I'd browsed through the Chickpea website a few times already and I'd had my eye on the Hafla…read moreexperience for awhile. Finally managed to get over there and try it. Went with my family for a bday brunch. So for anyone who doesn't know, the Hafla experience is an AYCE experience. Not the kind where everyone in the restaurant is walking around, selecting all of their foods to put on their plates and then walking back to their own table with it. For this experience, each person chooses one main entree for themselves and then the restaurant brings a whole bunch of other dishes to accompany that main entree. Everyone at the table has to participate in the Hafla. You cannot have 3 people ordering Hafla, and 4 people ordering from the regular A la Carte menu. It's meant to be a family style sharing experience. Oh my goodness. What an experience this was. They brought sooo many dishes to the table. If I could make one suggestion to the restaurant to improve the experience for their customers, it would be to get bigger tables for the Hafla! Holy smokes...there was sooo much food on the table. At one point, the waitress came out with some baskets of pita bread to go with our food and asked where to put them. Ummm...wherever you can find space?! We had lots of leftovers by the end of the meal. I think my daughter said she counted at least 15 boxes of leftovers! This wasn't just All You Can Eat. This was More Than You Can Eat, cuz we were all super full from everything that they brought to us, and we never needed to ask for anything to be refilled as we couldn't even finish what they'd brought to us initially. What a feast! As for the food itself. I think the one thing that kinda fell short a bit was the Chickpea fries. I'd had these once before from their food truck a few years ago. I really enjoyed it back then. This time however, the Chickpea fries were not as impressive. Everything else on the table though was excellent. I don't know where else in Vancouver you can get a plant based AYCE meal, and this one was very impressive. Some standouts for me were the Cauliflower of Life, Hatzil Baladi (charred eggplant), and Baba Ganoush. A few of us ordered some drinks and those were pretty impressive as well. My daughter's Lavender Lychee Lemonade looked so lovely and refreshing. For myself I ordered a Chai Latte made with oat milk, and that was excellent. Oh, and you know how sometimes restaurants have menus on their websites and the menus don't match what's on the printed menu in the actual restaurant? Well this was the first time I was actually happy to see that the menu in the restaurant was different cuz online it says that the Hafla costs $42 per person but when we got to the restaurant it turned out to be only $40 per person. In this day and age, when things are usually only ever getting more expensive, it was a real treat to see that something had actually gone down in price for once! Highly recommend this place. I'll be back sometime for sure to try their regular, non AYCE menu!

I love this restaurant and have never had an experience here that made me want to leave a negative…read morereview, but last night came very close. We came in around 9:00 PM, ordered quite a bit of food, and were enjoying our meal as usual. Around 9:45 PM, our server approached us with takeout boxes and told us we needed to be out in four minutes because they closed at 10:00 PM and she doesn't get paid after that. I understand wanting to leave on time and be compensated fairly for your work, but at that point there were still 15 minutes left before closing. Even after I pointed out the time, we continued to feel rushed throughout the remainder of our meal. As someone who has worked in the service industry for over 10 years, I could never imagine treating guests this way. I completely understand that staff want to finish their shifts and go home, but that is not the customer's responsibility. Rushing people out before closing, especially without any prior warning, can completely change the dining experience. The food was still fantastic, and my love for this restaurant remains, but this was one of the most disappointing and disrespectful service experiences I've had in a very long time. I'm genuinely saddened that an experience like this happened at a place I have always enjoyed and recommended to others.

Returned for dim sum with a group of 6. Many of the dim sum dishes are portioned in 3's so this was…read morethe perfect group size. I was the only veg-inclined person in the group and didn't realize some of the others didn't know the place was fully vegetarian before arriving, but it didn't seem like anyone was disappointed with the vegetarian offerings. We tried a large variety of dishes, and I won't list all of them because I don't think I'd even remember everything. My favourites were the walnut custard buns, the pea tips rice sheet roll, and the new tapioca pudding (I'd never tried this kind of baked tapioca pudding before and I loved the texture). They also brought out fresh baked barbeque buns which were nice and soft. Others really liked the vegetarian chicken nuggets and black truffle mushroom dumplings, so I think it's safe to say everything is pretty good. I felt like I ate a lot, but at the end, after they split the bill 6 ways, everyone only paid $22 (before tip). So if you go with a big group you can try lots of things at a pretty good price. Service was pretty good. They did try to push some dishes on us, but I think they were just trying to be helpful with most of us not being familiar with how to order for dim sum, and their patience was appreciated.

