Graceful Vegetarian Restaurant, located inside Splendid China Mall in Scarborough, serves Chinese…read morevegetarian dishes that (in my opinion) are way better than the ones served in similar Chinese vegetarian restaurants that I had been to elsewhere in the GTA. At Graceful, they actually offer dishes that contain no mock meat, such as straight tofu and bean curd varieties with fresh vegetables (as a non-meat eater, I'm not a big fan of mock meats).
The food here seems to be a hit with both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
The restaurant is easily spottable as there are huge signs and entrances from both outside and inside the mall. The interior is not very big - just one big room, but has a cozy and comfortable ambiance with Chinese decorations.
There was a table with take-out snack and dessert items right at the entrance, where you can buy packages of cashew nuts, Chinese cookies, and glutinous rice-based snacks / desserts.
Service was very friendly, quick, and much better than the service you'd find at most other Chinese restaurants anywhere else.
We were presented with 3 menus: dim sum menu (where you mark the items you want to order yourself with a pencil), special dishes menu (with coloured photos), and the main menu (came in a paper booklet). We ordered a combination of dishes from the dim sum and main menus.
DIM SUM
- Vegetarian Shiu Mai: Loved it! The texture was very smooth and I could see the pieces of vegetables (maybe carrot, radish, water chestnut, mushrooms) in the shiu mai.
- Mock BBQ Eel: We ordered this one just out of curiosity. This was my least favourite item out of the ones we ordered. It came out as cubed pieces of deep-fried gluten, covered in sweet sauce and a bit of sesame seeds. Not a fan of deep-fried stuff, and I didn't like the sweet sauce. It had zero resemblance (both visually and taste-wise) to eel (we didn't expect it to be... just wanted to see how this dish would turn out).
- Mock Sliced Abalone Sashimi: This was okay, but it could do without the sauce. I liked the firm texture, just like abalone. It was served with a small dollop of wasabi (not needed, in my opinion).
MAIN DISHES
- Stir-Fried Tofu, Cabbage, Carrot, and Wood Ear Mushrooms: My absolute favourite dish here! We ordered it because I read another Yelp reviewer wrote that this dish was great, non-greasy, and non-oily. They were correct (thank you)! Glad we got this. The tofu was nice and firm with a chewy texture, and I loved all the vegetables that came with this dish. As a big fan of stir-fried cabbage and wood ear mushrooms, this was an easy win. I liked that it wasn't covered in thick sauce and not oily or greasy.
- Egg Whites and Mock Crab Meat on Broccoli: Broccoli was a bit on the soft side, but I liked this dish for the combination of fresh vegs and a huge amount of lean protein (egg whites) on top. It was a big dish, and we got to take home some of the egg whites.
- Crispy Egg-Free Noodles with Bean Curd Slices and Bitter Melon: This came with too much thick sauce (although I liked the black pepper), but the parts with the still-crispy noodles were good. The protein was actually called "Mock Beef" in the menu, but it was really bean curd slices. I liked the bitter melon the best in this dish, minus the sauce.
Overall, this was a great place for Chinese vegetarian food. There was a wide variety of items to choose from, ranging from dim sum (small dishes) to larger main dishes, and all sorts of cooking styles (steamed, stir-fried, deep fried, soup, hot pot, etc.). In the fried rice section of the menu, it was written that they could make all of the fried rice vegan by omitting the eggs (good option for those who want them to be vegan).
The 2 stand-outs of this restaurant were the quality and taste of the dishes (especially the ones with tofu / bean curd and actual vegetables), and the service. The gentleman who worked there (perhaps the manager or owner) really cared about his customers and acted like an owner - greeting us, making sure we were taken care of, giving us extra napkins and utensils when asked, explaining each dish that came out, and said goodbye as we were leaving.
I plan on coming back to try some of their other dishes on the menu (still lots to choose from!).