Vegan-friendly
Chinese
Take-out
功德林 brand was originally established in 1922. Offers extensive menu with a variety of mock meats. Serves noodles on the first floor and the full menu on the second floor. Some menu items are in English. Air-conditioned. Reported to close earlier than stated times. Open Mon-Sun 5:00pm-9:00pm.
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Last update on 20 Oct 2019 by Knut-Martin
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54 Reviews
First Review by tofutodd
yup
Points +112
These negative reviews are wack - Edit
So I read through most of these reviews before I went today. All of the negative reviews critique chinese customs/shanghai cuisine. If you want some overly seasoned food, ice water, and ordering in english, stay in a western country! If you actually want good, shanghai cuisine done veg, come here. I have been craving a good beijing style duck since I went veg, and this place finally sated that need. The "skin" was amazing, and it was the kind of fake duck that's marinated, rolled up tofu skin. The tofu with "crab roe" is flavored impeccably. The taro with wood ears has the best consistency. The [insert the name of the thing that's related to a water chestnut but is kind of shaped like horns], ginkgo nut, and peppers is delicately seasoned, as not to overpower the subtle flavors of the ingredients. This is the point of shanghai cuisine; to not overpower or cover up the flavors of the ingredients. Plain veggie dishes can be seen as "oily", but the oil gives them the fat they need to have oomph. Sugar makes appearances in places westerners may not expect, but give it a chance. Liquids here are not cold, as cold liquids are thought to hamper digestion. Respect native cuisine and customs, guys. If you're not willing to, just stay home.
Read morePros: Shanghai cuisine done veg, Great prices, Juices are good, too
Cons: It's a CHINESE restaurant in CHINA, Sorrynotsorry it's not westernized enough for you
Guest
coverseas
Points +237
Food was good! - Edit
I didn't read the reviews carefully before I went, so I ate on the ground floor. The room and service were not superb, and perhaps I should have tried the first floor! Luckily, I care a lot more about the food than those aspects, and I give it five stars because I was pleased, and as far as I could tell, it was easy to find likely-vegan stuff. I had mock duck and some veggie buns. Both were very good, especially the latter! (Given that Shanghai cuisine tends toward milder and sweeter, which I don't enjoy as much as other variations, I didn't hold those facts against these dishes.) Relative to Shanghai prices, especially some of the veg places, it was very reasonable. I'm grateful to have this option near People's Square.
Read moreBtw, seems to be accurately pinned on the map now, from what I can recall.
Pros: Tasty, Reasonable prices
Cons: Ground floor decor, Erratic service
Guest
m@earthville
Points +9620
Mixed, but worth at least one visit - Edit
Gong De Lin has been around forever, and they seem to be coasting on autopilot.
Read moreThe menu is extensive, and as others have noted it's worth reading other reviews to get a sense of what you might like to try, as there's a lot of variation in quality and flavor (ranging from so-so to good to great).
Quality of service depends a lot on who your server is. My first one was brusque and pushy (he really didn't want to let me finish reading the whole menu before I decided), but my second one was gentle and accommodating.
The upstairs dining room has more relaxed vibes.
Guest
AndyT
Points +2360
Great restaurant, if you know what to order!!! - Edit
When you go there, please mind that this restaurant is not where it is showed on the Happycow.org map!!! It is just off People's square, it is the building next to the "JW Marriott hotel" / the Ferrari Maserati Commercial center and opposite the Porsche Dealership on Nanjing West road. On Google maps, I could also find it under "Gongdelin Maipinbu".
Read moreI was skeptical when I read the reviews here, and my first visit did not really give me a great impression. I arrived 10 minutes before kitchen closing time (21:30), sat on the ground floor, and ordered "Budda jumps over the Wall" and the fried noodles as I could not find many other things on the Chinese/English menu that I could remember from the reviews here (unfortunately I did not read the reviews closely, otherwise I would have noticed that those are NOT suggested to non-Chinese people here). Both dishes were ok-ish, the noodles quite oily and a little bland, the soup was made from a variety of mushrooms that are not very common to the Western taste (but supposedly very healthy). I am not sure whether the taste of the dish or my unfamiliarity with Chinese cuisine are to blame, but I did not find it bad, only a little strange.