Our waitress Cindy was patient, kind, and helpful. The manager Man was also helpful…read more My vegan husband was delighted to find a vegetarian restaurant, and my aunt likes that the food is free of garlic and onion. Hubby liked the fake steak with black pepper. I liked the shiitake mushroom dish. The tofu and eggplant dish was OK too. My cousin's sweet and sour dish was good.

If there's one thing I can't resist, it's a bowl loaded with fresh herbs and crunchy veggies--and…read moreThe Viet Family never disappoints! I always start with the Crispy Rolls, filled with mixed vegetables and served with lettuce, fragrant perilla leaves, and vegan fish sauce for wrapping and dipping. They're perfectly crispy on the outside, and wrapping each bite in fresh greens makes them even more satisfying. For my main, I can't help but order the Tofu Bowl every single visit. It's a generous vermicelli bowl topped with crispy tofu, mushrooms, crisp lettuce, fresh herbs, shallots, peanuts, and a savoury mushroom sauce that brings everything together. I love the mix of textures--the crunchy tofu, fresh vegetables, chewy noodles, and nutty peanuts make every bite delicious. Apparently, I'm a creature of habit because I order the same thing every time... but when it tastes this good, why change? If you enjoy fresh, vibrant Vietnamese flavours and plenty of veggies, this is definitely worth a visit.

Visited this famous dine in place amongst my friends which offers vegan Vietnamese options…read more Restaurant has homelike feeling and good ambience. I ordered lemongrass chicken and curry soup both of which were absolutely amazing. There were flavours, it was hot and fresh and healthy option for dinner as well. The service is great staff is very accommodating as well. The chilli sauce on the side I added as I like spicy food. We were given a small table just little complaint on the table size . Overall yes will go again and try other options on the menu as well. Highly recommend on commercial drive for nice vegan restaurant option and why it's famous.

Fire Vegan sandwich !!! Had the munchies at 2 AM and this was THE spot. I got the egg breakfast…read morebagel with chicken and it did NOT disappoint. Everything hit perfectly after a techno 6 AM party night. The red velvet cake was sooo good too I couldn't resist grabbing a slice. Definitely coming back next time I'm in Vancouver for the pre/post rave munchies

Great spot for Vegan diet! I like the diverse food options in addition to the vegan fried chicken…read morefood options here. There are also chicken burger, dessert and Indian cuisine. Vegan and Gluten free desserts available and I was impressed that they started an Indian chaat house menu over 6 months ago. My friend said vegan chicken burger here was amazing so I was enticed to try and yes, her review was solid~! Their chicken and crepe won me over and I really loved the fresh strawberries crepe when I dined in. Service here was friendly and the ambiance is simple and clean with a couple free board/table games to play. It's a decent size with about 3 tables for 4 with couple tables for 2 plus window bar seats. I would definitely return and hope to try more of their vegan and gluten free dessert next time paired with their Indian chaat house items plus a nice cup of Indian masala tea.

Small Buddhist Vietnamese store. No onion and no garlic! Great selection on freezer items tooread more

Went in on a Friday and it was completely dead so I was skeptics but the Pho and Bahn Mi were…read moreexcellent!

