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• A touch cynical?

Cat Ba Island is pretty bereft of decent vegan options, and this seems to be the only 100% vegan place in town, so we gave it a go. And... It was a pretty big disappointment. In total, we ate there 3 times, and the food never changed. The com chay plates were rice with a generous helping of unseasoned, unspiced vegetables (mostly cabbage and potato) with some tofu and some kind of strange doughy product. The noodle soup and mixed vegetables rice were just variations on this theme, with the same veg-tofu combo added to pretty plain carbs. We had the impression they probably buy whatever fresh veg is cheap and add it fairly indiscriminately to whatever is ordered. We also had some sad rice paper rolls, just shredded veg, no herbs, no tofu, no mushrooms. The place clearly does decent business, and judging by the reviews on here, a lot of people really do see it as wonderful, authentic Vietnamese chay food. Personally, I can't help but see a certain amount of cynicism in a place that seems to think vegetarian Western tourists will eat any old stuff if you paint a Buddha on the wall and play meditation music. You'd probably get better value for money trying to find somewhere on the beach front with a few veggie dishes. On the plus side, their smoothies are pretty good, and the atmosphere is nice enough. I'd say avoid, but there's really nowhere else to go on Cat Ba.