Friday, February 5, 2010

Fo Guang Goodness


Perhaps Fo Guang Gallery hasn't been reviewed because everyone wants to keep it secret? Not really surprising given the tasty food, relaxing music, and beautiful asian art all combined inside a tranquil haven on Queen Street. The entire menu is vegetarian, but omnivores will still find plenty of good options.

I had the Vegetarian Laksa $12 (see pic) which was more subtly flavoured than I'm used to, but still delivered welcome complexity with fresh curry leaves, mung bean shoots, veges and tasty gluten/soy vegetarian 'pork'. The laksa soup didn't have the knock-you-over punch of flavour I enjoy at my other favourite laksa haunts (Laksa King, Chinta Ria Soul, Blue Chillies and Laksa Me), but that is probably because all the others use shrimp paste in their 'vegetarian' laksa whereas Fo Guang is a proper vegetarian laksa. Fo Guang's laksa has a nice amount of spice and good flavours.

I also enjoyed a pot of Kumquat Tea (see pic) which was a balance of citrus and sweetness - not too sweet though. It even had a real kumquat rolling about and infusing at the base of the clear glass teapot. The tea was served with two delicous mini biscuits. The menu at Fo Guang has more desert and tea options than mains, so make sure you leave some room.
I'm looking forward to going back and working my way through the wontons, spring rolls, stirfries, and steamed buns. But first on my list will be the Crystal Dumplings ordered by a customer on the adjacent table - they engendered serious food envy.

What else are second visits for, other than trying things you missed on the first?

Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

  1. Oh, it's been blogged! Sadly, I think FGY has gone doooownhill since it slah'n'burnt its menum but your laksa does look ace (maybe they've increased the menu again because last time I went there was no laksa at all).

    Here's some of my posts about it, and also Pip at The Fairest Feed has blogged too.

    http://misstprincessvegan.blogspot.com/2008/10/fgy-art-gallery-or-i-explore-some-mock.html

    and then:
    http://misstprincessvegan.blogspot.com/2009/03/fgy-art-gallery-temple-takes-dive-or.html

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