Ying Vegetarian - Kowloon

I had two vegan soft crab sushi, with and without avocado. They were tasty and fresh, although (or maybe because! they did not really taste like soft crab. You have to tell them not to add egg to the fried rice. The sushi sauce has sauce with dairy, so I just used soy sauce. Typical HK fast food, fast service restaurant. Not too crowded at 1 pm.

I went on a Sunday after 3pm because they offered 20% off. The place wasn’t very crowded and food came on time. Their sushi is awesome! Not many Hk places do vegetarian sushi so I come here specifically for that. Convenient location. Friendly staff.

So I’m writing this review 30 mins after eating here. First off the spot was super cute.. lots of locals.. right in front of a street Market. The menu is super extensive and cheap. It’s cash only FYI. I started with the salmon sushi which looked pretty damn real but it was not.. didn’t have much flavor... but the appearance and texture was there. Now for the main course. I got the baked truffle cheese spaghetti with pork cutlet. I got this because I was craving pasta and it looked really good and other reviewers had confirmed it vegan. The pork was def soy.. I mean it was good but tasted like any other good mock chicken nugget. Which if you’ve never had, it’ll be amazing.. but it was pretty standard in my book. The main part of this review is about the cheese. I’m 99.9% this was not vegan cheese. Even though it was confirmed “vegan”, within a few bites my body was like NOPPPPEEE. Granted it could have been something else not agreeing with me, but the more I ate the more I started to try and eat the cheese on its own (it’s baked on top of a creamy sauce) trying it by itself, it didn’t have much cheese flavor.. maybe it was mozz, but the consistency was so cheese like.. I don’t kno.. it was stringy and chewy.. I’ve had plenty of vegan cheese but one of the challenges vegan cheese faces,in my opinion, is they never get the texture right.. which is fine, but just a fact.. are you telling me this little shop in Hong Kong cracked the vegan cheese secret code? I mean.. maybe.. but between how my body reacted and the texture.. I’m pretty sure it was dairy and lots of it. I stopped halfway through because of the pain. And sorry tmi, as soon as I got back to my hotel, and was sick, and got the food out.. I felt better. I know this place has egg.. and they warn you about the egg on the menu.. but they don’t mention anything about dairy. Maybe I’m wrong.. and maybe I just had a bad reaction to something else.. but I would stay clear of the cheese dishes until someone can prove it’s vegan with a photo of the cheese package or confirm the brand.

I come here a lot, their lunch menu is cheaper rand reasonably priced. It’s on the salty side and not everything is vegan so just watch out. They do sushi which the kids love.

Ying Vegetarian Cantonese and Japanese Mon-Sun 11:00am-10:00pm 61 Temple Street (Public Square Street) Kowloon, Hong Kong Located at Yau Ma Tei MTR exit C From Chung King Mansions (40 Nathan Rd) go right on Nathan Rd. for about 18 blocks go left on Public Square street. (we could not find a street sign – when you think you are close, ask a local) Second block on right is Temple Street turn right Ying Vegetarian is on the left not far from the corner. Option: to shorten the walk take the train to the Jordan or the Yau Ma Tei MTR station. Note they close at 10pm not 11pm. We got there at 8:30pm on a Saturday and no line up. Friendly staff little English spoken. Menu in English as well as Chinese with photos of about ½ the items. In the photos many things looked like meat so I took the menu to one of the staff that knows a bit of English. He reassured me that everything was vegetarian or lacto-ovo-vegetarian. So all the people in Trip Advisor saying that they sell meat and seafood are just confused by the quality of the mock meats. Like the name suggests, this is a veggie restaurant. Feel free to eat anything from the menu. Friendly, fast service. Everything came in big portions. Lamb skewers w. satay sauce $38HKD very good! Tekkamaki Roll $25 HKD Average good taste. Veggie Tempura $58 Very yummy! Nice light batter. Egg Rice w. Pork Chop Cutlet $52 Excellent! Stone Pot w. Sea Food in Tom Yun Kung $68 unusual taste for both of us probably love by some but not by us. Hot Water $10 for two of us Wonderful, filling meal for two people for $277 HKD which includes a 10% service charge (tip) Second favorite place to eat in Hong Kong so far out of 7 veggie places.