River City Writer

Last weekend, I found myself at Padmanadi, an Indonesian vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. The first thing I noticed is that it’s a very small space. It’s not uncomfortably small, though. It could probably be described as “cozy.”

It was fairly sparsely decorated but, oddly enough, that was part of the charm. The people—both the staff and the customers—were much more interesting than any decor could have been. There was a sort of “bohemian charm” about the place.

More important than the atmosphere was the food itself. We decided to each order a dish, and share them, so that we could sample a variety of the items on the menu.

There were 5 of us there that night, so we managed to order quite a few different items. We had “chicken” curry, kung pow “chicken,” deep-friend “shrimp,” coconut rice, and BBQ tofu. We also ordered an extra side dish of rice. Like a lot of Asian restaurants, complimentary tea is provided with the meal, so I didn’t bother to order anything special to drink.

The first dish that arrived on the table was the curry, which I had ordered. I’ve been a fan of curry for a long time, so I was looking forward to this dish. It was genuinely one of the best curried dishes I’ve ever tasted. While the “chicken” didn’t taste quite like real chicken, it was pretty close. It still had a bit of a unique flavour to it, which actually might have made me enjoy the dish even more.

The kung pow chicken was also excellent, and the imitation chicken tasted a bit more like real chicken that it did in the curry dish. If I had to guess, I’d say that the kung pow spices covered the “non-meat” taste enough that it seemed more like real meat than the curry did.

The BBQ tofu was surprisingly good. I’m not usually a fan of tofu, unless it’s in a stir fry, but this was actually pretty good. It still had the mushy texture that tends to turn me off of tofu, so I don’t think I’d order it again, but for people who enjoy tofu, I’d definitely recommend it.

The coconut rice seemed to just be plain rice. I didn’t really notice any coconut flavour, and at least one other person commented that they couldn’t taste it either. I’m sure there was coconut milk in the rice, but it wasn’t as noticeably sweet as coconut rice usually is. Even though it came with a couple of little bite-sized tofu things, and something that tasted kind of like deep-fried pork, I don’t think I’d pay the price for this dish again, since it essentially tasted just like normal rice.

The last dish that we ordered was the battered shrimp. I have no idea what they used in place of real shrimp, but it did taste pretty close. Like the chicken, it didn’t taste quite right, but considering that it isn’t real shrimp, that’s to be expected.

All of the items we ordered were $9.99 or less, except the shrimp, which was $10.99. There were 5 people at our table, and we ate good for about $60 (including tip). It was definitely a good meal, at a great price. I’ll definitely be going back, probably pretty soon. I’m actually tempted to make a reservation for my birthday this year.

In any case, vegetarian or not, I highly recommend Padmanadi. The price is low, the food is good, and the atmosphere is more interesting than it really should be.

For more restaurant reviews and information, check out my Edmonton Restaurant Guide.