I have often been asked for recommendations of vegetarian restaurants in Johor. This is a hard one for me as I am not naturally inclined to vegetarian food and I don't have many friends now who know much about this either.
Fortunately today, I stumbled upon a good vegetable restaurant Xiang Man Ju 香满居素食馆 in Taman Gaya in Ulu Tiram that I can recommend to anyone who asks.
Xiang Man Ju is a large Chinese vegetarian restaurant occupying two shoplots in Taman Gaya.
On one side, the food is laid out in buffet style with some seats here.
On the other side is an air conditioned dining area. There is piped in Chinese Buddhist music playing in the background.
We were at Xiang Man Ju at about mid morning and there was a steady stream of people coming in for their meals. Many people were taking away packets of food for their lunch. We were so excited about our find that we actually came back again at mid afternoon for another round. At mid afternoon, there too was a steady stream of customers.
I am not really a fan of vegetarian food but what attracted me was the huge range of dishes available at Xiang Man Ju. I estimated that they must have around 30 to 40 different dishes, so there must be something for everyone. The staff was constantly bringing out steaming trays of freshly cooked dishes from the kitchen.
Here are a few photogenic dishes that caught my eye.
Customers start at one end of the line of food, pick what they liked as they move along up the line, and pay the cashier at the other end of the line. Simple and sysmattic.
And, this is the heap that I had. All these for RM6 with free flow of soup. I didn't take any pictures of the soup as it was clear and plain looking. But the soup was quite tasty and I actually had two bowls of it.
In the afternoon, we came back for this because we couldn't resist trying out Xiang Man Ju's vegetarian BBQ "stingray" at RM15. I liked the novelty :P
The large and thick slab of "stingray" made with gluten was pretty tasty as it soaked up the tangy, spicy, salty sambal blanketing it. We found the dish rather overdosed with greasy oil. If we were to order this again, we will definitely ask the kitchen to take it easy with the oil. I am quite sure the friendly kitchen will accommodate our request.
Next time when I am asked to suggest a vegetarian restaurant in JB, I will confidently recommend Xiang Man Ju.
Restaurant name: Xiang Man Ju Vegetarian Restaurant 香满居素食馆
Address: 27-29, Jalan Gaya 25, Taman Gaya, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.568102,103.800909
Hours: 7:30am to 10:00pm (closed on Tuesday)
No pork, no lard
Date visited: 2 Nov 2012
I can't believe that this is all veggie!!!
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