Ling Zhi- Vegetarian Taken To A Whole New Level

I seriously have no idea how the Chinese calendar works but Pops was on a vegetarian diet during her last few days in Singapore. I wanted to give her a last treat before she leave and Daddy suggested going Ling Zhi for lunch. Ling Zhi is one of Tung lok's many brand, serving up some innovative vegetarian dishes since 1991. Frankly, if it wasn't for Pop's restricted diet I wouldn't even consider going Ling Zhi, however I must say I was glad I did.

We were there at about 1pm and we were surprised to see Ling Zhi fully occupied with white collar workers, enjoying the steamboat buffet. Eh.. don't they have to work? Anyway we decided to have the ala carte and ordered a few dishes to share. 

First up, spinach with truffle mushrooms. I thought this dish was pretty well executed albeit nothing innovative, the sauce was nicely flavoured and not too salty. 

The next dish that arrived was some braised tofu dish. I immediately pointed at the "scallop" and exclaimed, "Scallop is considered vegetarian meh?" Now now, don't judge, it's my first time eating vegetarian in a restaurant k. Anyway, this dish was made to resemble those chinese sea cucumber dish and it did fooled me at the beginning. The so called "scallop" was actually a water chestnut. Crunchy and sweet, the water chestnut gave the dish a nice twist. I thought the sauce was amazingly delicious as well!

Knowing how Pops love Beehoon, we ordered a bowl of brown vermicelli soup for her. The vermicelli was nicely cooked and had a nice chew to it. However, I didn't quite like the broth as it was way too oily, macham 60% oil, 40% water, no kidding.

Thankfully we ordered another carbo to share. This chef recommended dish was really interesting. For a start, it had rice krispies in a soup filled with rice, corn and beans! Who knew rice krispies could be eaten with soup?? I must say I love this dish and would have appreciated more beans and less rice. The  broth was tasty and really brought the whole dish together.

You can't possibly have a meal with me without some dessert :) I had my eyes on the mango mousse roll as I was flipping the menu, lol in fact dessert pages are always the first few pages of my menu. 

The mango mousse rolls tasted as good as it looked! The mango mousse was perfect: not too sweet, rich yet refreshing. I absolutely love this dish! So much so, I wouldn't mind having 10 plates of these for lunch at Ling Zhi.

I was stuffed!! but Dad wasn't. He took a quick glance around, saw others having dim sum and decided to order some too. I was like what? Isn't vegetarian dim sum an oxymoron? Dad ordered 2 classic dim sum dishes, Char Siew Bao and Siew Mai. We were all waiting eagerly to taste Ling Zhi's vegetarian rendition. (yes, that includes the stuffed me)

Both the CSB and Siew Mai looked like the real deal. Now as for the taste, I thought the CSB filling was spot on! It really taste like Char Siew minus the obvious shredded meat bits. I especially love the bao skin as it was super fluffy and soft. 

The Siew Mai was good but alittle too mushy. It failed texture wise, nonetheless it tasted pretty good. 

Who would have thought Vegetarian would taste this good? We (including Pops) were pleasantly taken aback by the food at Ling Zhi. I thought the service was pretty good too, the staffs were attentive and approachable. Prices at Ling Zhi is on the high side but I think it justifies the food they serve and the amount of thought displayed in the conceptualization of the dishes. Alternatively, you can head down for their weekend high tea buffet (3pm- 5.30pm, $14.80 ++) or their weekday mushroom hot pot buffet (prices ranges from $22.80- $26.80) :)