The best vegetarian food I've ever tasted! All the dishes are exquisite and there's food for every kind of taste, even for those who are not vegetarians. Very good restaurant.
I come here on a weekly basis I cannot get enough. My goal is to eventually order everything on the menu! To top it off the staff are lovely!
Beautiful friendly staff, visually delightful food and tasty to the max. Last night we particularly enjoyed the vegan butter chicken, roast duck and Thai fried rice. Even the jasmine tea was particularly fragrant. Everything was just right. Thank you, we could tell that the food was full of love.
My favourite place for delicious vegan in Elsternwick
Love love love!! The options on the menu for vegetarians is amazing. The food is sooo good. I'm coming back here defs
Very presentable and tastes wonderful. Friendly and helpful staff around you.
Fantastic dinner experience earlier, great food, great ambience, great company! Had a memorable chat with Chef Huang and the staff there, who were very friendly and genuine. Even managed to meet the author of the touching poem "A similar identity" (that was written on the glass wall of the restaurant) - Salome, who turned out to be another friendly and genuine personality. Can't wait to go back soon!
Ren Dao is my daughters fave. Since recently discovering we are becoming regular patrons. So far all hits no misses, friendly and helpful staff ... Impressive!
Louis Daniel Bartholomeusz
+5
Excellent food tho service was a lil disorganized staff need to be a lil more aware of its customers needs and what food is/isn't on the table.
The Pumpkin Soup was amazing! (Best I've possibly ever had). Also had the "beef" hotplate & for a non-vegetarian trying something different, the tofu tasted of amazingly genuine beef! ⭐
A good vegan friend recommended this place so we went along to try it out. Wow, Great food, great service and it was an enjoyable experience. Vegan Roast Duck and vegan pork was unbelievable. Hardly knew the difference and I bet you, you wont either.
The food is always amazing and the staff are the best. I always love it here!
This food is amazing .... There is a fabulous selection of dishes to try ....
Delicious food with fantastic service. Fresh ingredients used and cooked with lots of love. Highly recommended for vegetarian food lovers. 2 thumbs up.
㊙️ The Traveling Foodie
+5
Perfect hidden jewel . Easy to find opposite elsternwick railway station.
The staff are very helpful, attentive and helpful. Always there to help.
The food is defiantly 5 star . Lion head, tofu hotpot, char Siew is top quality.
Must try for anyone and must go place for vegetarian .
Staff were polite and attentive. The Roast Duck was excellent . We also shared spring rolls which were nice too . I would recommend it . I will be back .
I am absolutely obsessed with Ren Dao!!!! I don’t think I go a week without coming here. My family and I never leave without their coconut butter chicken!! The mock chicken is amazing. Definitely recommend this for all of vegetarians, vegans and even for those meat eaters that my fellow vegos are trying to show how amazing being vegetarian is. We also love the katsu curry, the sweet and sour chicken and basically everything else. AMAZING. And the service is always great.
Beautiful meals, with some of the ‘chicken’ pieces able to fool even a staunch carnivore! Entrees were delicious, but don’t eat too much, because the main meals were huge servings. With prices averaging $20, it’s certainly great value for money.
Would recommend to any vegetarian, and that friend you want to show amazing vegetarian food to.
Food was great too but more amazing was the customer service..!! Excellent..!! My inlaws are too picky about food but they loved it too..!!!!!
I loooove this place! Their food is absolutely delish and their staff are super sweet. Service is always quick and we never have to wait long for our meals. Definitely recommend it :)
Cute little place, nice employees and nice food.
The mee goreng is really nice, it'd be perfect with vermicelli noodles instead of thick noodles, and maybe some sweet soy sauce. But that's personal preference. They aren't stingy with the veggie meats which is nice.
The nasi lamak is okay but it's nothing like nasi lamak I've had elsewhere. More like curry (which I don't love) and rice on the side.
The roti is nice but I'd try a diff sauce instead of the spicy one, I think it was the same curry as the nasi lamak.
I would return to try different dishes.
