阿潘家幸福蔬食 一中店

📍Location: Taichung. North District (Yichung Commercial Circle)
After visiting once, I immediately wanted to bring friends and family to eat again! 😍

I wanted to eat out and enjoy something delicious, but when I could only choose vegetarian options, the choices for eating out were really limited.
If I also wanted to keep it within a certain price range, I often ended up with options like small noodle stands. Sometimes, I had to look for seemingly upscale vegetarian restaurants to find good food.

But at this place!
For under $300, there are great dishes and unlimited small side dishes!
No wonder the whole place is filled with customers, with people queuing up, even though there’s not a single piece of meat on the menu!

You can order by scanning a code, but they also have a physical menu available.
Actually, for general information (pricing, spiciness, recommended items, etc.), the physical menu is already sufficient. However, the staff still proactively asked: “Have you been here before? Would you like an introduction?”

I thought it would just be a simple introduction, but the staff member’s tone was calm and friendly, not rushed at all. It didn’t take long, but they explained the menu very clearly.
I was really impressed by the quality of training this employee had (great job), and it wasn't just for me; they treated later customers the same way – introducing things in a simple, structured, and clear manner.

This time I ordered:
🍝 Flaxseed Dry Noodle $169
🫒 Three-flavor Crispy Fried Bean Curd (large) $79
The small dishes, congee, and drinks are all self-service and unlimited.
They don’t even charge a service fee; I felt that the value was great and affordable. 🥹

The food came out very quickly.
As soon as I completed my order, I turned around to grab small dishes, and by the time I settled in, my food was already here. The crispy fried bean curd was a bit delayed, but it was served just in time for me to take a few photos.

🍽️ Main dishes:
🍜 The dry noodles had a great chewy texture and a unique flavor. Since I was craving hot noodles and dishes that day, I was somewhat disappointed that the vegetable leaves were raw.

Overall, it was a mix of hot and cold in the dry noodles. The flavor was good, but it didn’t fully meet my expectations for that day.

The crispy fried bean curd deserves full stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It was extremely crispy! So crispy that I once thought I was eating fried chicken.
The sauce was perfectly balanced – sweet, sour, and salty – truly addictive, and the only downside was that I accidentally ordered a large size. 🥹
I didn’t have enough appetite for all that…
But that’s a dilemma; one person could really enjoy the large size, while the small size may not be sufficient. 🥹

🥤 Unlimited self-service small dishes, congee, and drinks.
Looking around at the customers, I could tell many were familiar with the place, as the first step after ordering was to grab as many small dishes as possible!

There were many varieties of small dishes available, four kinds in total.
When a certain item was running low, the staff would proactively replace it with new dishes. I even got some fresh seaweed later, but unfortunately, I was too full to eat more.

The congee was more like a dessert (hot).
It was already cooked soft and had a mildly sweet flavor.
If you usually consume very sweet food, you might find it not sweet enough.
However, if you can generally handle unsweetened drinks, it was probably around unsweetened plus a little sugar sweetness.
Today they offered millet congee with quinoa, which looked even healthier!

I chose lightly sweetened black tea for my drink.
It was quite similar to the congee, tasting almost unsweetened.

Overall, it was much healthier than I imagined.
The staff also promptly cleaned up the self-service area.

If I had to point out any drawbacks,
I think it would be that the soup spoon didn’t match the size of the bowl.
The bowls offered were quite small, but the soup spoon was still standard size.
Trying to scoop up a spoonful of congee with both ingredients and broth inevitably resulted in a full spoon (since the ingredients are at the bottom), but during the process of pouring into the bowl, the liquid often arrived first, while the ingredients lagged behind.

This was probably the only obvious downside I noticed.

As for utensils, you can self-serve trays and also self-recycle them.

The space inside isn’t large; it can fit about 25–30 people when squeezed together, but the area is clean and neat and doesn’t feel old-fashioned.
There were many young people in the restaurant, some even dining with children.
Many first-time customers, so I heard the staff explaining the menu repeatedly. But even if a customer accidentally placed an order without scanning, the staff didn’t get upset; instead, they immediately decided to help with the order and settle the payment.
I think this kind of service is excellent, especially compared to where many waitstaff insist on traditional protocols even when it’s unnecessary!

In summary, I would be willing to visit again! If I wanted to have a small gathering with vegetarian friends, this might be my top choice so far.