Whole Vegetarian Restaurant

Oooohhhhh, many a vegetarian hangover has been nursed here.
Are vegetarian hangovers different from meat hangovers? Not really.
Is chinese vegetarian food different from chinese meat food? Not really. (10 meat eaters just stood up, raised a fist and stuffed a rib in their mouth)
Whole Vegetarian has the same tastes as other Chinese restaurants — sweet n’ sour, black bean, stir fry — you name it, they got it! Now, I’m not gonna lie and say «the fake pork tastes like real pork» but it’s as good as you can get with fake meat. That being said, it’s fake. Nothing fake is ever anywhere near the real thing. Given a choice of real mangos or imitation mangos, 99% would say «mango, mango, mango» and the other 1% would be eating paper. Yah, paper. So, meat-​eaters and non-​veggie-​sausage enthusiasts, stick to the non-​meat focused dishes. Fried is always good too. Mmmm… you can never go wrong with fried.

It’s Closed, say goodbye. Last visit the place was empty. Service not good. It was all downhill since the demise of Bo Kong. The waiter at Whole were incompetents, and knew nothing about service. I miss Man and the boys from Bo Kong. Another chapter in the history books.
The neighbourhood will miss a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. Probably another booze pushing joint with substandard food will move in. It’ll become like a lot of the other crummy restaurants acting like bars that we see because of the dated BC liquor laws.

The food wasn’t bad, but it was fairly oily.
When we entered the restaurant (at 9PM), the male server halted us when we sat in a 4-​seat table. He said those tables were for bigger groups so he escorted us to the 2-​seat table on the side. An hour to closing, there’s no way there’ll be more people coming. Besides us, there’s only two large tables and two 2-​seat tables occupied. So it was fairly quiet.
My mom and I felt really negative about the service there.
The food was mediocre, the prices were EXPENSIVE given no meat and SMALL portions. The dessert where there was chinese riceballs, the peanut pieces on top had a weird taste to it. I think its expired peanuts which kinda grossed me out.
The valet parking had 4 extremely tight spots. It was impossible to park if you didn’t have good skills at reverse in from the entrance.

I like it… somewhat. The food was good. The atmosphere was a quite stuffy, I know it was a big group, with a set menu very early on a Saturday evening, so was great value. I know that place wouldn’t be buzzing, but since we were prebooked for the meal we never once spoke to the staff and they didn’t seem that friendly. I always find that having a sports channel on tv (a distinctly North America thing for a restaurant to do) doesn’t help either. I might go back again as it’s a nice spot and a purely vegetarian restaurant always removes any fear from ordering something with meat in it by accident. Maybe I will try again, just my wife and I this time and see if it does better. I get that our experience was not that of normal diners, a group of 20+ people can make it so.
In terms of the dishes, I don’t know what we had, but what seemed like tofu satay was poor, but the sweet and sour shiitake mushrooms were great. The food wasn’t a let down, if you consider that, of the several dishes we had only only one was left uneaten.

My vegetarian friend is a regular and brought me here for lunch. When I saw how many Chinese elders were dining there, I knew it would be good (always trust the food wisdom of the elders). We shared an appetizer, then the peppered steak with rice. The bean curd-​based steak is something I’ve never had before: it’s lean and bursting with flavour. They brought it still sizzling in the pan, with abundant steamed broccoli and cauliflower, then drizzled the black pepper sweet soy sauce on top.
It was so good I wish I didn’t have to share. But realistically, it was too big of a portion to devour all by oneself. The service was courteous and attentive — something I usually don’t expect of Asian restaurants. They have round table seating for groups as well as small side tables. Very popular with take-​out orders too from what I saw.

I have been eating here since it was Bo Kong and it is still one of my favorites. I don’t eat at veg restaurants often and it is a treat to be able to choose from the whole menu, not limited to risotto and beet and goat cheese salad (really? Is that the best they can do?).
The bean curd in black bean and shitake in sour sauce are true classic that I can’t go without. The dimsum is also pretty descent in a pinch (I will take turnip cakes without dried shrimp any day).
The service is nice and pleasant too; the manager always remembers my husband because they share the same first name.
They don’t seem very busy usually, so I hope they build more support soon and enjoy longevity. I would be very sad to see them go.

It was requested that we go to eat Chinese vegetarian food, and the one place that we go to is «Bo Kong». I did not know until we came here, that the place has changed ownership and name. One thing that the place has not changed is the jade green chairs. Some might find this zen like, and some might find it an eye sore. Along with the chairs, they use light green table cloths. It’s an odd comfortable feel due to the color, and the lights are really bright in here. The place is nice and clean, as this place is no dump.
As this is a vegetarian restaurant, there was going to be a heap load of soya based products. We ordered a couple plates, and we were stuffed. To go down the list, we started out with a small soya soup, that came out half green, and half white, like the ying-​yang symbol. This soup was creamy, and the tofu bits that were in this thing tasted like ham. A little on the bland side, but it was hearty and filling.
We then proceeded with the crispy fried noodle with mixed vegetable and fried tofu blocks. The sauce they used was black bean, with some black beans still not broken up. This dish was really tasty, and the noodles came on a hot plate, so you heard the sizzle, and saw the steam.
The broccoli with tofu and imitation crab, almost made me think that the dish was the same compared to the dish at other restaurants, where they use a meat based sauce, and scallop strands.
The final dish, and by this time, we barely touched the other two, as we were really feeling full, was the cheese baked rice with imitation seafood. The vegan cheese was all melted on top of this baked delight. Each bite was just adding to our full stomachs. It was creamy and tasty as well.
The next time any of you go here, just watch out, as you might say you need meat to make you full. This place has filling food, and it can really sneak up. The food is tasty, and the fake meat dishes are made to taste like their real counterparts. The menu is in clear English and Chinese, and there is a good selection for your appetite.

Love this place! I didn’t check it out for ages because the menu they had outside on the window didn’t really explain anything and a friend told me they ordered something with «3 vegetables» and it ended up being 3 types of mushrooms and not being a mushroom fan I wasn’t interested.
Recently though they changed their menu and added some photos and I saw lots of stuff I’d be interested in trying so I did!
They have the best imitation meat I have had at a restaurant and definitely the most variety. If you are 2 people going together, I’d suggest getting one rice or noodle meal and one «meaty» meal and sharing because the portions are quite big in the rice and noodle dishes. They are closing for renos soon at the mount pleasant location which is sad for me but likely good for their business as the décor is outdated.
Service good and food arrives quick.