Com Chay Thuyen Vien
For those of you who keep complaining that vegetarian restaurants are more expensive then meat restaurants, you will love this post. I am eating vegetarian more often now and this is one of the few places that my friend and I like to visit. It is suprisingly cheap when compared to most popular vegetarian restaurants in Saigon. We ordered the following food for two people for just 50,000 VND (approximately $3 US):
(Fried Rice)
(Cha gio and veggie fish)
(Nice red curry)
(My veggie Coca Cola)
(Nice atmosphere)
Com Chay Thuyen Vien has been in business for 20 years. It is definitely one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the city. Affordable as many veggies will like.
Com Chay Thuyen Vien
13 Nguyen Van Dau, Phuong 5, Quan Phu Nhuan, Saigon
in case you want to go to other good Vegetarian Restaurants. get in touch with me 😀
Thanks, I would like to know all of them and do a review for each on on this blog. Lets meet when you are free.
Also, the link you sent is broken.
I ate at Com Chay Thuyen Vien for about 1 month, 2 meals each day for about a month when I first came to Saigon. I was observing Lent. This place was near my house and I didn’t have a bike at the time and no one I knew were vegetarian so I had to go find it on my own.
I have eaten most of the items on their menu here and for the most part, it’s okay but not good quality.
Pros:
Menu has a lot of selection and the price is probably the least expensive around (approx. 11,000-15,000 VND) per dish. The service is fast since the food is already prepared.
To be fair, if you ordered an item that is not common, chances are it will come out hot and in that case, the food is decent.
One of my favorite dishes is the goi dish. A tasty appetizer that can be eaten as a stand alone meal for those with a smaller appetite. It’s cheap too. See follow up comments below.
Cons:
Since most of the meals are prepared already (no heat lamps), most rice plates you order (even the rice itself) and the soup dishes are luke warm or not hot at all. The food would definitely taste better if it were heated up.
For another vegetarian restaurants, I recommend Com Chay Hy Lac located on 102 Dinh Tien Hoang, P.1, Q. Binh Thanh. That’s where I took my business to after leaving Com Chay Thuyen Vien.
Again, the rice plates tend to be on the cold side but the overall quality of the rice plate is better than at Thuyen Vien. What won out my business (and why I continue to eat here at least 1 a day) is the soup dishes. They have a regular rotation of meatless alternative to local favorites: Bun Bo Hue, Bun Cha Ca, Curry, Bun Oc, Mi Tiem that taste very good. It’s prepared the same day but comes to you in hot bowl. Even the other local eateries that prepare Pho don’t come out this hot. And on quite a few occasions when I arrive a bit late (dinner around 6pm) one of the two soup selections is sold out. Trust me on this people, I love eating meat but having any one of the their daily soup specials and you won’t miss it the meat. The owners have come up with a creative way to make it taste good meatless and for a carnivore like me, that’s hard to do.
Com Chay Hien Dat (119/1 Nguyen Van Dau, P.5, Q. Binh Thanh) is on the same street as Com Chay Thuyen Vien on the left hand side as your coming down Nguyen Van Dau inside an alley (turn left when you see a Che place)
You can find a wide selection of entrees at Com Chay Hien Dat but be forewarned: the service is REALLY slow as they prepare everything upon order so when it’s slightly busy, be prepared to wait about 25-30 minutes for your order to arrive. So when they are busy, the service levels drops which is why I don’t usually go there anymore.
I hope this helps!
If you’re looking to try more vegetarian/vegan restaurants in the city, try the http://www.happycow.net listing for vegetarian restaurants in HCMC. There’s probably about 30 or so on the list. Keep in mind how quickly places can open and close around here; people try to keep the site up to date but its not always the most current. Good luck!