Vegify, Knoxfield

I know a person who is a vegetarian, having 'converted' after 40 odd years of 'meatism' as 'penance' for a something that happened in their life. Why does it feel like most vegetarians in the Buddhist Chinese culture are vegetarians for their 'sins'? Anyway, every time we meet up for a meal, I would ask them to choose a restaurant for us to dine it. Inevitably, it is a push back to myself to select the restaurant because they are by their own admission, too slack to research a good restaurant to go to!

It is a good thing that there are a couple of reasonably priced, Chinese vegetarian restaurants around (but bad news for my mate, these restaurants are not near their place!). Vegify is the nicest vegetarian restaurant in my neck of the woods that serves Chinese vegetarian food, including my favourite mock meats! I love that I could be eating 'fish' that is not fish meat but tastes and looks like fish - mock cod fish are made of beancurd sheets and seaweed that looks and tastes like the real McCoy! They can be steamed, made into Assam fish or curry fish which tastes so good.

I had dinner in this restaurant once and was so impressed that I had to come back for their lunch service because there are different food to try like noodle dishes for lunch. I ordered the curry laksa and sweet and sour chicken on rice. The laksa broth tastes a little different, less salty because there is no dried shrimp but it is still delicious. There are green beans, tofu puffs, mock prawns and chicken with yellow noodles ($15). My mom thinks that I should not be eating too much mock meats because it undergoes a lot of processing (she's right) and mostly gluten (Gaz's right) but I think it's OK to have once in a while. It's not like every meal's a mock turtle soup for me, is it? 

Sweet sour chicken on rice ($15). I like that there is a mound of salad to balance the naughtiness of deep fried 'chicken' pieces. There are also other cooked vegetables like zucchini, pineapple and tomatoes that gives it a healthy vibe. I would probably not order this again because I didn't like the sweet and sour sauce. It was a little lacking but I cannot put my finger on the missing ingredient. 

This restaurant is a small establishment and is always busy. Reservations are recommended.