Vegan-friendly
Chinese

Buddhist vegetarian canteen restaurant within Po Lin Monastery. Fixed menu in the canteen. Seats 300+. Meal ticket includes admission to the Tian Tan Buddha museum inside the big Buddha. Access via 25 min cable car trip from Tung Chung or much cheaper bus trip from Mui Wo ferry terminal or Tung Chung station. Warning: some non-vegan desserts may use beef tallow. Open Mon-Sun 11:30am-4:30pm.


Venue map for Po Lin Monastery
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33 Reviews

First Review by Petesternz

lucahc11

Points +46

Vegetarian
24 Jan 2024

title

review

Updated from previous review on 2024-01-23

KoenVanderhoydonk

Points +300

Vegan
29 Oct 2023

Truly local experience

Great food and nice environment. Above all blessed with excellent food. Simple but super tasty.

Nuria.L

Points +83

Vegan
22 Aug 2023

Tasty medium price

They have vegetarian meat with sauce, noodles with fungus, traditional desserts (a little greasy), mango cononut milk with sago. 3 people 240HKD

RiceT

Points +795

Vegetarian
16 Jun 2023

Po Lin Monastery food kiosk

Food kiosk that sells traditional vegetarian snacks and light dishes

Pros: Cheap, Light snacks for a short break

Cons: Limited choices

TraslaHuellaOficial

Points +184

Vegan
10 May 2020

Good vegetarian food but little grassy

We got here in a guide your during a rainy day.
The food was very good,they have a very different method to serve the food over the table.
The place was a little crowded,we stayed until late at night because it was a big storm outside,the employees were nice to us.

Updated from previous review on 2020-05-10

Pros: Great location, Decent food, Plenty of space

Cons: Little dirty, Some plates were little Grassy

mimi00

Points +244

Vegan
16 Mar 2020

Amazing Candies

I love their Hong Kong candies, I was starving to try one of these, it was all really delicious

Pros: Delicious , Hong Kong style, Close to the monastery

Juliaalb

Points +208

Vegan
16 Jun 2019

Not edible

We decided to get restaurant tickets, deluxe option. It was cheapish (around 200-250hkd for both of us as far as I can remember) but we couldn’t eat it. The soup was slimy, the tea was cold, the tofu and veggies were bland and weirdly sweet and the spring rolls were oil logged. The food at the deli outside looked much nicer and we’d recommend you go there instead.

Cons: Bland food, Overly sweet, Inedible

viksins

Points +33

Vegetarian
27 Apr 2019

Very good vegetarian food

It's a very nice place to have vegetarian food in Ngong Ping. You could go for the set menu. Overall it's on the cheaper side. With the lunch ticket, you also get pass to enter the gallery beneath the Buddha.

VeraKho

Points +64

Vegetarian
25 Apr 2019

Yummy food, Reasonable Hongkong price

We buy a deluxe food ticket, 2 adults and 2 kids. The lady in the counter ask to pay just for 3, assuming the 2 kids count as 1 adult. The meal ticket can also use to enter the Buddha statue inside where the relic is kept.
The food is fresh, delicious and enough for everybody. I really like the tofu skin with lemon sauce. They dont use mock meat as well. Many green vegetables include.

drlj

Points +610

Vegan
11 Apr 2019

Good value for HK, convenient

We planned ahead to get the set meal and entry into to the Buddha museum. We weren’t disappointed. The monastery itself is beautiful and quiet. The meal was good value, especially for HK, with large portions. We had the set meal for 2 which was silken tofu in black bean sauce, mushrooms with broccolini, vegan chickn and veg stir fry, rice, spring roll and soup. Flavours generally good if a little plain. Plenty of tea. Room itself large and canteen like. Not too busy in je day we were there and food came quickly. A good option if visiting the Buddha. Other option is smaller cafe doing fried noodles, dumplings etc. but we did not try this.

Pros: Large portions, good value, Nice vegetables , Convenient

Cons: Not big on flavours

muddles

Points +297

Mostly Veg
05 Feb 2019

Decent selection. OK food.

Location is great and if you just finished a hike to get there, knowingly you can get a feed is a bonus. We went during Chinese New Year and the line for food can be a bit crazy (15-20min) in queue. There is a good selection of food options ranging from dim sum style to fried noodles, desserts and drinks. Staff were friendly enough and you can get by with pointing if you don't speak Cantonese since it's smorgasbord style service. It can be a bit on the pricy side though if you try a lot of different things. You could easily run up a bill of 100-200 hkd per person. In terms of taste, things were slightly on the bland side but they provide different sauces you can use to flavour to taste. Compared to some other monasteries I would say this is between average to slightly blander, but it was still pleasant enough. Just don't expect a Michelin star meal.

