Vegan-friendly
Chinese
Take-out
Asian
Catering
Malaysian

Tian Ci (Heavenly Compassion) offers Chinese and some Malaysian vegetarian dishes, daily yum cha. Food is vegan, but desserts are not. Confirmed closed Sep 2018.


17 Reviews

First Review by Lea

davidyatesau

Points +93

Vegetarian
01 Jan 2019

Sadly now gone

Loved it here. Sadly it’s now gone

VanessaCullen

Points +43

Vegan
21 Jul 2018

Go for the mushrooms

Very friendly and attentive service. The Buddha's Feast chef's suggestion dish is a delight - lots of fresh broccoli and mushrooms without an oily sauce.

Pros: Mostly vegan, Very good service

Cons: No indication of gluten free items on the menu

CaitlynE

Points +110

Vegetarian
11 Jun 2018

Yummy yum cha

Tian ci had very lovely food and nice service. The small restaurant made it feel like home.

Pros: Lots of vegan options, Well priced, Good location

Cons: Cash only, Service can be slow, Parking can be tricky

GaryM

Points +18

Vegan
20 Jan 2018

Love the food here

A great little place , an amazing selection of dish's . Staff are friendly and attentive , went with non vegan friends who loved the food also . Prices were reasonable ,would definitely eat here again if in the area .

Pros: Everything is vegan , friendly staff, huge selcetion of mock meat dishes

Lozcriston

Points +842

Vegan
18 Dec 2017

Decent Chinese Take Away

Ordered rice and the cashew chicken stir fry. Cost $22.40, which I thought a bit pricey for the amount of food given. Tasty enough though. Would be interested in trying their yum cha. Cash only.

VanessaSprout

Points +84

Vegan
22 Oct 2017

Amazing little place

We loved everything we ate, the prices were reasonable and a lot of the food we couldn’t have guessed if it was or want vegan!
We are so impressed with this little place and the great service too.
It’s cash only!

Pros: everything

Cons: cash only

thecriclover99

Points +152

Vegan
24 Jun 2017

Good variety and friendly service

I love the complementary oranges & biscuits at the end of the meal.

Favourite dishes:
Tom Yum Noodle
Pineapple Fried Rice
Mongolian Kebab

Pros: Complementary Oranges, Complementary biscuits

Cons: Expensive

Steph13

Points +22

Vegan
16 May 2017

Best vegan restaurant

Always friendly service and all (but 3 items on the dessert menu which have dairy listed) are delicious and vegan! The Mongolian kebabs, satay chicken skewers and 2 course duck are the best!

Pros: Friendly staff , Amazing food , Reasonable prices

Happychillieat

Points +74

Vegan
11 Mar 2017

reasonable price with 5* service

Very friendly service, as soon as the waitress heard the clinging sound of our tea pot, she immediately came and refill with hot water!
The food was alright, have had better vegan dim sum elsewhere, but very reasonable price for what it is. Spent $30 for two person.

Pros: service

leonardhall

Points +321

Mostly Veg
03 Mar 2017

one of my favs

This is our favourite vegan Chinese restaurant in Sydney. Make a booking as it can get packed. All of the dishes are good. I've put up heaps of photos for you to check out. Restaurant has a small family business kind of feel. Highly recommended.

sarah992

Points +209

Vegan
02 Nov 2016

taro fish

taro fish isnt good. i like taro but this tastes like glue. but havent tried anything else so will come back again.

Pros: almost all vegan, nice staff

Cons: taro fish is gross, some dairy products in desserts

Mslanei

Points +890

Vegan
15 Oct 2016

hidden gem!

It would be easy to miss this place on an otherwise urban street. Inside the staff are welcoming and lunchtime is popular. As another reviewer mentioned, the steamed pork buns are very tasty. There is a large menu, varied dim sum, and a bargain specials board.
The food is very tasty. It's Chinese style with lots of mock meats. The portion sizes are good. Would definitely come here again.

Pros: tasty food, cheap specials

Harvestmoon

Points +28

Vegan
28 Oct 2014

Great Food!