My daughter was in the mood for a sandwich so we decided to come to Workshop Vegetarian Cafe for…read moresome sandwiches. She got the same Croissant Breakfast sandwich that she had gotten the last time we came here together and I got the Marinara Grilled Cheese Sandwich again. It's vegan cheese inside the sandwich but still nice and gooey which is just how a grilled cheese sandwich should be. I love the tanginess of the sourdough bread that they use for this sandwich. There was cheese in my daughter's Croissant Breakfast Sandwich but it didn't look very melted. That's the one thing I could be improved upon. Otherwise, her Croissant Breakfast Sandwich was looking really really good, and I think I'm gonna have to try ordering it for myself next time. Yup, even with unmelted cheese, the sandwich was still calling out to me. Not sure why it didn't call out to me the last time my daughter had it. Hmmm...maybe it did and I just forgot! A sigh that we need to come to this place more often! They had a few bins with stuff on sale. There was a $5 bin and a $10 bin. I bought a couple packs of Garlic Shio Ramen noodles from the $5 bin and a pack of Umami Garlic broth from the $10 bin. Probably not gonna open them up for awhile though. The weather is way too hot these days to be cooking up Ramen noodles in the kitchen!

i didn't eat on the premises; i took food to go but it's a great place to stop if you're in north…read moreor west vancouver or coming off a ferry and need to satisfy a vegetarian's grumbling stomach! i was en route to the ferry and it was easy enough to grab things out of the refrigerated case but next time i'd like to make time to order some ramen or eat something hot. you can tell the food is made with love and care and the inside looks also well tended and clean. there were seats outside as well and parking on the street was not a problem at all. glad i took a chance on this place. it fit the bill for sure!

I am a vegetarian, and its hard to find a good spot especially in surrey that offers a great vegan…read moremeal, thats both western and Indian. By far my fav vegan burger!! The menu was great, lots of items you can order pizza, pasta, and Indian! I got a few dishes, and I was happy with them all. I really enjoyed the veggie burger, and the tandoori paneer plate & the cauliflower wings. Everything was flavourful, and felt healthy, I didnt feel gross after eating this food (most places in surrey you feel like there is MSG and feel not good after eating it) but I felt leaving good! The place was busy when I came in and the staff was very nice and attentive Overall it is very clean, and there is absolutely no meat or eggs there. I will certainly be back to try other items on the menu!

My boyfriend and I were planning on watching a movie at the nearby Strawberry Hills Cineplex. After…read morea search of restaurants in the area, we found this one. A vegetarian bistro and we had just been talking about trying more vegetarian dishes? Why not? As the name suggests, it is small and quaint, buried in a strip mall and one of those "blink and you'll miss it" places. The decor reminded me of a contemporary restaurant where everything is chosen based on their ease of ability to be cleaned (and for the record, the place was clean), with enough seats to sit about 15 people, and I may be rounding up. We were the second table to enter and we were greeted promptly and given the menus. Perhaps I was misled by the restaurant name and did not really know what to make of the meat dishes that I saw: Beef burger? Chicken Nuggets and Fries? Crispy Chicken Burger? I saw nothing to indicate they were the vegetarian version of chicken nuggets or beef burgers, and about 2/3 of the menu was vegetarian or vegan options, so I surmised they must have put a few meat options there to satisfy any meat eaters that wander through the door. I settled on the Spaghetti with Veggie Balls and the boyfriend ordered the Veggie Curry. The pasta was quite filling (included garlic bread) and I discovered the veggie balls and/or sauce was a tad above my spiciness tolerance level, and was even spicier than the Veggie Curry. In hindsight, I wasn't surprised: it is my personal experience that a lot of the times a vegetarian dish will have a lot of spices added in. Chalk it up to not reading the ingredients carefully and thinking things through. In terms of service, I thought it was great. Water glasses were filled regularly, the waitress checked up on us to ask how we were enjoying the food. I would be very interested in coming back and trying other items on the menu!

I usually order the tofu poke bowl but as I ate it I realized the tofu tasted old and the scoop of…read moreavocado tasted very sour. Won't be ordering again at the Esplanade location.

Doing my best to eat healthier, so I decided to check out Freshii. I first tried the Bamboo bowl…read morewith chicken. I really enjoyed it! So much that I went the next day and ordered the Metaboost wrap, with chicken added again. Also delicious! It was quite large so only ended up eating half.. ate the other half for lunch the next day. Will come back!