The Vegetarian Kitchen. Meat-eaters, you have been warned
Challenge a carnivore to look up non-meat dining options and she will revert to everybody’s Internet best friend: Google. I can only assume that said friend also looked up “vegetarian resto” and “Quezon City”. She couldn’t have come up with a place more straightforward than the Vegetarian Kitchen. Smart girl.
As the name so directly declares, it is a place of vegetables and mock meat. But more than that, it is a place to dispel the common, circulating myth that vegetarians only eat blah roots and grass. As a recently reinforced pescetarian, I can with certainty say that us non-meat eaters can eat the same tasty delights that you carnivores do, only sans the animal slaughter. But I digress 😀
The Vegetarian menu.
Vegetarian Kitchen is situated in another cozy part of QC, where as a friend astutely observed, all the healthier options seem to be. A small but tidy and quaint place, the restaurant had its menu up in a large blackboard against the wall. All the better for you to see and explore.
Orange ginger cooler for Hazel, soy coffee for me.
I usually ignore the drinks menu because I am a warm-water-please kind of girl, but it was past lunch time on a lazy Saturday, so a soy coffee sounded like the perfect pick-me-upper. It did not disappoint, steaming in the mug and tasting mellow with just the right shot of caffeine. My friend, lover of all beverages with ginger, predictably ordered the orange ginger cooler. It was a refreshing splash of juice with the perfect hit of tang and spice.
This one was a hit. Spinach and cream cheese dumpling appetizer, with the perfect sour cream dip. Photo by Hazel Caasi.
Anything with cream cheese is bound to be heavenly (see the giant walls I must climb to graduate to veganism??), and the Kitchen’s spinach and cream cheese dumpling definitely raised the bar. Fried and therefore almost certainly not healthy, it was definitely delicious, with the partner sour dip completing the melt-in-your-mouth experience. We totally forgot about the rest of our orders while munching this. And that would have been a shame, because the Korean spare ribs was a good follow through.
Korean Mock Meat Spareribs with cold Malunggay Salad and Buttered Rice. Photo by Hazel Caasi
This marked my first venture into mock meat, and it was a good first call. The Kitchen’s Korean Spareribs tasted very nearly like the real thing, tasty and tender, balanced by the cold malunggay salad and the sinful buttered rice it came with. I couldn’t stop my friend from stealing bites from my plate if I dared. Only problem with this is that it could have come with a bigger portion. Just saying.
Crispy Sesame Fish Sticks with seaweed salad and brown rice. Photo by Hazel Caasi.
Hazel got the crispy sesame fish sticks with seaweed salad and brown rice. Personally, I avoid fried fish sticks in any form if I can, and the reasons behind sadly manifested with this dish. The fish, although crispy as promised, as likewise dry inside, and thus not as tasty. The salad and the rice were good eats though. But if anything, this dish only urged my date to keep forking from my plate.
Spareribs, 2 points. Fish sticks, 0.
The Vegetarian Kitchen is located at 62B Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City ( Near Crossroads 77 and in front of St. Mary’s College), Quezon City, Philippines, with contact numbers 3555622 , 09158300511. Check their Facebook page for the full menu, dining hours and other updates.
