Anna Maya Vegetarian Cafe
3 Taojiang Lu,
French Concession
near Hengshan Lu
桃江路3号
近衡山路
6433-4602
Open 11am-10pm
Price Y100-Y199 per couple
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- City Weekend says
This vegetarian cafe on sleepy Taojiang Lu is a great nook for book reading or a bit of web surfing. The antique furniture, cheerful lemon cream walls and nice (but slow) waitstaff make this a wonderful place to relax and enjoy simple vegetarian cuisine, freshly squeezed juice or coffee. If you're looking for more of a snack, they have a display full of vegetarian quiches, cakes and pastries.
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Most Recent Reviews
Went here for dinner and found the atmosphere beautiful! I liked that we could dine on the sofas. Ordered the mushroom soup (delicious), vegetarian dumplings (needed a stronger vinegar sauce, but good!), the hamburgers (needed a stronger sauce) and some tofu chocolate (yummy!). Decent place for veggies, but the prices are a little high.
...review below. I still love the place - and finally remembered to give it my rating...
Given that I'm a huge carnivore, I was pleasantly surprised by Anna Maya. I've visited it twice, and both times I was pretty happy with the food I've gotten. The best I've had there was their Beetroot and Avacado Donburi. It was just simply delightful and tasty, and healthy all at the same time! Their salads are mostly decent as well, although some of their tastes are a bit too funky for me. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with the food! I will warn though, most people should steer clear of the Tofu Chocolate Cake, even though I'm a big fan of chocolate (I love hoF and Whisk), that Tofu Chocolate cake was the thickest thing I've ever had, which is a feat in itself because there's no dairy (no cream) in the cake, but it was so thick it was like having peanut butter in your mouth. After 2 bites of it I was completely stuffed and couldn't eat any more.
Overall, I was very pleased with the lunch experience, would be somewhere I go if I want to have a healthy (not necessary light) meal.
As a non-vegetarian, I really love this place. I have some veggie friends here in the city and I use them as my excuse to descend on Ana Maya. If you're a meat-eater posing as a vegetarian, you can justify ordering a truly decadent dinner set. I like to get the salad tasting plate, which allows you to try four different salads in one shot. The soups are made in-house and come out creamy and hot. Go for the gorgeous beet soup - the jewel color alone will make you salivate. And the taste? Smashing. So, the next time you're in the company of a friendly veggie lover whose stomach is growling, sigh and say, "Well, I guess we could check out this Ana Maya place."
Beautiful interior, very friendly owner & staff and then the FOOD is just wonderful! I especially love their salads: unusual combinations of fruits & veggies in inventive dressings and it's really nice that they let you choose 4 small types of salad in order of just one big portion of one type if you want to. Their donburi is divine as well - and just the knowledge that I can order anything because it is all vegetarian - ah, well...my fellow vegetarians will know the feeling :)
I completely agree with hibeverly about the tofu cherry pie: it is delicious! By my second visit I had eaten my way through their heavenly dessert selection and half way back...yes, I'm a pig when it comes to desserts and since life is short I'll continue to eat dessert first when I can. Especially at places like Anna Maya that make such beautiful vegan ones.
This place really took me back to the summer I spent in Tokyo. About half my time was spent looking up restaurant menus online so I could be sure there were adequate vegetarian options (thank you China for never putting me thru that!). The only respite from this was when I went to all-vegetarian restaurants exactly like this one: beautiful interior design, exquisitely crafted macrobiotic food, but just a little too wholesome, and a little too expensive. Call me vulgar, but I'm a big fan of fake meat and strong flavors, so Japan-style veg restaurants were on a strict quota (Japan has fake-meat restaurants but you have to be rich to eat there - again, thank you China!). Still, if you're in the right mood this kind of food can be really satisfying and I'll be happy it's out there once every month or two.
Awesome tofu chocolate cake. How can it be so good without sugar?! Great place for vegetarian food when you are not in a hurry. If you live nearby they will cook for you to pick up.
Best vegetarian food I've ever had. Which is saying a lot, because I am a total carnivore ;)
The capsicum (red pepper) soup initially didn't excite me. It didn't have a swirl of sour cream on top, and at first I was disappointed, then realised this place is also "non dairy". The soup was divine - creamy, rich, and had a beautiful slightly-spicy tinge to it. Would have also loved to dunk some crusty baguette into it.... then realised they also only do "whole grains" so white baguette is out of the question :P
The salad set was so beautifully presented it made the fact that we're eating un-cooked veggies a whole lot more appetizing. Each dish was marinated or had some sort of dressing on it though, which was delicious. My favourite was the homemade tofu which actually didn't taste like any tofu I've ever had, and was freakin' awesome.
