Rating: ★★★★★
Average price: $15
Address: 190 Middle Road Fortune Centre Website: http://www.herbivore.sg
Type: Vegetarian
From the outside, Herbivore seemed to be closed.... fortunately, it was not :-) The glass is the one way sort, so from the outside you can't see through to the interior of the restaurant! Inside, the atmosphere was really really nice. The restaurant was dimly lit with jazz playing in the background, and flickering "candles" on each table. #vibes
Herbivore Vegetarian Restaurant is located at Fortune Centre which is right next to Sunshine Plaza where Teng Bespoke Vegetarian Dining, another Japanese vegetarian restaurant is located. In my opinion they both serve delicious food, but I prefer Herbivore as the menu seems to be wider! My only complaint is that the lighting makes it impossible to take good food photos lol.
Their menu is ridiculously extensive and we had an awful tough time deciding what to order. They even have a section for western dishes! Although orders are placed through an iPad, we were still given wonderful customer service and our waitress was really attentive. When she saw I indicated no mayo on the sushi order she immediately asked if I was vegan because some other components apart from the mayo (such as sesame sauce and dessert) also contain dairy. I said yes and she helped us edit our order. In addition, without us asking, one of the staff took the initiative to provide us with 3 small plates for us to share the food!
The katsu curry set ($18) seems to be one of their more popular items and I'm not surprised at all. It was to die for. The mock tonkatsu pork tasted exactly like its non vegan counter part and my friends couldn't believe it wasn't actually meat. The curry isn't spicy and the potatoes and carrots were well cooked too. I HATE when restaurants serve only partly cooked root vegetables >:( Anyway, I highly recommend ordering this when you visit. If you're vegan be sure to ask for a vegan version! If not, you'll get a dairy dessert instead of the yuzu jelly we got.
We also ordered some unagi maki which contained avocado and cucumber! Sadly, like the unagi maki served at Teng Bespoke, the unagi fell off the rice easily... which shouldn't happen for good sushi. As with the tonkatsu pork, the unagi was perfectly crisp. I've never tried non-vegan unagi, but my friend said it tasted exactly like the real deal!
The miso ramen was nice but it wasn't my favourite of the three dishes we ordered. I personally found it too salty. I think that tends to happen when cooking with miso paste because it's rather concentrated in sodium, so its easy to over do it. I was very impressed with how much detail went into the ramen though. There was corn, beansprouts, mock char siew, fishcake, mushroom and another type of "meat" that even had pieces of fake "fat" inside it :O When I wasn't vegan, I was never a fan of the fat layered inside meat, but this just shows how legit the food is!
Overall we all thought the food was on point! The bill ended up being $45 in total for 3 persons excluding GST and service charge. Although the meal was on the slightly more expensive side, I think the prices are reasonable given the ambience, generous portion sizes, excellent food and service, and the novelty of being able to eat classic Japanese dishes as a vegan :D I wish they had omurice (never tried it) and healthier options on the menu though! (and better lighting... or maybe I should sit at the outdoor seating area in future)
