Lacto
Indian

Vegetarian Indian restaurant est. 1981. Serves South Indian cuisine. Known for its thalis which change slightly each day. Added a large separate vegan menu in 2019. Approx. 65 seats. At Exit P1 of East TST & TST MTR Stations. Open Mon-Sun 11:30am-3:30pm, 6:30pm-10:30pm.


Venue map for Woodlands
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24 Reviews

First Review by vkapadia

brodham

Points +156

Vegan
13 Jan 2024

Very slow service

I've been here many times and the food is wonderful.
However, on my previous visit to order take-out, I had to wait more than 45 minutes while everyone else was getting served before me. The food was good and big, but I was not pleased at the wait. I even came near opening time to avoid along wait. Pull your socks up. The great food deserves better service to go along with it.

Updated from previous review on 2024-01-13

Pros: Good food

Cons: The wait for take-out was ridiculously long

Gordie

Points +218

Herbivore
14 Oct 2023

Best Indian food ever!

Huge selections of both Vegan and Vegetarian dishes.

Updated from previous review on 2023-10-14

Pros: Delicious , Delicious , Delicious

Cons: None

yumchadong

Points +4917

Vegan
03 Oct 2023

Carelessness

The staff’s attention to dietary restrictions leaves much to be desired. I had clearly communicated my vegan preference, yet I was served a dosa with added cheese, presumably meant for another customer.

KatieTang

Points +261

Mostly Veg
24 Jun 2023

🌿 Woodlands: A Paradise for Veggie Enthusiasts 🌿

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct3iDXApVBn/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

🌿 Woodlands: A Paradise for Veggie Enthusiasts 🌿

Are you a vegetarian or a vegan searching for delicious Indian food? Explore Woodlands, an Indian vegetarian restaurant that satisfies all your cravings.

Step into Woodlands, where the captivating aroma of Indian spices welcomes you. With an extensive menu of plant-based options, this hidden gem takes you on a culinary journey no matter whether you're following a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

🍛 A Symphony of Flavours: South Indian Thali 🥣

Immerse yourself in the culinary symphony of the South Indian thali. Experience the blend of five curries + a sweet soup dessert, served with tri-coloured rice and warm chapati.

🌯 Mysore Mushroom Masala Dosa: A Must-Try 🍄

Try the Mysore Mushroom Masala Dosa—a crispy dosa with a luscious mushroom masala filling that is spicy to my liking. Accompanied by three homemade sauces, it's a culinary masterpiece.

🍽️ Unforgettable Flavours 🌿

Woodlands provides a remarkable vegetarian experience; each dish showcases their dedication to flavour and quality. I recommend it! 🫶🏼

Pros: Great authentic food!

Cons: Service can be better!

lokalvegan

Points +1643

Vegan
14 Mar 2023

Mediocre

Didn’t feel fresh, too many items on the menu for a small kitchen.

Chris2867

Points +87

Vegetarian
09 Mar 2023

Nice small restaurants

Food was nice, would come back

Pros: The lady waitress was very responsive

Cons: Male waiters are a bit slow with no hospitality

kmbrophy

Points +1024

Vegan
08 Oct 2022

Delicious Indian food

Extensive menu made it hard to choose but we will definitely be back to try more of the menu! The dosas were huge, everything we ordered was fresh and flavorful. The samosas were excellent! The menu is helpful as it has symbols for vegan/vegetarian/Jain options, so you can point to the symbol and ask your server to ensure everything you order is vegan.

Pros: Lots of vegan options , Separate vegan menu

Kakaman

Points +44

Vegan
04 Sep 2022

Vegan Friendly Indian Restaurant

It's my first time ate there. Thali is really good, just the fried rice too buttery so I ordered plain rice. next time I will make sure I order vegan Thali.

Pros: Vegan Manu, Nice staffs , Yummy foods

vgntrvlr

Points +923

Vegan
22 Aug 2022

Decent vegan Indian food

Pleasantly surprised to try their vegan menu of Indian comfort foods.

Pros: Lots of vegan choices.

Cons: Gets very busy during peak times.

bevyang

Points +371

Mostly Veg
16 Jul 2022

Educates and promotes plant based eating

This is a fully vegetarian Indian restaurant with a separate entire vegan menu, plus other dishes can be made vegan. I really appreciate the education and effort this restaurant does to promote not eating animal based products. The food was delicious but a little heavy and overly sauced for my taste (but Indian food tends to be like this for me, it’s a preference thing). When we asked for help on what is vegan the staff was incredible diligent. However aside from that the service was a bit lackluster - we had to follow up several times to get their attention to order, for the check, for extra drinks, etc.

