some of it is pretty accurate, taste-wise; much of it doesn't taste like what it's imitating but is nevertheless really good.
Non-vegetarians tend to like these kinds of places because they don't like everything to be called tofu this or tofu that. Every omnivore I've brought here has really liked the food.
I just like being able to order anything on a humongous menu.
The place is too bright, and the colors on the inside make you think you got lost in some strange ice-cream parlor/funhouse dimension, but otherwise, or maybe because of that, this place is a worthwhile experience.
I really wish it was still called Hulu House, however. How cool is that name?
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Enjoy has the best meat substitute offerings anywhere in town. Although I appreciate the "meat" that is served just as tasty as any real carcass, Enjoy does vegetables superbly. I ordered the simple vegetable deluxe that was simple, clean, fresh, and filling. My friend ordered the spareribs. It tasted like spareribs, sort of looked like spareribs, but it didn't give you the sparerib sticky fingers nor that creepy day after feel.
Try the "Medicine Soup." It's uh, well, uh...different.
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This is my favorite vegetarian restaurant in the city! I love this place. Every dish I've tried is great. The service is good and they are really friendly.
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Enjoy has now become one of my default restaurants when I can't figure out what/where to eat. This hidden gem is located on Kirkham & 12th, where it's mainly residential. I've passed by it on numerous occasions but never went in as it didn't seem busy. Finally, one day I just craving for vegetarian food and decided to check it out.
The owners & staff are super friendly and offer suggestions on what to order when yo can't decide. I think I've tried just about everything on the menu: the shark fin soup, hot & sour soup, sweet & sour chicken, coconut sesame chicken, beef stew in clay pot, assorted platter, tofu, spinach & pine nut fried rice, salty fish & chicken fried rice, etc.
As I'm not much of a meat eater these days, Enjoy offers me my "meat" substitutes. It's just as tasty. =) So far my favorite dishes are the spinach & pine nut fried rice and the sweet & sour chicken. I love how the spinach & pine nut fried rice isn't oily. The sweet & sour chicken amazes me because it looks like chicken, but it isn't real chicken. I find it interesting how they make it look & taste so "real".
-2 stars for the parking. It can be difficult since it's a residential area.
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Eh, not as bad as Bok Choy Garden, not as good as golden era.
We had the sweat and sour chicken, the mongolian beef and the house special fried rice. The chicken was pretty good...kind of earthy, but fried and covered in sweet so it evened out (plus, the carrots were cooked perfectly). The beef was flavored nicely, but the texture was wrong..super chewy. The fried rice wasn't bad...Obviously pan fried-which is nice, but the fake pork was way saltier then real pork-which isn't as nice.
Overall, the flavors and the cooking technique were quite good, but I have had much better meat substitutes across the board. In the future, when I feel like spending $9 on a plate of veggies and fake meat, I'll trek out to Golden Era.
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I think we tried almost everything on the menu! We had the sweet and sour soup, wonton soup, brown fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, mongolian beef, sauteed greens, marinated tofu.... everything was really tasty :)
What really makes this place 5 stars is the service & staff/owners. They were very accommodating, friendly, patient, and always knew when we needed more water, tea, sauce, etc.
I will go back just for them!
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Emmy's has some great Vegetarian Chinese food for the Sunset, but too many people have voiced concerns over their health standards (supposed cockroaches, etc.). Enjoy has better food at equivalent prices, but don't deliver and are closed some days. Too bad, so sad. Great vegetarian chinese food place.
This is truly a hidden gem in the Sunset. Thank you Yelpers for your recommendation! My hubby and I went for dinner last night and really enjoyed our meal! Everything was delicious. This is literally the ONLY business on the block, so is very hidden. No one will just stumble in there out of the blue.
The place is small, only 5 tables for 4 ppl, 1 for 6 and 1 for 10. that's about it. There was a little wait when we got there at 7pm; but it cleared out fast and we ended up only waiting for about 10-15 mins. We ordered:
1. Shark Fin soup - excellent! The menu said it will serve 2-3 ppl, but between the 2 of us, we had 3 bowls (rice bowl size) each. It is generously-portioned.
2/ Eggplant and Sea Bass - we picked this from everyone's recommendation here. I thought it was very clever to use seaweed to wrap around the gluten to make it taste like fish. It is good - I would recommend it, but it is my least favorite of the 3 we ordered. The dish is on a oily side, but I think it's typical whenever you order eggplant, anywhere.
