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We really had a fantastic meal. Large menu. Asian Thai Chinese. Vegetarian but everything can be made vegan. Had the vegan Peking duck for the first time. Outstanding! Very nice polite lady server. Nice atmosphere. Clean. Delicious. Hit the store where a nice lady sold us all kinds of stuffs like vegan snacks and teas and sweets. Definitely a cool place to visit. Near Kingston market. Highly recommended
This was my first time here and I was absolutely amazing at how large their menu was! In the heart of Kensington, such a cute area with a nice open door/window so you can see what's happening outside. We even had some little birds come in and join us at our table. I have not had mock chicken that was so juicy and REAL in my entire life. I was so happy with everything and very reasonable prices. They have very generous portion sizes for sharing. Our server was this cute old women who had the menu memorized down to a T. Such wonderful service and conversation with her. I will for sure go back!
I tried them out for lunch on a Friday. They have a large menu, including dim sum, noodles and rice dishes, traditional dishes, and not-so-traditional dishes. I ordered their Sao Mei ($4.50) and Five Grain Rice Dumpling ($3.40) to start, and their fried noodles with tom yang sauce ($15) for my main. Dim sum: -The Sao Mei was on the soft side and not particularly flavourful, but was decent. The dumpling was dry and lacked flavour as well; it really should be served with a sauce if they're not going to amplify the flavour depth of the filling. 3/5 for the dim sum Chow mein: -The noodle dish turned out to be reminiscent of the classic beef & tomato chow mein dish. It came with a variety of vegetables, seitan, tofu, crispy noodles, and a tangy, tomatoey, gently spicy sauce. Pretty tasty but nothing all that special. 3.5/5 Service was friendly, with a very soft-spoken and nice man serving me. Overall, tasty veggie Chinese food, but based on my experience, not as good as the nearby Greens or Buddha's veggie Chinese restaurants. Worth a try.
Tried this place for the first time last weekend. Food wasnt bad for vegetarian and mocked proteins. We got soy mocked bbq pork, mocked duck & mocked chicken. I think im just not a fan of the texture. Ive had some really great vegetarian dishes at temples across the city. I would definately return to try some other dishes on the menu. Theres tons of options and variety here! The hot & soup was on the very bland & underseasoned side. I could do w out the soup next time. Hopefully my next visit will be more stellar! I wanna try the enoki balls everyone is raving about!
Came here for late lunch with a friend on Saturday afternoon. We were starving and quickly decided to drop in because we saw that the restaurant was vegetarian. The restaurant is big but quite dead. I don't know why there were only 2-3 other customers in the restaurant. I was confused with the white decor and tear drop shapes on the wall too. We were quickly served with small glasses of water with a lemon slice. Because there was no menu outside the restaurant (-1 point!), I didn't realize it was a chinese restaurant. I didn't really want anything on the menu, but since I was starving, I settled for sushi. My friend and I shared the mango sushi (8 pcs, 9.99) and the wunagi temaki ($3.50). The food arrive relatively quickly. The wunagi was a small seaweed cone (the menu says it's crispy, but it's actually not anymore) with rice, lettuce and a thin strip of fried bean curd. The menu also says that there is cucumber and crispy bean-curd crumbs inside, but there wasn't... I'm only impressed with the fried bean-curd. I never had anything like it before; it looks like toast on the outside and perhaps the ridges make it look like ham, but inside was like chewing on dry chicken cutlet. I quite like it. It's crispy and not oily. Quite disappointed in the Mango sushi; I was unimpressed with the food presentation. Frankly, I was confused by the way they were stacked (see pic). Anyway, I tried it and it was nothing special, just mango wrapped in rice and seaweed. For 10 bucks, you can get a better deal, same quality sushi at T&T. I was also displeased that some of the pieces were the ends -- you're never supposed to serve customers the ends of anything. (-1 point for not having a menu outside the restaurant) (-2 food presentation and accuracy) (-1 ambiance) Not my kind of place to rave about.