Luckily, I decided to give the restaurant another try, and it was the right decision. On my second visit (with some omni colleagues), I went to the first floor (which is much nicer), and we ordered
(suggestion for first-time visitors)
- Hot and Sour soup,
- Ma-Po tofu (Hot Pepper tofu)
- Beijing style mock duck
- sweet and sour mock fish
- mixed vegetable and mushroom
All of those dishes were absolutely delicious, and my colleagues commended me on the choice of the restaurant. Have been going there at least once on each of my subsequent Shanghai visits (about once a month), never regretted it!
Especially the 'Ma-Po tofu' was the best I have ever had (and that is a signature dish of my Chinese wife), the food was plentiful, the service ok, and the total bill (including tea and fresh mango juice) was about 300 RMB (40 EUR)
On the ground floor, they have a smaller "fast food" lunch menu, you order in advance (e.g. noodle soup for 20 RMB) and sit at a table where there is space. Good value for money & quick.
However, the restaurant is NOT VEGAN - so you have to check/ask! E.g. the Guava juice is prepared with dairy milk.
Updated from previous review on Monday September 08, 2014
Pros: Easy to find once you know where to look, Great food when you know what to order!!, Price absolutely ok for the area
Cons: You should know what to order, NOT VEGAN - check what you order
SanjayChandra
SUUUUPER HELPFUL!!
Read moreI, for the life of me, could not find it on Google maps, and got a result that was a couple of miles away. So glad you cleared up the directions. Looking forward to trying it myself on my trip next week. Thanks.
Guest
bluepaper
Points +69
great salad! - Edit
I was a little confused, because I also read this place is vegan - at least I couldn't find anything which contains eggs or milk.
Read moreBut anyway we don't like mock meat too much, so we just ordered vegetables. Especially the salad and the supposed to be like fish eggplants (which fortnulately didn't taste like fish at all ^^) were fantastic.
This restaurant is also quite cheap, so you can really order a lot :)
Pros: cheap, delicious
Cons: no sign which declares it's vegetarian/v
AndyT
You have to watch out and, better, to ask.
Read moreWe once ordered the Guava juice which turned out to be milk-based :-(
Guest
Veganjoe108
Points +32
Yum - Edit
By far the best place about Godly is the amazing literal translation of its menu that has dishes called stuff like 'the sparrow flies East over an azure Autumn sky', which isn't perhaps the most informative of all descriptions but certainly puts you in the mood for the general awesomeness of Chinese vegan cuisine.
Read moreThe food is, like most Buddhist inspired vegan food here, really great, with a wide selection of very tasty mock meats and cool exotic vegetables etc., some of it wasn't to my taste, but the trick is to buy lots of dishes to make sure that you'll all like something.
I thought the decor was swell and I generally really dug the vibe there; friendly staff (very limited English) and toilets were Western style.
Pros: Food, Place, Veganess
Guest
Syabas
Points +74
Classic Restaurant - Edit
The restaurant name is "功德林" 。 Easy to find, take a "Light train" to People's Square station (人民广场）at exit 11, just walk about 200-300 m. It's at the main road corner with 2 storeys. The food is ok & I like the dim sum / desserts.
Read moreGuest
shanery
Points +193
good - Edit
This is a fine vegan restaurant in a central location. Some of the dishes are very tasty. The service is a bit off hand.
Read moreAndyT
Not vegan. Some items are milk-based :-(
Read moreBest to make clear (in Chinese) that you can only take "zhen su" food.
Guest
Tianci
Points +419
Excellent! - Edit
We'll definitely be back!
