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Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Chinese
Juice bar
枣子树 or Jujube Tree is a causal-fine dining vegetarian restaurant group that operates outlets in Shanghai and in a couple of other cities. Offers an extensive range of modern Chinese vegetarian and vegan dishes, including ones mushrooms and ones with mock meats made from tofu, seitan, and/or yam. Menu has English with photos of dishes. This branch is situated one block south of Huai Hai Rd. Reported closed, Oct 2020.
44 Reviews
First Review by amerp
untemperedhope
Points +99
Excellent! - Edit
Delicious food, nice selection, good staff, great hours! It's a little tucked away, but it's not too difficult to find. They also have a small market attached that sells fake meats and vegetarian snacks (mmm... faux lamb skewers).
Read moreGuest
freeprincebandar
Points +305
My favorite place in Shanghai - Edit
Decent value, crowded, tucked in an alleyway off a main road. Close to South Huangpi metro. Open 11AM-9 PM. Popular with the expat crowd. Clean
Read morePros: decent value, clean setting
Cons: a bit hard to find at first
Guest
Vitxo
Points +610
Great place to eat - Edit
Amazingly refreshing for China.If you are used to drink cold water with your meal bring it yourself!
Read morePros: excellent food, healthy cuisine
Guest
VegEm
Points +35
Huge selection and super tasty! - Edit
I was really suprised by this place! It was delicious and there was a huge selection. Everything we tried was yummy. The location is great, although a little tricky to find. We went at an off hour, so it wasn't too crowded. Once you order, the food comes quickly. The only challenge is flagging down one of the staff to take your order. Highly recommended. I will definitely return.
Read morePros: Excellent food, Good value, Big menu
Cons: Service
Guest
eatinggreen
Points +608
Awful - Edit
This was the first place we tried when arriving to Shanghai. We were keen to try some really local dishes and had heard this was THE place to get acquainted with the local vegan food. We were quickly very disappointed... the restaurant was full of people, a disproportionate portion of which were foreigners. The ambience was very nice with the high-ceiling and oversized windows. The menu looked ok too - very nicely designed and printed. We felt spoiled for choices, but upon closer inspection saw that almost everything was based on mock meat, which we don't eat (unless it is homemade, which this wasn't). We ended up choosing from the few dishes we thought we mock-meat free and asked for less oil and no MSG. Well, it seems the chef does not know how to cook without MSG because everything was totally flavourless. The noodle soup was the worst of all - literally noodles floating in coloured water, surrounded by pieces of mock meat (they sneak it in everywhere). We went away totally unimpressed and in our whole 3 weeks in Shanghai did not feel the urge to visit them again - seriously the worst meal we had throughout the entire trip and way overpriced. The service was not friendly either - very matter of fact and robotic.
Read morePros: nice atmosphere, extensive menu if you're not choosy
Cons: MSG and mock meat hell, unfriendly service
Guest
dnmp
Points +453
Great Food - Skip the Juice - Edit
This was my first food stop in Shanghai and I really enjoyed it. The directions above were very helpful and accurate (Thank you!).
Read moreThis place gets crowded at lunch time so do not be afraid to be persistant. Pay attention as if you go when it is crowded your number can be called and you could miss it.
They have a plate of the day which is 20 RMB, I didn't have it but everyone around me had that plate. My food was good and I also got some juice which was good but cost more than my meal which made it not THAT worth it. They also serve tea on the table so really you can get away with not getting a drink.
Pros: Good value, Good food
Guest
veganrobot
Points +60
JuJuBe Tree!! From American vegan tourists... - Edit
Our favorite vegan restaurant in Shanghai, and probably the best vegan food we have ever had, was at JuJuBe Tree (or the English name - Vegetarian Lifestyle). This place has gourmet Chinese vegan dishes that will bl0w your mind! There is no milk, eggs or meat here and everything is super clean. The person who hands you your food even has a mask! We ate here 3 times in about a weekend, so we were obsessed at the end. Our first meal included: spicy, rice puffed covered fake chicken balls, dumplings, fake crab, potato balls, and some fresh dragon fruit and pear juice to top it off. Our absolute favorites were the spicy chicken balls that had a very crispy exterior with puffed rice and a powered spice on it. They were small enough to pop in your mouth and had a great flavor. The dumplings were only a 3 star (Loving Hut, Shanghai has the 5 star dumplings), but the fake crab was the gourmet vegan food of the whole trip. They severed it in a tiny bowl with a cover and the crab sat in a yellow soup with tofu and glass noodles, they topped it with some steamed broccoli and we went to town. The flavor and texture was spot on, the presentation was top notch and the whole experience made us want to bring home the chef for a wedding/full time chef at our house. This place is a must go.
