Veggie Planet

Melaka, Malyasia

We love it when we find a local restaurant selling healthy, delicious plant-based food and so when we heard about Veggie Planet in Melaka, we couldn’t wait to go and see what was on offer. It’s a vegetarian restaurant (but with a mainly vegan menu) that serves Malaysian, Chinese and some Western food. They use organic ingredients and are guided by their 5 principles of saying “No” to ‘MSG, Artificial Colouring, Preservatives, Artificial Fragrance and Micro-wave cooking’.

Located outside of the historic old town, the restaurant is in a parade of shops along the busy Jalan Melaka Raya 8. There’s parking on the street outside (for car drivers) and the number 17 bus goes right by, on it’s way back into town. For pedestrians, it’s about a 30 minute walk from clock tower in the historic old town. It is a little off the usual tourist path but it’s on the way to the Portuguese Settlement and the local neighbourhood of Ujong Pasir (which has one of the most vegan friendly food courts we’ve ever been too).

The Vegan Food

We tried a few dishes off the menu and were impressed with all of them. The fresh spring rolls were packed with healthy, crunchy vegetables and tasty sesame seeds and are definitely one of our favourite dishes at Veggie Planet. They were perfectly wrapped vegetables parcels that were bursting with flavour and they didn’t fall apart when eating them (which is a sign of the skill of the chef who made them in our book).

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Fresh Spring Rolls – Yum!

They came with a nice sweet, spicy chilli sauce but we couldn’t resist ordering the fresh satay sauce as well. Bursting full of fresh lemongrass, galangal and ginger, as well as the usual peanuts and chilli, it was a perfect accompaniment to the spring rolls.

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Satay Sauce bursting with flavour

We also ordered the ‘Vegetable Curry Rice’ which is a coconut based curry (not very spicy, but nicely spiced) that contains aubergine, long beans and okra as well as tempeh and tofu. Served with steamed brown rice, it was a filling and rich dish that was nicely balanced with nutrition as well as flavours. we loved seeing tempeh as well as tofu on the menu at Veggie Planet too.

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Vegetable Curry with Tofu & Tempeh

The ‘Veggie Asam Pedas’, a tasty vegan take on the traditional fish based Malay curry, was sour and spicy and full of vegetables. Again this was served with brown rice, which was a real treat because brown rice seems to be a rarity in restaurants in Malaysia.

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Veggie Asam Pedas

By far our favourite dish was the ‘Nyonya Curry Ramen’ and it was possibly the best laksa type dish we’ve ever tasted. Creamy, spicy and rich with tofu puffs saturated in all the soup like curry with soft aubergine and fresh long beans… it’s one of those dishes that we couldn’t stop talking about after eating it and had to make a return visit to have it again.

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Nyonya Curry Ramen – Simply Deilcious

They have a great selection of healthy herbal teas and also soya milk drinks. We loved the Chinese herbal tea we sampled which came in a pot that was packed full of all sorts of fresh things and felt very light and cleansing to drink.

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Chinese Herbal Tea

Other Stuff

If we had two words to describe the service at Veggie Planet it would be ‘peacefully efficient’. The front of house staff seem to move around very quietly, clearing plates, bowls and chopsticks when they are finished with, but with little disruption. They are friendly and welcoming and took our order quickly, passing it to the chefs who followed suit and produced their delicious creations with the same efficiency.

We loved the complimentary tea served to us before our meal. The atmosphere inside Veggie Planet is particularly calm and peaceful which makes a lovely change from the usual noise, hustle and bustle found outside.

The decor matches this with simple furniture and pictures and the whole place is incredibly clean.

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Simple & Calming Environment

We particularly loved the ‘speak softly’ signs on each table, a gentle reminder which helps create the calm atmosphere inside.

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“Speak Softly” when dining at Veggie Planet

Top marks for the menu too as we thought it is very well prepared for vegan diners, with each dish having the ingredients labelled underneath the description. How refreshing not to have to ask whether something contains milk, eggs or other non-vegan ingredients.

The Vegan Food Quest Verdict

If you are in Melaka, it’s definitely worth eating here as you are guaranteed to have a memorable meal that will leave you feeling healthy, happy and full.

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Veggie Planet
41&43 Jalan Melaka Raya 8
Taman Melaka Raya
75000 Melaka
Malaysia

Email: restaurant@veggieplanet.my

Telephone: +606-2922819