Veggie-Friendly Chinese: The vegetarian restaurant tucked away in Mid-Levels, right by Hong Kong Park, offers up mock meat and tofu dishes inspired by traditional Buddhist cuisine.

Look & Feel: It’s a simple and serene atmosphere, with higher than usual ceilings and appropriately green tablecloths. Keeping with the restaurant’s Buddhist roots, you’ll also notice small ornaments, bamboo details and artwork peppered around the place. The round tables can cater to all group sizes, and typically fill up at lunch time.

On the Menu: A foreigner-friendly restaurant, Pure Veggie House has an easy-to-use English paper menu that spans eight pages, covering categories such as steamed dim sum, Sichuan-style dishes and various types of congee. The menu, while large, isn’t overwhelming and sticks within your typical Chinese fare, albeit with a vegetarian twist. Added bonus: none of the dishes contains dairy or MSG.

Service: It’s certainly friendlier here than most dim sum joints, but there’s no way to pace yourself. Dishes come out all at once, one on top of the other.

Jeng: A winning dish is the sweet corn congee ($38): the smooth texture of the soup and crispy fried dough taste great together on a rainy day. The Tong Ho vegetable dumplings ($30) hit the spot, crispy and juicy in transparent skins. Our favorites of the day are the BBQ buns ($28), which use faux pork but taste amazing regardless, and the flaky, buttery shredded turning puffs ($38).

Not So Jeng: Next time we’ll pass on the wild mushroom dumplings with black truffle sauce ($35) which, perhaps unsurprisingly, are very one-note, tasting of nothing but mushrooms. Our sweet tooths are disappointed by the steamed bun with coconut milk filling ($35) — it’s dry and bland, in much need of about twice as much custard filling.

Great For: Healthy lunches, entertaining guests, turning a new leaf.

FYI: Tea service is interesting too, offering your choice of nearly 14 teas and flavor combinations.

This writeup was based on an independent tasting. The Loop doesn’t guarantee/sell restaurant review coverage. See our editorial policy here.