Read moreThe second time we went, we went for a birthday dinner so we invited a couple friends who are all omnivores. They all enjoyed it very much too because of the flavor and mock meats. On top of our first favorite dishes we ordered some ribs, spicy potatoes, magic mushrooms, stacked eggplant, stuffed cucumbers and spinach soup. The crab and chicken still were our top contenders, but this time the eggplant stole the night. The plate was filled with thinly sliced eggplant covered in a sweet barbecue type sauce and chunks of tofu. This had a great flavor and was something I have never tried before. The third and final trip here (at the other location near NanJing Lu) we ordered some friend lotus root stuffed with faux meat and a side of bruchetta, fried seaweed rolls, sushi, faux chicken skewers, and a cold faux meat with a brown sauce. The lotus roots were unique and interesting with the stuffing and the sides of tomatoes in the bruchetta, but the meal got a little greasy for us by the end. Many Chinese dishes are not raw and this place is no different.
On top of all this they have a side shop that sells organic and healthy foods including brown rice (hard to find in China)!
Pros: Gourmet, Pure Vegan, Clean
Cons: No English, Sometimes greasy
Guest
Ashni
Points +2451
amazing menu, great food, slow service - Edit
We were really happy to find this place after having first encountered vegetarian lifestyle in chengdu, sichuan province. This one is less than 5mins walk from Huangpi Road (S) station on line 1.
Read moreThe menu is so varied, we spent a long time deciding what to order!
The food was incredible. We ordered a Malaysian style chinese claptio dish with mung bean vermicelli which was huge and really tasty. Also quite healthy as little oil was used,but the dish was so tasty from all of the flavours. Our second dish was lotus leaf wrapped tofu and vegetables. This dish was more plain, also tasted really healthy, good with the other dish to balance out our meal.
Service was a bit slow as the place was very busy.
Pros: excellent food, healthy if you want!, good size portions
Guest
laya_bz
Points +22
Extensive banquet style menu, lots of mockmeat!!! - Edit
This was my first ever vegetarian restaurant.The atmosphere is nice, but around dinnertime (7 PM) it gets really crowded. Overall, I think it was not a good value for the price we paid-- you can get an agar salad with cucumber and tomato next door for 6 Yuan, while the order of 10 jiao zi (steamed dumplings) at Veg Lifestyle was 17 Yuan.
Read moreThis restaurant also relies heavily on mockmeats and uses no whole grain, unless you order the 'brown rice' which is actually a small amount of brown rice mixed with a bowl of white. DO NOT ORDER ANY GRAIN DISHES IF YOU WANT WHOLE GRAIN. Overall, I think you could get a better value from going to different small places and ordering vegetables.
The appetizer was mostly watermelon with 2 slices honeydew.
The photographs correspond to the dishes' numbers.
1. Appetizer (free) Watermelon/ honeydew
2. Tofu (soft) with agaric mushroom and mock meat floss
3. Thai Curry Vegetable hotpot (nonspicy, coconut-milk based. White string mushrooms, Mock shrimp, rice noodles, green melon.)
4. Dumplings (5 'fish' and vinegar, 5 sauerkraut. With vinegar and pepper dipping sauce.
5. Drink: Wheat berry tea. Smells and tastes similar to coffee.
6. Stir-fried seasonal vegetable.Kale, I think?
7. Brown and white mixed rice-- which we didn't expect to have a ratio of about 10 white rice grains to 1 brown.
Pros: Tasty dumplings, No MSG, Food store inside
Cons: Lots of oil/sugar, Maybe milk , No whole grain, high prices
Guest
jayanthp
Points +48
Absolutely Fantastic - Edit
This is perhaps one of the best vegetarian places I have been to in my travels. The food was fantastic and the service outstanding. I went there 2 out of the 3 days I was there. The dim sums are excellent. So are the mock meat dishes. A place like Ling Zhi in Singapore which charges twice as much must learn and replicate this model. Outstanding!
Read moreGuest
Ketty
Points +133
One of my favorite restaurants anywhere - Edit
I've eaten here several times over the past few years, and I've never been disappointed. Whenever I'm in Shanghai, I run straight to this place!
Read moreThe Set Business lunch is always beautifully presented, and full of a selection of creative, tasty dishes. And for less than US$3, it's a steal!
Guest
flamekat
Points +402
You MUST eat here! - Edit
This place is great. We've been eating here at least once a week since moving here in September 2008. We even have a membership card that gets us 10% off. The staff is super friendly and speaks a decent level of English, but the picture menu is really all you need.
Read moreThe 20 kuai lunch special is good value. It's rice, stir-fried greens, a tofu or mock meat dish, a soup, and 3 little tastes of something sweet, sour, and salty. The lunch menu is only in Chinese, but go ahead and get it!
Our favorite dishes off the menu are the ginger chicken, stir-fried basil and bamboo shoots, tofu skin rolls, yam and green bean paste, radish pudding, wontons, xiao long bao (soup dumplings), veggie eel (nori wrapped around rice and smothered in chili sauce), and the tofu clay pot. But really, there are just so many dishes to choose from and most of them are winners.
