"Extensive banquet style menu, lots of mockmeat!!!"   My Rating
1 laya_bz	Posted on: Wednesday, July 07, 2010
	Review: This was my first ever vegetarian restaurant.The atmosphere is nice, but around dinnertime (7 PM) it gets really crowded. Overall, I think it was not a good value for the price we paid-- you can get an agar salad with cucumber and tomato next door for 6 Yuan, while the order of 10 jiao zi (steamed dumplings) at Veg Lifestyle was 17 Yuan. This restaurant also relies heavily on mockmeats and uses no whole grain, unless you order the 'brown rice' which is actually a small amount of brown rice mixed with a bowl of white. DO NOT ORDER ANY GRAIN DISHES IF YOU WANT WHOLE GRAIN. Overall, I think you could get a better value from going to different small places and ordering vegetables. The appetizer was mostly watermelon with 2 slices honeydew. The photographs correspond to the dishes' numbers. 1. Appetizer (free) Watermelon/ honeydew 2. Tofu (soft) with agaric mushroom and mock meat floss 3. Thai Curry Vegetable hotpot (nonspicy, coconut-milk based. White string mushrooms, Mock shrimp, rice noodles, green melon.) 4. Dumplings (5 'fish' and vinegar, 5 sauerkraut. With vinegar and pepper dipping sauce. 5. Drink: Wheat berry tea. Smells and tastes similar to coffee. 6. Stir-fried seasonal vegetable.Kale, I think? 7. Brown and white mixed rice-- which we didn't expect to have a ratio of about 10 white rice grains to 1 brown.   Pros: Tasty dumplings * No MSG * Food store inside Cons: Lots of oil/sugar * Maybe milk * No whole grain, high prices
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"Absolutely Fantastic"   My Rating
6 jayanthp	Posted on: Thursday, January 07, 2010
	Review: This is perhaps one of the best vegetarian places I have been to in my travels. The food was fantastic and the service outstanding. I went there 2 out of the 3 days I was there. The dim sums are excellent. So are the mock meat dishes. A place like Ling Zhi in Singapore which charges twice as much must learn and replicate this model. Outstanding!   Pros: * * Cons: * *
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"One of my favorite restaurants anywhere"   My Rating
7 Ketty	Posted on: Saturday, November 07, 2009
	Review: I've eaten here several times over the past few years, and I've never been disappointed. Whenever I'm in Shanghai, I run straight to this place! The Set Business lunch is always beautifully presented, and full of a selection of creative, tasty dishes. And for less than US$3, it's a steal!   Pros: * * Cons: * *
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"You MUST eat here!"   My Rating
35 flamekat	Posted on: Sunday, February 01, 2009
	Review: This place is great. We've been eating here at least once a week since moving here in September 2008. We even have a membership card that gets us 10% off. The staff is super friendly and speaks a decent level of English, but the picture menu is really all you need. The 20 kuai lunch special is good value. It's rice, stir-fried greens, a tofu or mock meat dish, a soup, and 3 little tastes of something sweet, sour, and salty. The lunch menu is only in Chinese, but go ahead and get it! Our favorite dishes off the menu are the ginger chicken, stir-fried basil and bamboo shoots, tofu skin rolls, yam and green bean paste, radish pudding, wontons, xiao long bao (soup dumplings), veggie eel (nori wrapped around rice and smothered in chili sauce), and the tofu clay pot. But really, there are just so many dishes to choose from and most of them are winners. I will only suggest a few to stay away from (due mostly to a difference in Chinese and Western palates)- the lichen starter and anything else with prickly ash sauce, and anything with bitter melon. Unless you know you like those things. We're daring, and the staff tried to warn us, but we insisted and couldn't finish those dishes. Chinese diners seem to like them though. All tables get tea and a plate of fruit to start with and the fruit vinegars are nice to try. For sweets, we like the lotus cakes and shortbreads. But what we usually do is buy a box of cookies from the attached shop! Also available in the shop are frozen and long-life mock meats (including veggie fish, chicken, and sausage), various noodle varieties, ramen, organic teas, stir-fry sauces, soy milk powder, and Chinese language cookbooks. Everyone we've taken here has loved it and I highly recommend Veggie Lifestyle to HappyCow users! The atmosphere is nice and the crowd is mostly Chinese with some Westerners here and there. It gets pretty busy, but we've never had to wait longer than 20 minutes for a table. You can also call ahead and reserve a table and there are private rooms and special banquet menus you can reserve. Another plus is that this restaurant doesn't use MSG and goes lighter on the oil than most places in town. The only minus I can think of is that it's not the cheapest place around. However, it's great value for the quality of food and it's affordable for most expats. We can eat for as little as 70 yuan if we try and have never gone over 115 even when we were pigging out.   Pros: yummy, healthy food * good value * friendly staff Cons: prickly ash sauce * *
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"Delicious & reasonably priced"   My Rating
7 bandita	Posted on: Monday, October 20, 2008
