The Vegan Guide to Oxford

Kake, 5 Mar 2001

Richard Stallman visited Oxford last year, and we took him to dinner here. He liked it so much that he went back the next night as well :)

Kake, 17 Apr 1998

The subtitle of this restaurant is "The Chinese-Chinese Cuisine". Certainly a substantial proportion of the clientele are Chinese - always a good sign.

Make sure you tell your waitress exactly what vegan means - ie, go through the list of things you don't want, including eggs, oyster sauce and meat stock. It's also useful if you have a Chinese speaker in your party, just for extra confidence.

Sweetcorn soup, while not on the menu, is a delicious starter. For the main course, they can produce another off-the-menu dish of Sweet and Sour Beancurd (tofu), which is fairly tasty but nothing special. I recommend the Clear Noodle and Mixed Vegetables with Red Bean Curd Claypot (£6·25), which is just about the most delicious Chinese dish I've ever eaten.

It's not exactly cheap here - a meal for 4 (admittedly with 3 bottles of wine and 4 halves of ginseng beer) came to nearly £90 once the service charge had been added. However, it's worth it for a treat. The meat-eaters I was with were over the moon, and this vegan wasn't disappointed either.