Sufood

In my journey of looking for new vegetarian restaurants to eat, Sufood appeared on the searches very often.  Founded in 2010, under Wowprime Group, the largest F&B operator in Taiwan. Sufood is presently the number 1 Vegetarian Chain in Taiwan. In 2014, they were introduced to the Singapore market through a joint venture. With the only outlet in Raffles City Mall, it is an extremely popular venue for family gatherings.

The outlet is split into 2 areas, the left is more private with bigger group tables whereas the right side is more open with more individual table seating.

The restaurant outlet itself is decorated in elegant and modern furniture with simple wooden structures representing trees and nature.

Sufood’s menu has 6 course and 8-course set meals and the same items are also available for order as a la carte items at single dish pricing. The set meals all come with a fixed appetiser dish and bread stix. The 8-course set includes a mulberry cider which is served at the beginning of the meal as a palate cleanser. The additional item for the 8-course meal will be an additional beverage. The 6-course meal cost SGD 31.80 and the 8-course meal at SGD 36.80 ( Not inclusive of tax)

The mulberry drink came in a pretty glass jug with 2 small glass cups and was chilled perfectly. The drink tasted quite similar to sour plum tea and is quite sour with a tinge of sweetness. I personally quite like the drink as it helps to whip up an appetite for the dishes to follow.

A very surprising dish that was extremely nice was the bread stix that was served right after the mulberry drink. I initially had a lukewarm feeling as I am not a big fan for bread stix and felt it will fill up my stomach fast but when I had my first bite, I could understand why the next table customers ordered an additional a la carte order. The bread stix was warm, soft and fluffy with a nice crust with toasty oven flavours. There was a light hint of herbs flavouring the bread and I was so disappointed we were served only 1 each and was so tempted to order another order as well.

The fixed appetiser dish was beautifully plated in a narrow plate and 3 hollow bowl area for 3 different types of starters. The appetiser actually changes periodically so you might not get the same thing on your 2nd visit. There is cold tofu with a savoury bean sauce, cold soba noodles with soy and a ripen plum tomato which tasted a bit sweet and sour. The appetisers did not really blow me away after tasting many of such appetisers in other vegetarian restaurants.

For the salad course, this grilled cheese button mushroom was greatly recommended and I can understand why as the bite-sized buttons were totally scrumptious. The baked mushrooms had a nice earthy taste combined with savoury melted cheese which provided the dish with just enough moisture.

To throw in some vegetables into our meal, we ordered the salad with avocado & macadamia which was also topped with cherry tomatoes and sweet raisins. There were also some grilled sweet potatoes which provided the dish with some natural sweetness. The salad was fresh and crunchy and the serving was also quite decent

Our beverage was served quite early on during the meal as well and we had the watermelon juice and herbal tea which is quite general.

The 2nd course was soup and we had the black truffle mushroom soup which was somewhat creamy and the flavours were quite one dimensional. I felt that the soup was not creamy enough and the taste of the mushrooms did not come through strong enough.

We also had the miso kombu soup with shimeiji mushroom & lotus seed which is very light and refreshing. Expecting it to taste like the usual Japanese miso soup, I was surprised that it is quite a clear broth and the taste was refreshing and not overpowering on the tastebuds.

When it came to the mains, I had the baked shell pasta with black truffle which came in an extremely hot oven-baked casserole dish. The dish was also quite pretty in colour with cherry tomatoes and parsley used as the garnish. The pasta had a nice tinge of a charred top with some browned cheese which tasted fabulous. The truffle, however, was not obvious in the dish and you can hardly taste it.

The next main we had was the lion’s mane mushroom with pasta. The dish came elaborately plated just like a piece of steak with a generous amount of pasta and some poached vegetables as sides.  The lion’s mane mushroom steak was huge and juicy but the pepper sauce kind of overpowered the natural taste of the mushroom which is probably in an attempt to disgust it like a steak. The pasta at the side was quite mediocre and not really worth the stomach space.

For desserts, which is the last course, I had the earl grey ice cream cookie sandwich which really liked pretty to take pictures with but it is not very practical to consume. The cookie itself is actually very buttery and sweet as it sort of melts in your mouth but yet it is too hard to cut with the knife. The ice cream was also melting thus making the whole dish quite messy to eat. I abandoned the dish midway as there wasn’t a neat way of eating it and I did not want my fingers filled with melted ice cream.

My friend had the snow ‘Bird’s Nest’ (Xue Yan) beancurd which is made of sago and beancurd. The dessert was quite bland and not sweet enough and I think the sago and beancurd did not really compliment each other well.

Overall, The experience at Sufood is quite good as the service was very attentive and friendly and most of the food items were not too bad. The set menu concept while not new is also quite fun when you dine with friends and family and most importantly the serving size is very substantial.

Address: Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Rd, Raffles City Shopping Centre, North Bridge Rd, #02 – 19, Singapore 179103

Operating hours: 11.30 am to 3 pm and 5.30 pm to 10 pm