Where To Eat (Plants) This December: New Vegan Restaurant Openings, Menus & Food News

It is getting hard to keep up with Hong Kong’s vegan scene with so much going on. It’s never been easier to live that plant-based life. To help you out, we have highlighted the best in new menus, openings and more food news in our column. Here’s what’s new in plant-based dining this December. Enjoy!

Modern Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant Miss Lee Opens Doors In Sheung Wan

ZS Hospitality group has just soft-launched their latest all-day dining concept, Miss Lee, a modern Chinese vegetarian cuisine restaurant with loads of vegan-friendly and gluten-free options. A glimpse into their menu will no doubt get plant-based foodies rearing to go and taste all their creatively named dishes, such as their Smoky Quartz shiitake and asparagus skewers and Golden Flowers, a braised cauliflower and mushroom dish. Insider scoop: Green Queen spoke to the management team, and they are working on making at least 50% of their menu completely vegan.

Address: Miss Lee, G/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Sheung Wan. 

Pizza Express Adds New Vegan & Vegetarian Offerings 

Our herbivore prayers have been answered. Pizza Express has just launched a new vegan and vegetarian options on their Autumn-Winter menu this year. Some of the 100% vegan highlights include their garlic, rosemary and chilli flake-seasoned Kale and Mushroom Flatbread and spicy Mixed Mushroom Brown Oat Rice with spinach. Vegetarian folk can dig into a pistachio-sprinkled Beetroot Hummus and the pizza chain’s upgraded version of the classic Margherita Prima as well. The eatery is working hard on being plant-friendly and don’t worry- vegan cheese pizzas and the delicious Omnipork Penne are still available too.

Find Pizza Express outlet locations here. 

MANA! Unveils “Healthier Hippy Hour” Bar Menu w/ New Vegan Cheese Platter

Long-standing favourite amongst the city’s plant-based community, MANA!, unveiled their new “healthier hippy hour bar,” offering organic and vegan wines, beers, spirits and snacks, which will be available at their Starstreet location from 6-8pm every day. In addition to gluten-free beer and their house-made “G&K” made with organic gin and kombucha, the menu will feature a brand new Vegan Cheese Platter – made up of locally handcrafted brie and bleu cheese, and a zaatar-infused cheese bomb. 

Address: MANA! Starstreet, 8-10 Queens Road East, Wanchai. Hippy hour is available from 6.00 – 8.00pm daily. 

Happy Ours Café Opens In North Point 

Happy Ours Café is the latest vegetarian and vegan-friendly local Cantonese eatery to enter the vibing North Point casual dining scene. Like most Hong Kong cha chaan teng style restaurants, Happy Ours serves up Western-Canto dishes like pasta bake with tomato sauce and soya cheese and pumpkin and mixed vegetarian fried rice. They also serve an awesome breakfast menu, full of local classics like PB-toast and vegetable soup with fusilli. 

Address: Happy Ours Café, Shop 5, 3/F, The Tanner Hill, 8 Tanner Road, North Point. 

Café Gray Deluxe Launches Vegan Revitalising Breakfast Set 

On top of serving a fully vegan tasting menu for lunch and dinner since 2017, The Upper House’s luxurious restaurant Café Gray Deluxe has just added a Revitalising Breakfast Set Menu. Now, since removing honey from their list of plant-based ingredients, vegan breakfasters can indulge in an elaborate yet healthy meal to start the day, from Coconut Chia Pudding to Scrambled Tofu with Vegetable Hash, fresh papaya and mango salad and cold press juices. 

Address: Café Grey Deluxe, 49/F, The Upper House, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty. 

Sheung Wan Welcomes Chung Shan Veggie (松山素食)

We recently spotted newcomer Chung Shan Veggie on Sheung Wan’s Jervois Street. The casual Hong Kong dining and takeaway joint serves up local vegetarian classics such as mapo tofu, fried snow peas with lotus root, chinese kale with fresh ginger and spicy shredded potato. While not everything on their daily rotating menu is completely plant-based, as they do serve eggs and dairy, there are loads of vegan-friendly options available and bonus: they are clearly labelled. Plus, it’s one of the most affordable meat-free eateries around, with prices ranging from HK$30 to 48 for a main dish.

Address: Chung Shan Veggie, Shop 4, G/F, Kai Fung Mansion, 10 Jervois Street, Sheung Wan.

ÍAÇA Superfood

Yes, there’s another acai bowl shop joining the growing plant-based and healthy dining scene in Wanchai. ÍAÇA Superfood, which has a strict policy against GMOs, artificial ingredients, preservatives and added refined sugars, has a menu full of vegan energy balls, smoothies, traditional acai bowls (of course), banana bread, as well as warm lunch options such as avocado sourdough toasts and roasted veggie salads. It’s basically heaven for the health-conscious. Note: technically this one is not brand new but as we’ve recently discovered it, we’re sharing the good (bowl) news.

Address: ÍAÇA Superfood, Shop 4, G/F, Lucky Building, 17-21 Burrows Street, Wanchai.

Plant-Based Feast At BEDU Every (Green) Monday

After creating an incredible 6-course all-vegan tasting menu for one of our Green Queen SDG Dinner volumes, Soho’s modern Middle Eastern restaurant and bar BEDU has made a plant-based chef’s tasting menu (HK$ 370 per person), and 3 rotating seasonal vegan dishes available every (Green) Monday. Some of these dishes created by Chef Corey include Eggplant Carpaccio topped with fresh pomegranate and silky tahini, colourful Roasted Heirloom Tomato, Walnut & Cranberry Salad and Stuffed Zucchini with a gorgeous tomato and almond pilaf – and every dish is made with fresh vegetable produce sourced farm-to-table from Taiwan. We love!

Address: BEDU, 40 Gough Street, Central.

Other Exciting News For Herbivores:

Zero Waste Lunch Delivery Bain Marie Launches Daily Veggie Lunch Menu: Bain Marie, is a lunch delivery and catering service in Hong Kong that is committed to offering gourmet French-inspired lunch fare made with local and seasonal ingredients served in reusable glass jars (they collect the containers from you so it’s super convenient). Until now, it’s been an omnivore menu with the odd veggie dish, but starting next week, they are offering vegetarian dishes every day of the week- yay!

Beyond Beef Now On Green Common Store Shelves: Beyond Meat’s latest vegan mince beef product, Beyond Beef, which is the perfect to substitute dishes that require a meat “filling”, is now available as a retail product on all of Green Common’s shelves.

Nectar Closes Down On 27th December: Chef Peggy Chan’s high-end plant-based restaurant concept Nectar will be ceasing their operations beginning 27th December, citing the unstable circumstances in Hong Kong. Until then, fans can still support Nectar by booking in for the festive menus and ordering a Vegan Cheese Platter– the perfect cruelty-free way to celebrate the holidays.

Cardamon Street Launches Resuable Bento Lunch-boxes: Soho’s Indian restaurant and wine bar Cardamon Street has just started a new sustainable initiative, ditching all single-use plastics in their deliveries for reusable bento lunch-boxes. Their omni menu features a range of plant-based options, such as the vegetarian Paneer Masala Curry Set and vegan-friendly Ratatouille with cous cous and veggie-loaded 5-Subz Curry Set.

Lead image courtesy of Miss Lee.