Hanyi Vegetarian - Tai Seng

Finding vegetarian Korean food in Singapore is a pretty tough task, which is quite a shame.  Thankfully, Hanyi Vegetarian are looking to correct this injustice, and have recently opened a stall specialising in both Korean and Italian food.  This stall can be found in the Hainan Eating House, which is inside the Sakae Building.  The stall gets a steady stream of customers during weekday, from the nearby offices (Tai Seng is a pretty industrial area).  Perhaps it will be weekends when this stall struggles the most, as I doubt many people consider Tai Seng to be the hippest place in Singapore.  Having said that, I'd rather spend my weekend in Tai Seng, opposed to Clarke Quay.


Hanyi Vegetarian
Location: #01-03, 28 Tai Seng Street (Sakae Building)
Contact: 90232725
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 7.00am-5.30pm (some days opening until 8.30pm - Call to confirm).  Sunday Closed.


As Korean vegetarian food is so hard to come by in Singapore, I leapt at the opportunity to sample the Bibimbap.  Customers can choose a variety of bibimbap flavours - Such as cheese, kimchi, gochujang and others.  The dish arrived in a traditional stone bowl, which allows the ingredients to further cook, even when it is at your table.  I was surprised that this bibimbap had uncooked vegetables for its ingredients.  Traditionally, the vegetables (which make up a vital aspect of any bibimbap) are stir-fried and then added to the pot.  I must say, I would have rather the ingredients been stir-fried, as it would have enhanced the flavour, and also the stone pot doesn't have sufficient heat to fully cook the vegetables.  Another vital component to any bibimbap is the use of sesame oil, but I didn't really detect enough sesame flavour in this dish.

If you're looking for a traditional (or even vaguely traditional) bibimbap in Singapore, then Hanyi probably isn't where you should be going.  Nevertheless, I did love the stone bowl that the food arrived in, and overall the flavour of the dish was not too bad.

Price: $5.00.     6/10
I was quite excited to sample the pasta dishes at Hanyi, but unfortunately they were sold out when I arrived.  Therefore, I settled with the Korean Army Stew Noodle.  Upon tasting the dish, the soup seemed to have a quite pronounced cheese flavour.  Unfortunately, when I checked with the chef, they did confirm that cheese is present in this dish.  I do hope in the future, that staff can let customers know which dishes are vegan friendly, as I can foresee many vegan customers unwittingly ordering this dish, assuming that it will be dairy-free.  If you can take dairy, then knock yourself out and order this dish.  The soup base tastes quite pleasing and overall I quite liked the few mouthfuls that I ate.

Price: $4.50.     6/10


Conclusion - I must admit, the cheese incident in the army stew did leave me feeling a little disgruntled.  If I'm ordering a pizza from Domino's, I don't expect the staff to warn me about cheese, as it is obvious to anyone that cheese will be inside.  But for a noodle stew/soup dish, I don't think anyone would have guessed that cheese would be used as an ingredient.  Therefore with that logic in mind, I think there should have been at least some notice given by the staff.  Moving onto the positives (I don't want to 'whinge' too much), I do think if the dishes at Hanyi are adjusted/improved, then there is a bright future ahead for this stall, and I look forward to seeing how it develops in the future.

Overall Rating
Food - 6/10
Ambiance- 6/10
Service - 6/10
Value - 6/10