Hello all, hope all of you are doing well. Been a while since I do a post in the community. Today, I will be sharing on new vegetarian restaurant that I find in my neighbourhood as I was scouring for places to eat. While hidden in an alley of a less travelled road, this place do serve really decent vegetarian food.
The Place
Leaf Corner Vegetarian Restaurant
Address: 5 Jln Legundi, Singapore 759269
Notes on this place: The restaurant is located opposite Sembawang Shopping Centre along a small stretch of road that is not facing the main road. Parking wise, there are some lots that are at the roadside but can be full during meal times. So if you are driving down, you can opt to park at Sembawang Shopping Centre and cross over or find parking spots a few lane away from the restaurant.
A simple restaurant that when you enter, the cashier and the other staff will greet and welcome you. The place is generally very homely with fairy lights as decor, making the place very brightly lit, definitely a nice place to enjoy a meal. Everything looks clean and proper.
The Food
Now to the main highlight of this post, let's talk about the food that this restaurant serves. When my wife and I were browsing through the menu, the dishes that were available were somewhat similar to that of a typical stir fry store in food courts/coffeehouses but the usual meat dishes were replaced by vegetarian options instead of the usual pork, chicken or beef.
So essentially, this has become a potential comparison of how the chefs can recreate something that is usually ate with a meat variant but not served with vegetarian ingredients.
So here's what my wife and I ordered:
- Stir Fried Kang Kong (Water Spinach) with Sambal Chilli
- Sweet and Sour Lion's Mane Mushroom
- Stir Fried Hor Fun (flat rice noodles)
- Claypot "Chicken" Rice (not in the picture above)
Let's start looking at each of the food closely as I share my thoughts and reviews on each item.
Stir Fried Kang Kong (Water Spinach) with Sambal Chilli
This dish is an all time favourite for people in my region and most people tend to order this dish when they visit a stir fry stall. The typical non vegetarian version adds cuttlefish to the water spinach and fry in sambal chilli which contains dried shrimp to elevate the taste and added some umami to the dish.
However, on the vegetarian version served by this restuarant, it is still the water spinach but instead of frying with cuttlefish, bai-ling mushroom is used as a replacement which help the dish to maintain the crunchiness that was brought about by the cuttlefish. And for the chilli, because there is no dried shrimp in the chilli, it lacks the same level of umami that was brought about by the dried shrimp. But this doesn't mean it didn't taste good. It has its own kick from the chilli used and taste good in another way. You can give it a try and see if it suits your palette. A nice attempt to recreate the original but taste uniquely nice in another way.
Sweet and Sour Lion's Mane Mushroom
This meat version of this dish typically uses fried pork and then fried with sweet and sour sauce to give that hint of orange/pink colouration. Taste wise typically makes one wanna eat more due to the light sour taste. Also another all time favourite that people tend to order.
The vegetarian version served by this restaurant replaced the pork by Lion's mane mushroom. I know many vegetarian restaurant use Lion's mane as a staple replacement for meat because it gives the bite and make one feel like they are still chewing on meat. It was a great attempt by the chef as it really tasted nice as the sauces were fully absorbed by the mushroom and gives a refreshing taste with every bite. I like how the food is done and definitely something worth ordering whenever I visit.
Stir Fry Hor Fun (Flat Rice Noodles)
Another classic from stir fry store which typically consist of the flat noodles, eggs, vegetables, meat, fish and shrimp.
The vegetarian version is much simpler in the recipe with only eggs, vegetables and mushrooms. While ingredients were simpler, the taste was awesome. Loads of wok hey (caramelization) shows how skilful the chef is. I like this dish because of how simple it is and loaded with loads of flavour.
Claypot "Chicken" Rice
This dish non meat version is not typically found in stir fry shop but usually specialized shops that mainly sell this dish only. Rice that is packed with loads of ingredients such as chicken, vegetables and chinese sausage are being placed in a claypot and cooked over a charcoal stove. And the nicest thing from this dish is the partial charred taste due to it being cooked over the charcoal stove.
The vegetarian version served by the restaurant though being served in a claypot, it didn't come with the partial charred taste which is iconic to this dish. Instead it become like a rice in a pot dish where a nice serving of rice with the sauces and ingredients were nicely cooked and taste really flavourful and hearty. Again, another attempt but ended up having its own taste instead of what normally people would expect.
Overall:
A nice cosy restaurant that served food that taste really good. While some of the dish were good attempts at the original meat version of the dish, some came up well and some ended up having a unique taste of their own which taste nice in its own way. My take is to come here and let the chef showcase his cooking skills to the dishes but do not keep trying to compare with the meat version as you will end up thinking it wasn't well done due to the difference between the vegetarian and the meat version.
Closing
If you're looking for a nice restaurant that serves nice vegetarian food, this is a place to visit. I will definitely visit again especially this is place is not far away from my house. If you've never tasted good vegetarian food, do give this place a try!
Thank you for coming by and reading my post. Hope you enjoyed my sharing. Let me know your thoughts and I hope to share more good food with the community soon.