Vegan Shop — Restaurant in Hawaii

This place is fan-fu*king-tastic. Holy crap is the food good. Go earlier in the day to get more options to choose from. My original thought was it doesn't look busy, I can't really see inside, and I never saw anyone entering or exiting.. I'm sorry I waited so long to try this place. If you go earlier it's usually got a crowd of people inside.

For $15 we got our choice of 3 items and they let me have a taste of one other item to see if I'd like it.

I had pumpkin soup, some kind of "beef" made with soy, and spicy fried rice. I also tried a fried tofu patty.

The soup was awesome. I'm not totally a fan of all the ingredients in it.. but that's just a me thing. The flavor was really good and I ate most of it.

The "beef" was what made me say fan-fu*king-tastic. It was so flavorful and resembled the texture of real meat. The spicy rice had my nose running. It's a great combo with the "beef". It had some veggies in it.. carrots and peas or something. Maybe pieces of fried tofu.

The only thing I did not care for was the fried tofu patty. Dry and flavorless. I didn't put any sauce on it.

I went back again and the meal was just as good, I got the same rice and a double order of "beef" but this time I asked if I could try a piece of spicy basil tofu. Man was that good also. I'm getting that next time.

The owner and staff are super nice as is the interior. The owner has been vegan for like 30+ years now.

I'll be back as a regular customer.

EDIT: I went back to try the "pork belly". I've never had real pork belly. It gave me a feeling I'm eating a real piece of pork.. crispy on the outside, soft on the inside kind of gave me the vibe of uncooked bacon. In that aspect, I liked it a little. I did not care for the sauce on it. I had a friend try it also. He said it doesn't remind him of Pork Belly and he didn't like...

My new favorite restaurant in Hilo! The Vegan Shoppe has been recommended to me by many local friends. I finally made it in to try, and regret not listening and coming sooner!!

The setup is cool, a nice bright breezy clean floor plan. You walk up to the counter where you can clearly see most of the food options and ask for more info on them from the very friendly and welcoming staff.

We got the 3 options plate, and OMG it was such a hearty serving size of everything at a great price of $15. I am a voracious eater and rarely get full for this price, but I was happily satisfied here.

I tried the vegan fried rice (with tofu bits), the meatless char sui and meatless pork belly! The flavor of the fried rice was on point, smokey and charred just right. The char sui was my number one favorite though! I could barely believe it was not meat, it was so tender and juicy with nice sweet but bright flavor that mixed well into the fried rice. Finally the pork belly- one of the most unique meat recreations I’ve ever had. The texture was delightful, chewy and juicy and packing great flavor like I remember pork belly doing.

This was only my first time in, but I will be back ASAP to try more of the menu!

I hope everyone discovers this place more quickly than I did, and frequents them often in Hilo so they are able to keep providing amazing food full of love for many...

O... M....G....sooo we only were in Hilo for about 4 hrs and being who I am I wanted to eat 😝. I searched for restaurants and there are 3 that are within a 20 minute Uber ride from the airport. I didn't want to go too far away plus the pictures for Vegan shop looked delicious. I wasn't disappointed and my eyes were bigger than my stomach. They have an eggless patty that'll make you slap your Mamas mama.. the porkless belly was dang delicious. The spicy rice with cabbage and spicy sauce made me want to steal the sauce and take it with me. The owner was there and he was a great conversationalist. We're planning our trip back and Vegan shop will be our first stop. Also...he makes a tunaless saad sandwich and I took it with me for later. IT... WAS.... SO .... GOOD. It was better than tuna and the texture was amazing. 3 meals and the bill was only $33!! I left there a happily stuffed woman. If you see this, thank you so much for your warm hospitality and the delicious food. As a side note, there's a natural grocery store about a mile away. We walked there and then caught an Uber back to...