If you’re looking for a lighter alternative to the usual yum cha, stop in to the Easy House and let Mary Tsang convince you that, as well as being excellent for your health, vegetarian food can taste fantastic.
Open since 2010, Easy House forms part of a small recently renovated suburban shopping centre which also boasts a good fruit and vege shop (Yuen’s), Asian grocery and butcher stores, Malaysian and pizza restaurants as well as the famous Lucky Bao.
Plenty of customers are always a sure sign that the food is great and this tiny restaurant is almost never empty.
Easy House is not your typical yum cha restaurant. Although the menu sounds familiar to diners, it’s a vegan restaurant (no dairy, no eggs) and most of the dumplings are gluten free. All the Hong Kong style food is made fresh daily by Mary’s husband, and no MSG is used in the preparation.
Although the decor is sparse with a polished timber floor and a few Zen-like wall decorations, there are no bulky trolleys. Instead, the food is carried out of the kitchen in baskets piled high on a tray. What the restaurant may lack in ambience will soon be forgotten once you begin eating.
The food at Easy House is some of the freshest, lightest dim sum found in Queensland. The barbecued ‘pork’ rolls are cased in the softest flaky pastry, steamed mushroom dumplings contained an exquisite selection of tastes encased in the lightest rice casing. Yum cha plates except rice noodles cost less than $6. Mock chicken made from soy paste and mock beef formed from bean curd and mushrooms are subtly flavoured yet tasty and delicious. Yum cha is advertised as being available all day, or you can choose from about twenty lunch specials priced at $11.90.
Yum cha is available all day, but there’s also an extensive dinner menu with favourites including Sizzling combination fresh mushrooms, Sweet and sour pork, Lemon chicken with rice sugar ‘honey’, Crispy duck with oyster sauce, or Buddha’s special hot pot ($15.90 – $22.90). Stick to the Chinese dishes which they do best, and be mindful that while it may say ‘pork’ or ‘chicken’ etc., this is a vegetarian and vegan restaurant and meat substitutes are used.
Of course there’s always Deep-fried vegan ice-cream (even in gluten-free) or Pineapple fritter with vegan ice cream to finish off the meal! Most food is also available to take away.
Non-vegetarians – don’t write this restaurant off! The food is stunningly fresh, simply delicious, and unless you were told otherwise you would not realise that it did not contain meat. It’s an inspiring culinary experience.
Shop 8, 90 Markeri St., Mermaid Waters Ph: 07 5572 8808
Open: Tues – Sun 10am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm, Closed Monday
You’ll find a full article about Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants here.