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Yuan Vegetarien
Category: Restaurants Vegetarian Vegetarian [Edit]
2115 rue Saint-DenisMontreal, QC H2X 3K8
(514) 848-0513
- Hours:
Tue-Fri 11 am - 3 pm
Tue-Fri 5 pm - 10 pm
Sat-Sun 12 pm - 10 pm
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
12 reviews for Yuan Vegetarien
12 reviews in English
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Review from T J.
Montréal, QC
5/4/2012 2 photos
Came here by accident and left super happy!
The food is wonderful quality. Great variety!
The dim sum was especially impressive
made with care and thought.
interesting veggie meat options.
please try it! A great place to go with vegan or vegetarian friends to enjoy a feast -
Review from Johnson C.
Vancouver, BC
1/23/2012 8 photos
Lemme do a Carnac the Magnificent thing here...
1) Peace in the Middle East.
2) Johnson being in a vegan/vegetarian restaurant.
3) Canucks winning the Stanley Cup.
Answer: Things that will *NEVER* happen. Point #2 was true until my visit to Yuan. And I say this with a staunch and unblemished record of carnivorism. As one of my 'laws' state, "The more animals that had to die for your meal, the more delicious it is."
But seriously, I was feeling guilty that I dragged my vegetarian friend to watch me eat at aPdC the night before while she tried to enjoy her salad as I moaned in pleasure with my mouth full of dead animals and foie gras from tortured ducks. So to atone, I figure we'll go to a vegetarian joint. Good choice - because she said this was her personal aPdC.
This joint specializes in faux meat and this was quite interesting as I have a good idea of what they were up against. It's $20 for all-you-can-eat dinner menu. And for the most part, the food was good and was eerily similar to the 'real' thing. Some highlights:
1) Japanese Eel - must order - the skin is simulated with seaweed and the tofu resembles the texture of unagi - it was spooky close to the real thing.
2) Curry pork - the curry is too watery and mild (even for katsu curry), but the 'pork' katsu was pretty close save the density
3) General Tso's Chicken - okay, I must admit this is first time I've ever had 'General Tso' chicken. I'm Chinese and I'm from Vancouver - so no, I don't have a lot of exposure to faux-Cantonese items. It's like 'spicy' & sour pork - so like Mark S. - I can also say this is the *best* existing General Tso chicken I've ever had. I can scarcely believe I wasn't eating meat. It was so crunchy and light - it's actually better than the the deep-fried pork/chicken nuggets typically used in Westernized Cantonese dishes (ya, I *said* it!). It lacks that usual 'chew' you get at the end - but this is seriously good - vegetarian or not.
Those were my favourite dishes - and there were many more 'pretty good' vegetarian dishes including some pretty realistic sushi/sashimi. Not all the dishes are realistic - but the ones three I listed: if you served them to me without telling me, I probably won't be able to tell it was meatless. But let's not get too hung out on how 'realistic' it is - food was good, bar none.
Of course, I'm not going to go vegetarian anytime soon. As one of my idols says, "Vegetarians are doomed to a barren, joyless existence" and my degenerate gambling idol lost a $1 million proposition bet on giving up meat for a year. I'm not a rich man - but even for a $1 million - I don't think I can do it. I would want to do it for the money (still a lot of money after paying for a personal world-class vegetarian chef) - but my body would breakdown without dead animal. It's a physically impossible.
But when I meet omnivores with vegetarian significant others - I used to look at them with scorned pity. But hey - now knowing joints like Yuan exist -- that's true love... or at they have at least $1+ million on the line. -
Review from Sarah Louise F.
Calgary, AB
1/17/2012
My first time at Yuan, was okay. As a vegan, I have no weird complaints about how the food did not taste like "real meat" (if my food tasted like suffering, I would be disappointed.) Nor did they try and feed me real-person-cream (although in all fairness, they are called a vegetarian restaurant, not vegan).
I was lucky enough to try Yuan's buffet. This is a pretty cool system, as you can just tick off all of the things you would like to try, and they deliver it to you fresh, as opposed to trying to keep it hot in metal bins under fluorescent light.
We had the hot and sour soup, veggie shrimp, general tsao's, curried steak, dumplings, etc; as well as some sushi selections. .My one complaint about the buffet is that I didn't see a whole lot of green items on the menu; lots of glutens coated in sugar or deep dried. There was even this pretty revolting deep fried sushi pizza thing that makes me not want to have tempura again for a year. I've been informed by Seb, that on the regular menu, there are often vegetables that come on the plate with the menu selections. I just wish there had been some greener selections to choose from. I think that really I am just kinda spoiled in Calgary; even my vegan pals from Montreal and the surrounding area are jealous of our vegan chinese food fare.