We love Ren Dao! Lovely staff, amazing food, very nice place to eat 10/10. Personal favorites are the curry laksa & mee goreng. Great value money
We dropped in because we have a vegetarian guest we wished to shout a nice meal.
I like vegetarian dishes (especially in Indian restaurants) but I'm no expert. The menu items were largely unfamiliar, and when I began to order an interesting looking dish, the lady taking the order kindly suggested I might not like that particular dish, and suggested another one I would mostly likely enjoy. And she was right. I think that care and consideration alone is worth a better rating.
We went away happy.
Amazing flavours. Really appreciate the full vegetarian menu. Will definitely be back for more and highly recommend. The tofu hot plate was the best
Went here with 1 vegan and two meat eaters! Started off with the potato cakes, spring rolls, curry puffs, mushroom soup, dumplings- all very delicious and accompanied by a variety of soy and fruity sauces. The noodles with vegetables were really yummy but the mock Peking duck was something new. It even impressed one of the meat eaters who was impressed with how well it was done. The vegan loved it. As for me I prefer real duck. For dessert the ice cream and fruit was a good way to finish and the vegan had coconut pancakes with soy ice cream. I was impressed with this place and had originally been a bit sceptical considering they don't use garlic and onions! Service was prompt and polite and overall quite good value for money.
The most amazing vegetarian food I've had. The green curry with tofu and veggies went down so well with brown rice. This was our mains. Our entre was a mixed platter and it was really really good. Staff were friendly and we will def return
Main course was delicious. But they didn't have my favourite dessert. Rainbow jelly or Christmas ice cream or passion-fruit jelly. I miss my hug from Winnie.
I miss Winnie's loving welcome and TLC during my mealtime and her sweet attention and was sad to learn that she no longer worked there. Her sincere friendship and care will be missed by many customers. Hopefully I will see her soon and have another hug .
VEGAN FRIENDLY
As far as I know, there is no other place on this side of the Yarra that does what this place does. Outstanding quality. Very pricy but worth it. Everything on the menu is either vegetarian or vegan. The duck tastes exactly like duck. So nice! Spring rolls are great too. Is recommended the Laksa. It is the best laksa I've ever tasted.
Coconut butter chicken and pandan chicken are both amazing - highly recommend. Sambal eggplant was spicy but not over the top. Service was friendly, not much atmosphere.
I have to say this is the best Asian vegetarian restaurant in bayside. My first impression here is the service. The owner lady is really attentive and friendly. She looks after our table throughout the meal with care. I love her attitude. That's what every customer is after. The menu is so extensive. I believe the chef has created his food with a variety of soy-protein product with fresh vegetables. We try couple of dishes here and we love them all. The atmosphere inside is pretty good, not too cramp not too noisy just perfect. I sum up like this. All my friends vegetarian and vegan people. Let's give this place a try guys. Give yourself more fun. Being vegetarians could not be happier than this!!!
This place was recommended under zomato's vegan eats so I thought it was worth a try.
The venue itself is very casual, low key and simple decor - nothing overly impressive. Strange that the toilets are unisex; not entirely comfortable with it especially as cubicles were RIGHT next to each other.
Service and wait staff kept the vibe simple but perhaps too simple: we felt very rushed to order and they didn't seem to really even care, even after when we were advised there would be a prolonged wait on our dishes coming out.
The food was a mix - we loved the entrees as they played great on mocking the flavours of traditional siu mai, but our pork dish was drowning in sauce and over powering. The sizzling tofu dish was delicious; soft silken tofu with a crispy shell.
Overall I think id have to come back and try a few other dishes before ruling out what the food quality is; however I do think they need to improve on customer service and overall appearance of the venue.
My family and I came to Ren Dao for my mums birthday, the entrees and mains were really enjoyable. They took our dessert order incorrectly, but the staff were very apologetic. They didn't charge us for the chia pudding that came to our table and gave us the correct sago pudding very quickly.
Have never expected vegetarian food can be that nice. Everything we ordered were amazing. The tofu croquettes are crispy outside and creamy inside, the Laksa noodles are rich and flavoursome, and the coconut butter chicken taste even better than the real chicken. Excellent customer service and tasty food. Will definitely come back.
