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Good but not great

4 Posted on 12 / 22 / 2011

Food: 8. I had sweet and sour "chicken". I liked that it had chunks of veggies and fruit in it! (While the pepper, carrots, and snap peas they put in are common, the pineapple and cranberries they put in are not). The taste of this entree was good, but the texture of the "chicken" wasn't as realistis as some places I've been... you could tell this was tofu wrapped by some crispy/friend coating. I remember Yuan Fu (down the road, as others have mentioned) being more realistic, and better overall.

Prices: 7. A bit pricey, though I guess average for veg*n restaurants.

Atmosphere: 7. Nothing special, but certainly not dingy or dirty or anything like that.

Staff: 8. Prompt. Not particularly friendly or unfriendly.

Pros: Great vegan options!, Tasty, Reasonable prices

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Great Vegan Option in Suburban Maryland

4 Posted on 11 / 26 / 2011

I went to The Vegetable Garden a few nights ago with my husband (a vegan, too) and my parents (avowed omnivores with a leary attitude towards vegan food and mock meats.) We were ALL very pleased.

The service was quick, attentive, helpful and courteous. The food was, overall, delicious. We really liked the Sesame Beef with Taro Root, The Jian Pao Eggplant and Crispy Eggplant. The Kung Pao Chicken was excellent, as well. My father is a French-Fries addict and connoisseur and he found them to be amazingly crispy, light and flavorful. I really enjoyed them, too.

We were less enthused with the Chicken Nuggets Teriyaki as the nuggets themselves were tasteless and the Terikai sauce was very vinegar-ish. Not a typical Terikayi flavor. The Tomato and Spinach soup was bland and also rather unflavorful. The Spring Rolls are deep-fried, more like a Eggroll, and they were VERY oily, so beware.

In all, though, this is a nice and clean restaurant with enormous portions of food for very reasonable prices. With such an enormous menu, I'll have to go back MANY TIMES before I can attempt everything on their appetizing menu!

Pros: Good Food, Huge Portions, Great Service
Cons: a few items are bland

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Soggy and mushy

2 Posted on 11 / 20 / 2011

I've been there a few times now and everything I've tried has tasted this way, with the exception of the soups which are very good. This place is also somewhat expensive for Chinese food. Yuan Fu, which is nearby, is reliably better and less expensive.

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Great Food

5 Posted on 07 / 06 / 2011

The Vegetable Garden is right across the street from the Metro (White Flint). It's a smallish place, and it's usually close to full during peak hours (lunch and dinner). The menu entirely vegetarian and an enormous array of versions of typical Chinese dishes, as well as some creative and healthy options I haven't seen elsewhere. The clientele are notably diverse; it's a popular lunch spot for businesspeople but you'll see families, people on dates, large groups of friends; it's the sort of place you can bring anyone.

The prices are a little higher than most Chinese places, but certainly not exorbitant, and the portions are usually huge. I rarely leave without leftovers. Their lunch specials-soup, spring roll, and entrée-are a great deal and they have a lot of options (a lot of places vegetarian options are less at lunch than at dinner). They have a great lentil soup (Do they have lentil soup in China? I don't care.). Probably my favorite dish is the emerald bean curd, basically a Hunan style (black bean sauce with a few hot peppers) with tofu and seitan; light on sauce but still absolutely delicious. They bring out some kind of sesame-flavored bread with vegetables baked in, and they offer brown rice at no extra charge. There are still appealing options I haven't tried after having come here for a couple of years.

Compared to the Vegetable Garden down the road, I'd say that of the two vegetarian Chinese places in the area, Yuan Fu is more Chinese (in terms of menu options and atmosphere) and Vegetable Garden is more health food oriented (with their macrobiotic options and some of their more creative vegetable entrees). Both are good, but if you told me I could only have one, I'd probably take Yuan Fu, by a hair. Fortunately, we don't have to make that choice.

Notably, the Vegetable Garden does a benefit for Compassion over Killing the first Thursday of each month I think. It's usually packed the entire day; I came in not knowing at 3 in the afternoon and got the last table. Makes you feel good about eating there.

Pros: Food, Location
Cons: Nothing

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"Get In My Bell-ay..."