Expensive for what it is and I got food poisoning. There are other vegetarian mock meat restaurants in the area at a better price point with more variety. I've been to many others and never had food poisoning, I was actually really surprised. I got the seitan 4 ways ($6.99) and the chicken in creamy special sauce ($13.99). The dining area is nice and they are attentive with refilling your water but I don't want to risk getting sick again so I'm not coming back.
I'm on the fence. We ordered the Enoki mushroom balls (main entrée) and a Udon noodle soup (Soups). The enokie mushroom balls are enoki mushrooms wrapped in a seaweed sheets and stir-fried in a savoury sauce, served on a bed of vegetables. Very delicious but also very expensive for a small mushroom dish. The soup was udon noodle, simmered in an vegetable broth with fried tofu, mushrooms, broccoli, crispy soy fritters, carrots and vegetables. Not very delicious and again a bit expensive for the size of the dish. I've noticed other vegetarian restaurants and establishments have a tendency to be more expensive which is unfortunate. With that said, I think I am still willing to give them one more try. Cheers
I have come to this restaurant on several occasions now, especially since it's not a far walk away from the St. George campus for U of T. As a vegan, I absolutely love how their mock meat dishes have the consistency and taste of actual meat. They also have some dim sum dishes that imitate the meat version very well too. They have a part of their store where you can actually buy their vegan meats to take home, which I found extremely wonderful since I can taste test their vegan meat first in the restaurant. Their vegan beef jerky is also amazing. The only little problem I had with the restaurant was that a couple of the staff did not speak English very well. I had to ask three times for a bowl because the employee kept on bringing back the wrong item, such as a spoon instead. Other than that, the service was great too.
This is one of my favourite restaurants! I love the variety of dishes and flavours that are available and I could literally eat 100 dumplings. The portion sizing is great for getting a few things and splitting them between people just so you can try things. I love the variety of mock meats, the textures and flavours vary which is a nice change if you're like me and eat a lot of the same things when at home. The price is good for what you get. The environment is really nice and is great for dates or larger get-togethers. I've had a joint birthday dinner here and everyone enjoyed the food. Love coming back here.
I enjoyed visiting Kings Cafe. I'd say the food I had was good, not great, but I want to go back and try some more dishes. To be fair, we did it wrong, everyone ordered their own, instead of us ordering a variety of things and mixing and matching (there is a lazy Susan in the middle of every table). The menu is nice in that vegan is the default. Items with egg or dairy are marked. I had: - Hot and sour soup. Very nice. - Spring rolls. Standard tasty. - Crispy soy fritters. Ok. I could eat them again. - Kung po chicken. I don't normally go for the mock meats, but I wanted to try it. I also ordered a steamed rice to go with it. It was ok, but too much chicken for a single meal. It wasn't spicy. Service was good. Pricing is good too. Definitely want to go back to try the dim sum and some of the other dishes. I'd give it 3.5 stars.
King's Cafe has been a staple in Kensington Market, and I visited recently after their long-awaited re-opening. The interior is beautifully done, and very chic now. My partner and I shared a lunch combination for $14 which, after you choose the main entree (e.g. coconut curried vegetables and 'meat' ), is complimented with a salad with fruit dressing, two soy nuggets, one spring roll and purple rice. The gluten plate isn't bad either, but I eat enough of it as a vegetarian that I don't see why I should pay so much more at King's. For Asian cuisine, it's considered pricey for the amount of food you get. However, the cooks here take care to craft their food and present it in a mouth-watering manner. Fantastic food but crappy prices.
