Simon's Wok: Food fit for the Dalai Lama

On Friday night between my sister's two conferences, we made the pilgrimmage to Simon's Wok at Broadview and Gerrard because we just couldn't stop thinking about tofu. I've been to Simon's Wok a few times since my friend Jane introduced me to it back in January. It is by far my favourite Chinese food in the city.

Since it is a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant, they do not cook with garlic, onions, or green onions, but you never miss them because everything is tasty, colourful, and ungreasy. They have lots of mock meats, including vegetarian duck, goose, chicken, and squid. These mock meats are by no means reasonable facsimilies of the real thing, but they are delicious in their own right. The vegetarian goose is basically yuba rolled into long cigar-like tubes and deep-fried so that the outside is crisp and the inside is layered and juicy. Yum.

So, in addition to the vegetarian goose appetizer, we ordered one spring roll, an eggplant and tofu 'casserole', the olive leaf fried rice, and something called ARHAT Delight.

The eggplant and tofu casserole was divine. It was a steaming, bubbling hotpot filled with large chunks of fried tofu, meaty pieces of eggplant, some green pepper, and onions. This is so my kind of thing. I could eat this every day.

I've had the olive leaf fried rice before and it is far and away the most delicious fried rice I've ever had. All the ingredients taste fresh and there is barely any grease. The olive leaves are salty and lend a subtle olivey flavour without being overpowering. There were small bits of veggies and firm tofu in it as well.

We didn't enjoy the ARHAT Delight as much as everything else. It was fresh, nice, and chock full of goodness (gluten, baby corn, snow peas, shiitake mushrooms, and fungus), but the sauce was a red, tomatoey type that we both didn't really care for. But, that's just personal preference.

For all that, our bill came to $25. I love this place. If I lived anywhere close to it, I'd go every week.

Simon's Wok
797 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, ON
Sun-Thurs 11-9PM
Fri, Sat 11-10PM