White Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

There are a few Chinese Vegetarian Restaurants in Melbourne. Enlightened Cuisine in the CBD is probably the most popular one. Vegie Hut in Boxhill is the only vegan Yum Cha place in town and their faux meat dishes draw vegans from different suburbs to the De Facto Chinatown of Melbourne. My favourite one, however, is White Lotus.

Their food is more home style, has much less (if any) MSG compared to other mock meat places and I like their friendly but laid back service. I have eaten there for my last few birthdays. I also ate there before my neck surgery in case I couldn't leave the hospital alive.

If the contestants of MasterChef Australia are cooking off with the chef of White Lotus, the signature dish would be:

Tamarind "Fish"!

I love the contrast of the soft rolled bean curd sheets and the crispiness of seaweed. The tamarind sauce is perfect, with the right amount of spiciness and sourness.

The cream corn soup is not bad neither

The gluten free options however are very limited. Kristy had the stir-fried tofu and vegies with satay sauce. It was pretty right-on and refreshing.

They also do really cool "drumsticks", roasted "duck" and lemon "chicken".

Steph went there recently and blogged about it. Cindy and Michael went there back in April, 2007. I don't know why I have never blogged about it.

White Lotus has been opened for four decades. Owner Peter Li is retiring so his children are running it on the weekend. My friend called up to book a table last week and was notified by the answering machine that they are closed till further notice due to family illness.

I wish the Li family well and I look forward to enjoying their awesome food again very soon.

Address: 185 Victoria St, West Melbourne
Ph: 9326 6040

On the walkman:
Live! At Meredith - The Dirty Three