5 Posted on 04 / 17 / 2011

The 4 hr drive to Rockville from Pittsburgh seems completely reasonable several times a week. This place rocks! I was able to get what I always DREAM of when I visited several years back - a dinner combo plate that let me choose 3 dishes, a soup and an appetizer. Holy yum! Really. Praise Seitan! They know how to cook up in this place! The fried food is cooked to crunchy perfection - never greasy. Every dish is flavorful with being soggy/too saucy.

Stop here. Or, spend your whole life searching...

Pros: Delicious, Healthful, VEGAN DESSERT!!

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Giant menu

5 Posted on 11 / 01 / 2010

Where else can you order vegan sushi, deep-fried fare, rice and noodle dishes, macrobiotics, Western dishes and more under one roof?

My ladyfriend and I had the Triple Delight and the Garden Feast. Both hit the spot.

The Triple delight had three different textures: soft eggplant, starchy lotus root and crunchy black mushroom. It was battered, deep-fried and covered in a super sweet sugarcane sauce. Not exactly a healthy option, but tasty.

The garden feast was a home run. Among the best mock meats I've ever had in generous portions.

Friendly staff, too. One of the chefs came out and chatted with us.

Too bad we live in Canada!

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Five Stars

5 Posted on 10 / 02 / 2010

Amazingly wonderful veggie fare. We go a couple times a month, and are NEVER disappointed.

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Awesome

5 Posted on 04 / 04 / 2010

Really good food all around. Surprise foods would be the fries and the veggie-gyro really tasty and decent price and quite filling. I also recommend ordering some of the chili oil too put on everything. If you are looking for a more authentic chinese dish go with the Jian Pao eggplant but of the about 44 dishes I have had all 43 have been really good. However there has been complaints about the new Match "meats" they have been using but most of the dishes I get don't use Match products. Though it was nice too see they were aware of the vegan meat scare and fixed it even though they are working it out.

Other stand out dishes: Avocado Salad (a halved avocado always good quality covered in a sweet miso dressing simply delicious) Hot and Sour soup (one of the best I have ever had)
Sesame Beef with Taro Roots (I love Taro but rarely eat it outside of this dish sadly but the dish is really really really good)
Kale Infinity (so I never ordered it but a family member I took there did and I tried and used the leftovers to make a fried rice and it was good all around)
Crispy Eggplant (next too the Sesame Beef this is one of the top top faves so delicious)
Rice Noodles with Vegetables (good thick wide noodles stir fried with vegetables great with spicy chili oil or on it's own so so so good)
Mushroom Forest (If a tree falls you aren't going to hear it because you will be going MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm)
Veggie-Gyro Sandwich (ok I had too add it again because it really is off the charts good, simple sammich with their own little twist but really good and those fries are some of the best I have had)
Scallion Latka (not your typical flat pancake but so good)
Spinach Roll (spinach in a roll with a delicious dipping sauce super healthy and unexpected it literally is just a roll of spinach nothing else)
Stuffed Yuba (stuffed with delicious and wrapped with even more delicious)
Key Lime Pie (aside from my friend they make the best vegan key lime pie)

Plus you also get a frequent diners card and you get 10 stamps you get $10 off and if you are like me and eat there way too much it is useful especially when you are in a group with people who don't eat there much, you can usually get the card full of stamps quickly.

All in all this place is really great. Good food open till 10 (I wish it was later but 10 isn't bad) near metro and service is always great. Plus you can find some of their stuff in MD Food Co-op and MOM's and places like that if you need to grab and go!

Pros: Excellent food, Good deals and combos, Delicious
Cons: not able to eat there everyday, new match "meats" aren't well seasoned, no raw options

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What a great variety!!

5 Posted on 03 / 08 / 2010

I had moo-shi vegetable, sweet and sour chicken, and sushi platter. All of them are fantastic. Their inari was very tasty and moo-shi vegetable was as good as its appearance. Sweet and sour chicken is not too sweet, you know, some places make it too sweet and you don't want to eat again after a few tries, but this was perfect.
The servers are nice and friendly, but the space between the tables seems to be too narrow(especially where we sat), but I and my friend ended up having a nice conversation with a guy next to us. After the food and the conversation, my friend wants to try vegan diet. Yeeeeeah!!!!

