Lacto
Indian
Vegetarian Indian restaurant est. 1981. Serves South Indian cuisine. Known for its thalis which change slightly each day. Added a large separate vegan menu in 2019. Approx. 65 seats. At Exit P1 of East TST & TST MTR Stations. Open Mon-Sun 11:30am-3:30pm, 6:30pm-10:30pm.
28 Reviews
First Review by vkapadia
elsalida
Points +65
Thali was nice! - Edit
Great place and delicious vegetarian/vegan Indian food. We had the samosas, papadam, and the signature thali. All was delicious!! Only the poori was a bit too greasy but all in all we liked it a lot!
Read moreGuest
Aavi
Points +216
Woodlands - Edit
South Indian restaurant with lots of Indian food options
Read moreGuest
TomChaytor
Points +134
Be careful if vegan! - Edit
The food was really tasty, however I asked for the vegan thali which came with yoghurt and the staff only told me the yoghurt wasn’t vegan after I’d tried some. So if you’re vegan or have allergies please double check!!
Read moreGuest
pemasaskia
Points +330
food was ok, wouldn't rush to go back - Edit
I went with a friend for dinner, the staff let us move table when the first one offered was in the centre of the room and it was a busy Saturday night. We waited ages to order and it was consistently difficult to flag down a staff member throughout the night, as they seemed badly understaffed. When our food came, it was in completely the wrong order - the tap water came last, and only one glass for the two of us!
Read moreThe food itself was good but not the best Indian food I've had. Portions look small but are very filling. Chapattis smaller than I am used to. Overall I paid $390 HKD for two people including drinks (non alcoholic). I was impressed by the range of vegetarian and vegan options but sadly not by the flavours or service.
Guest
brodham
Points +156
Very slow service - Edit
I've been here many times and the food is wonderful.
Read moreHowever, on my previous visit to order take-out, I had to wait more than 45 minutes while everyone else was getting served before me. The food was good and big, but I was not pleased at the wait. I even came near opening time to avoid along wait. Pull your socks up. The great food deserves better service to go along with it.
Updated from previous review on 2024-01-13
Pros: Good food
Cons: The wait for take-out was ridiculously long
Guest
Gordie
Points +258
Best Indian food ever! - Edit
Huge selections of both Vegan and Vegetarian dishes.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2023-10-14
Pros: Delicious , Delicious , Delicious
Cons: None
Guest
yumchadong
Points +5588
Carelessness - Edit
The staff’s attention to dietary restrictions leaves much to be desired. I had clearly communicated my vegan preference, yet I was served a dosa with added cheese, presumably meant for another customer.
Read moreGuest
KatieTang
Points +303
🌿 Woodlands: A Paradise for Veggie Enthusiasts 🌿 - Edit
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct3iDXApVBn/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Read more🌿 Woodlands: A Paradise for Veggie Enthusiasts 🌿
Are you a vegetarian or a vegan searching for delicious Indian food? Explore Woodlands, an Indian vegetarian restaurant that satisfies all your cravings.
Step into Woodlands, where the captivating aroma of Indian spices welcomes you. With an extensive menu of plant-based options, this hidden gem takes you on a culinary journey no matter whether you're following a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.
🍛 A Symphony of Flavours: South Indian Thali 🥣
Immerse yourself in the culinary symphony of the South Indian thali. Experience the blend of five curries + a sweet soup dessert, served with tri-coloured rice and warm chapati.
🌯 Mysore Mushroom Masala Dosa: A Must-Try 🍄
Try the Mysore Mushroom Masala Dosa—a crispy dosa with a luscious mushroom masala filling that is spicy to my liking. Accompanied by three homemade sauces, it's a culinary masterpiece.
🍽️ Unforgettable Flavours 🌿
Woodlands provides a remarkable vegetarian experience; each dish showcases their dedication to flavour and quality. I recommend it! 🫶🏼
Pros: Great authentic food!
Cons: Service can be better!
Guest
lokalvegan
Points +1675
Mediocre - Edit
Didn’t feel fresh, too many items on the menu for a small kitchen.
Read moreGuest
Chris2867
Points +87
Nice small restaurants - Edit
Food was nice, would come back
Read morePros: The lady waitress was very responsive
Cons: Male waiters are a bit slow with no hospitality
Guest
kmbrophy
Points +1179
Delicious Indian food - Edit
Extensive menu made it hard to choose but we will definitely be back to try more of the menu! The dosas were huge, everything we ordered was fresh and flavorful. The samosas were excellent! The menu is helpful as it has symbols for vegan/vegetarian/Jain options, so you can point to the symbol and ask your server to ensure everything you order is vegan.
Read morePros: Lots of vegan options , Separate vegan menu
Guest
Kakaman
Points +44
Vegan Friendly Indian Restaurant - Edit
It's my first time ate there. Thali is really good, just the fried rice too buttery so I ordered plain rice. next time I will make sure I order vegan Thali.
Read morePros: Vegan Manu, Nice staffs , Yummy foods
Guest
vgntrvlr
Points +1108
Decent vegan Indian food - Edit
Pleasantly surprised to try their vegan menu of Indian comfort foods.
Read morePros: Lots of vegan choices.
Cons: Gets very busy during peak times.
Guest
bevyang
Points +371
Educates and promotes plant based eating - Edit
This is a fully vegetarian Indian restaurant with a separate entire vegan menu, plus other dishes can be made vegan. I really appreciate the education and effort this restaurant does to promote not eating animal based products. The food was delicious but a little heavy and overly sauced for my taste (but Indian food tends to be like this for me, it’s a preference thing). When we asked for help on what is vegan the staff was incredible diligent. However aside from that the service was a bit lackluster - we had to follow up several times to get their attention to order, for the check, for extra drinks, etc.