3. Pepper steak with Veggies - absolutely love this! It didn't taste like beef per se, but still good nonetheless. The sauce was excellent and very tasty!!
Service is standard. Dishes came out accordingly.
They gave us the taro/coconut tapioca for dessert. This is perhaps the most disappointing for all... the dessert was luke warm and it was not sweet enough. But since it's free, we can't really complain.
Dishes range around $8.50 each. It is on the high side compared to other Chinese restaurants, but it is still cheap compare to other cuisines. It's worth the price.
overall, excellent food! We can't wait to go back to try other dishes!!
Enjoy, where all the meat looks like spam, but tastes like chicken.
Well, no that is unfair, the fish did blend in with the eggplant. Although, it strikes me as hopping on the yuppie bandwagon to call their fake meat Sea Bass, when it could just as well be any other fish, say frozen tilapia, but I guess that doesn't have the same ring to it?
I've had the coconut taro and chicken, which was ultimately uninspiring because the taro was so dry and there wasn't much sauce, I'm a sauce fan, throw on a lot of sauce and let me dredge out my food, that is preferable to something that gives me dry mouth.
The pepper steak was okay, tasted like oyster sauce, which it probably wasn't. Looked like the chicken nuggets in the previous dish, except darkened.
The eggplant sea bass was okay, although nothing to write home about
The fried curry triangles were good, although I stand by the theory that you can deep fry anything and it would be good. These I found similar to Yamo's samusa's without the Burmese spices, more standard curry flavor here.
Lastly I always appreciate a nice dessert to follow up the meal, and here it is included, that is always a plus. It was a red bean soup that was not too sweet and was warm. Similar to what I would have bought for 3.50 at a dessert shop such as 100% healthy desserts.
So why only 3 stars? Well, I felt it was average, for my money I prefer Golden Lotus in Oakland, but I'd go back to give them another try as the lemon chicken looked interesting. Also the kung pao chicken seemed like it would be good (the other table had it).
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Enjoy is super cute! The place isn't fancy, rather it's cozy with great food. The staff is very friendly & attentive and dining here leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy.
I am a vegetarian who can't stand fake meat. And fake meat is seemingly Enjoy's specialty. Despite this, there's plenty non-fake meat items on the menu to satisfy me. Great food!
There are usually a couple large families, which leads me to believe that the food is either authentic or simply good enough to attract Chinese-cuisine purists.
Very much recommended.
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Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant serves up first rate vegetarian on a par with Golden Era. You will get a very satisfying, fresh, inexpensive meal and you won't leave feeling as if you have just quaffed a pint of animal grease.
Highly recommend.
PS: Try the eggplant with seabass.
[In 1953, Twelfth Avenue and Kirkham Market was located here.]
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One of my fav places!!!
Some dishes I've tried:
*Vegetarian shark fin soup : The waitress recommended this. It was VERY tasty and the bowl was huge (a small order is $6.50 & enough for 6-7 bowls)! To me it tasted pretty darn close to the real thing minus shark fin, with mushrooms. My grandma told me we shouldn't order it because she thought it was expensive (as she thought I was ordering the real thing). Then she kept telling me "This meat is fake!" (as though I didn't know and was being ripped off) and then laughed thinking that other people in the restaurant were being duped.
*Coconut Sauce with Taro and Chicken - I LOVE taro dishes so I picked this out from the menu right away... the taro was soft and the sauce was sweet!
*Chow Mein with Tomatoes and Beef - the sauce over the noodles was just right and the beef had this charred flavor that actually reminded me of meat
*Eggplant with Sea Bass (fake) - was soft and decent..but I feel its something to share for 3 or more people not 2, to me.. It confused my grandma who was like... "That dish looked like fish...and kind of tasted like fish... but it wasn't!".
*Tofu and eggplant with Satay Sauce - great safety dish...I don't think you can not like this.
*Lettuce Wraps - bit pricey but soo delish
At the end of the meal there's a complimentary dessert (we got some warm and sweet Chinese dessert soups). Overall meals are good and priced fairly. Service was lightning quick and the servers were very approachable (don't be shy to ask for a recommendation). I must return!
update: There is a very nice lookin new menu, with a LOT more choices, and with pictures of some of the featured dishes. After looking at the back, I realized that part of my review was there! It's good to know that the restaurant management is monitoring the reviews very closely..hehe. I used to have 4 stars here, but I really appreciate the amazing menu (this is not easy to find for vegetarians) and service here, so it's now 5.
