Me, my foodie sister, and our two foodie, vegetarian friends – dogeared girl and the grumpy monkey – were on a quest to 1) eat lunch together and 2) eat some good veggie food. After reading so many great reviews about this supposedly fabulous Soul Food Vegan Restaurant in Oakland, Souley Vegan, we all agreed that would be our destination. Unfortunately for us, when we pulled up to the restaurant, they were completely closed – bars across the entire front door and window area (I think it was because it was a Sunday afternoon. They didn’t look closed closed). Disappointed, we started wracking our brains to come up with a good alternative.

One of us in the group happened to notice another vegetarian restaurant just across the street from us – Golden Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant. It’s a Vietnamese/Asian style restaurant that is completely vegetarian (not vegan, but they do have plenty vegan options). Thrilled that we were once again on the path of eating at a vegetarian restaurant, we all agreed this was going to be the place of choice for us today.

It’s a bit of a hole in the wall. Not too elegant – especially the rolled up newspaper stabilizing our table – but it was full of people, so we figured it couldn’t be too bad. The first thing I noticed when sitting down was the fun and eclectic orange chopsticks on the plate. They made my day. And the second thing I noticed was the massive menu. As per normal when I’m in a vegetarian restaurant, they have way too many choices. Well, not really. I’m just not used to it. Thankfully, the group was willing to go family style and order all kinds of things to taste and share.

Our meal came out literally 4 or so minutes after we ordered. So, huge “kudos” to the nice waitress and cooks on speed! It was all nicely presented, hot (or cold if it was supposed to be) and on cute plates.

We ordered the Lotus Salad, Spicy Thai Fried Rice, Sauted Basil Mushrooms, and Vietnamese Crepes. We were notified that the Crepes could take up to 30 minutes to make and we decided to go ahead with it anyway because it sounded so good. They must have been exaggerating because it probably took no more than about 10 minutes after our other dishes landed at the table.

Each dish was amazing. The Lotus Salad had a lovely light vinegarette dressing over cabbage, carrots, tofu, peanuts, and other tasty items. The spicy Thai rice had the prefect amount of texture and spicy flavor to compliment the mushrooms. And the crepe… It was different than we all imagined. It ended up being a sort of omlette of sorts with vegetables and bean sprouts. It was served with the same vinegarette as the salad and mint and cilantro. It was delicious.

We all ordered Thai Iced tea as well – “Vegan or regular?” I love that stuff. They didn’t mess it up at all. It was delicious.

At the end of our leisurely meal with much laughter and story telling, we were all surprised at how cheap the bill actually was. We all ate, got our fill, and took some home for about $15 each ($60 total).

So, although we didn’t get any fried “chicken” or mac-n-cheese or okra, we left full, happy and with amazing flavors lingering on our tongues. I would most definitely go back.

(Here’s the paper holding up our table. ha!)