If there's an international cuisine that I've not ever been overtly keen on it's Chinese. Not that I've ever had a massive vendetta against satay or noodles; it's just never been my first choice. Then when I went vegetarian and later vegan, I began to stray even further away from oriental restaurants as Chinese food is typically meat heavy and a lot of it is infused with fish sauce.
That's why I was surprised to discover that Glasgow - in all its multicultural and vegan-friendly glory - was now going to be home to a 100% vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Lotus Vegetarian Cuisine can be found close to Bridge Street Subway Station on the Southside and offers a menu filled with tofu, vegetables and faux-meat.
When me and Elaine (who runs Vegan Events Scotland) first walked walked in, we had to admit it didn't feel like much. The place was empty, and the overall feel was very simplistic. We sat down and looked over the menu (which was printed on an A4 sheet of paper - I really do mean it when I say they didn't go all out on image) and made our choices. Elaine shares my love of large portions so we ordered a few dishes to share between us and were left to natter.
The wait for our food was long. During that time a man came in to order a takeaway and began getting huffy about the wait. Granted he was trying to order off-menu with Scottish takes on Chinese food such as chips and curry (tbh, he was the kind of customer who makes me glad I no longer work in hospitality). I'm not usually one to care too much about how long something takes to arrive, but they were chancing their luck and we were obviously not the only ones who were getting impatient.
However, if you think this review is going to be a don't-ever-eat-here affair, you'd be wrong. Because when the food did come, it was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. While there are restaurants who take ages to serve meals that other places could do in half the time (I'm looking at you Mono!) the hold up had obviously been due to an enthusiastic love of delicious food - and I can get behind that.
The full menu can be found on their Facebook page - of which me and Elaine opted for salt and chillies bean curd, vegetarian beef with black bean sauce, pumpkin with miso sauce, and mixed vegetables fried rice. All were beautiful and I can't pick a favourite (though Elaine said she loved the black bean sauce the most).
We had a chat with the owners and they were telling us about their move to Scotland and that this was their first restaurant. Apparently they were still waiting on a new oven being installed which would explain any waiting. They were such a lovely couple and it was also their friendliness that made the the wait worthwhile. While they certainly could work on styling and organisation, they clearly are very passionate about food and I think any true foodie (I know that makes me sound pompous) appreciates good food regardless of any other weakness the restaurant might have.
I 100% recommend Lotus to anyone after good cuisine - just don't visit when you're in a rush.