Yesterday was such an amazing day. I attended a fruit luck at East Coast Park, which was the first fruit luck in Singapore I think! After that I went for a hair cut which included an amazing massage and then had lunch at the nearby Vegetarian Express Cafe! 

My dad discovered the cafe while I was getting my hair cut. 

They have a rather interesting menu featuring a number of cuisines, including Japanese and Korean food!

The dish consists of deep fried noodles, vegetables, mock ham (?) and prawn, and a gravy style sauce. Tasted a spoon and it was pretty good! My dad says it's exactly like the non vegan 生面 (crispy noodles) he likes to eat. 

I try not to eat mock meat too often, but I decided to get the unagi bento set ($12) because it just looked really good in the photo. It comes with a generous serving of short grain Japanese rice, mock unagi served over a bed of lettuce (thumbs up for greens!), seaweed, pickles, miso soup, and watermelon. I checked with them, everything in the set is vegan.

Coming from someone who's never eaten real unagi, this mock unagi tasted quite good. It was quite soft, I suspect it was soy based, and the underside was coated with seaweed. The Japanese rice tasted like sushi rice, meaning the cafe had added some sushi vinegar to the rice :-) The miso soup has bits of kombu and tofu. The soup wasn't memorable but as a whole I enjoyed the bento set and found it to be a very satisfying meal! 

What I dislike personally is that the dishes containing eggs and milk are not labelled on the menu. Also they serve more mock meat and deep fried foods than I'd prefer.  I guess this is suitable for those who aren't looking for a healthy meal though.

I will revisit Vegetarian Express Cafe if I happen to be in the area :-) Kovan mall has a fairly wide variety of food! A few stalls on the first floor were selling some really pretty kuihkuih, which I'll try next time. 

I've decided to include value in my reviews from now on. Also health will no longer affect overall rating, as I cannot fault an eatery for being "unhealthy" if it does not claim to be a health food restaurant. 

Service: 3/5 (slow but I guess it shows food is prepared fresh, and they were also quite crowded)

Location: 5/5 (above Kovan MRT)

Taste: 4/5 

Value: 4/5 (reasonable)

Vegan friendly: 3.5/5

*Health: 2.5/5

Overall: 4/5

*excluded in overall rating

Vegetarian Express Cafe

Kovan Heartland Mall (Kovan MRT)

#02-04

Hp: 63835672 

Mon - Sun: 11:00 am - 9.00 pm