Pros: Has a separate vegan menu, Educational pages in menu on plant-basedbenefits , Staff is careful to follow up to ensure vegan

Cons: Overall service not great (aside from vegan info), Food felt a bit too strong/over sauced

Ashni

Points +2223

Vegan
11 Nov 2020

Yummy indian food

The restaurant is located in the Wing On Plaza shopping mall up a flight of escalators to UG level. They renovated in 2019, and at the same time revamped with a separate vegan menu containing over 100 dishes! When you order, just make clear you want the vegan version of the dish (so for example for the dosa, they will make sure it is made with vegetable oil and not ghee). They also have Jain/Buddhist options.

For starters, recommend the pani puri and sev puri. These were very popular with our group and flavours were perfect combination of tangy, sour, sweet etc. Basically you can't go wrong with these.
Masala dosa is very good.
North and South Indian thalis are good and filling meals.
We tried few different curries - enjoyed the bhindi masala. They made us a special mushroom dish like gobi manchurian in a sweet and sour sticky sauce which was yummy.

They have Oatly and offer vegan masala chai although have't been able to try that yet! They were out of Happy Cow vegan ice cream when we visited. They don't serve or permit alcohol on their premises.

Updated from previous review on 2010-08-08

Pros: Excellent food, Friendly staff, Lots of vegan options

Cons: No alcohol on premises

supersupergirl

Points +289

Herbivore
01 Sep 2020

Fantastic Indian dinner

Woodlands has been around in Hong Kong since 1981, longer since I have been here.

I heard of it when I asked for curry recommendations but I didn't really know my way round those days.

In a way, I am glad I didn't try it earlier even though I have had countless of Indian meals because my knowledge of Indian food is better now.

There has been a big change to Woodlands too, they have redesigned the restaurant and menu so diners get a fine experience.





There was so much to choose from especially my favourite rices, they had tomato, coconut, yoghurt and even lemon rice.

It was hard choosing a rice as lemon rice and yoghurt rice (curd rice) are my favourites.

They even have JAIN curries to cater for people on a Jain Diet.



The staff spoke good English so this place is expat friendly and they even have zero alcohol beer and zero alcohol wine per glass/bottle which can be ordered or you can buy them at Maharaja Mart.

It is pretty amazing, you can get Zero alcohol Rose, Red and Whites!!





Ended up ordering drinks as the selections were worth trying.

They had pineapple lassi and my favourite Jal Jeera with soda.

Pineapple lassi is a great option for people who do not like mango.



Jal Jeera is just something I like because of the sourness and punchiness!



For food, started on the Onion Rava Dosa which stayed crispy all the way through the meal and they serve it without oil which makes it healthy.

The texture is similar to crispy French galettes and they taste tasty with or without the sambar.



Next were the mains, the vegetable fried noodles were sooooooooooooooo delicious.

They were soft and flavoured with lots of spices.

Luckily they asked how spicy I wanted the noodles because I often forget they are spicy and end up not finishing it because it is too spicy.



The lemon rice and the spinach mushroom curry were great together.

Again the lemon rice is good on its own and I appreciate they used button mushrooms in the curry and not Asian Shitaake mushrooms.



Will definitely be back again and it is now easier getting here as it is right near an MTR exit unlike the old days!

coconut_pudding

Points +28

Vegan
20 Nov 2019

Delicious, good value

Had the vegan thali (104 HKD) which came with ‘assorted breads’ (chapati, pappadam, etc.) and rice. I’m a fairly light eater but it really was a lot of food; too much for me for lunch. I wish they’d do a mini version. Super delicious, tho’, and individual curries/dhal not greasy at all. Would be nice if they added some kind of green vegetable to balance out all the yellow colours. Recommend.

docvids

Points +57

Vegetarian
27 Jul 2019

Very tasty Indian food

Good variety of Indian food with emphasis on dosas (South Indian pancake). We tried a few of the dosas (all very yummy), their vadas (also very yummy), Pac bhaji (nice but a bit spicy for me) and Vada pav (loved this). Attentive service. Clean restaurant. Will definitely be back.

Buzztrade

Points +38

Vegan
25 May 2019

A great feed fast and delicious!

Well worth checking out! On my TST must visit list for sure!

Tertia

Points +90

Vegetarian
16 Dec 2018

Tasty food

Busy place in a shopping mall. They refurbished at the beginning of December 2018 and the place looks modern and clean. We liked the dosa masala and south indian tali. The lemon pickle that came with the tali was very good. The staff asked a couple of times if we wanted to order more.
It was not expensive.

Pros: Easy to find, Tasty, Not expensive

Anwoody

Points +145

Vegetarian
08 Sep 2016

typical thali place

Food is fine, thali will be refilled if requested. Location is a little out of the way for evening dining. Staff speak English.