Read morePros: great price for location, not oily
Cons: good if you can speak Chinese
Guest
nielswied
Points +240
OK but not specially friendly - Edit
This restaurant is OK. Do not like that they don't serve any water or tea with the meal. If you choose the right disch, which is not easy, than you are fine.But if you choose the wrong, such as their abalone (huh) or crabmeat (very small dish), then you are sunk.
Read moreHave a look at the bill. They might charge you the towels you did not use.
Pros: pure veggie
Cons: not all dishes fine
Guest
Michael Tait
Points +149
Disappointing - Edit
large building with both ground and first floor eatings areas. Ground floor rather spartan and gloomy, first fllor more modern. English in menu needs some clarfiication, like "Buddha over the wall".... ur guess is as good as mine.Mock meats are bland, and seem to be made in house. Not up to the standard of what is commercially available. Smallish sized dishes abt $8 each. Rice arrives at end of meal (if ur lucky). Beer warm, no ice available. Staff speak no English. I went back another night thinking I may have had an 'off-night'. Second night no better. Seems non mock meat dishes are better, mixed muchrooms quite nice
Read moreMichael Tait, Australia
Pros: central, large
Cons: warm drinks, average food, ordinary service
AndyT
"Buddha jumps over the wall" is a classic Chinese dish made from awful animal ingredients (like shark fin), which supposedly was given its name when a monk in a monastery (who was not allowed to eat meat) was so enticed by the smell that he jumped over the temple wall to get to eat the nasty stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Jumps_Over_the_Wall
Read moreGuest
sbszine
Points +250
Tasty comfort food - Edit
We ate at Godly twice this month, and also bought some of their buns from the shop next door. The food ranges from generic and overpriced through to excellent and cheap. It really depends on what you order. We liked the hot and sour soup, Shanghai noodles (not on the menu, just ask for noodles instead of rice with your meal), mapo tofu, and pickled cabbage. The fried dishes and jumping buddha soup were disappointing and not as good as the rest of the menu.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on Sunday July 18, 2010
Updated from previous review on Wednesday August 18, 2010
Pros: Nice decor, Great hot & sour soup
Cons: Unfriendly service, Expensive tea, Hit and miss menu
Guest
sglcklch
Points +3027
Alright - Edit
Considering it's been around for so long, plus I like the one in HK a lot, I came to try out this first original location with my partner during our trip to Shanghai.
Read moreRestaurant was very easy to find. Menu has a lot of selections, but even as a native Chinese speaker I had problems figuring out what some of the dishes really are just by looking at the names; the English translations were worse, many didn't make any sense at all. I think the quality of your meal really depends on whether or not you know what it is that you're getting, so it'll help big time if you have a Chinese speaker with you that can communicate with the staff.
Back to the food, I asked the server for recommendations and it all turned out pretty well. Although, as in most restaurants in China, food tends to be on the greasy side. Decor is elegant, atmosphere tranquil, altogether a fairly pleasant dinner.
P.S. Don't use the towels or you'll be charged RMB 2 per piece... yes it's very minimal but I didn't like the way they snuck charges into our bill!
Pros: nice atmosphere, location
Cons: difficulty in ordering, oily food
Guest
eatinggreen
Points +608
Definitely not great - Edit
We went here with full knowledge that the reviews on HC are very mixed and quickly came to see why. The restaurant itself is nicely decorated and gives you that historical China feel. Service is weird and certainly not friendly or helpful. English is non-existent but this we are used to in China and have learnt to cope with. The menu is large and consists of the typical mock meats which we generally avoid. One thing we do enjoy though is mock duck - this is usually made using tofu sheets rolled up so is not over-processed (basically, it still classifies as 'food'). So we ordered this and as many other things as we could find that did not involve factory processed fake meats.