21 days ago
I enjoy coming here and also ordering takeout if I'm craving a vegetarian meal. The seitan is tasty, unfortunately they don't give too many veggies with the seitan and the other vegan proteins. Overall delicious, the spicy chicken is tasty. The olive fried rice is okay. read more
The staff are so friendly and wonderful to engage with. The restaurant is very clean and welcoming. Everything we ordered was very inexpensive and delicious!!! Will be returning in the future for sure. I came with a group of friends who were not vegan and they also enjoyed the food. This is great for everyone vegans, vegetarians and normal foodies alike! read more
1 year ago
9 months ago
10 months ago
We really had a fantastic meal. Large menu. Asian Thai Chinese. Vegetarian but everything can be made vegan. Had the vegan Peking duck for the first time. Outstanding! Very nice polite lady server. Nice atmosphere. Clean. Delicious. Hit the store where a nice lady sold us all kinds of stuffs like vegan snacks and teas and sweets. Definitely a cool place to visit. Near Kingston market. Highly recommended read more
This was my first time here and I was absolutely amazing at how large their menu was! In the heart of Kensington, such a cute area with a nice open door/window so you can see what's happening outside. We even had some little birds come in and join us at our table. I have not had mock chicken that was so juicy and REAL in my entire life. I was so happy with everything and very reasonable prices. They have very generous portion sizes for sharing. Our server was this cute old women who had the menu memorized down to a T. Such wonderful service and conversation with her. I will for sure go back! read more
2 years ago
From all the Restaurants we've visited, this is one of the best. Clean The prices are less than others, a good Menu. Sooooo Good.!! RECOMMENDED..! read more
I tried them out for lunch on a Friday. They have a large menu, including dim sum, noodles and rice dishes, traditional dishes, and not-so-traditional dishes. I ordered their Sao Mei ($4.50) and Five Grain Rice Dumpling ($3.40) to start, and their fried noodles with tom yang sauce ($15) for my main. Dim sum: -The Sao Mei was on the soft side and not particularly flavourful, but was decent. The dumpling was dry and lacked flavour as well; it really should be served with a sauce if they're not going to amplify the flavour depth of the filling. 3/5 for the dim sum Chow mein: -The noodle dish turned out to be reminiscent of the classic beef & tomato chow mein dish. It came with a variety of vegetables, seitan, tofu, crispy noodles, and a tangy, tomatoey, gently spicy sauce. Pretty tasty but nothing all that special. 3.5/5 Service was friendly, with a very soft-spoken and nice man serving me. Overall, tasty veggie Chinese food, but based on my experience, not as good as the nearby Greens or Buddha's veggie Chinese restaurants. Worth a try. read more
2 years ago
Tried this place for the first time last weekend. Food wasnt bad for vegetarian and mocked proteins. We got soy mocked bbq pork, mocked duck & mocked chicken. I think im just not a fan of the texture. Ive had some really great vegetarian dishes at temples across the city. I would definately return to try some other dishes on the menu. Theres tons of options and variety here! The hot & soup was on the very bland & underseasoned side. I could do w out the soup next time. Hopefully my next visit will be more stellar! I wanna try the enoki balls everyone is raving about! read more
Came here for late lunch with a friend on Saturday afternoon. We were starving and quickly decided to drop in because we saw that the restaurant was vegetarian. The restaurant is big but quite dead. I don't know why there were only 2-3 other customers in the restaurant. I was confused with the white decor and tear drop shapes on the wall too. We were quickly served with small glasses of water with a lemon slice. Because there was no menu outside the restaurant (-1 point!), I didn't realize it was a chinese restaurant. I didn't really want anything on the menu, but since I was starving, I settled for sushi. My friend and I shared the mango sushi (8 pcs, 9.99) and the wunagi temaki ($3.50). The food arrive relatively quickly. The wunagi was a small seaweed cone (the menu says it's crispy, but it's actually not anymore) with rice, lettuce and a thin strip of fried bean curd. The menu also says that there is cucumber and crispy bean-curd crumbs inside, but there wasn't... I'm only impressed with the fried bean-curd. I never had anything like it before; it looks like toast on the outside and perhaps the ridges make it look like ham, but inside was like chewing on dry chicken cutlet. I quite like it. It's crispy and not oily. Quite disappointed in the Mango sushi; I was unimpressed with the food presentation. Frankly, I was confused by the way they were stacked (see pic). Anyway, I tried it and it was nothing special, just mango wrapped in rice and seaweed. For 10 bucks, you can get a better deal, same quality sushi at T&T. I was also displeased that some of the pieces were the ends -- you're never supposed to serve customers the ends of anything. (-1 point for not having a menu outside the restaurant) (-2 food presentation and accuracy) (-1 ambiance) Not my kind of place to rave about. read more