Love this restaurant for its food, we stop by for lunch every time we are in Sydney. Reasonably priced, and meals are a good size.
The only massive downside is the way the staff 'hover' over you while you are eating. I find it really off-putting. It's like being an exhibit on display for them. They watch ever so closely, waiting for that last piece of food to leave the plate, and they swoop on in, take it away and the process starts over. I guess if you live locally takeaway is always an option.

Pros: Delicious food, Reasonably priced, Good sized meals

Cons: staff behaviour somewhat off-putting

Fingercuts

Points +289

Herbivore
07 Dec 2012

huge selection

One of the better Chinese vego restaurants in Sydney. Big menu selection of fake meats, prepared and served in the method of the corresponding traditional meat dish.
A rare gem in Sydney, definitely worth visiting.
Friendly helpful staff can help with menu selections. Menus in Chinese and English.
This place does not serve meat.

(Don't know why the title says "maybe closed" - the place fed me in November 2012)

Updated from previous review on Thursday December 06, 2012

Pros: good food, interesting food, good value

MaitreyaBelmore

Points +416

Vegetarian
20 Jun 2010

NOT YUMMY Yum Cha

I went to Tian Ci on a strong recommendations of a friend who said they have the best vegetarian yum cha in Sydney. So off I went with a great expectation, but the yum cha dishes fell awfully short. Firstly, you have to wait more than 30 mins to get the dishes out. When the dishes finally arrived, they don't look as good. The har gau (vegetarian prawn dumplings) looked frail and the pastry looking not fresh and broken, then the taste was just absolutely bland and not fresh. The same thing happenned with their sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, vegetable dumplings, and the vegetable BBQ pork buns. Really disappointing. Later I had a strong feeling that those yum cha dishes were probably already frozen and heated as ordered. But why took so long to serve? I have tasted much better - the best yum cha is still Green Gourmet at Newtown!

Another day I came at around 2:30pm and the waiter told me that the kitchen already closed (well they wrote their closing time is supposedly 3pm) and the chef could not make anything for me. After I begged (since I had to travel 1 hour to get there), the waiter finally agreed to cook one dish for me but not to dine in, but only to take away. I chose the lunch special, crispy soy chicken with rice. It looked good and tastes good too. But I felt disappointed by the service and the yum cha.

This is a thought:
Opening a vegetarian restaurant is supposedly not for profit, but more to promote vegetarianism/veganism by giving convenience to fellow vegetarians/vegans and people who started to learn to be a vegetarian. We are doing our bits to contribute to this earth, and since we know being vegetarian is still quite difficult for most people, vegetarian restaurants are there to provide convenience so more and more people will be willing to be vegetarians, right? But why, most vegetarian and vegan restaurants have to open late at 11am and then to closed between 3pm-5pm? This is not a total convenience for some who did not have time to lunch by midday. Maybe because there is only one chef in the kitchen? But it does not make sense...... Think about this, restaurant owners! You carries a noble task to propagate vegetarianism to everyone! So do it with all your heart! If your motivation to open a vegetarian restaurant is profit, then you are absolutely lost!

Pros: Good lunch specials

Cons: Terrible Yum Cha, Half hearted service

Lanky

22 Oct 2010

I have a couple of points:
try adding some salt. Food at many vegetarian reataurants taste bland because they go way too low on salt, thinking that that is healtheier.
I have a question, if they dont make profit, how do they pay the rent? how do they pay their staff? how do they pay themselves?
Also, it should be noted that the second half of your review is completely nonsensical... if profit were their only motivation, then they would serve you without hesitation at 2.30pm. The fact that they close for a couple of hours shows that rest is more important to them than making a couple extra bucks.

anindha

Points +25

Vegetarian
24 Dec 2008

Nice Place

All the dishes I have had there have been good. The steamed 'pork' buns are my favourite. Good yum cha selection. Really good service.

Pros: yum cha, service

Cons: only cash

Lea

Points +415

Vegan
29 Aug 2008

Good for yum cha

This is where we go for yum cha since the tragic closure of Pitt Street Vegetarian. You order what you want from the yum cha menu and then the dishes come out one or two at a time at regular intervals. You need to be judicious in ordering - some dishes are a bit greasy and there is a predominance of fried foods and not many vegies available. Haven't got around to trying the non yum cha dishes yet.

Pros: Yum cha

Cons: Lots of fried food, Not enough vegies




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