Vegipai Cafe @ Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur

- April 19, 2018

Eat What Leh?

I took a break from food hunting because I had been eating out a lot. Even though all the food I had are healthy, my wallet wasn't feeling it because gosh, healthy stuffs are just so expensive right? I told my friend, Deanna about it and she said "Health is wealth!" and I couldn't agree more.

Luckily I have the kindmeal.my app which has tons of meal deals. KindMeal.My is a meat-free lifestyle platform and they work with restaurants and cafes to offer attractive meat-free deals! I used the app and got 20% off my meal here at Vegipai Cafe.

Dad and I went to Vegipai Cafe the other day and had officially kicked start our food hunting session together. This place serves healthy vegetarian food from Sze Chuan dishes to Western delights such as pizza and spaghetti. I've read good reviews about this place and was most excited to try their Bak Kut Teh.

Brought my KindMeal's mascot along!

The reason why I ordered this was because I wanted to see whether it can top off my favourite Zha Jiang Mian from Noodle Shack. This is the Sze Chuan Spicy Ramen (RM10.90). Though the name is not the same, they have the same concept, noodles with shredded cucumbers and topped with a "sauce. The sauce here comprises of carrots and a whole lot of red and green bell peppers which was definitely overpowering the whole dish. I would rate the spiciness a 3/10 and it was kinda sour.

This dish didn't had a good first impression. Just look at that excess water on my plate. We informed the worker about this and they said that it is from the cucumbers but my dad and I believed that they didn't drain the noodles properly after cooking. The noodles were also overcooked, making this whole dish even more unpleasant. We ended up exchanging it for another item because I am definitely not paying for that.

They have a variety of Tofu dishes and it took me awhile to decide what to get because they are all RM16-RM20 and I really wanted to order something that's worth the money (living the budget life #noshamehaha). I went for the Braised "Dou Fu" in Black Bean Sauce (RM18.90).

If you can't take spicy food, you should skip this because this dish packs a punch! I've lost count of the amount of dried chilies in there and I rate the spiciness a 9/10! I would have liked this dish to be less spicy as the spice destroyed my taste buds and I couldn't taste the flavour of this dish. But still, I ate most of it because I love tofu and spicy food.

Bak Kut Teh is no doubt my favourite thing to have on a rainy day. Bak Kut Teh is a dish that normally consists of various cuts of pork and is simmered in broth of herbs and spices so I was really intreat to see how this meat-less one would taste like. There are various types of bak kut teh, ranging from bitter to sweet and thick to thin broths and the Bak Kut Teh (RM19.90) at Vegipai Cafe settles on the sweeter and thin broth side.

I'm used to having ones that are slightly bitter but surprisingly, I enjoyed this sweeter version too. The broth is sweet from the generous amount of goji berries. This also came with tofu puffs, enoki mushrooms, veges. What I really like about it is that it is not oily at all. I took away the leftovers because my dad and I ordered too much for the both of us. I had it the next day and it tasted even better because of the double boiling process! This was my favourite dish.

This was the dish we chose in exchange with the Sze Chuan Spicy Ramen. Dad wanted to try their Portugese Abalone Mushroom (RM17.90). We asked them to put the sauce in a separate bowl as we wanted to see whether do the mushrooms taste good on its own. The mushrooms were dry and not juicy and it was heavily coated with flour that it ended up being not crispy. The sauce tasted like ordinary buttermilk sauce and there's nothing much to talk about. But these are very addictive and I find myself snacking on them till it's empty.

An Eat What Leh? review is never complete without a bowl of laksa, especially when it is at healthy restaurants because I'm eager to find out how would they taste like. They have quite a few laksa on the menu but I went for their Nyonya Laksa (RM10.90). You can ask for egg or without them. I thought the eggs would be hard-boiled but they came in omelette form? Anyway, I didn't liked this dish because it was rather bland and you can definitely tell that milk is used. I'm allergic to dairy so that kinda put me off.

Taste is slightly better after adding their sambal. This dish doesn't come with it so you have to ask for it. The laksa was quite spicy too.

I wouldn't normally order a drink when I eat out because #savemoney #bringownwater but again, Dad wanted Vietnamese Coffee. It was nothing special but we both had an upset stomach when we got home and dad suspects that it was because of the milk that was used in this coffee.

OVERALL VERDICT

Food: 5/10 (Only based on overall dishes that I' tried). Would come back for the bak kut teh.

Price: 6/10 Most of the dishes ranges from RM15-RM20, which is the average price at a healthy restaurant.

Service: Our time there was more pleasant because of the lady that served us. Very friendly

Would I Return?: Yes, I would like to try other dishes

(Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and may differ from others)