This is another one of those places I discovered just by zeroing in on an area on Google Maps and searching "vegan". It was good timing as Hestia has just opened recently. I was quite excited when I looked at their menu as they have a lot of creative ingredients and dishes, some of which I had never seen before. My goal was to get there and review this place before the Vegan Twosome (search for their YouTube channel) but that was not to be....damn! While Hestia is described as a Vietnamese restaurant, there are dishes from all over East and Southeast Asia and a couple of Italian dishes thrown in! Do note that the Carbonara and Bolognese are vegetarian and not vegan.
Located on Davie Street between Thurlow and Bute. They are open from 11 every day at the moment until 8 or 9 in the evening.
We started with a Papaya Seagrapes Salad. We had never tried the tiny sour seagrapes before but they fit into this refreshing salad beautifully. The dressing and papaya were crisp and a little tart while there was what appeared to be jerky (vegan chicken) adding some texture and sweetness. It was all highlighted by mint and peanuts. A beautiful salad.
Carnivores (and former carnivores) are probably familiar with pork floss (I remember it from Hon's menu) but I had never heard of soy floss. The tofu was nicely crispy and the topping was very garlicky. The soy floss added an interesting texture. A nice creative variation on a pretty ubiquitous dish.
The Wok Fried Green Beans were also impressive. We loved the vegan ground meat which added a nice salty note.
There are 3 clay pot dishes on the menu. The cordyceps dish kind of freaked me out as I had Googled the cordyceps and then kind of psyched myself out of trying them. Are these mushrooms fucking carnivores? The second dish is more tofu which we already had but the third is the Eggplant Claypot. This was a spectacular dish! It was rich and saucy with deeply braised eggplant, onions, basil, peanuts...and a secret sauce! There was vegan chicken which had me asking myself if I was actually eating meat. (I wasn't). Each claypot is served with rice which you kind of need with this rich dish.
We gave it to ordering something not so off the beaten track in the Curry Laksa (we love laksa). It was coconutty (could have been a little more so), a little spicy and full of kale noodles, veggies and one impressive vegan shrimp! The shrimp had pretty good texture and a mildly shrimpy taste. Lots of tofu and mushrooms, we were impressed!
This is a comfortable enough place with a fair bit of seating. Management and servers were friendly and efficient. They wanted our opinions which I would expect from a new restaurant. They are probably still solidifying their long-term menu. There are more interesting items on the menu that we would like to try so we will be back!
Food 5 out of 5
Vegan options 5 out of 5
Comfort 4 out of 5
Service 4 1/2 out of 5
Value 4 1/2 out of 5
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