For at least the last year I have had several people recommend Leanh's Chinese Restaurant to me. Leanh's Chinese Restaurant is located on Nova in South Daytona. I even had people tell me that it was a vegetarian friendly place, so I would enjoy it. I believed them, and even added it to the restaurant page for the Daytona Beach Vegetarian Society. So today, I finally decided to see for myself!
My husband and I went to Leanh's Chinese Restaurant today for lunch. Now keep in mind that I had been told numerous times, by different people, that it was "vegetarian friendly." Really? One look at the menu and that idea was shot down! Leanh's offered ONE vegetarian entree, and it was served with a side of NON-vegetarian soup! To make matters worse, this vegetable stir fry came with the option of having tofu for $1 more (yet they didn't charge extra for the protein in any other dish on the menu).
In the appetizer section I spotted vegetarian spring rolls ($3.50), and decided to give them a try, along with the vegetarian delight (and yes, I did spring for the tofu, making that one stir fry dish $10.25). When we first sat down they gave us some crispy fried noodles, which I did like. But that's about where my like for this restaurant began, and unfortunately, ended. I wasn't at all pleased with the menu, and the food was just okay.
When I explained to the waiter that I wanted the vegetarian delight, but yet all the soup options that came with it were not vegetarian, he offered an extra vegetable roll in place of the soup. A nice idea, if the vegetable rolls had been good! The vegetable rolls were just "okay." They didn't have much flavor and they had a weird outer texture and coating. Next, the vegetarian delight dish with tofu came. There was about 6-7 chunks of tofu with some vegetables and a light sauce, served with white rice (we weren't even asked if we wanted brown rice).
The vegetarian delight dish was just "okay." I didn't really enjoy it and felt that our $20 some dollar lunch was a bust. I think the place is nice inside, actually nicer than you would think considering it's in a little shopping center. I also think the service was fine. I had no problems with the customer service. However, Leanh's Chinese Restaurant in South Daytona is not a place that I will be going back to. They are not vegetarian friendly at all. When a restaurant has ONE vegetarian entree on the menu, and they charge extra for the tofu, they are not wanting your vegetarian business (in my opinion).
I also pulled them from the vegetarian society restaurant page, and learned a lesson. I need to visit places myself before adding them onto that page, rather than take the word of someone else. If you want some good vegetarian Chinese or Thai food, visit Siam Spice (my favorite...and they have THE best spring rolls around), located in Daytona Beach, or Asian Sauce Box, located in Port Orange in the Pavilion. But if you want good vegetarian Chinese food, you may want to steer clear of Leanh's Chinese Restaurant in South Daytona!
We visited Leanh's Chinese Restaurant at lunch time and it was pretty busy. They seem to get a lot of customers, but obviously they are all people who are out to eat animals and that is who the restaurant is catering to!
Here are some pictures from my visit today at Leanh's Chinese Restaurant:
Glad you warned us! Now I want to try Siam Spice.
Posted by: Robin | 01/11/2013 at 12:53 AM