9 years ago
Expensive for what it is and I got food poisoning. There are other vegetarian mock meat restaurants in the area at a better price point with more variety. I've been to many others and never had food poisoning, I was actually really surprised. I got the seitan 4 ways ($6.99) and the chicken in creamy special sauce ($13.99). The dining area is nice and they are attentive with refilling your water but I don't want to risk getting sick again so I'm not coming back. read more
I'm on the fence. We ordered the Enoki mushroom balls (main entrée) and a Udon noodle soup (Soups). The enokie mushroom balls are enoki mushrooms wrapped in a seaweed sheets and stir-fried in a savoury sauce, served on a bed of vegetables. Very delicious but also very expensive for a small mushroom dish. The soup was udon noodle, simmered in an vegetable broth with fried tofu, mushrooms, broccoli, crispy soy fritters, carrots and vegetables. Not very delicious and again a bit expensive for the size of the dish. I've noticed other vegetarian restaurants and establishments have a tendency to be more expensive which is unfortunate. With that said, I think I am still willing to give them one more try. Cheers read more
I have come to this restaurant on several occasions now, especially since it's not a far walk away from the St. George campus for U of T. As a vegan, I absolutely love how their mock meat dishes have the consistency and taste of actual meat. They also have some dim sum dishes that imitate the meat version very well too. They have a part of their store where you can actually buy their vegan meats to take home, which I found extremely wonderful since I can taste test their vegan meat first in the restaurant. Their vegan beef jerky is also amazing. The only little problem I had with the restaurant was that a couple of the staff did not speak English very well. I had to ask three times for a bowl because the employee kept on bringing back the wrong item, such as a spoon instead. Other than that, the service was great too. read more
8 years ago
This is one of my favourite restaurants! I love the variety of dishes and flavours that are available and I could literally eat 100 dumplings. The portion sizing is great for getting a few things and splitting them between people just so you can try things. I love the variety of mock meats, the textures and flavours vary which is a nice change if you're like me and eat a lot of the same things when at home. The price is good for what you get. The environment is really nice and is great for dates or larger get-togethers. I've had a joint birthday dinner here and everyone enjoyed the food. Love coming back here. read more
9 years ago
I enjoyed visiting Kings Cafe. I'd say the food I had was good, not great, but I want to go back and try some more dishes. To be fair, we did it wrong, everyone ordered their own, instead of us ordering a variety of things and mixing and matching (there is a lazy Susan in the middle of every table). The menu is nice in that vegan is the default. Items with egg or dairy are marked. I had: - Hot and sour soup. Very nice. - Spring rolls. Standard tasty. - Crispy soy fritters. Ok. I could eat them again. - Kung po chicken. I don't normally go for the mock meats, but I wanted to try it. I also ordered a steamed rice to go with it. It was ok, but too much chicken for a single meal. It wasn't spicy. Service was good. Pricing is good too. Definitely want to go back to try the dim sum and some of the other dishes. I'd give it 3.5 stars. read more
17 years ago
King's Cafe has been a staple in Kensington Market, and I visited recently after their long-awaited re-opening. The interior is beautifully done, and very chic now. My partner and I shared a lunch combination for $14 which, after you choose the main entree (e.g. coconut curried vegetables and 'meat' ), is complimented with a salad with fruit dressing, two soy nuggets, one spring roll and purple rice. The gluten plate isn't bad either, but I eat enough of it as a vegetarian that I don't see why I should pay so much more at King's. For Asian cuisine, it's considered pricey for the amount of food you get. However, the cooks here take care to craft their food and present it in a mouth-watering manner. Fantastic food but crappy prices. read more
14 years ago
