Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

The first time I went here was years ago when I was a kid and the place was consistent in the food seasoning and service was blooming. Fast forward 30 years later, the staff didn't change much and I recognize some familiar faces. However, the place changed in service and consistency. The food is quite fattening for a vegetarian restaurant. Isn't vegetarian restaurants supposed to use less salt, seasoning and oil for their cooking? You're not eating mouthfuls of salt and oil. You want to taste the actual dish with light seasoning and sauces. Anyway, the one lady that is in charge of getting the vegetarian trays ready for take-out was extremely rude in her tone and patience with my mom and I. We initially wanted a small sized tray but wanted to change our minds after hearing that the medium tray is a lot better with little change to the price (just up by $5) and asked if we can change the container to a bigger size. She refused and said she didn't want to because she was already packing one. I think it's because she didn't want to waste containers and told us to tell us earlier before she began packing. There's so many containers and she didn't want to redo our order. I'm sure just the one wrong container wasted wouldn't end your life and she still refused to do that. Second time I tried this place was ordering take-out for dinner and although their menus said that their prices are subject to change without notice, I see a lot of prior reviews complaining about how ridiculously high priced the food is and that this place turned into a scam. I totally agree with them. I get that they said they are in no obligation to tell customers price changes, however, can't you also swap out and change the prices on the menus so it matches your price changes??? If the old menu was from 5-10 years ago, why still keep it if you changed the price for your dine-in menus???! Why go through all that trouble to embarrass yourself and lie to customers about how much you charge for meals in a restaurant??? Especially to your regulars?? The price of things that I ordered today went up by $2-$3 max and although such a small change, it impacts the people's decision to eat there. So imagine if it was a huge change and in such short amount of time too! Last I went, the prices were still not changed yet. It's amazing how a month or even a few weeks can change how to manage a restaurant. What if people didn't have enough to pay the bill not knowing the price change? Or that they don't get used to bringing spare cash in case the credit card machine wasn't working? Now that everybody knows the true face of this restaurant, I can see why I prefer Graceful Vegetarian...

There are three dishes I always order at Chinese vegetarian restaurants, and they're all featured in this post. Firstly, is the assorted gluten ($8.99 for small), which is especially important to order at Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant as it will save you from becoming hangry. Maybe it's due to the after effects of COVID and being short staffed, but service is slow and over half an hour went by before the other dishes arrived.

Within the gluten platter, the spongy puffs were served the traditional three ways: sweet and sour, curry, and soy sauce. While a little more subdued in it's flavour, especially the curry format, they were nice big pieces and a great texture. Usually, the sweet and sour puffs are my favourite, but Lotus' bean curd rolls stole the show as they were wrapped tightly to be easily picked up, but still incorporated with enough space between the sheets to give it a lovely moist layered texture.

Despite arriving with a lovely golden brown crust, the four bean threads sheet roll ($4.59 for 2 pieces) was really soft - it almost seemed like the restaurant pan fried the rolls and steamed it to finish, rather than the other way around. It was disappointing as what makes this dish good is the crispy crust mixed with the saucy vegetables. Nonetheless, there were ample amounts of well-seasoned black fungus, carrots, bean sprouts, and mushrooms within the roll and the layers of bean sheets weren't too thick. If this was just crispy, this would have been perfect.

The last dish that is a must have for me at vegetarian restaurants is the stir fried noodles with mixed vegetables ($13.99) or loa hong giy noodles in Cantonese. Lotus takes the time to properly toast the egg noodles so there are plenty of crunchy pieces to contrast against the saucy vegetables. The gravy was spot on and the vegetables cooked through but left with crunch. This was well worth the wait.

While visiting at lunch, expect a tea charge of $1.50 per person as they serve dim sum during this time. Indeed, dim sum seemed to be a popular choice for patrons, which may be why it was taking us extra long to get our order. Your meal could be sped up if you only order the gluten platter and mixed vegetable fried noodles, choosing the rest of the meal from their dim sum menu instead. Otherwise, channel your inner zen and just be patient. We can all use a mindful break from...

PLEASE BE AWARE ON 2 DIFFERENT MENU PRICINGS FROM WHAT YOU ORDER & THE BILL YOU PAY IN THIS RESTAURANT. MAKE SURE TO TAKE THE PHOTO ON MENU FIRST & TRIPLE CHECK THE PRICES WHEN PAYING THE BILL... I normally don't write any bad review on google or any social media but was quite upset about this Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant special on Lunar New Year today and want everyone to be aware about when there is some special days/events. We have been visitting this restaurant with family so many years but noticed they LIED on the menu prices after we paid. We ordered set menu with the price list out at $129 but they sent us the bill at different price at $149. We asked the waitress why the price on the bill now was different from what we saw it on the menu when we placed the order, the waitress then gave us the menu at $149 which was not the one we saw at begginning. My friend told me, she might overlooked at the price when she ordered BUT in the mean time, she kept saying we all 4 people saw the price was $129 indeed (i went out at the time my friends ordered foods & didn't have a chance to look at price on the menu). Then, we agreed to pay the bill (even they charged us 13% service charges on the bill). I felt something wrong about the price as it is weird and no sense when 4 of my friends all saw the price at $129 but then end up the waitress showed us different menu at $149 and didn't think they all overlooked and forgot the price that quickly. After we paid the bill, i passed by the counter and saw the menu at the price at $129 indeed and i asked the waitress: "what was this menu, why you had 2 different prices on this set menu". She just simple said "Sorry" and put away the menu and didn't explain why there were 2 different menu at different prices. The way the waitress responsed by simple said “Sorry with a Shy/embarrass on the her face” make me feel they DID THIS ON PURPOSE JUST TO GET EXTRA MONEY in their pocket easily and this is a very bad reputation and feel shame on them as it is not an honest...