This restaurant offers different style of vegetarian dishes in Melbourne. Very nice Chinese style vegetarian that you can find vegetarian meat dishes which made from flour and seasoning. A good place to try something different.
Came here last night for dinner with my family and some friends. It was my first time eating mock meat and I didn't find it bad at all.
We ordered the pandan chicken, loh bak rolls and potato croquettes for entree. I found the pandan chicken didn't have a particularly distinct chicken flavour but it was still good nevertheless. I really loved the potato croquettes!
For mains, we had roast duck, char mee, and ma po tofu. The roast duck looked and had a texture that was pretty similar to a regular roast duck and I enjoyed it.
The waiting staff were very friendly and attentive, and in combination with the food, it was a nice experience!
This place has some of the best mock meat I've had in Melbourne. The staff are incredibly friendly, the service is excellent and the food is always top quality. It can get very busy at times but even then the food still comes out in a timely manner. Highly recommended for vegetarians, vegans and everyone else. Try the Black Bean Beef!
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My first impression of the restaurant was a little mixed. It is quite small inside and opening the door is somewhat awkward. The decor is reminiscent of a Buddhist temple with statues and tasteful furniture. Staff are always very attentive, friendly and helpful in helping me order and enduring my vegan needs were met- I get paranoid about the 'hidden' animal products in ingredients somehow finding their way to my stomach! Anyway, first time I ordered the 'meal deal' which consisted of a soup, main, rice, dessert and carrot pickle. I chose the medium heat curry chicken which was very flavoursome, and I spent a good part of my eating time scrutinising the 'chicken!. The rice was well done and the soup, (miso I believe), was very moreish and had pieces of soft tofu in it. The pickle complimented the meal beautifully and wasn't overly acidic. The dessert I probable wouldn't order again as I wasn't keen on the texture, and I don't know what it actually was. It looked like 3 layers of different types of 'jelly' which had a very sweet taste. Despite this, I wasn't disappointed with my meal in the slightest.
I came here again a few weeks later with a carno friend, and neither of us were let down by the food. We started with the sui mai which was flavoursome and nicely presented with tasting plates and soy sauce. Next came the Spice Loh and that came with a sweet chilli sauce. Was keen to taste taro and am now keen to make my own taro dishes it was that good. My friend ordered the coconut butter chicken- pieces of chicken rolled in coconut and deep fried which to me tasted exactly like popcorn chicken and was a real winner, winner chicken dinner! I ordered the butter coconut prawns and almost had a breakdown when I tasted them as I thought I was eating real prawns! Even the texture was the same. I was so happy, you have no idea!! We had some coconut rice which was really well cooked. My friend and I were amazed how well the flavours were put together to taste like real chicken and prawns. Overall we were extremely happy with our meals which left us no room for dessert. I plan to eat here once a week as it is in my area and has a great menu.
For all the vegetarian food eaters and lovers out there - this is your place.
Food was surprisingly really good. The "chicken" which is really made of soy products, had the same texture as chicken breast so it tasted like chicken. I'm a massive tofu fan and this sizzling tofu was EXCELLENT!
Can't wait to come back and try more of their dishes! The only reason I didn't give them a higher rating is because the food took 45 minutes to come out.... Which is such a long wait when you're hungry!!
Very happy with first visit to this restaurant. Nice variety of vegetarian foods, flavorsome, excellent service and good value for money. The portion is huge!!
The only thing I concern is the smokes from kitchen fuming into dining area and I could smell it in my coat.
It seems strange to order duck and chicken etc in a totally vegetarian restaurant. But that's how this place works. I expected everything to taste alike but surprisingly the dishes were all unique. We tried a variety of dishes and enjoyed them all. Best thing of all is that they don't use onion or garlic in their cooking.. What a bonus! Incredibly friendly staff. They couldn't be more helpful or polite if they tried. A positive experience was had by all and there were 5 of us to please.