This is a wonderful place we keep coming back to. If you're into vegetarian food, basically, you can order anything off the menu, and you won't be disappointed. I've added photos of what we had to the photos section: - The hot & sour soup is excellent, with enoki mushrooms. "Small" size is great for two people, unless you're making a meal of it. - The enoki mushroom balls were wonderful, served on a bed of steamed spinach, with a sweet sauce based on soy. Yum! - The soy drumsticks proved to be an excellent appetizer. Great texture, and very nice sauce to go with them. - King's cafe is also a teahouse, with some excellent selections. Today we had "osmanthus fragrant dancong" tea ... quality oolong tea with strong peach/apricot accents. Better alone, I think, than with a meal, but it was great nonetheless. Overall, highly recommended! read more
16 years ago
I finally went to King's Cafe after it was recommended to me by a lot of other people. I had sampled some of their very delicious appetizers at the Vegetarian Food Fair last month, so I was excited to try an entree. Well... I had the Soy Fritters with Curry Rice, and I don't know if it was just the wrong dish to order or what, but I didn't think it was very good. Fried tofu gluten fritters with carrots, potatoes, beans and cauliflower sounded so yummy but it wasn't. The only thing I really enjoyed the flavour of was the potatoes, because they seemed to have taken on the most of the curry flavour, the veggies and soy/gluten stuff weren't very flavourful. I needed some hot sauce for sure. At least it was on the Special Order menu so it was only 5.99, some of the other items were 10-13. They also wouldn't let me plug in my laptop and were generally kindof rude. so, eh. Not very enthused. read more
Lunch at King's Cafe was a good, quiet stop in the crowded Kensington Market. I had the vegetarian fried protein in a stir-fry. The protein was excellent, but the stir fry was heavy on the overly sweet sauce and light on the produce. The service was fair; we only looked around for our waiter once or twice. I wouldn't recommend coming here in a hurry, though - it's a place where everyone seems to take their time, including the guests. The atmosphere was decent. I liked the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the crowded market streets. The little shop inside the restaurant was neat, but the decor was stale. Overall, I'd recommend stopping at King's Cafe if you're looking for a breather from the crowded Kensington Market. read more
I SO wish we had the vegetarian options that Toronto has in the Denver area! Don't get me wrong, we have places, but a completely vegan/vegetarian Chinese restaurant with a huge menu? We do NOT have these. That explains why me and my boyfriend ordered so much food for just the two of us. We thought, when are we going to get this chance again? We ate: "Chicken" drumsticks - about $7 for six drumsticks - comes with a sweet dipping sauce; good texture (I don't know how they get the skin that way) and no funky taste to the (soy? wheat gluten?) meat Extra small hot and sour soup - extra small is basically a cup of soup; very tasty!! Lots of various ingredients and great flavor - I would order this again in a heartbeat; $3.50 BBQ pork bun - this is basically char sui bao (sp?) - very tender bun with the classic sweet taste you expect; this was better than some regular ones I've had!! $1.50 Shrimp dumplings - from the dim sum menu...these were just okay; very fresh, but they don't taste like shrimp $3 Teriyaki seitan - tasty, but don't believe the menu, this dish is not at all spicy; it ran about $13 Spicy eggplant - this is a tasty dish; the strips of seitan and bits of shiitake mushrooms are my favorite parts; but, the eggplant is tender and delicious; about $11 Tea: we drank a small pot of the Osmanthus Fragance Dancong, an oolong tea. It was very lovely, floral and smooth. I highly recommend this! $5 for the small pot Neither of the two mains came with rice, which we thought was odd...but since we were stuffing ourselves, we didn't feel it necessary to order yet more food. The servers were extremely nice, and the overall experience was great. read more
9 years ago
I ordered lunch using DoorDash. I got a teriyaki cutlet combo ($14) and a cranberry cheesecake ($3). The combo comes with soup, purple rice, salad, a spring roll, a few soy nuggets(?), and of course your main. It was really filling. I thought it would be small but I was so full before finishing half of the teriyaki cutlets. I was able to save some for lunch the next day. The teriyaki cutlets had a great texture. They truly felt like meat and the sauce was great. Not sure what to make out of the soup though, it tasted pretty bland to me. The cheesecake wasn't bad. I was surprised at the texture. If you have this delivered during a summer day, it'll be really mushy so pop it in the fridge before eating. Overall I'd go back here for vegan/vegatarian Chinese food. I've tried 2 vegan Chinese restaurants so far in Toronto, and this totally beats the other one. read more
