Gluttony and lavishness aren’t usually associated with a Buddhist vegetarian meal, but those were the first things on my mind upon entering Jen Dow Vegetarian Buffet Restaurant (人道素菜百匯餐廳), which offers all-you-can-eat meals priced at NT$660 for lunch and NT$770 for dinner.
Located in the Howard Garden Suites building on Changchun Road (長春路) in Taipei, Jen Dow displays the typical hallmarks of a pricey hotel buffet. Diners sit on plush chairs at tables covered with white tablecloths and mosey their way back and forth between several long rows of well-prepared Asian-style food kept warm on silver chafing dishes. There’s a fully stocked juice and cocktail bar, a fresh fruit and salad bar, a dessert table with dozens of cakes and sweets and a chocolate fondue fountain, several freezers full of Haagen-Dazs ice cream — and the list goes on.
The restaurant caters to “su” (素) vegetarians, who avoid garlic, onion, leek or any other strong-flavored foods that are said to overstimulate the body and mind.
Photo: David Chen, Taipei Times
At Jen Dow, this means the sauce on your pasta, prepared fresh upon request by a chef at the buffet, might lack the sweet and pungent bite that only garlic and onion can deliver. The same goes for anything you get at the vegetable stir-fry station, an open kitchen where another chef cooks whatever fresh greens are on hand. Still, I was impressed with what he did with the plate of kongxincai (空心菜), the long and stringy shimeiji mushrooms and bean sprouts that I handed him. The greens were done just right: They were cooked in a mild but flavorful broth and retained a nice crisp.
The buffet offers decent adaptations of standard dishes like sweet-and-sour pork, with the meat replaced by tofu, and Hakka-style stir-fried eggplant. As with many vegetarian restaurants, most dishes utilize mushrooms and tofu as the main ingredients.
On a recent visit, I took a liking to a vegetarian version of another Hakka dish, stir-fried flat rice noodles (客家板條), which was tasty enough to have seconds. I wasn’t as crazy about the Malaysian-style curry, which had a gingery bite meant to replace the chili. If you’re in the mood for Japanese, there’s always the “sashimi” bar, with the fake tuna and salmon made out of konjac (蒟蒻), a plant-based gelatin. It will never beat the real thing, but it’s worth a try if you’re feeling adventurous.
In general, the Asian-style dishes at Jen Dow are better than the Western ones. You will find nice little surprises, like blue cheese and fresh baguettes at the pasta bar, but the Hyatt it is not.
I tend to gravitate toward the dim sum section whenever I visit — Jen Dow does a better job on these dishes than a similar buffet, the Ever Green Vegetarian Restaurant (長春素食, see page 14 of the April 30, 2010, edition of the Taipei Times for a review). You can’t go wrong with the steamed rice noodle rolls (腸粉), the fried turnip cake (蘿蔔糕), and fried spring rolls, which I find just as appetizing as the versions with meat.
Strangely, Jen Dow serves alcohol, with a selection of wines and cocktails on offer at an extra charge. If you want to imbibe in the presence of the monks, nuns and devout Buddhists that make up a sizable part of Jen Dow’s regular clientele, martinis are NT$150, mojitos are NT$90 and a range of Glenmorangie single malts are available from NT$150 to NT$180 per glass.
Overall, Ever Green remains a better value option at NT$560 for dinner and NT$500 for lunch, as it has a wider variety and the quality of its food is just as good. But if the amenities are important to you, then Jen Dow has the edge — the dining room is tidier and feels more upscale, given its location inside of a hotel. And the thought of eight varieties of Haagen-Dazs ice cream at an all-you-can-eat buffet can be hard to resist.
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