Read moreThe duck looked promising - it was served with little pancakes, peking duck style, with a dark hoisin like sauce and cucumber strips. It was almost enjoyable, but the sauce was overpoweringly sweet. We ditched the sauce and just ate it without, which now meant it was bland. Then came a cold pumpkin dish we ordered. This too was sooo sweet that we had to leave it. They are obviously not using a healthy or high quality sugar either, just the regular supermarket white variety... and way too much of it. The rest of the dishes ranged between ok and oily. Nothing to write home about at all. Oh yes and they do use MSG. We ordered without though as we always do and I think they kept it out, although you never do know. In our book, restaurants who use MSG are not good restaurants because it means they don't know how to cook tasty food without it (any fool can make something taste good by lacing it with that stuff).
Overall, some of the food was edible, some was not. None of it was great. If we go back it means we are pretty stuck, but I don't think that will happen.
Pros: nice traditional interiors, large menu
Cons: MSG, sugar, oil, weird service, food is average
Guest
MDR
Points +110
Great place, great location - Edit
Very good food and reasonable prices. A classy place, but not pretentious: friendly, helpful service. Has English menu. A couple of blocks from People's Square makes this restaurant very easy to get to.
Read morePros: very good food, friendly service, classy ambiance
Guest
Ashni
Points +2290
Good location, relatively cheap, not great service - Edit
The location of this restaurant is great. It is on the main road, within 5 minutes walk of the closest edge of People's Park.
Read moreThe decor is good - dark brown wooden furniture, dark grey slate-look tiles, water underneath the stairs.
We ordered a bamboo shoot dish however found it undercooked and hard. We asked for them to cook it for another few mintues but they were unhappy to do so. They took it away and brought another dish similarly undercooked and this time spicier and much oilier. I guess they did try to help but did not get the point that we found it hard to eat.
The second dish of tofu with 3 kinds of mushrooms was good and we liked the addition of peas.
I would still recommend this restaurant as one of the two dishes was good, other people's dishes looked good, there is a good choice, plus the location is good as the restaurant is easy to find.
Pros: pretty place, location
Cons: service
Guest
slo0go
Points +2179
Absolutely Delicious! - Edit
It's the best vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai for a reason! We had a mushroom soup, mock crabmeat (in a cute crab-shaped dish), mock eel, and mock chicken skewers that were flavored with lots of cumin. Absolutely delicious! I wish we could have gone back a second time.
Read morePros: Excellent food
Cons: Napkins are not free
Guest
Loida
Points +35
Average - Edit
Food was ok but it is not the best place I have been in China. What we liked the most was the restaurant itself.
Read moreGuest
GPreis
Points +55
Delicious - Edit
I went with a local friend who had never been there. We both ordered a lot of mains from the menu (thankfully he is Chinese, as the staff is not English-friendly) and we both enjoyed immensely. The staff did make some suggestions (in Chinese), such as some dishes we planned to order were very similar. Best were some sort of "chicken" in sweet and sour, and a mock fish in sweet sauce, which was a nice surprise. Everything was yummy. The prices are very reasonable. Great location, around the corner from JW Marriott. Highly recommended.
Read morePros: Taste, Variety, Prices
Guest
flamekat
Points +397
On the shortlist - Edit
This place is good and if we lived closer, we'd probably go more often. The atmosphere is really nice and the service is usually friendly. Just don't go in close to closing time!
Read moreMy favorite dish is the tofu with fake crab roe (which is actually something carroty). Yum. The eggplant in a clay pot and fried noodles are also very good. Last time we were there, we had a really nice seitan dish, but I can't remember the name.
The servers make good suggestions and will tell you when you're trying to order too much food. Sometimes they won't let you order something they think you won't like, so you either have to push for it or agree that they might know better. They do use a lot of mushrooms, but that's okay with me.
I'd stay away from the set menus, as it's actually better value for money to order a la carte. I haven't found this place to be any smokier than other restaurants in Shanghai. There are very few smoke-free places here. The attached shop sells some take-away food and sweets. I think this place is good to bring a group of friends as it's centrally-located and they serve beer, unlike many of the other veggie restaurants here. On the whole, I think there are tastier and healthier veg restaurants in Shanghai (Veggie Lifestyle and Lucky Zen Veg pop to mind), but Godly is definitely worth a visit.