16 years ago
My friends & I went to King's Café yesterday & I was pleasantly surprised! Normally, the carnivore in me sorely misses meat, but the food was so tasty I almost forgot I was eating vegetarian. Clean, open & airy, it was no problem to get a table on a Saturday afternoon around 5 p.m. Presentation was nice, from the thoughtful slice of lime in the glasses of water to the Sao Mai which was beautiful. If I was going vegetarian and craving Chinese food or dim sum, I would definitely white knuckle it over to this place. My vegetarian sister was impressed with the Assorted Seitan Platter ($6.59) (ha ha...satan...:P). The "Chinese roast" variety tasted devilishly like BBQ pork! The Sweet 'N' Sour Bites ($9.99), although I do admit they were kind of like eating chicken balls without the chicken inside, still provided that needed fix. The Dim Sum was great - we had the Sao Mai & Veggie Shrimp Dumpling (each $2.99 for 3 pcs). The Steamed Dumpling ($5.99 for 8 pcs) was my favorite - full of vegetable goodness and let's just say I'm craving that ginger dipping sauce right now...drool. I wasn't crazy over the Schezuan Style Spicy Tofu ($8.99) but that is due more to a personal preference for firmer tofu and no reflection on lack of flavor. I had no problem lapping up the sauce with rice. We finished off with Cranberry Cheese cake ($2.60), which we weren't really that impressed with. It just wasn't what we were expecting - more like a square, rather than your typical cheese cake. Even though dessert was a dud, everything else and the location in Kensington Market made up for it - such a fun place to people watch out the window & stroll the streets afterwards hunting for health food (or cool tees ;). Overall I'm really looking forward to my next visit to King's Cafe! read more
I like this restaurant, lots of options of different "meats" One of my favs are the bbq pork buns. I have tried a lot of items in the menu that I like and also a few that I don't like at all... The've a large selection of teas which is nice however no alcohol. read more
9 years ago
My favourite veggie/vegan restaurant. Be prepared to read a novel while you wait for the food to come. Although its not meat based, the spices that they use really made the food taste so flavourful. The bites were delicious, the cutlet chicken were delicious, you can almost never go wrong with any of the items. It doesn't get too crowded and is able to accommodate large groups. Also perfect for a slow date. The staff there were friendly, which is always a plus. read more
12 years ago
I have been to this place a few times with my family. We come here whenever we feel like having Chinese and mock meat dishes. My friends have said that their mock beef and pork dishes tastes like real pork and beef. Since I'm a vegetarian I can't validate that. I have been to this place and their second location in Mississauga, Zen Garden, more than 10 times. Our meal here would always consist of Soy Drumsticks (similar to Chicken drumsticks), Tom Yang Vermicelli (I love it), Kung Po Soy-Fritters (gravy dish), and Crispy & spicy Soy Fritters (sort of crispy chicken with spices - dry dish). read more
Ambiance: Very quiet (I came in at around 5) and very spacious. The interior designing is something that is atypical of the interior designs of most restaurants in Kensington - it's very "modern Chinese", something that is more typical in restaurants up in the suburbs. Cleanliness: Table tops could have been cleaner - there were left over rings from previous customers' glasses. Service: Very friendly and accommodating. Food: I ordered the rice noodles with soy beef. The noodles were not greasy (which is a good thing considering how lots of Chinese restaurants tend to serve greasy rice noodles) and the "beef" tasted really good! The texture and appearance was very similar to beef. Taste-wise, the "beef" tasted like a mix between soy and actual beef - basically a less flavourful beef. I for one, liked the imitation beef and rice noodle combination. I wish they provided more beef with the rice noodles though :/ Pricing was pretty fair - for about $8.50, you get a generous portion of noodles with various toppings and tasty imitation beef. read more
8 years ago
11 years ago
A lot of wonderful and diverse options... Service was exceptionally poor. Bbq seitan is delicious and very flavourful but much more oily than the standard. Enoki mushroom combination plate left a lot to be desired. Not very flavourful, no dressing on the salad, no dressing for the flavourless spring roll and decent chicken soy nugget. Bbq bun was okay but again lacked the succulence you would expect. I'd come here again if someone wanted to go hut definitely was not worth the drive. read more