The veggie shrimp were lovely, but I felt like I was going to choke on the salted batter at times. I had waaaay better general tsao's tofu at a little place in Chinatown than Yuan's chicken could compare. The dumplings were great.
I would definitely try this place again; next time with a larger group of people maybe, or from the normal menu! -
Review from Emily C.
Pointe-Claire, QC
12/26/2011
Oh man, just got back from Yuan and I can hardly walk.
I "found" Yuan while walking around my school one day and thought it'd be cool to try, seeing as I'm a vegetarian. It's actually a vegan (minus the sushi) restaurant, with an all-you-can-eat buffet at very reasonable prices. For lunch, it's $12.99. The waitress was super friendly, always wishing us "bon appétit!" and making sure we had enough food and tea. The sushi is fantastic! Not too much selection, but all the ones we tried were delicious and so fresh (California, Kamikaze, Spicy Salmon and Avocado). We were a party of 5, so we were able to try many different dishes. I won't go naming all of them, because we ate A LOT but honourable mentions go to the miso soup, peanut butter dumplings, imperial rolls (SO fresh and crispy), pineapple "steak" and the fried tofu. The buffet menu spans only one page, but when the food tastes that great, that's really all you need. My only disappointment was that there was a lot of deep-fried at the table. We are definitely going back! -
Review from Mark S.
7/9/2011
It is clear to me that the creators of Yuan Vegetarien dove into my dreams in an attempt to create my perfect restaurant. They got a few of the minor details wrong (the server should be Ricardo Montalbán, and the music should contain lyrics regarding whether the "pink" or "green" hypothesis is the best explanation for how perfect my girlfriend is), but they got all of the major parts correct.
They always (lunch or dinner) have a "buffet" menu available. It is $18-$20 and is set up where you tick selections off of a paper menu and then they freshly prepare small portions to bring out to you. The process repeats (with new paper menus) until you are about to enter a food coma, and then they offer you a fortune cookie. I have never been able to eat the fortune cookie. A highlight of the buffet menu is the General Tso's "Chicken."
The buffet menu is a large subset of their full menu. The full menu includes a huge variety of both straightforward vegetable dishes (e.g., Ginger and Basil Eggplant) and fake meat dishes (e.g., Pepper "Steak" and various "Seafood" Sushi). A highlight of the full menu is the General Tso's "Chicken."
For lunch, they have available a small selection of Lunch Specials for under $10. This price includes extras like soup and fruit. Depending on the dish, it might come served in a colorful Bento Box with even more extras like crispy sesame seed something-or-others. A highlight of the Lunch Specials menu is the General Tso's "Chicken."
The quality of the food varies from "Excellent" to "OMG what deal with Lucifer did you strike such that you are able to prepare this perfection on Earth you Faustian restauranteurs?" The fake meat dishes sometimes are delicious without being realistic (e.g., Orange "Beef"), and sometimes are delicious and are realistic (e.g., Pepper "Steak"). Yuan Vegetarien's awesomeness is increased by having a freezer section up front where you can purchase their wide range of meat replacers for use in your own cooking.
Before I end my review, I would like to specially highlight the General Tso's "Chicken," just in case I have overlooked mentioning it in this review. It is the second best General Tso's Chicken I have ever had in my life, and I am including all of the dishes I had *prior* to becoming a vegetarian. The only better preparation I have had was over a decade ago at the Princess Hotel in Israel. However, a quick internet search has revealed to me that the Chinese Restaurant at that hotel is now a French Restaurant, clearing the way for Yuan's dish to hold the current "World's Best" title. -
Review from Michael O.
9/9/2011 1 Check-in Here
Food= 9/10 Atmosphere=7/10 Eat here, Vegan(tarians)!
Get the Curry Steak. Its amazing.
Don't bother with the bbq balls.
Do the buffet so you can try everything. They make it for you when you order.
This compares to NYC Vegan places like Red Bamboo. -
Review from Seb A.
10/3/2011
A week ago, I would have given this place 5 stars. I've been here dozens and dozens of times since 2006 and have seen them evolve from a sit-on-the-floor traditional Chinese restaurant to the present classier feel the restaurant has with lemon water, green tea, and a calm, pleasant atmosphere. The veggie eel is to die for, and their buffet is amazing. Two years ago I would say that their service depended on who was working and was occasionally spotty. Today the service is great every single time I go.
