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Photograph by Robert Scheer

Great Vegi Land owner Daisy Wu serves up smoked vegetarian 'fish' and stuffed eggplant cake.

Leave 'full but light' at Great Vegi Land

By Lester Chang

Most Chinese restaurants offer meat and vegetarian dishes. That is where Great Vegi Land parts company with them. As the name implies, the restaurant sells only vegetarian fare.

The 50 items on the menu use meat substitutes made from bean curd seasoned with Taiwanese spices, and fresh locally purchased vegetables, said owners Daisy Wu and her husband, Ban Yung, who opened the restaurant 10 months ago.

Both are strict vegetarians.

Wu made the switch to vegetarianism seven years ago and says her diet makes her feel healthier.

Her husband, a cook in Taipei for 11 years, adopted a vegetarian diet eight years ago.

The couple, who live in Mountain View, could have opened their business in any of the 13 cities in Santa Clara Valley but chose Sunnyvale because they wanted their business to be unique. Great Vegi Land is the only vegetarian Chinese restaurant in town.

Menu photographs depict dishes that appear to contain ham slices, chicken bits and salmon.

But after the first bite, customers know they've eaten something totally different--and more nutritious, Wu said.

"They like this kind of food because it isn't fatty like other Chinese food they will find elsewhere," said Qiaolin Jin, who works at the restaurant.

Diners will leave the eatery feeling "full, but light," Jin promised.

Great Vegi Land is busiest during lunch and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, Wu said.

Some of the favorites of the lunchtime crowd are

*stuffed eggplant, which includes a vegetarian spring roll and rice on lettuce, for $4.95

*braised tofu for $4.50

*green vegetarian dumplings for $5.25

On request, Yung will make stuffed eggplant-cake patties, which sell for $6.95. Because it takes up to 30 minutes to make them, few restaurants will go to the trouble, he said.

At $8.50, the braised vegetarian "fish" dish is one of the more expensive entrée items, made with fried "fish," shredded vegetables and a mild hot sauce.

The meals are served in modest but pleasant surroundings: A huge painting of panda bears playing among bamboo trees hangs on one wall, plants jut out from the corners of the restaurant and classical music floats in the air.

The restaurant, located at 562 S. Murphy Ave., near El Camino Real, seats 38.

Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday and 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 735-8040.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 11, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.