Vegetarian / Vegan

Tried another vegetarian ma la xiang guo recently! While it could be more fragrant with a stronger kick of heat, it was still a pretty nice bowl. Ingredients were fresh with a good variety of vegetarian ingredients like mock fishballs and prawns, apart from the usual vegetables and noodles. Though my all time fav is still Green on Earth’s mlxg, Shu’s is slightly more affordable. Also loved the very friendly and welcoming service here. Would be back to try their other dishes - I’m eyeing for the kway chap that’s only available on weekends!

A teeny bit oily, but was was really flavourful with a nice char. Just thought that there can be more ingredients, perhaps like mushrooms, at this price tag. The default comes with egg - just let the friendly servers know if you’d like to opt out when ordering!

Not exactly the most affordable but the portion was great! Noodles were fried well in just the right amount of well seasoned ‘zhup’. We all liked how there was a light char!

Fettuccine in tom yum broth, with shimeji mushrooms, baby corn, coriander oil and Japanese cucumber ribbons. My favourites were the soft roasted pumpkin that had a nice touch of smokiness and the slightly creamy tom yum broth - it was flavourful and packed a surprising good heat.

Unfortunately thought the cucumber slices were a tad out of place in this otherwise harmonious pairing, but most importantly, would have really liked the fettuccine a lot more al dente and less mushy. Take note that this dish has onions and garlic + grab your 1 for 1 mains with Burpple Beyond!

A new try on the Burpple Beyond adventure! Have been wanting to try HRVST for their modern vegan dishes and finally dropped by. The BKT Barley Risotto’s one of their more popular dishes, topped with daikon, garlic oil, pink radish, braised peanuts, dough crisps, coriander oil and young jackfruit. We were skeptical about the ‘BKT’ part of the dish but it was pretty distinct with its lightly peppered base - while some mouthfuls were kinda reminiscent of Teochew porridge? Enjoyed the varying textures here, but felt that the flavours became slightly flat after a while. Probably better to get it as a sharing dish. Take note that this dish has onions and garlic!

Back again to one of my fav mlxg lately! Brought friends along and they enjoyed it too even though they were sweating buckets from the spice. 😂 Also discovered a new ingredient that I’ve never ordered before, rectangular pieces of fried tofu that were highly recommended to us by the lady boss - SO GOOD after being fried in with the spices!

Similar to the Hokkien Mee ($4), D’life’s Hor Fun was more on the bland side. The kway teow itself was fried well but we really wished there was a touch more salt in the sauce!

Crazy huge portion, but was unfortunately bland. Their vegetarian hokkien mee comes with egg but you can request for them to exclude it.

Their kway chap paled in comparison to the other dishes we had but it’s still not too bad - would have really liked a stronger herbal flavour in the broth with silkier kway! The sides of beancurd, mushrooms and more were simmered thoroughly in a slightly sweeter base.

Parents’ fav out of the dishes we had was this! Served bubbling hot in a claypot, the thick laksa broth was rich with a good coconut fragrance. They threw in lots of ingredients here like beansprouts, beans, crispy beancurd, etc., making it quite a filling portion.

Came back several times since the first visit and though the spice level isn’t always that consistent, the flavour is. This mlxg is not cheap (there’s also a minimum of $10 for each bowl), but we figured out that the most value for money option is getting their maggie! We really like the ma la here as it’s fragrant, always fried very thoroughly and not oily. It may be a little too salty for some but just let them know if you’d like less salt or get rice to pair.

Have always been passing by Xing Hua but never got to try. Came by specially to get their vegetarian mlxg and only realised then the selection was originally for yong tau foo (smart to add on mala to that)! It’s not the cheapest around, the two of us paid about $20.90 inclusive of a $3 charge for the mlxg base that was of a default level of spice. Can’t say it tastes the same as the non-veg ones, but it was pretty good! We liked that the stir fry was fragrant, dry and not oily, though I’d personally prefer just a little more salt. They also have a huge range of vegetarian dishes to choose from - think steamboat, dim sum, stir fry, etc. Will be back!

📍Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant 兴化素食馆
🕥 10.30am to 9.45pm Daily