To Live and Eat in L.A. – A Vegan Food Photo Blog

I like Chinese food but it usually takes a back seat if I’m given my choice between it or far more exciting Asian cuisines such as Thai or Vietnamese. That said, I’ve reignited my love for it after revisiting a restaurant I’ve neglected for far too long, Garden Wok in Reseda. Part of the reason I’d been away for so long is that Garden Wok is located just a couple miles away from my favorite restaurant in the entire universe, Vinh Loi Tofu… so whenever I’m in the neighborhood Vinh Loi usually wins me over. Not this time however, and I’m glad I strayed for once as the food at Garden Wok is superb.

My last visit to Garden Wok was way back in 2007, and I really enjoyed it then too. Their menu is extensive, offering Cantonese-American style cooking, 99% of which is vegan, while a few of their faux meats do contain whey (and everything is clearly marked on the menu so there’s no confusion). If you don’t like meat analogs this isn’t really the place for you… while they do have noodle dishes, soups and the like, their specialties revolve around the amazing things they do with fake chicken, beef, pork and fish. This stuff is delicious, homemade, and nothing like the same old stuff that all the Thai places are serving (which all tastes the same and may or may not be vegan). You don’t have to worry about mystery non-vegan ingredients imported from Taiwan finding their way into your food here, Garden Wok makes it all from scratch using stuff like taro root, yam, wheat gluten, mushrooms and seaweed. What they do with those ingredients is something extraordinary.

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Garden Wok, along with it’s sister restaurant Vegetable Delight, are two vegan Chinese places in the area I’d heard and read much about but not yet had the chance to try. My chance finally arrived to visit Garden Wok in Reseda (Vegetable Delight is in Granda Hills), and my only regret is not having tried this place sooner.

As an appetizer I had the Lettuce Wraps: “Fresh lettuce heads filled with minced fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, soy chicken and dried tofu stir-fried in delicious hosin sauce”. These were so tasty, the lettuce was perfectly crisp, the filling excellently flavored… the sauce was both bold and subtle at the same time, not too salty. This tasted and felt very “meaty” with delightful crunch from the bamboo and water chestnuts. Non-vegetarians would be hard pressed to miss the meat in this one.

For the main course I had the Garden Three Ingredients: “Combination of veggie-chicken, veggie-beef and veggie-shrimp stir-fried to perfection in a delicious ginger-soy sauce with broccoli, carrots, zucchini and mushrooms”.

Again, this was awesome. I loved the flavor (I love anything ginger flavored actually) and all the faux meats where delicious and convincing. I believe the soy shrimp they use here is not entirely vegan (it contains whey), and this is stated clearly on the menu so you can make your choices carefully.

What I liked best about these dishes as that they were very light and healthy, not overly heavy and greasy like a lot of Chinese food tends to be. Good stuff, I can’t wait to go back and try more.