Eternal Vegetarian - Bukit Gombak

For those wondering what happened to Mai Zhi Su, well, it's closed down and has now been overtaken by Eternal Vegetarian! This place is a long way away from where i stay, which is unfortunate because i really like it! The location is very easy to find, only a few minutes walk from Bukit Gombak MRT.

Eternal Vegetarian
Location: 01-126, BLK 376, Bukit Batok St 31
Contact: 90143482
Opening Hours: Unknown

CLOSED DOWN AS OF 16/08/2011 (Replaced by another vegetarian stall)

I've been in a Western mood all week actually, maybe i'm missing home? No, definitely not! I ordered the Chicken Chop first. A really good price for Western food. However, i was a little underwhelmed by the mock chicken. Had a good crunch and good flavour, but suffered from 'being placed under an iron all day' syndrome. Very flat. Chips were not over fried (rare!). I was expecting some sort of sauce with the mock chicken too? The dish only has three components, therefore probably the price is just about right. OK attempt.

Price: $5.00. 6/10

Next up was one of the cheaper dishes on the menu, the Curry Mutton Rice. I loved the curry taste to this dish, although i personally prefer the gravy to be a little thicker. They serve exactly four pieces of potato, and four of mock mutton. The mock mutton is very good, lovely taste and texture. The poppadom you see in the far right hand side was soggy and had no crunch to it at all. But a minor criticism of an overall satisfying dish!

Price: $3.50. 8/10


We were also feeling adventurous that day! And therefore tried the Steam Cod Fish with Ginger. This dish was heaped with ginger on top, too much for any sane person to handle. They used old ginger too, which has a more bitter and pungent taste. The sauce they used was heavily oiled, but OK tasting. Every other flavour in this dish however was overpowered by this head spinning amount of ginger. Serving size is not too bad compared with price. Maybe i'd like to have seen a few more components to the dish, though. Opposed to simply just the fish and sauce. Something that would counter the strong ginger.

The texture of the mock cod was worth mentioning. Quite dissimilar to the regular texture of mock fish that you would expect. As you can see by the picture it has a very stringy and sparse quality to it. Not really my type of thing, yet my girlfriend (and lifetime member of the 'i love ginger' club) seemed to actually like this dish. For me it's flavours were all too overpowering, and i struggled to get through it. If you like ginger as well though, this may be for you!

Price: $8.00. 5/10


Dishes tried from previous visits:-

Fish Head Mee Hoon - Really really good dish, they use a generous amount of salted vegetables, which really gives the soup a charming taste! Probably one of the best fish mee hoon's that i have tried, definitely give this a try!

Price: $3.50. 9/10

Thai Style Prawn - I was actually wanting to order something else when i got this (thanks to my broken Mandarin). But overall it was not too bad, has a sweet taste when initially chewing it, followed by a hot after taste! They use a good quality mock prawns, not the rubbery kind that you can sometimes encounter.

Price: $7.00. 7/10

Sweet & Sour Pork Rice - Serving size OK, and the sauce was not bad. This type of mock meat that they use i am not too crazy about. But overall it's OK. There are much more satisfying dishes on the menu, though.

Price: $3.50. 5/10

Conclusion - I really like this newly formed eatery. It's menu range is quite good, having a lot of affordable dishes, along with the more pricey dishes, such as the cod. They also have nasi lemak here (not on the menu), sadly we didn't have time (or stomach space!) to try it! I've been there twice and it's usually very quiet. Inside, they also have various vegetarian items for sale. It is worthy to mention that their standard rice is very very cheap here. The price for one mock meat and two veggies is $2.00 (if i'm not mistaken!).

Overall Rating
Food - 7/10
Ambiance- 7/10
Service - 8/10
Value - 7/10