Grain of Salt

Newly opened in Central, Grain of Salt is the first restaurant in our city to be founded by a registered dietitian. Tiffany Shek believes in prevention over cure for diet-related diseases. Her cafe combines nutrition counselling, healthy eating and movement, and strives to bust the myth that healthy eating is difficult and at best, mundane.

The menu features tasty and enjoyable dishes that help the diner achieve their nutritional goals. Vegan highlights include “Soup-er” veggie dumplings which come with a rich consommé cooked by boiling fresh and dried shiitake mushrooms, white button mushrooms, kombu and cordycep flowers for six hours. The dumplings, due to their high soluble fibre content and the isoflavones from the tofu filling, can lower cholesterol. The avocado on toast has a tasty twist with a shallot and mustard sauce and tamari roast almonds and is served on high-fibre whole wheat sourdough. Diners are recommended to pair the avocado toast with home-made low-salt kimchi, or for non-vegans, a 45-minute egg to add complexity to the flavour and texture.

 Mott 32

Serving Chinese food with modern flair, Mott 32 has always believed in ethical sourcing of its ingredients. Now they take their sustainable ethos one step further by offering a vegan menu based on the restaurant’s classic dishes. Plant and meat alternatives are used in their Shanghainese soup dumplings made with plant-based pork and tofu as the signature smoked cod; signature Peking “duck” with crispy tofu skin, pickled cucumber and Chinese pancakes; shredded “chicken” with mung bean noodles, cucumber, crispy youtiao, sesame sauce and chilli oil; crispy “chicken” with Szechuan red peppercorns, dried chilli and cashew nuts and more.

Miss Lee

Modern Chinese vegetarian restaurant Miss Lee is offering a vegan Lunar New Year menu this year, available from February 12-15. Diners have the option of the full eight-courses or a lighter four-course menu. Dishes include turnip cake with morel and dried mushrooms, braised winter melon and a cauliflower trio done sour and spicy with sesame, puréed with quinoa and pickled. There is also claypot with multi-grain rice, pumpkin, taro, mushroom, preserved turnip and chilli, and osmanthus wine poached pear. 

Vegan afternoon tea is also still available, consisting of an array of delicate and guilt-free savouries and sweets, bringing together the quintessentially British afternoon tea culture and Miss Lee’s creative Chinese fare. Highlights are hawthorn and black sesame scones, tapioca crackers with wasabi and lotus root, and curry and beetroot flavours with balsamic vinegar pearls. The tea set also presents miniature versions of Miss Lee’s popular dishes such as “Smashing Pumpkin” – cakes with sesame and walnut praline – and “Rolling Stone” rice noodle rolls with XO on a bed of mashed potato. For those who prefer a cosy stay-in meal, takeaway offerings are also available.

 Treehouse

Some new offerings at Treehouse in Central include Thai coconut yellow curry of tempeh, roasted vegetables, long beans, broccoli and cauliflower, with a sauce with flavours of lemongrass, ginger, galangal, garlic, fennel and coriander to name just a few. The restaurant has also added vegan cheeses with local company Nuteese launching Holy Umami, an artisanal plant-based vegan cheese in early February.

For Lunar New Year they offer a tote bag loaded with eight Treehouse items including sourdough flatbreads for you to fill yourself with items such as kimchi, mixed pickles, hummus or baba ganoush, hot sauce, red base and green base za’atar, and raw chocolate bar.

Soil to Soul

The fine dining vegan/vegetarian Korean temple food eatery at K11 is offering a festive yet vegan poon choi set to celebrate the Year of the Ox. Available for six to eight people, the poon choi set comes with two sauces: Korean soy bean made from signature soy sauce marinated for more than 10 years and Korean sweet and spicy. The feast showcases some of the restaurant’s signature specialities such as tofu skin pocket and radish dumplings. Especially auspicious are blessed tofu skin pockets stuffed with sweet potato noodle and napa cabbage, referencing prosperity by resembling old-fashioned coin purses. Elongated zucchini noodles are a metaphor for happiness and longevity, while the Cantonese name for Korean rice cake, “leen goh”, offers the promise of reaching even greater heights. Other specialities include shiitake, oyster and king oyster mushrooms, braised Korean radish, bean sprouts, cabbage kimchi and more.

 Lyre’s non-alcoholic cocktails

If you are celebrating in the near future, newly launched Lyre’s non-alcoholic spirits are not only healthier but vegan too. Drinkers can enjoy their favourite cocktail whether it is a negroni, Manhattan or a mimosa, with the drinks having the same appearance and taste but with low or no alcohol. Their four bases are Dry London Spirits, American Malt, Aperitif Rosso and Italian Orange and all are available at outlets such as Winerack and HK Liquor Store.

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