Next was the Chickpea pattie with fresh herbs and spices served on homemade whole wheat bun. It looked very suspicious. One bite and my suspicions were confirmed, "I think I'm eating cooked cardboard", I moaned. But I realised that it was just because I've never had a veg burger before, and my brain just kept expecting JUICY BEEF, so it was stunned into a state of confusion. A few bites in, I got used to the flavour and really liked it. The texture was creamy and I loved the fresh avocado, tomato, and lettuce.
The next fantastic dish was the Vegetable curry and brown rice, with fried tofu ball. This is probably the closest thing to a "regular meat meal". There are so many different veggies in the curry you don't really notice meat is missing, plus the rich spicy flavour was divine. The brown rice had a mild nutty flavour that was well suited with the spicy curry. I also enjoyed the Fried tofu ball, which was small but very tasty.
The Japanese soba noodles with sesame sauce features silky chilled noodles topped with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and finely shredded seaweed. But the stunner is the sesame sauce - rich and creamy and slightly chilled, it coated the soba noodle strands and gave it a beautiful nutty creamy flavour. It's on the menu as a Main dish, but it by no means is sufficient (much like all their other Main dishes), and needs to be supplemented with other dishes.
The Tofu cherry pie and Tofu peach pie was something I'd never have ever ordered in a million years. But they was outstanding. The crust was a buttery mix of nuts and spices, the tofu was creamy and non-tofu tasting. And the Banana pudding? A stunning chilled sweet dessert with soft bananas in some sort of smooth creamy sauce (not sure what it is since they are non-dairy. Maybe more tofu?).
Photos here: http://beverly.livejournal.com/836010.html
Vegetarian | Anna Maya Vegetarian Café
Situated in a well-decorated little yellow house, this vegan café is centered around a macrobiotic philosophy–natural, whole and unprocessed. The service is a bit slow, but the food is worth waiting for.
Every day, the eatery’s blackboard announces the day’s specials: a half-dozen salads, three curries and three soups. We started with a plate of the six salads (¥80), but we liked the curried broccoli and cauliflower and young soybean sprouts options best. The eggplant and tomato curry (¥55), plated on steamed brown rice and green salad and spiked with Indian spices, is thick but not heavy.
It can, however, get a little pricey here. The tiny, palm-sized veggie burger (¥65) was tasty, though, and came on the first whole wheat bun we’ve seen in China (they bake the buns themselves). Their pear and celery juice (¥30) is a liquid delight, textured with tissue-thin tufts of pear and celery pulp.
We went all out for dessert, as this may be the only place in town that serves dairy-free tarts and cakes. The strawberry tart (¥30) is simply divine, with a dense crust made of textured nuts and grains and topped with blueberry sauce and organic strawberries and blueberries. The silky-smooth chocolate tofu cheesecake (¥30) wasn’t sweet enough, but we still enjoyed the gingery, cinnamony apple crumble (¥30). But the no-sugar-added banana bread pudding (¥30) was best. It’s sinfully sweet, warm, buttery and perfect. Take one bite, close your eyes and let it melt in your mouth. After our dessert binge, we shared a fragrant pot of Italian digestive herbal tea (¥35) and left feeling surprisingly light.
■ Angela Mou
New Eats | Happy Veg
One of our favorite new cafés in town is tucked away on the quiet side of Taojiang Lu. It has the distinction of being the most quiet, smoke-free retreat we've encountered in Shanghai. The interior walls are a calming shade of lemon cream and the wooden furniture, all intricate antique pieces, invite lounging (as does the Wi-Fi). For lunch, choose from several simple sets for ¥50 from the menu. Our favorite is the green tea soba bento. The Japanese owner gets the simple but subtle dish right. The speckled buckwheat pasta arrived chilled and topped with a variety of diced tomato, wild herbs, arugula as well as a side dish of sesame seed rolled origiri and a flavorful homemade dipping sauce made with vegetarian dashi dipping sauce. Our deconstructed veggie burger (¥65) was very different, but just as good. Instead of arriving in a bento, our meal was plated with a crispy, savory, baked vegetable and corn patty, a large piece of flatbread and a side of tangy salsa and carrot mélange. With our meal, we ordered the pear and youcai juice (¥30), a sweet and slightly grassy green elixir. Or try some vegetarian quiche, tofu cheesecake or more baked pastries from the plentiful display (¥30-¥50). The food is tasty, but not worth making a special trip for, but we hope to see this gorgeous little cafe reach its full potential.
■ Joanne Yao