Great vegetarian Chinese. Very inventive, unique and tasty dishes, esp. the specials. I've tried vegetarian Chinese restaurants where most of the dishes had the same flavoring and taste.
Loved the chicken nugget appetizer - tastes pretty close to real meat chicken nuggets.
Tofu and curry were delicious.
Veggie Shark Fin Soup was a little bland
Eggplant with Sea Bass was cooked with seaweed, giving fake sea bass a fishy taste, which was too odd for me.
Finished dinner with the crystal ball dessert - I prefer red bean filling over green tea or green bean - and bought a box to go.
If you were curious why they advertise "no garlic" on the menu, that's because Chinese Buddhists who are vegetarian don't eat garlic because garlic is aphrodisiac.
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I love Enjoy!!!
I went before, with my friend, and it was great. So, when my birthday party came around...I decided to eat here!
My friends and I were the flakiest customers.
"I want to make reservations for nine people at 7pm."
"Oh wait, nine people at 7:30."
"Oh, cancel. Six people."
"Oh, actually, it's gonna be four."
"Oops, she's still waiting for the bus. It's gonna be three people."
"Oh! She got a ride. It's four people, again."
And the women working there were fine with the whole thing; perfectly willing to work with us, even though it was a very busy Friday evening. And when our fourth member arrived late, the waitress even brought her an extra bowl of soup since she missed it the first time around!
The food was gooooooooood, of course. We had (trying to remember):
Fried curry triangles
Thai-style soup
House combination fried rice
Braised "lamb" in a clay pot
"Lion's Head" special
Curry "chicken"
The curry triangles were crispy and filled with delicious curry potato goodness.
The BBQ pork and ham in the fried rice were soooooo convincing. And the fried rice had that.....taste! The hot wok-fried taste. Wonderful.
The favorite of the evening was the braised lamb. It's hella delicious.
They also brought us ice-cold orange slices, and gelatinous desserty things. The waitress let us know to "eat the oranges first, 'cause they'll taste bitter after the gelatin."
Enjoy is so adorable, too. It's rather small, in the middle of a residential area. I looked for the Yelper that lives across the street but I didn't see her!
I totally, totally recommend this restaurant. Great food, great service, great birthday!
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It's definitely a good sign when my friends and I chose to dine at a restaurant two weeks in a row. And it's an even nicer sign when the owner thanks Monica R (one of my dinner buddies) for her Yelp review of the establishment by giving us complimentary soy bean sheets. I freakin' love soy bean sheets.
So far, I've had their taro chicken dish with coconut curry (I could eat this every night!), beef and broccoli (well seasoned), tofu curry (yum!), shrimp and veggies (yes, vegetarian shrimp that looks like the real thing!), eggplant sea bass (how do they do it?!) and soft tofu with mustard greens. I enjoyed every single dish!
It's nice to find a vegetarian restaurant that goes beyond just tofu. It's so interesting to see the faux meat dishes and to taste just how accurate these soy/gluten creations can be. If I ate like this every night, I could definitely be vegetarian!
The service is fast and they are always open to recommending something for the indecisive. The prices are definitely reasonable. I suggest coming with a group so you can get the most variety for your dollar.
Every meal ends with a dessert. Either some traditional Chinese dish or fruit. I've had ginger yam soup and green bean soup. Mmm...
I would have NEVER known about this restaurant that's pretty much hidden in the middle of the Sunset residential area if it wasn't for Yelp. But now that I know, I will be back.
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very interesting place that I came across randomly. It can get a bit pricey depending on how much you eat, but it is definitely interesting. They make an attempt to recreate non-vegetarian foods using soy and other products. The dishes were very tasty and I'd recommend going just to check it out. I tried to go again, but forgot they were closed on Mondays... ooops.
I went tonight with my discriminating parents, sister and grandmother, raised in ye olde motherland of China. Everyone loved it. The eggplant & sea bass was the best (bass was good, the texture is decent). We also ordered the house veggie chow mein, which was refreshingly not fried and very tasty. Someone mentioned how awesome the lemon chicken was, but it wasn't too impressive. The sauce has no tang, and looks dubious. The chicken was amazing. It felt more like pork, but were I blindfolded, I would've said chicken. The shrimp and cuttlefish weren't as good. The red bean soup for dessert wasn't too sweet, and had good stuff in it.
For reference, we ordered the set menu for 3-4 people plus the veg chow mein and 4 orders of rice for 5 people.
I'd come back for lunch.
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To say that this restaurant is in my "neighborhood" is an understatement. It is in my backyard. Or frontyard. Does anyone really even have a yard in SF?
