Three Virtues Vegetarian Restaurant

Entrance to this place is slightly deceiving, as one would only see the takeaway section. There was a queue for the takeaway, which made me think that we had to wait for a table on the restaurant. Luckily, we got a table without the need to wait. The restaurant section is upstairs on the first floor. It is a huge place, but filled up very quickly at lunch time.
This is the first vegetarian restaurant that I know that serve an extensive offering of vegetarian dim sums. The place appears to be a Buddhist place, so no garlic, spring onions or chives (韭菜). We ordered a few dim sums plus a few main dishes. On the whole, both the dim sum and the dishes are of good quality. The Hot and Sour Soup, a dish that I usually use as benchmark for standards of Chinese restaurant, was superb – with finely balanced flavours. The egg plant dish was rich in flavour but without being overly oily. The pumpkin cake was delightful. On top of the quality, the portions were generous.
One negative is that the waiter came to rush us to get the bill, as the queue is getting longer. While one appreciates that the restaurant is a business and would like to do more business, it is not nice to rush the customers.

The Three Virtues Vegetarian Restaurant is a real gem in the vegetarian restaurant stakes. I get that Chinese dim sum is synonymous with pork, pork and pork, but here is a venue that has at last switched out the pork for tofu, fake meats and, wait for it, vegetables!
OK, so there are plenty of vegetarian and fake meat restaurants, popular with the veggies and the Buddhists, but this is the first that I have found that does a proper morning/​lunch dim sum service. The food is first rate, with such delights as deep friend spring rolls — where the pork mince is replaced with taro, steamed «crab» dumplings — a tastier version of har gau, primarily due to the hearty use of bamboo shoots which give the dumpling a crunch textured edge, and «char siu”/“roast prok» buns — which are a great copy worthy of merit on their own terms.
The atmosphere is identical to that of a real local dim sum restaurant. Yes, vegetarians can cram a 170 tables into 3 square feet and still eat with their mouths open! It’s noisy, bustling, and you literally have to stand on your chair waving to get waiter service. But, hey, that’s part of the HK dim sum buzz.
Luckily for the ex-​pats, there is an English menu, and the ordering is done by a tick card, so it’s easy to navigate. It’s also right by the MTR so no excuses not to go. Join us and save a little piglet — oink, oink!