OMG this place is full of love, the food and the staff!!! Was here in a big group upstairs and so blown away by the food (its all vegie even though they have meat and fish, its all made with wheat, mushrooms & TVP. It is amazingly good). I had the best laksa there, thought I had a prawn but it was one of the faux prawns that tasted wonderful. We took what we couldn't eat away as well. We got kisses blown to us as we left and there was no fakery. Everyone happy very much with the food. Corkage $2.50. Will be back to this wonderful restaurant, just around the corner from the Classic theatre.
Great food and service. I really like this place. It's a family-run vegetarian restaurant and the service is always so friendly and genuine. We always order the laksa - drool. Everything is tasty and I get the feeling their kitchen is spotless (unlike many kitchens!). We come here with our nine-year-old daughter regularly, and the staff are always incredibly friendly towards her. Big thumbs up. One of our favourites.
Stunning Veggie Restaurant with Fabulous Service. Given the newborn bub, we decided to head down to Ren Dao for lunch for the first time for a change.
This place definitely rivals many other top notch Vegetarian restaurants (i.e. Shakahari) in Melbourne especially the unparalleled service delivery from our friendly waitress, Winnie.
Unique selling points? No MSG added, and all entrees are handmade.
If you decide to give your body a good healthy cleanse, you know where to go!
Very good vegetarian meals. Been passing this place when going home from train station and always wonder what type of food they serve or how they would survive and compete with the many restaurants on Genhuntly road. A vegetarian friend happened to visit us and we decided to have dinner there. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Lots of taste and no msg added. Will be there again. The owners Wee and Winnie were very friendly. We had a good chat about the food they served. All seasonings are from natural mushroom and vegetarian stock.
Second time here. My first was last night lol. Both dishes I tried were very tasty! Highly recommend it! Grabbed a few menus to give to friends.
Amazing selection of Asian vegetarian food in a beautiful restaurant with fantastic service. I will be back!
Excellent for prepared well. This place takes me back to Hong Kong where I experienced the best asian vegetarian meals. These dishes look and taste like the real thing, flavoursome, hot, and with friendly service and advice. Highly recommended.
Love it. Been to Ren Dao many times, never had a bad experience. Service, food and overall experience is always excellent. On one occasion I was lucky enough to meet the chef who explained that he changed his diet a few years back (from the advice of the Buddhist Master) so he visited several chinese restaurants so get an idea of the dishes he could veganise. He lost since weight and has never been healthier.
I have taken several omnivore friends to Ren Dao, and as a result some of them are now moving towards a plant based diet.
Always welcoming, I look forward to going there again.
Coconut Butter Chicken. It come with sauce and curry leaves
Untitled. This little place is a winner! great selection of vego options, cooked and presented with care. the golden pouches filled with sweet potato were wrapped in perfect crunchy pastry with delicate slices of sweet pickled carrot on the side. the laksa was rich and spicy. and the spicy sausage in the kampong fried rice was the best vego version i've ever had, a strong flavour and just the right greasy texture. the service was attentive, the prices good, but remember to BYO as there's no wine list.
Delicious. Inexpensive. Menu full of mock meat dishes. Chose a variety - Kampong fried rice, Thai green curry, Wontons, spring rolls, black rice. All delicious. Very inexpensive. Delightful staff. Comfortable close seating.
Loved it....great food and great service. I had dinner here with a few friends ...one a confirmed vegan who convinced us to give it a try and I am so impressed. Had Roast Duck and Sizzling pork and could not believe the dishes were not the real thing.
Will definitely go back again and take along others to give them an experience they would not believe.
Delicious food and big servings. Lots to choose from and very friendly service. Definitely returning soon!
Really yum food. Great service. Like the place as well. Been there over 15 times. Haven't gone wrong even once. Their choices are amazing. Try something new and interesting. Definitely give this place a go.
Yummy !!! Took mum for lunch today, she's a Buddha vegetarian which means no onion,garlic,spring onion .... This place just right for her,food was very nice good size servings. Definitely going back with mum again!
An exciting new place!. My boyfriend and I have been going here since we discovered it a few months ago and I would have to say that it is one of my favourite places to visit.
The food is delicious and the service is fantastic. Such helpful and lovely staff. A place to go for all veggies and vegans alike, even our carnivore friends love to visit!