Pascal_HK

Points +313

Vegetarian
22 Mar 2016

good thali

I advise the special thali (hkd135) which is excellent (but non vegan). The south India thali (hkd90) which I tried the other time is also good. The only thing which always strikes me when I go to Woodlands is that clients are mainly non-Indian (as opposed to Sangeetha next door or Saravana Bhavan). According to an Indian friend, this is because they got a bad reputation re the service. I cannot complain on that side though.

Gandhileo

Points +78

Vegetarian
27 Oct 2014

NO MORE AUTHENTIC SOUT INDIAN

Already for one year it has been downgrading its food quality and no mor lemon pickel with the meal and when ordered take away knead to pick up and some times no rasam some times no sambar and every thing is more sweet .it is no more the same woodlands any more it eas the only pride of south india (Madras City)
Very disappointed . Hope the manajment will sure look into this .
Hoping the come back of orignal woodlands restaurant. The new staff are very rude and mannerles and very un hygne
God bless.
Vanakam

Lanky

Points +404

Vegetarian
26 Sep 2012

Good if not great

Woodlands provided a decent thali tonight, I liked that they offered to top up each thing as i finished them. Usually they dont offer unless you ask. I didnt need any refills, because the serving was big enough, but its nice that they offered.
I must disagree with the previous reviewer, and say that the menu appears to me mostly southern Indian to me.
Staff was friendly for HK standards.

Pros: Decent food, Decent Value

Cons: Pretty lacto

Richard Myers

Points +753

Vegan
27 Oct 2011

It Was Satisfying

We had a little difficulty finding the place and it definitely seems like a cafeteria. The food was good; we had a modified South Indian Thali and the only other choice would have been a Dosa. The place was fairly busy but lacked atmosphere and had a worn look to it. We left full and happy.

Pros: Food tasted good

Cons: Lacked choice, A little shabby

JohnnySensible

Points +7596

Herbivore
07 Apr 2011

Vegan South Indian Thali - delicious

Have just finished a delicious lunch.

A South India Thali - papad - 2 rotis - plain rice - rasam - sambar - 2 chutneys - 3 vegetable oreparations - dahl - all for HK$ 77 / US$ 10 including tax.

Now feeling fully satisfied.

Updated from previous review on Saturday January 31, 2009

Ride up the escalator to the "Upper Ground Floor" - Woodlands is then on your right.

Open Midday to 15.30 & then 18.30 to 22.30 - every day.

Very "lacto-" & serving mostly north Indian food.

It is possible to "vegan-ize" some of the dishes if you discuss with the waiter - seriously.

I have been visitng the old location since the mid-90's & now the new location - several of my friends are hooked on the place.

The food is OK - good for the tongue.

The rice can be grim - I usually order a few veg dishes with dahl & the chapati's / roti's.

sglcklch

Points +2815

Vegan
12 Aug 2010

Glad they are back!

Came here for the first time for dinner since they reopened at this new location. Mostly South Indian cuisine with a couple of dishes from the North too. We ordered some idlis to start with, which were a nice alternative to the other deep fried snacks. For main courses we had a vegetable biryani, mashed eggplant with tomato, alu mutter (potatoes and peas curry), and some chapatis. The alu mutter was a mistake, I told them to cancel but they never did. It was mostly gravy with very few potatoes and peas. The biryani was tasty, came in a generous portion too. The eggplant dish was really yummy, good for the palate but very oily. Maybe better stick with their South Indian specialties. It was definitely a satiating meal though, pretty cheap too I thought. Will for sure come back and try their South Indian dishes instead.

PS. To get here, just walk out from MTR exit P1 and the mall is right in front of you.

Pros: good value, location

Cons: cheap, can be oily

vkapadia

Points +26

Vegetarian
06 Jun 2009

Great Food, Mostly

Woodlands is a great place to eat. I do not live in Hong Kong, but my parents do, and they go here a couple times a month at least (for people who don't eat out often, thats a lot!) and I have been there 3 times.

Most of the food I have had at Woodlands has been superb. Their dosas are very well done, the vadas are amazing, and their paneer is very good. The only dish I have tried that wasn't great was the cholay. It was insanely oily, I could fry my rotis in the excess oil I could skim from the top. Could have been a one time mistake though, I haven't ordered it again. They also have almost every item available in "Jain" style (no onions or garlic). Prices are not exorbitant, but are not very cheap either. A fair price for great food.

The staff is very friendly and helpful. If you have any special requests, let them know, they will do whatever they can to help.

The location is prime, it is near a lot of interesting places. It is also a quick bus ride from where we are staying. It is in a building with many other shops, and the restaurant itself does seem a bit crowded, but they have done well arranging the room with the space they have available.

Pros: Great Food, Friendly Staff, Location

Cons: Oily Cholay, Crowded Space




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