	Review: I talked my carnivorous friend in to joining me here by offering to pay for the lunch, and to buy another lunch elsewhere if he didn't like it here. It was a risk for me too since it was also my first time here. At first, my friend was going to avoid any mock meat dishes. But he couldn't help passing up on the picture of a meatball dish! He ended up ordering it and LOVED it! He was very surprised how mock meat can taste. My dish was great as well. Only reason I give this 4 cows is because of the communication barrier. I wanted water, but it's not on the menu. Nevertheless, the fruit juice I ordered was very good. I will definitely revisit if I'm ever in Shanghai again, but I'll either learn how to say water in Chinese, or bring my own. If you get a taxi to here, I recommend having a translator write the address in Chinese for the driver.   Pros: Great pictures w/ English translation * Lots of variety * Reasonably priced Cons: communication barrier * *
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"Good food"   My Rating
6 swestrich	Posted on: Saturday, September 20, 2008
	Review: I went here already expecting a treat, and what I got was a nice experience. The food is pretty good, and I was able to finish all the food even though I had ordered a lot. The tofu pancake I really liked even though it is extremely oily :S, be warned :) . The noodles I ordered were perfect, and the veggie steak had a great taste to it, but I didn't enjoy the texture because it was a little too much like meat. I found this place to be about 10-20% more expensive than it's rivals in Shanghai but I think it's worth it.   Pros: Good food * Good Service * Menu with pictures Cons: * *
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"Delicious, and so many options to choose from!"   My Rating
1 JulieVeg	Posted on: Friday, September 05, 2008
	Review: I lived in Shanghai and used to go here often for a quick lunch or a long delicious dinner. The place is sort of in a wide alley way. If you go during lunch, it is absolutely packed, and you may get seated with other people (but this really cuts down on waiting time). However, it's worth it, especially because you can get a nice set lunch for 20rmb which comes out almost immediately. The lunch set includes rice, veggies, a fake meat dish, and fruit. You can't pick your set - it changes daily and you get what's being served that day. Aside from the set lunch, the menu is extensive and very creative. As other reviews have said, portions are huge (as family style meals is Chinese custom), so it's best to go with a few people in order to sample a lot of dishes. Just to attest to how authentic this place is, I've eaten meals where I'm next to a monk in his orange toga :)   Pros: Wide selection * Fast service * Cheap! Cons: Crowded at lunchtime * Huge portions (bad if by yourself) *
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"IN LOVE"   My Rating
3 rlambsun	Posted on: Sunday, June 22, 2008
	Review: This has been said in another review but this is pretty close to my favourite restaurant in Shanghai. STAFF/SERVICE: Prompt and professional. Their systems are good and all staff seem quite well trained. They don't speak much English, but YOU ARE IN CHINA no one seemed to complain staff didn't speak Chinese in Australia - funny that. Anyway, the staff are very pleasant and they always try their best work out what I am saying in my garbled Chinese. PRESENTATION: The restaurant is extremely clean! Staff are well presented and the toilets are immaculate. I have had a peek in the kitchen and its shiny white. I even like the design! Lots of slate and dark wood. FOOD: Great menu! Lots of different dishes and the menu has pictures. Food is very well presented, great flavours, lots of choice. DUMPLING TEST: 4 of 5!!!!   Pros: Efficient professional staff * healthy, organic, no MSG * Great value! Cons: Food is seasonal? (a note not a con) * *
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"Fantastic food, good value and ambience"   My Rating
3 nausicaa	Posted on: Saturday, April 05, 2008
	Review: Everything we've had has been wonderfully flavored and not too greasy. As others have said, they have a wide assortment of mock meats, but if you don't like that sort of thing like my family, you can still eat well. Love the dumplings, though the soup dumplings are mainly chopped tofu/fake meat and broth with a thickener; if you go with one dumpling dish, I recommend ordering one of the others. It's also a great value. If I lived nearby I'd eat here every day. The English translation of their name is Jujube Tree. They are conveniently located close to the Huangpi South metro station.   Pros: fantastic food * good value * convenient location Cons: * *
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"FAVORITE RESTRUANT"   My Rating
2 amerp	Posted on: Saturday, November 03, 2007
	Review: This was my favorite restruant in shanghai, and I lived in shanghai for 4 months and I think I have been to all the veggie restruants in shanghai that exist! I LOVED THIS PLACE THe price was cheap, the portions were a good size for what you are paying and the food was so good that I tried to repeat some of the dished when I returned home.   Pros: GOOD PRICE * YUMMY DISHES * LOVED IT Cons: can't think of any * *
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