Review: Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre

Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre is like your typical kopitiam (coffee shop) except that the stalls in there are operated by one owner and they serve vegetarian fare only! You can find stalls selling burger; yong tau foo (stuffed vegetables) and chee cheung fun; toasted bread; nasi lemak; char kuey teow; assam laksa; curry mee; soup noodles; kon low (dry) noodles; tomyam noodles; popiah; fried rice; curry puffs; fried radish cake; mixed rice; dishes ala dai chow (stir-fried) and so forth. The list sounds like a never ending spread huh?

Some of the stalls in this food centre.







I vouched this place sells the best vegetarian char kuey teow that I've ever tasted. It's done by an Indian man who can speak Cantonese. Previously, before this shop was converted to selling vegetarian fare only, he does a mean char kuey teow kerang (cockles). No kidding and sorry I do not have any picture at the moment. Will try to get that next time. This char kuey teow is of the dry style and pretty spicy if you order the spicy version. The usual order contains egg, so if you don't take egg, you'll have to tell them.

Most of the hawker fare are available during the day (most likely until they finish up the food) where else in the evening only the dai chow and char kuey teow are available. Of my visits there, I have yet to taste everything on offer but majority of the food there are pretty good. Price in general is fair too, small portion is RM3.50 whilst the large portion is RM4.00. The mixed rice have lots of varieties to pick from albeit slightly pricier than another stall behind Istana Hotel. Surprisingly, the yong tau foo (RM0.60 a piece) is tasty even though they've used some kinda of soy substitute over fish paste except that you won't find the filling springy when you bite onto them.

This is their nasi lemak, the rice is very fragrant where I can detect lemongrass and pandan leaves with a hint of coconut milk. Served with the rice are the usual condiment of deep fried peanuts, cucumber, some deep fried fritters that resembles ikan bilis, fried kangkung, sambal "sotong", curry "chicken" with potatoes and fiery red sambal. The mock sotong is crunchy and tasted on the tangy side which I don't really like. The curry "chicken" tasted pretty normal but its the sambal that I like which is not too spicy and tinged with a bit of sweetness, just like good old sambal for nasi lemak.



Some of the snacks available that I've tried so far are curry puff, radish cake and cucur "udang". I liked their curry puff with potatoes filling. The pastry is thin and thick with fillings. Fried radish cake is not overly oily but I feel at times it tasted a tad too much flour in it. I've managed to try the cucur "udang" too but it's nothing fancy. Both of these are served with their respective chilli sauces. The picture below showed radish cake in the foreground with the cucur at the back.



In the morning, they serve economical fried noodles or bee hoon (rice noodles) and usually they have some deep fried goodies and certain dishes plus vegetables curry to go along with them. A corner of this place has been partitioned up to sell vegetarian ingredients, sauces, dried goods and frozen goods as well.

Now getting there is a bit tricky if you are not familiar with the area as this place is located on backlane on the ground floor of Blue Boy Mansion. Blue Boy Mansion is located besides Corona Inn (Jalan Tong Shin). You'll have to take the lane in between Corona Inn and Blue Boy Mansion. The food centre is on your right. Parking is very difficult in this area during lunch time. There are some metered parking lots in front of the shop but it's forever occupied during the day. Free parking can be found in front of Blue Boy Mansion but you might need to wait a while for people to vacate their parking lots. Otherwise pay between RM3.00-RM4.00 at the parking lots before Corona Inn.

Another walking direction if you're on Jalan Pudu, turn left into a small lane after the Chinese Maternity Hospital on your left. The entrance to this lane is directly opposite the Swiss Garden Hotel across the road.

I've roughly drawn a map, click to enlarge.



By the way, on the upper level of this place is Jade Garden Restaurant serving Chinese herbal/tonic soups and some simple dishes to go along with your meal. Do try it too. You can ask the sinseh to "tar mak" (feel your pulse) BEFORE your meal. He can then prescribe the appropriate soup for you. If you're a banana like me, don't worry, the menu have descriptions of the soups in English. They're usually busy during lunch and the popular soups are usually sold out by 8pm or so.


Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre
No.6001 Blue Boy Mansion,
Jalan Tong Shin (Jalan Pudu Lama),
Kuala Lumpur
Opening hours: Daily 7.30am to 9.30pm

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