Everything on the menu is vegan save for a couple of items that contain dairy. I went a couple of days ago and ordered the veggie eel as part of the table d'hote, which I've ordered numerous times. On the menu, it says that they give you a dessert at the end of the table d'hote meals. Usually this is a modest plate of fruit. This time it was ice cream. I am vegan, and I'd asked servers here many times if an item was vegan through the years, just to make sure (and was always met with a reaction of polite laughter and affirmation that nearly every item was vegan). I naively decided not to ask whether the ice cream was vegan. Why would a vegan restaurant serve me dairy as part of my vegan meal? I took a bite and it tasted odd - not unlike vegan ice cream, but I could taste a hint of dairy. I asked the server if it was vegan and she said it was not. I do not understand why she would offer me a non-vegan dessert when 99% of items are vegan and I have been there countless times. She did not apologize and I left feeling disappointed with the staff.
I don't want to be petty, but a place will always lose points for me if they give me a non-vegan item when the item is just marked as "dessert" on the menu. Especially when it's at a vegan restaurant.
Note: I went there again after this experience and explained the situation to the manager. He apologized profusely, and there is now a vegan item - a rice cake - as an option for the dessert. -
Review from Coty S.
6/13/2010 2 photos
I am really surprised that there are not more reviews for this great restaurant. I am not a vegetarian by any means, but my dining partner is, so we had to give this place a try. The location is half restaurant and half grocery store, specializing in Asian grocery and their homemade protein replacement concoctions. Faux meat is something that I have never tried before, and it is their specialty here at Yuan. Most dishes are offered as Chinese meals, as sushi, or in bento box form.
We both got bubble tea, because that is hard to pass up whenever available. It comes shaken, not blended and most flavor are of the milk tea variety.
The sampler platter is what I ordered to try a little bit of everything. I loved all of the items:
-Fried Taro Roll- I am a huge fan of anything taro, so this was a treat for me. Crispy on the outside and the inside filled with smooth potato-like taro.
-Faux Duck- This was like little mini crispy duck legs, brushed with five spice honey and formed onto a wood skewer. Tasted even better than the real thing to me because it still had all of the flavor, but less fat.
-Faux Fried Chicken- this was fried sesame flavored nuggets of faux chicken, which was so close to the real thing, I do not know how anyone could tell the difference. They also have a General Tso's Faux Chicken entrée- this dish made me want to give that a try.
-Mixed Rolls- 4 pieces of mixed sushi rolls with fried stuff and veggies on the inside. I don't know what it was, but it sure tasted good.
My vegetarian friend ordered a sushi roll sampler that also included inari. I tried some of her rolls and they were all very flavorful with great texture. After eating at Yuan, you feel satisfied, but not gross or lethargic like after you eat meat. We will definitely be coming back here next time we visit Montreal.Listed in: Downtown Montreal
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Review from Miki W.
10/24/2010 1 Check-in Here
Had an awesome meal there! We got the All You Can Eat Menu, which was $18 a person, and we went wild trying different dishes. The vegan duck was great, as was the Imperial Chicken, and the Ravioli With Peanut Sauce. We also got several kinds of vegan sushi, which is a real treat for me! The shrimp maki, the eel maki and the kamikazi roll were all great, and seriously, I never get to eat vegan sushi like this, even in Los Angeles.
On the All You Can Eat menu, everything is vegan, except for about 3 or 4 dishes that are clearly labeled as not vegan.
Also, feel free to really go wild and order a bunch of different dishes. The portion sizes are small, so you can try out many different things. I think my husband and I had about 4 different sushi rolls and maybe 5 different entree dishes, plus rice. But be sure and pace yourself.... according to the menu, they will charge you for all uneaten food!!! :-D So, only order what you can eat and clean your plate!!! :-D :-D
This would be a great place to impress your vegan / vegetarian date or to go with a group of friends, so you can taste a ton of different food. -
Review from Michael P.
5/31/2011
This restaurant has bento boxes of really good vegetarian food! The staff was very friendly and the restaurant is really clean and pleasant.
We went twice in two days and had no issues. All of the food was great. A great restaurant! -
Review from Katrina v.
11/3/2010
Sadly, the food here wasn't very good :/ I didn't even finish my milk tea...and I love milk tea! The whole place was deserted at lunch time. The food is just standard Chinese food like from Panda Express or something, except without meat. But their fake meat recipe needs some tweaking...
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Review from Yelena Y.
6/13/2009
Very delicious food, beautifully presented. Apparently there's a lunch buffet but we missed it. The service was super friendly and the interior is nice. The basil/eggplant dish was really good and there's a combo you can order so it comes with all this stuff plus sushi and dessert. When I asked if the dessert was vegan the waitress said she'd talk to her manager, and when she came back out she said the manager will put together a vegan dessert especially for us. A few minutes later there was this incredible vegan frozen treat that blew my mind.