8 years ago
The food is good. But I think its service could be better. It can by pretty busy during dinner time. We ordered plum flavor duck, soy bean dish, green tea cake, and chestnut with tofu. We waited for 10-15 minutes before our food is served. No WiFi. read more
Even though part of the Zen Garden chain, I found this location wasn't as good as the Mississauga location. While the majority of the food was tasty, especially the enoki mushrooms, crispy soy fritters and mock shrimp dumpling, I found the service to be a bit lacking. The waitresses were very nice and very accommodating in splitting bills, which sometimes doesn't happen at Chinese restaurants, so that was greatly appreciated. So for food/wait staff - I'd give it a 4/5. However, I need to take it down by 0.5 star because the entrees came out very sporadically. Out of 7 entrees we ordered, I think it took 45 minutes from the first to last dish, which is way too long. I also have to take it down by another 0.5 star because it is 4.99 for a pot of tea and they don't refill it. For that price, it should be refilled. Verdict: not bad, but doesn't compare to Mississauga location as that one is more serene and has better service. read more
16 years ago
Enroute to Urban Herbivore on a Wednesday night (and realizing that it closes "at sunset....despite the fact that the sun set at about 9:30PM and I arrived at about 8:20PM), I discovered King's Cafe. It was late-ish so not that many patrons were inside, but nonetheless, I dragged my reluctant carnivore Fiance into this place. First impression -- gee, it sure feels like a Western Chinese restaurant ala one-off cafe,Vancouver-style. We get seated and I cozy up to a menu and find out that King's Cafe has its own factory and several other cafes spread out across Toronto/GTA (sorry, I'm still new here so I don't quite know how to refer to the rest of this city!). Majorly craving something sweet and sour, I ordered an appy starter plate of seitan, asking the waitress if she could give me more of the sweet and sour than the curry variety (it comes with a selection of four flavours). I kid you not, it took a full seven minutes for the waitress to even somewhat understand what I was trying to say. And no, it wasn't me -- English is definitely not her second language. So I gave up and proceeded to order siu mai (appy), a dish of sweet and sour "chicken" and my fiance ordered a bento box (with the kung po "chicken"). Food arrives....no, not the appies but my sweet and sour chicken and the bento box. Ten minutes later, the appies arrive. My only knock against creative vegetarian food (and this place is creative - there are sooo many dishes of "seafood" and "meat" to choose from) is that, most of the stuff is deep-fried and super processed. My sweet and sour "chicken" was good. Deep fried, airy pieces of seitan with not-fake-red-looking sweet and sour sauce....really skimped a tad on the veggies. The bento box was interesting. The kung po "chicken" was really good, it's all about the sauce and fixins sometimes. The best thing about my experience here was the (at first, to me) three mysterious little nuggets accompanying the spring roll. Seriously, I bit into it, it tasted like chicken, it looked like chicken and it *felt* like chicken (in my mouth, that is). But it wasn't chicken! I was so impressed, I pulled our waitress aside to ask her what it was made of. And she had a look of terror in her eyes and immediately sent the manager over (possibly the owner). Unsure of what type of meat it was, I asked her if this was vegetarian chicken. "Yes, yes it is," she replied wearily and continued, "do not worry, we do not serve meat here, it is real vegetarian chicken, all seitan." "Oh! I'm not worried! I was just really impressed that it tastes just like meat! So it's chicken?" Manager/owner nods and points to the back of the restaurant where a little shop was tucked away. "You can buy these chicken nuggets in the store," she informed me. I was astonished. A store in the very back! I got up from my seat to poke around the store and found freezers full of all the stuff they served in the restaurant including an impressive wall of various loose teas. A huge bag of the chicken nuggets go for $20. Anyhoo. Would I go back? Probably not, unless I'm in the area again and Urban Herbivore is closed and all the other places are as well. Not that it sucked or anything, but this city is so huge that I'd rather spend my money at another veggie resto that I haven't been to just so that I can write more reviews and boast about how many people actually read them. =) read more
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