VEDA Café & Bar — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Located opposite to the Centrium in Central, VEDA is a fancy restaurant that serves international vegetarian food. I have always wanted to give it a try, and restaurant week provided a handy reason to visit it with my cousin right before my yoga classes in Centrium.

We decided to get one each of the starters, mains and desserts to share, so that we got to try the most on the menu.

These Kathmandu Momos are hot steamed dumplings filled with classic spinach and ricotta filling, served with smoked chili and tomato achaar. Great veggie dumplings that set the standard of the meal high!

We played a bit with the Street Side Pani Puri, which are crispy hollow shells, and we were told to fill the shells with spiced potato chaat and mint coriander water on the sides. Quite a bit of work there, fun and delicious though. A novel dish!

As for the mains, the first one we eyed was this VEDA’s “Misoy” Ramen. The ramen was very al dente, toppings were a bit ordinary though…

Second main was this Baked Aloo Gobi, a huge baked cauliflower with a curry and lentil sauce with crispy potatoes. We really liked the curry as it had a strong coconut flavor. Yum! Potatoes were great too! The cauliflower and lentils were very filling.

Desserts were very delightful. This Fig Cheesecake was a slice of cashew cheesecake, garnished with fresh figs and flowers, drizzled in homemade caramel sauce. Forkful after forkful, until we finished the whole piece!

The Negroni Pie was a bit magical to us. It’s a balanced and rich combination of white chocolate and orange mousse coated in Negroni glaze and topped with crispy meringue. We adored the citrus flavor, and the Negroni gave our taste buds a novel sensation!

Seeing that VEDA serves legit Aussie coffee, I couldn’t help but get myself a cup of Flat White, and it’s a great one!!! Definitely coming back for the coffee, if...

Atmosphere: Seating is very tight - which I understand is expected for HK... but the table itself is so small that you can only have 2 dishes on the table at a given time. With 4 people sitting at the table (2 small tables combined), the 2 dishes and the individual serving plates/cups are all touching. It was quite crowded and difficult to eat. It was not a comfortable or enjoyable atmosphere.

Food - I personally don't mind vegan/vegetarian food. Frequently visited Home Cafe, Treehouse, Mana Cafe, and other 'healthy' restaurants which I have really enjoyed. The food at Veda was very mediocre.

Service - the worst. When we received the bill from the waitress, we said that we did not receive one of the (six/seven) dishes. The manager then came and told us she herself served the dish. All 4 of us said that it must have been a different table because we definitely were not served. She insisted (one more time) and then caved and walked away. When we got the bill and signed our statements, we noticed that the dish was still on there. We called the manager, who said 'that's odd - I removed it myself'. Clearly, you did not remove it yourself because the bill was still wrong.

This entire 'settling the bill' ordeal took 20-25 minutes from the time we asked for the bill.

Please hire a...

Having heard incredible things about this restaurant (and being that there aren't that many vegeterian-centric places in Hong Kong to choose from), I was really looking forward to having my first meal there this evening with a couple of friends. We made a booking for 3 at half 8 this evening. We showed up around 10 minutes before and waited at the bar. We were told that our table wasn't ready yet but we were welcome to order some drinks while we waited. 10 minutes passed by and not once were we ever updated about our table. Many customers walked in and were almost immediately served but we had to keep waiting without a clue as to what was going on. We asked a total of three times about our reserved table and not once did we ever get a definite response. We understood it was during a very busy time, but we felt like we were completely ignored and disregarded. After asking them for the final time, the hostess of the restaurant hesitantly responded and proceeded to seat us in a corner table.

We each ordered the vegan menu and really enjoyed the food and drinks. The decor and ambiance of the restaurant was commendable but the bumpy beginning of the evening really dampened our moods and made it difficult for us to fully enjoy what they had to offer - ESPECIALLY with the prices they...