Pros: Lots of different food choices, Location

Cons: Long lines, Slightly costly, Slightly bland

JohnAndrew

Points +20

Vegan
16 Jul 2018

Ok but not the best

We expected to find healthy fresh food and we were disappointed.

You get what you pay for and as this place is very busy the emphasis is feed you and get you out quick. We are pretty sure what we had was all vegan but it wasn't the tastiest but at least we didn't go hungry.

Pros: cheap

Cons: not the best quality

Soul2Soul Educare

Points +1090

Vegetarian
07 Jun 2018

Don't eat here - overpriced and bland

The monastery itself is a beautiful place but the set lunch that they offer at their restaurant is overpriced and very bland. I later saw a deli vegetarian café and if I had known about that we would not have pre-paid for this lunch. It is a set lunch made up for 5 dishes but every dish is really bland, no salt, no garlic, no onions, no taste. Luckily they have a condiment station where you can add your own soy sauce etc. But the food is very overpriced for what it is. Don't pre-buy the ticket for lunch. Eat at the Deli café instead. You will thank me.

Cons: bland, overpriced

edwardbc

Points +1021

Vegan
05 Mar 2018

Light and filling

I had the “deluxe” menu which you can buy just at the bottom of the buddha statue, which allows you to enter the museum as well. The food was good for temple standards where usually no salt or garlic is used. I was eating alone so the portion was huge for myself. Good pumpkin soup, mushrooms with leafy greens, vegetables plate, bean curd rolls and normal fried rolls.

Fair price considering it is HK, the only let down is neither of the three eating areas give you a temple experience or setting if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s pretty much like a normal restaurant (the deluxe option at least, the normal one didn’t look better at all).

SomethingVegan

Points +111

Vegan
01 Jan 2018

Quick canteen food

There was a choice of 2 set meals, we went for the cheaper option. The food came quickly and there was so much for the 2 of us! The food was ok, nothing special, but cheap and the meal ticket gave you access to inside the Buddha statue. The meal was vegan, as far as we could tell. We did ask, but due to the language barrier the lady selling the tokens didn't know what we were asking. As we went thinking it was 100% vegan, we decided to go ahead.

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Average food

Stevie

Points +11765

Vegan
11 Dec 2017

Po Lin Monastery, Hong Kong

Their attention to vego detail seems poor. Outside the canteen they have a cafe named Deli Vegetarian Cafe. For an alleged vegetarian place its disappointing they sell ice cream that clearly isn't vegetarian. Namely the ice cream has beef tallow in the ingredients. Can the rest of the food they provide be trusted as vego?

Updated from previous review on Friday April 17, 2015

Updated from previous review on Saturday October 31, 2015


Updated from previous review on 2015-11-02

Cons: Sells non vego ice cream (made with beef tallow)

TomBlacker

Points +152

Vegan
27 Nov 2017

Delicious!

After a stunning cable car ride I headed for the Pol Lin Monastery for the vegan lunch. I wasn’t disappointed, it was huge! Copious amounts of rice, spring rolls, lightly battered tofu, a gelatinous pumpkin soup with glass noodles, very interesting mushrooms on a bed of cabbage, asparagus with cashews, mushrooms and peppers and a huge pot of tea.

Pros: Awesome meal topping off a lovely afternoon

Cons: none

FlokiTheCat

Points +882

Vegan
18 Jul 2017

Dissapointing experience in the Po Lin Monastery

I went to the Po Lin monastery a couple of weeks ago and I was quite excited about the vegan cantine that there is inside the monastery.

Unfortunately, the experience didn't live up to my expectations. The food wasn't specially good and it had a lot of MSG. The only positive thing about the food is that the portions were quite big, so it is not so overpriced as one might expect in such a touristic location.

I would recommend anyone going to the Po Lin monastery to have lunch somewhere else before or after the visit, as this place is not really worth visiting.

Updated from previous review on 2017-07-18

Pros: Friendly staff

Cons: Mediocre food

shineonyou

Points +853

Vegan
09 Sep 2016

Fun touristy part of visiting the Big Buddha

We ordered from the ticket counter in monastery. If you buy a ticket for the Big Buddha museum at the bottom on the steps to the Big Buddha, you can also include your meal on that ticket. You show them your ticket when you enter and they deliver a set meal.