I will only suggest a few to stay away from (due mostly to a difference in Chinese and Western palates)- the lichen starter and anything else with prickly ash sauce, and anything with bitter melon. Unless you know you like those things. We're daring, and the staff tried to warn us, but we insisted and couldn't finish those dishes. Chinese diners seem to like them though.
All tables get tea and a plate of fruit to start with and the fruit vinegars are nice to try. For sweets, we like the lotus cakes and shortbreads. But what we usually do is buy a box of cookies from the attached shop! Also available in the shop are frozen and long-life mock meats (including veggie fish, chicken, and sausage), various noodle varieties, ramen, organic teas, stir-fry sauces, soy milk powder, and Chinese language cookbooks.
Everyone we've taken here has loved it and I highly recommend Veggie Lifestyle to HappyCow users! The atmosphere is nice and the crowd is mostly Chinese with some Westerners here and there. It gets pretty busy, but we've never had to wait longer than 20 minutes for a table. You can also call ahead and reserve a table and there are private rooms and special banquet menus you can reserve. Another plus is that this restaurant doesn't use MSG and goes lighter on the oil than most places in town. The only minus I can think of is that it's not the cheapest place around. However, it's great value for the quality of food and it's affordable for most expats. We can eat for as little as 70 yuan if we try and have never gone over 115 even when we were pigging out.
Pros: yummy, healthy food, good value, friendly staff
Cons: prickly ash sauce
Guest
bandita
Points +123
Delicious & reasonably priced - Edit
I talked my carnivorous friend in to joining me here by offering to pay for the lunch, and to buy another lunch elsewhere if he didn't like it here. It was a risk for me too since it was also my first time here. At first, my friend was going to avoid any mock meat dishes. But he couldn't help passing up on the picture of a meatball dish! He ended up ordering it and LOVED it! He was very surprised how mock meat can taste. My dish was great as well. Only reason I give this 4 cows is because of the communication barrier. I wanted water, but it's not on the menu. Nevertheless, the fruit juice I ordered was very good. I will definitely revisit if I'm ever in Shanghai again, but I'll either learn how to say water in Chinese, or bring my own. If you get a taxi to here, I recommend having a translator write the address in Chinese for the driver.
Read morePros: Great pictures w/ English translation, Lots of variety, Reasonably priced
Cons: communication barrier
Guest
swestrich
Points +90
Good food - Edit
I went here already expecting a treat, and what I got was a nice experience. The food is pretty good, and I was able to finish all the food even though I had ordered a lot. The tofu pancake I really liked even though it is extremely oily :S, be warned :) . The noodles I ordered were perfect, and the veggie steak had a great taste to it, but I didn't enjoy the texture because it was a little too much like meat. I found this place to be about 10-20% more expensive than it's rivals in Shanghai but I think it's worth it.
Read morePros: Good food, Good Service, Menu with pictures
Guest
rlambsun
Points +31
IN LOVE - Edit
This has been said in another review but this is pretty close to my favourite restaurant in Shanghai.
Read moreSTAFF/SERVICE: Prompt and professional. Their systems are good and all staff seem quite well trained. They don't speak much English, but YOU ARE IN CHINA no one seemed to complain staff didn't speak Chinese in Australia - funny that. Anyway, the staff are very pleasant and they always try their best work out what I am saying in my garbled Chinese.
PRESENTATION: The restaurant is extremely clean! Staff are well presented and the toilets are immaculate. I have had a peek in the kitchen and its shiny white. I even like the design! Lots of slate and dark wood.
FOOD: Great menu! Lots of different dishes and the menu has pictures. Food is very well presented, great flavours, lots of choice. DUMPLING TEST: 4 of 5!!!!
Pros: Efficient professional staff, healthy, organic, no MSG, Great value!
Cons: Food is seasonal? (a note not a con)
eatinggreen
I don't know where you got the 'no MSG' claim from. They most certainly do use it, and a LOT of it. Ask them. Or better yet, request they leave it out and see how totally devoid of flavour the results are.
Read moreGuest
nausicaa
Points +74
Fantastic food, good value and ambience - Edit
Everything we've had has been wonderfully flavored and not too greasy. As others have said, they have a wide assortment of mock meats, but if you don't like that sort of thing like my family, you can still eat well. Love the dumplings, though the soup dumplings are mainly chopped tofu/fake meat and broth with a thickener; if you go with one dumpling dish, I recommend ordering one of the others. It's also a great value. If I lived nearby I'd eat here every day. The English translation of their name is Jujube Tree. They are conveniently located close to the Huangpi South metro station.
Read morePros: fantastic food, good value, convenient location
Guest
amerp
Points +164
FAVORITE RESTRUANT - Edit
This was my favorite restruant in shanghai, and I lived in shanghai for 4 months and I think I have been to all the veggie restruants in shanghai that exist! I LOVED THIS PLACE THe price was cheap, the portions were a good size for what you are paying and the food was so good that I tried to repeat some of the dished when I returned home.
Read morePros: GOOD PRICE, YUMMY DISHES, LOVED IT
Cons: can't think of any
Guest
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