Many vegetarian enthusiasts often evaluate the pattern of vegetarian catering in China with "South Fu and North Xie Zhong Song", among which "Zhong Song Dynasty" refers to Song Yuanbo, the founder of Vegetable Unbounded. Song Yuanbo has been engaged in vegetarian catering for more than ten years, and another well-known vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai, "Jujube Tree", is also his masterpiece. After retiring from Jujube Tree in 2011, he founded another high-end vegetarian brand, Big Vegetable Unbounded. Vegetable Borderless focuses on "borderless plant-based cuisine", and currently has 9 vegetarian restaurants in 5 cities: Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Chengdu.
In addition to winning the 2016 and 2017 Beijing and Shanghai Best 50 Restaurants, Time Out Vegetarian Restaurant of the Year, and the Volkswagen Black Pearl One Diamond Restaurant, several restaurants in Shanghai have also been favored by Michelin. In the 2017 Michelin Guide Shanghai, Xujiahui Park Meso, World Financial Center Meso and The Bund 22 were all awarded Bib Gourmand Restaurant, while in the 2018 Michelin Guide, The Bund and Aqua were promoted to star restaurants and received one Michelin star.
Most of the dishes are made by the current Executive Chef Xu Dong, who has been focusing on vegetarian catering for 10 years and has mastered the food and cooking of different countries, so many of the dishes are borrowed from Japanese, French, American, Japanese, Southeast Asian and other countries.
When the restaurant first formulated the menu, the owner of the restaurant, Song Yuanbo, and the chef Xu Dong jointly decided to condense the dishes to less than 50 dishes, of which 30 are year-round classics, and the remaining 10-20 dishes are seasonal dishes. When determining the ingredients, Xu Dong started with the 24 solar terms with ingenuity, and proposed the dish style of "green in spring, red in summer, and yellow and white in autumn and winter". The new time of the restaurant's dishes is also linked to the 24 solar terms, and 10 new dishes will be launched every year in the beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and another 10 new dishes will be launched in the sting, mangzhong, white dew and heavy snow, and most of the dishes are named after the word brand as dishes, such as Mengling, Butterfly Love Flower, and Qinyuan Spring are its signature dishes, which are extremely poetic.
There are a total of 4 vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai, of which the Bund store is Hemei Pavilion and the other 3 are Meisu Restaurant. The brand positioning of Hemei Pavilion and Meisu Pavilion is slightly different, and the dishes of Meisu Pavilion are in the form of a single point sharing, while Hemei Pavilion is mainly based on set meals, which are divided into three grades: 399 yuan, 599 yuan and 799 yuan, and only 20 menu points are provided outside the package.
Located on the 4th floor of No. 22 on the Bund, the Bund 22 was originally built in 1906 by Swire & Co., and is the last old building in the Bund International Complex, and is currently a well-known haute couture experience center in Shanghai. The design of the Bund restaurant absorbs the style of Jiangnan gardens, with corridors, pavilions and halls scattered together, and many corners are decorated with elements of the 24 solar terms, echoing the seasonal menu. Xujiahui Meisu Museum is adjacent to Xujiahui Park, the restaurant has five floors, respectively with the traditional Chinese five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth as the decoration theme, rich in Chinese characteristics, of which the first and second floors are scattered in the lobby, the third floor is the whole floor of the restaurant kitchen, the fourth floor is "good as water" as the theme, several private rooms are unique, suitable for business banquets, the fifth floor is a more private club space, occasionally the restaurant will invite masters from all over the world as guest chefs, in the open kitchen on the fifth floor of the live cooking, a show of cooking skills. The World Financial Center Pavilion is located in a prime location, surrounded by landmark buildings such as the World Financial Center, Shanghai Tower, and Jin Mao Tower, giving the restaurant a modern urban feel. The Thames Museum is located in the famous attraction Thames Town, and the surrounding British architecture is very realistic, which is the best place to relax and refuel after a visit.
Except for the slightly different dishes of a la carte or set menu, the rest of the flavors and services are not much different. Each hall has a good level of service, from the beginning of the customer into the door there is a special person to guide the seat, ordering, serving the whole process of service staff always smile and polite, after serving will also do a detailed explanation for each dish, for the customer questions can be professionally answered, the service experience is relatively good, the meal will charge an additional 10% service fee. However, in principle, all packages are booked by a minimum of 2 people, and if there are only 2 people accompanying you, you can only choose one package; If you are a single diner and want to taste the set menu, it is recommended to communicate with the merchant in advance.
Another well-known vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai, Shushui Xiaoguan, is also a light food brand under the Big Vegetable Unbounded Group. Shushui restaurant specializes in vegetarian vegetarian meals, all kinds of soybean milk, bean curd, dried tofu, tofu balls, fried tofu, soybean milk noodles, the variety is very rich, the restaurant has two branches of Changshou Road and Hongqiao Tiandi, the consumption of the two branches is within 50 yuan, the cost performance is high, and diners who like bean meals can also go to try.