Pros: great food, organic, big portion
Cons: narrow table space

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Dozens of vegan options

5 Posted on 12 / 31 / 2009

The vegetable garden will please non-vegetarians, but will REALLY please vegans unaccustomed to entree choices! Try the sweet and sour delight for an unhealthy treat- or there are lots of tasty, healthy choices too! Key lime pie cheesecake and the curry pond are also delicious. Great prices for generous portions.

Pros: choices, good value

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overrated

3 Posted on 07 / 28 / 2009

I really feel this restaurant is overrated. the food doesn't have very strong flavors and its just...meh in my opinion. I did notice that the Chinese customers seemed to have a different menu, but that of course is not written in English and i bet the food is better...if you want actual Chinese food that is. Yuan Fu is much better and is a little bit further up the Pike.

they sell some prepackaged food at local health food stores...one of them had ketchup as an ingredient! This was awhile ago, so maybe its changed, but I don't want to eat at a "chinese" restaurant that uses ketchup.

Pros: healthy
Cons: bland, very busy

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Nice surprise

4 Posted on 06 / 30 / 2008

The food tastes good, plates are filled with interesting combinations, and the service is helpful. One worry: No Chinese were in the room when I went. Maybe the dishes are too chinese-AMERICAN for Chinese tastes? But go!

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huge menu, all vegan

5 Posted on 05 / 04 / 2008

So many lovely things to choose from here. The menu is a good mix of mock-meat and all-vegetable dishes, between familiar Chinese dishes and the chef's special creations. The portions are very generous, but you'd do well to save room for a slice of pie.

Pros: selection, price, deliciousness
Cons: a bit far out of town, loyalty cards only good for 3 months, and I don't come that often

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Great food for a good value

5 Posted on 02 / 22 / 2008

The Vegetable Garden is one of my favorite places in the DC area. When you sit down, a server brings a plate of fresh, warm bread to your table. Their Super Dinner Combo is always a good value, especially if you are torn between two entrees. You get a soup, a veggie roll (either spring roll or moo shoo cilantro roll), and half portions of two entrees.

They recently added some dishes to their menu. The "Crispy Beef" is an entree portion of their Crispy Black Mushroom appetizer--sweet and crunchy. The wonton soup is light and flavorful. The Carved and Curled Shiitake Mushrooms is one of my favorite entrees. If you like mock meats, this is one of the places to go.

While I've never tried them, they have a few pasta dishes and some sandwiches. Me, I'm there for the stir-fry.

Pros: pictures of food, near Metro station, Delicious food
Cons: too far from my home in DC, Not enough space

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Worth 3 1/2 trip from PA

5 Posted on 01 / 04 / 2008

Definitely worth the trip from Pennsylvania to eat Sesame Beef. Took grand daughter for her first vegan meal since she just became a vegetarian. She enjoyed the meal and atmosphere so much that she wanted to go back for lunch every day that she was in the Rockville area which was almost a week. The day we left to go back to PA, she still wanted to go eat at the Vegetable Garden. Definitely worth the time and cost.

Pros: healthy cuisine, excellent food

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The Vegetable Garden

3 Posted on 08 / 18 / 2007

I went with a group of vegetarians and we shared about 8 dishes; it was all very good.
-VeganTex

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Excellent, light, affordable Chinese

5 Posted on 05 / 07 / 2007

The food here is excellent. It's light, freshly prepared and full of vegetables and well-spiced sauces. The mockmeats are light and tasty and have excellent texture---not too firm, not too soft. Prices are extremely reasonable and portions are large enough for leftovers. I liked the orange beef, hunan beef and chicken kung pao.

Pros: Light, fresh, Inexpensive, big portions, Service

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Yum!

5 Posted on 03 / 04 / 2007

I've been eating at the Veggie Garden since it was located in White Flint Mall. The food is absolutely delicious. House Veggie Soup is a favorite. Usually order Kung Pao Tofu or Sesame Beef. Lunch special is your best bet, good amount of food, usually under $10.

Pros: Delicious Food, Healthy, Unique flavors
Cons: Location can be tricky, Price