CLOSED: Alishan Vegetarian Hawkers Centre

We got in to Penang rather late so for our first night this was our only vege eating option. It sounded interesting so we went down feeling excited and curious. Upon arrival however these feelings quickly subsided. The area is a large, dissheveled shed decorated with large neon posters of Supreme Master Ching Hai and nothing much else except for plastic chairs and tables. There was noone there so we thought it might be closed until a lady appeared from behind what appeared to be a food cart with no food in it.

She threw us some menus, one with western food, the other with asian. We weren't interested in the western so focused on the asian but the picking were thin and involved carbohydrates, mock meat and little else. When we asked for some veges we were pointed to the fried rice section. hmm. We decided to try a laksa which was the only tempting option on the whole menu but just our luck, it was unavailable. In the end we opted for just one noodle soup between the two of us and some fried fruit dessert just to keep the lady off our backs.

The soup was admittedly tasty but was in no way anything we would classify as real food. Mock meats floating around it, noodles and little else. Still, she did say they don't use MSG which is definitely a plus. The fried desserts were so oily I removed the exterior and just ate the fruit inside.

After we ate we emebarked on a search for some real food, which was difficult because it was late and we had no transport. 2 hours later and after midnight we stumbled into a random Chinese restaurant where we ordered some rice, green veges, steamed eggplant and tofu. It was pretty awful too actually (chef obviously didn't know how to flavour food without seafood and used way too much oil despite our request that he didn't) but it beat the hawker's centre hands down.

Final view on the hawker's center was that this kind of vegetarianism is probably a minus for the cause.

I been there few times now, one of the factor i like their concept first of the kind vegetarian hawkers style centre unlike others ordinary dining in restaurant or shop. Its quite a special experience for me.

Their western food a must try since the chef working at 5 stars hotel previously thus the sauce taste delicious than any other penang vegetarian restaurant western food.

The place is quite clean and spacious and free parking. Not to mention that their staff extremely friendly and provide good services. If you get hungry, definitely you can stop by here since they open til 12 midnight. (usually vegetarian restaurant in penang closed at 9pm)

If you are not into western food, you can try their fried noodles, chicken rice, duck rice, nasi lemak and others to name.

Overall i highly recommended people to give it a try :)