Since the Big Buddha is a tourist attraction, this is kind of a tourist trap I think. The food is so-so. It’s not very flavorful, but I admittedly coat most of my food with hot sauce, so maybe others would disagree. But it’s kind of cool to eat in a monastery, and if you see it as part of your visit to the Big Buddha, it’s a fun time.


Updated from previous review on 2016-09-09

Pros: Touristy (if you like that sort of thing), Accepts credit cards

Cons: Touristy (if you don't like that sort of thing)

Origamiwolf

Points +225

Vegan
17 Jan 2016

Great chinese food

We took the more expensive course and had a great experience with traditional chinese dishes. The orange tasting tofu was great and I just loved the mushrooms, great spring rools and a great soup with it.

I was a bit dissapointed on the setting since I was hoping it to be a more of a buddhist themed restaurant and not just the feeling of a cafeteria.

Well worth a day trip with the Ngong Ping 360 and a beautiful temple, dont miss the Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas!!

Pros: Great location for tourstis, Great chinese food

Cons: Boring room, the place didnt have a "fresh" feeling

MariaKozha

Points +29

Vegetarian
06 Jan 2016

fat

Fat dishes
"Cheap" cooking
Poor choosing

But many sweets if you like ☺️

nafanc

Points +1615

Vegan
05 Jan 2016

Great meal in a great locale

We had the standard set meal for 98 HKD per person. As a group of three, we got tea, rice, soup, and four dishes.

The soup was light and tasty - a nice change from the heavy veggie fare that we've been having in HK the past week. The dishes were crispy fried veggie rolls, veggie chicken and bell peppers, black mushroom and bok choy, and soft tofu and corn. All of the food was delightful.

There was a lot of food, so it was very good value for 98 HKD.

Pros: Good value, Quick service, Tasty dishes

aevankow

Points +27

Vegetarian
06 Apr 2015

Healthy, filling vegetarian experience

Although skeptical, my husband and I bought the general meal ticket before we headed up the steps to visit the Buddha statue. It was nice to be able to walk around inside the temple, which had many paintings. There were not many English translations. It started to rain and we found our way over to the restaurant, which is located on the Monastery grounds. The general meal was more than enough food for the two of us. It came with warm soup, rice, tea, lots of veggies, tofu, and a fried vegetable roll. It was the healthiest meal we had since arriving in Hong Kong, which was a refreshing change from the fried and overly salted food from earlier in the week. The deluxe meal also looked delicious, however we didn't want to try the fake shark fin soup. We prefer vegetarian food that doesn't mimic meat options, especially shark. We ate in a large room with many other tables. The table and layout was very simple, which we liked.

Pros: Healthy, Pre-arranged meal, Plenty to eat

Cons: some fake meat, crowded room, not much service

Bobozmom

Points +222

Vegetarian
31 Mar 2015

good food

We had set meal in the restaurant and the meal was quite nice. Serve a mock shark fin soup followed by a sweet lemon mock chicken dish, stir fried mixed veggies which was our favorite and mushrooms on greens, spring rolls and rice. Affordable and a good value .

Pros: several pricing options and variety of food

Cons: a bit of a tourist trap

Caro

Points +119

Vegetarian
26 Jun 2013

Unfortunately not good

I have been in this restaurant with two friends. After three weeks of travelling through Asia we have eaten in many different vegetarian restaurants and I have to say that we had the worst food of those three weeks in this restaurant. We were all very disappointed because the food was nothing special and the tofu was wobbly. You expect more when you pay 80HKD just for one meal. Moreover right next to this restaurant there is another vegetarian fast food counter where the food looked so much better. So better save the money for the meal ticket and eat at the other place!

Cons: expensive

Whocindah

Points +160

Vegan
08 Feb 2013

not worth the hype

We had high expectations for this one but overall we were disappointed. We chose the "regular meal" rather than the "deluxe". It was quite a bit of food, four dishes plus soup and rice. Three of the dishes were very gelatinous and bland. We didn't notice until after our meal that there were "seasoning stations" where one could get sauces and such -perhaps that would have made a difference but I am not confident. We didn't eat at the little take out cafe but felt it may have been a better option. The staff were lovely and very quick.

Pros: friendly staff, big portions

Cons: not very tasty, bland soup

Spamelula

Points +33

Vegetarian
10 Jul 2012

Lovely location and good food

Superb meal - very good food & a lovely location

Pros: good food, inexpensive, relaxing




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