A VERY VEGGIE DELIGHT
VEGGIE CHEF VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN Open daily, 9am-10pm Vacharapol Road fb.com/VeggieChefThailand 086-624-6886
THE SETTING
Alright, this doesn’t really bring to mind a fancy wine and dine joint and it certainly isn’t gourmet. But given that it was just vegetarian festival, we thought we’d represent a bit. Veggie Chef is what you’re more likely to call street food; except, it’s in an air-conditioned shophouse; it’s MSG free and it’s also completely vegan friendly. It’s a bit of a way out of central Bangkok as it’s quite close to Don Mueang Airport, yet we’ll have you know that people with some hours to kill before their next flight will actually leave the airport to come to this joint, just because it’s that good. Think of it as a no-frills vegan joint giving off a street food vibe, serving the most authentic tasting Thai food that’s actually better than your regular Thai food because it’s super healthy.
THE MENU
So the menu is pretty vast. You have 97 dishes to choose from (we counted) so if you’re a vegan or a vegetarian who loves Thai food you will probably go nuts with this overload of choice, a nice new feeling as vegans in Bangkok are usually not so spoiled for choice. Even if you aren’t vegan, it doesn’t matter, because the soy-based meat substitutes they use here taste just as good and like the real thing. You can have your pork, duck, chicken or beef and eat it too.
We started off with a very blue-looking Butterfly pea flower tea (B29) that came with some syrup on the side. It tasted so good we didn’t even bother adding any syrup in. Then came the Salted black olive rice (B79); we love olives and we love fried rice and the two paired just went down a huge treat. The saltiness with the olives mixed in with some chillies and basil gave of a bit of a kaprao vibe and we loved it. Then we tried Vegan salted fish and Thai herbs fried rice (B89) and fell in love. There is nothing we could fault about this dish and we’d have it again and again. Then came the Hot and sour vegan chicken in galangal-flavoured coconut soup (B130). Basically, a tom kha gai, but vegan. Can we just say this really hit the spot. We haven’t eaten chicken in quite some time and this kind of made up for lost time, without the guilt. And the coconut soup wasn’t clear like dishwater, but very rich and creamy and filled with spices and overflowing with nutrients in every spoonful. Perfect for cleansing the soul. And sinuses.
Our favourite dish had to be Deep fried rolls wrapped in seaweed (B129) which came with pumpkin dipping sauce and tamarind dipping sauce. Think vegan sushi, but crunchy too. Inside we found crunchy cucumbers, vegan ham and tofu and dipping it in the pumpkin sauce and taking a bite was just the highlight of our meal. We’d order about a hundred of these! Last but not least, we had Stir fried rice noodles with vegan chicken (B89) which basically tasted like rad na noodles, a truly street food dish that always hits the spot. Throw in the fact that it’s vegan and you end up feeling even more delighted.
INSIDER’S TIP
Veggie Chef can deliver right to your door and organise food for huge parties and gatherings too. If you don’t wanna trek it all the way out to the restaurant, then know that you can eat vegan in the comfort of your own home.
VALUE AND VERDICT
Seriously, vegan Thai street food does not get better or cheaper than this. The list of dishes we tried aren’t even a fractional representation of the things you could order here. At Veggie Chef, the world of vegan Thai cuisine really is your (vegan) oyster and you can eat to your heart’s content. The place was jampacked full too, testament to how awesome it is. We’re sold.