Fresh and delicious food. Always a pleasure to eat there :)
Got a takeaway Tom yum soup from here last night. The favours were great, nice and spicy! Not sure how I feel about the mock chicken and fish yet, but the tofu and veggies were cooked to perfection. Great value for money too, enough for left overs the next day!
Fantastic food! You have to try the tofu croquettes and the roti rolls for entree - YUM!!!
Very interesting spin on vegetarian. Food is great. Service happy and fast. Bravo.
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Lots to like. I brought a group of 18 mostly vegetarian friends here to try lots of dishes, and we had a great night. The staff were very accommodating and helpful, service was very prompt. In the end we asked them to choose the dishes and had a great selection. Most had lots of fresh vegies which is always nice. All the serves are huge. We had entrees, then 13 mains for 19 people (with rice and noodles) and that was heaps - could have saved 1 or 2 dishes I think. Ended up being just on $25/head - great value in a large group. :)
Highlights:
Tofu Isi entree - huge serving, very nice
Hot Plate Tofu - delicious (note, not vegan)
Sambal Battered Oyster Mushroom - brilliant (one of the few without vegies)
Dao Vege - for broccoli lovers. Interesting presentation too.
Tom Yum Fried Vermicelli Noodles - not universally liked, but this mock meat was closer to the real thing than many of the others
The duck dishes were also pretty cool. The assam fish was also liked, that mock meat comes with a strange edge like seaweed, like a fish's skin I guess! Doesn't taste very fishy thankfully.
The chicken, beef and pork mock meats didn't have much to distinguish them from one another IMO.
It was delicious! We had spring rolls, golden pouch, curry laksa and char mee. Loved the very hot laksa! Serves were huge. Service was very friendly! It was so busy that meals understandably came a little out of order, but the staff were great, keeping us in the loop. Can't wait to go back!
Okay.. The food was sensational, i especially loved the laska, there was a perfect balance of flavours throughout the dish. The staff were very friendly and the service was excellent.Our bottles of water and pot of tea was continuously refilled. My husband and i are surely coming back to Ren Dao. We rate this restaurant a 4.3/5.
Taylor and Nick R.
Nervously walked in for the first time to get take away for a really big order. The waitress was very sweet and accommodating. She insisted I sat inside to wait, ensuring I felt comfortable. Really positive and welcoming energy and would definitely consider dining in one day.
One of the best vegan restaurant in Melbourne for friends gathering or a treat to yourself. The owners are super humble and lovely people and have been working on this restaurant for over 11 years. You can really tell they put effort and love in the food. Highly recommend!
Tasty food and nice ambience. Probably one of the best Vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne. Tamarind Fish which is chef's special comes highly recommended. Can be a bit pricy for some dishes though.
Food's good, don't get me wrong, just the Japanese one's are sub-par different in flavour in my opinion, I'd personally steer from Japanese. You can visibly see the difference from the poster too!
Other than that, I'd come back for other dishes as the Ma Po Tofu and Roast Duck was promising.
Delicious food! That's was first experience in Vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne and I was so surprised when everything was so delicious and tasty. Also, the staff is so nice and helpful too. I recommend that place to enjoy at least ones of time.
Food is above average.
They do vegetarian food but taste like meat.
🐠🐠We ordered chef special fried fish which is stunning! Fish is crispy and tender while sauce really makes the dish stands out. If you like sweet and sour, definitely go for this one!
2nd dish, lion head. It’s an traditional Chinese dish made from veggies. Doesn’t really taste like the original lion head but sauce again is amazing! Like the soft mushroom full of flavor!
🍜 Last dish, fried noodle (last on in the noodle section), bit oily. Average noodle taste. Nothing speacialb
Overall, a nice vegetarian restaurant worth trying. Above average
really great food here. the japanese katsu curry is to die for, and they have a wide range to choose from on the menu. i have brought many non vegetarian and vegan friends and they have loved this place! service could be a little faster but i understand it is hard with such a small number of people working and they are always super apologetic when you have been waiting for a while. food may seem pricey but it is great value for money as the servings are massive! this is definitely one of my go to local restaurants. pictured is the char mee and japanese curry.
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