Vegetables are getting their recognition amongst Toronto's new
restaurants lately. Even if a restaurant isn't purely vegetarian, menus are
starting to offer more meatless options. Coming from a Chinese background, it's
surprising there’s been little advancement in our cuisine. Greens still seem to
be a dish used to balance the meal and are generally simply stir fried.
Buddhist cuisine is probably
the closest thing for a fully vegetarian Chinese option. Graceful Vegetarian
Restaurant is a long standing restaurant that closed at Market Village and
moved across the street on Steeles. Being one of my favourite Buddhist
restaurants, I was excited to try the new location that's tucked in the corner
of the bustling mall and not nearly as easy to find as their former home.
Graceful's assorted gluten
platter ($10 for small) doesn't look impressive but is the best I've tasted in
the city. Some elements are supposed to represent mock versions of barbeque
platters, such as barbeque pork or fried intestines. Generally, each has a
chewy soft texture and some sort of intense flavour: sweet, savoury, curry, or
a combination of a couple of tastes. Thankfully, they are not too saucy so
despite being piled beside each other on the dish, they all retain their own
flavour. I particularly liked where certain elements of the dish are served
warm.
The pan fried bean curd sheet
rolls ($8.50) appeared deep fried rather than prepared in a pan, which helps to
keep the bean curd sheet softer but doesn't give it that lovely golden sheen. Graceful
doesn’t overdo it with the number of layers so the roll tastes delicate,
especially with the saucy filling mixed with vermicelli, which helps soak up
the sauce. If they added some more bamboo shoot or black fungus for crunch,
these would be even better.
Surprisingly, the deep fried
taro fish with sweet and sour sauce ($16.99) was available – many places
require advanced notice for the dish. Graceful takes silky thick taro filling,
shapes it into a fish, and encapsulates it in a thin fried crispy layer. To
balance out the heavier dish, they add ginger slivers to the sweet and sour
sauce and thin it out so that you can have more of it with the taro. Reserve
this dish for at least six people as it can be quite filling.
While a lot of options at
Graceful are fried or stir-fried, they show restraint with its oiliness. The
fried rice in the Fu-kin chopped mock meat and seafood dish ($18.99) was fairly
dry and the sauce provided just enough flavour without becoming too salty. I
just missed the pieces of Chinese broccoli (gai lan) normally
incorporated in the dish, which not only adds a nice shot of colour but also a
bit of texture.
Out of all the dishes were
ordered, the Law Han crispy egg noodles ($17.99) was the sole one that wasn’t a
“mock” item. Combining crunchy black fungus, baby corn, chestnuts, mushrooms,
bean sprouts, and other vegetables in a savoury brown sauce, it’s all topped on
thin egg noodles. It’s a dish you want to tuck into right away if you like the
noodles crispy (go for the edges) or you can wait a bit for the centre section
if you enjoy them tender and soaked with sauce.
Compared to their Market
Village location, it’s not a place you want to sit in for a long time. The
ventilation could use an upgrade as the dining room reeks of cooking oil and it
seems smaller so larger tables need a reservation to avoid being turned away
(and we did see that happen).
Yet, everything tastes just
like I remember. Normally, this would be a commendable feat. However, after
sampling all the new amazing vegetarian options across Toronto, being the same
isn’t good enough anymore. The menu seems dated and monotone; it would be nice
to see them offer more items where the vegetable is the star instead of being
the imitation version of a traditionally meat filled dish. In the world of
innovate or be replaced, maybe even Chinese Buddhist restaurants need to step
up their game.
Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 4675 Steeles Avenue East (inside the Splendid China Mall)
Address: 4675 Steeles Avenue East (inside the Splendid China Mall)
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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
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