Moving on....
I've been eating here straight for the past few days for lunch, as I am now unemployed and excessively hungry. Notice how there's a direct correlation between the two. I've gotten their spring rolls like a billion times, pea sprouts with chicken, kung pao tofu, chicken with chinese veggies, twice cooked pork, pork with mustard greens, hot and sour soup, tofu with veggies, and shrimp with something or other. I wouldn't recommend fake seafood if you have taste buds like me.....the texture is just too funny. But everything else is superb. Especially the pork. I'm a sucker for a nice piglutensoy.
Hey, And if you decide to eat here, give the big yellow building across the street a wave! Maybe I'll even wave back. Or lets be honest, I'll probably be eating here.
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my favorite restaurant ever.
it's hard to find good vegetarian food, but here you go! it's like any other chinese restaurant (with pretty much the same menu) except it's ALL vegetarian! great for vegs who like faux meat AND for die-hard carnivores because the faux meat tastes pretty darn real.
personal favorites: satay cuttlefish (all the flavors are absorbed so that it doesn't taste like bland fake meat), lemon chicken, fragrant crispy chicken, cubed steak with black pepper sauce; the chow mein is really good, as well as the fried rice
for people who are into the typical chinese dishes (that aren't the very americanized ones like kung pao chicken), the sliced pork with dried mustard greens is awesome! it tastes like it could be the real deal, except you won't feel guilty about eating the "fatty" part 'cause, you know what? IT'S NOT REAL FAT!
the last time i went, they added more items to their menu. i tried the honey walnut shrimp and i must admit it's not the best of their menu. it's got too much of a tang for me, but still go!!! this place is the BEST. great service with very friendly people. if you're lucky, you might see the cool regular customer, this white guy that had dreadlocks at one point and can speak an occasional chinese phrase. he's awesome.
After walking/driving by this place too many times to count, I finally tried it tonight. And it was wonderful!! We had their small app combo, the Kung Pao "shrimp" and the Pepper Sauce "Steak" w/ Veggies. Everything was oh, so, yummy, but the pepper steak was to die for! So good that I was counting the number of pieces that my husband took, cause I really didn't want to share. i'll be back for sure.
My quest to find a cheap, healthy, and tasty vegetarian restaurant in the City is over. The Ring has been destroyed. The maiden has been rescued from her tower. In other words, this quest was epic.
My journey took me far and wide, but little did I know that this bright, wee place would be dangerously close to my stomping grounds.
My buds and I split three dishes and ordered individual bowls of brown rice. Everything (a coconut "chicken" dish with tarot, a "beef" and broccoli one, and a curry tofu bowl with vegetables) was light and delicious.
In terms of Chinese Veggie restos, this place beats Shangri-La hands down on all counts. Love it.
EDIT: tarot=taro. haha.
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I took my brothers to Enjoy Vegetarian restaurant last Saturday. Let me say first that I may be biased because Chinese vegetarian is my ABSOLUTE favorite food in the whole world, and I have high expectations for good Chinese cooking 1) coming from a city with such a large Chinese community and2) possibly being spoiled from eating at Happy Family vegetarian restaurant (if I could, I'd hire the chef to be my personal cook) in LA. To cut to the chase, quality-wise, the food did not disappoint. Everything was very flavorful without being too salty, even without onion and garlic. I tried the highly praised eggplant w/ veggie sea bass and taro-coconut "chicken" with sesame and was very pleased with the flavors and textures of both dishes. 5 stars on quality of food.
Portion-wise, however, I would be hard-pressed to give this place even 1 star. For nearly $10 a dish, the portions were painfully small, most served on dishes no larger than a medium-sized dinner plate. In fact, our appetizer came in a plate no bigger than a saucer for a tea cup, and we paid $6 for that! I could easily get a full meal at Naan 'n Curry for that kind of money. Both my brothers tore through the dishes and were wondering if we were going to get more food. Minus 1 star for the stingy portions.
Furthermore, while we were dining, one of the owner's friends came in. She immediately set out a large platter of food and said in Chinese, "Don't worry, it's on the house." Maybe I'm just sensitive, but I REALLY did not appreciate the blatant preferential treatment she gave other customers. I paid just as much for the food as they did and I should be treated the same way. Clearly the restaurant does not care to earn our patronage. Minus 1 star for the unprofessional treatment - and I think that's being quite lenient! I really want to like this place and support the vegetarian restaurant community in SF, but until Enjoy changes their management practices, I won't be coming back.
