Oldie but Goodie is a monthly column where we feature noteworthy restaurants, cafes or bars that have been open at least six months and are worth a try.
It’s not always easy in Guangzhou to find a quality vegetarian meal. Celebrated though the city is – for better or worse – as a culinary mecca of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese cooks don’t always have the highest sensitivity towards plant-based diets, and to the disappointment of many a vegetarian transplant, a fair share of Guangzhou’s most famous delicacies fall squarely on the meaty side of the menu.
Enter, Carefree Vegetarian. For years the restaurant has been serving up a dizzying variety of meat-free dishes and earning the rare distinction of being one of the few eateries along the leafy streets and storied byways of Shamian Island that won’t break the bank.
It’s previous incarnation as a Thai restaurant remains evident in the vast menu, which seesaws between Southeast Asian and Chinese fare. Notable dishes include the red curry with mustard soy balls (RMB68), which, despite the foreboding chili icons that accompany it on the menu, doesn’t quite register on the serious spice scale. Its vegetables, however, are seasoned and cooked to perfection alongside chewy orbs injected with mustardy cream cheese that burst with quirky surprise.
The soups too, are not to be overlooked; the Thai spicy and sour with coconut milk (RMB58/pot) packs a hot tang that’s buoyed by the coconut’s subtle sweetness, while the mushrooms lend an earthy note.
On the Cantonese side of things, the okra with char siu ‘pork’ (RMB43) is a piglet-free take on a southern classic, awash in sweet lady finger slime, while rice and dim sum dishes round out the menu.
If the endless selection of plant-based vittles and historic setting in an ex-colonial enclave aren’t enough to draw you down to Carefree Vegetarian, at least come for the bodhisattva-heavy wall decorations and stay for the slightly cultish Buddhist chanting on the lunchtime soundtrack.
See listing for Carefree Vegetarian.
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