Pros: good value, mock crab roe, beer
Cons: not the BEST, allows smoking
Guest
swestrich
Points +84
eat noodles here - Edit
the food here was ok, but I must admit the chicken I had really looked a little too much like chicken for me to appreciate, I could tell it wasn't, but the lengths they went through to get it to look like that kinda put me off, however I found the noodles to be really good, and I think a few other people have the same experience I had, I would actually have to say that the noodles I had were almost the best I had in a while, BUT that may be because I disliked the rest of the food.
Read morePros: Good noodles, Good value
Cons: mediocre food, menu is disturbing
Guest
nausicaa
Points +73
convenient location, mediocre food - Edit
If you don't read Chinese, the place has the word "Godly" on the door. The dining area is split between one that serves dishes, and one that serves soup noodles. I've only been on the half with dishes, but the noodle half was more crowded. The food is fine, but the flavoring is uneven, either too salty or too bland, and they have a predilection for using mushrooms to excess, even for a mushroom lover. A veg fish with wine sauce dish turned out to be two kinds of mushrooms in a wine sauce. Come for the history of the location, but don't judge the quality of vegetarian Chinese food in Shanghai by this restaurant.
Read morePros: good location, reasonable prices
Cons: mediocre food, a lot of mushroom
Guest
Red Willow
Points +20
Favorite dish at Gong De Lin - Edit
I was directed to this restaurant by two very enthusiastic Chinese women who were delighted that a foreigner was interested in vegan food. I went to the West Nanjing road site, though there are many others, including small take-home- portion stores. The best dish I've had there is the "tofu and fake crab meat". I find this extremely addicting. But, alas, it is the only really good thing I've discovered so far. I find most of the "meat" dishes leave something to be desired- not the right consistancy or flavor. But an order of tofu and a plate of stir-fried veggies along with a huge 4 RMB pot of tea is worth stopping for.
Read morePros: large portions, many locations, good atmosphere
Cons: inconsistant quality
Guest
blackcat
Points +33
Very Disappointing - Edit
We walked miles to this restaurant expecting a treat. Instead what we got was a quite possibly the worst vegetarian food we've ever experienced. The choice was huge, and although we knew it was mock meat we really didn't expect the hideous descriptions of the food, I can't remember the wording exactly but it mentioned sparrows and it put us off. The food looked unappetising and tasted extremely bland. The staff were verging on being rude.
Read morePros: Nice decor, easy to find
Cons: expensive, tasteless food, slightly unfriendly
Guest
craigmc
Points +35244
nice restaurant - Edit
better than expected, and nice to get to somewhere that does not feel part of a chain.
Read moreas a previous review mentioned, the food was a bit salty. haowever it was still nice. very good staff, and felt very looked after. mixed menu of mock meat and veggie dishes, also has a takeaway deli counter next door.
Pros: good location, good service
Guest
humch
Points +17
Extremely salty - Edit
Staff wasnt helpful, food is extremely salty and full of MSG.
Read moreSmoking allowed in aircon environment!
Shame for this century old vegetarian restaurant.....
Cons: Extremely Salty, Everyone is Smoking, Food too oily
Guest
tofutodd
Points +94
Good food, atmosphere, location, and price!! - Edit
Ate lunch here 10/31/05. House was packed, so I was sat with another single westerner. He finished a Chinese family of 3 was seated with me. This didn't bother me but could others. Resturant is modern and clean, with excellent prices and an english menu. I had a beef dish because they were out of chicken. The beef was the typical veg beef, not great but not terrible. Prices are great as long as you know what to order and don't go overboard (their noodle bowl is 12rmb)
Read morePros: Good food, Great location, Cheap!
Cons: Busy, Staff don't know english, Fake beef was the usual
Guest
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