Read morePros: Has a separate vegan menu, Educational pages in menu on plant-basedbenefits , Staff is careful to follow up to ensure vegan
Cons: Overall service not great (aside from vegan info), Food felt a bit too strong/over sauced
Guest
Ashni
Points +2290
Yummy indian food - Edit
The restaurant is located in the Wing On Plaza shopping mall up a flight of escalators to UG level. They renovated in 2019, and at the same time revamped with a separate vegan menu containing over 100 dishes! When you order, just make clear you want the vegan version of the dish (so for example for the dosa, they will make sure it is made with vegetable oil and not ghee). They also have Jain/Buddhist options.
Read moreFor starters, recommend the pani puri and sev puri. These were very popular with our group and flavours were perfect combination of tangy, sour, sweet etc. Basically you can't go wrong with these.
Masala dosa is very good.
North and South Indian thalis are good and filling meals.
We tried few different curries - enjoyed the bhindi masala. They made us a special mushroom dish like gobi manchurian in a sweet and sour sticky sauce which was yummy.
They have Oatly and offer vegan masala chai although have't been able to try that yet! They were out of Happy Cow vegan ice cream when we visited. They don't serve or permit alcohol on their premises.
Updated from previous review on 2010-08-08
Pros: Excellent food, Friendly staff, Lots of vegan options
Cons: No alcohol on premises
Guest
supersupergirl
Points +305
Fantastic Indian dinner - Edit
Woodlands has been around in Hong Kong since 1981, longer since I have been here.
Read moreI heard of it when I asked for curry recommendations but I didn't really know my way round those days.
In a way, I am glad I didn't try it earlier even though I have had countless of Indian meals because my knowledge of Indian food is better now.
There has been a big change to Woodlands too, they have redesigned the restaurant and menu so diners get a fine experience.
There was so much to choose from especially my favourite rices, they had tomato, coconut, yoghurt and even lemon rice.
It was hard choosing a rice as lemon rice and yoghurt rice (curd rice) are my favourites.
They even have JAIN curries to cater for people on a Jain Diet.
The staff spoke good English so this place is expat friendly and they even have zero alcohol beer and zero alcohol wine per glass/bottle which can be ordered or you can buy them at Maharaja Mart.
It is pretty amazing, you can get Zero alcohol Rose, Red and Whites!!
Ended up ordering drinks as the selections were worth trying.
They had pineapple lassi and my favourite Jal Jeera with soda.
Pineapple lassi is a great option for people who do not like mango.
Jal Jeera is just something I like because of the sourness and punchiness!
For food, started on the Onion Rava Dosa which stayed crispy all the way through the meal and they serve it without oil which makes it healthy.
The texture is similar to crispy French galettes and they taste tasty with or without the sambar.
Next were the mains, the vegetable fried noodles were sooooooooooooooo delicious.
They were soft and flavoured with lots of spices.
Luckily they asked how spicy I wanted the noodles because I often forget they are spicy and end up not finishing it because it is too spicy.
The lemon rice and the spinach mushroom curry were great together.
Again the lemon rice is good on its own and I appreciate they used button mushrooms in the curry and not Asian Shitaake mushrooms.
Will definitely be back again and it is now easier getting here as it is right near an MTR exit unlike the old days!
Guest
coconut_pudding
Points +28
Delicious, good value - Edit
Had the vegan thali (104 HKD) which came with ‘assorted breads’ (chapati, pappadam, etc.) and rice. I’m a fairly light eater but it really was a lot of food; too much for me for lunch. I wish they’d do a mini version. Super delicious, tho’, and individual curries/dhal not greasy at all. Would be nice if they added some kind of green vegetable to balance out all the yellow colours. Recommend.
Read moreGuest
docvids
Points +57
Very tasty Indian food - Edit
Good variety of Indian food with emphasis on dosas (South Indian pancake). We tried a few of the dosas (all very yummy), their vadas (also very yummy), Pac bhaji (nice but a bit spicy for me) and Vada pav (loved this). Attentive service. Clean restaurant. Will definitely be back.
Read moreGuest
Buzztrade
Points +38
A great feed fast and delicious! - Edit
Well worth checking out! On my TST must visit list for sure!
Read moreGuest
Tertia
Points +90
Tasty food - Edit
Busy place in a shopping mall. They refurbished at the beginning of December 2018 and the place looks modern and clean. We liked the dosa masala and south indian tali. The lemon pickle that came with the tali was very good. The staff asked a couple of times if we wanted to order more.
Read moreIt was not expensive.
Pros: Easy to find, Tasty, Not expensive
Guest
Anwoody
Points +145
typical thali place - Edit
Food is fine, thali will be refilled if requested. Location is a little out of the way for evening dining. Staff speak English.
Read moreGuest
Pascal_HK
Points +313
good thali - Edit
I advise the special thali (hkd135) which is excellent (but non vegan). The south India thali (hkd90) which I tried the other time is also good. The only thing which always strikes me when I go to Woodlands is that clients are mainly non-Indian (as opposed to Sangeetha next door or Saravana Bhavan). According to an Indian friend, this is because they got a bad reputation re the service. I cannot complain on that side though.
Read moreGuest
Gandhileo
Points +78
NO MORE AUTHENTIC SOUT INDIAN - Edit
Already for one year it has been downgrading its food quality and no mor lemon pickel with the meal and when ordered take away knead to pick up and some times no rasam some times no sambar and every thing is more sweet .it is no more the same woodlands any more it eas the only pride of south india (Madras City)
Read moreVery disappointed . Hope the manajment will sure look into this .
Hoping the come back of orignal woodlands restaurant. The new staff are very rude and mannerles and very un hygne
God bless.
Vanakam
Guest
Lanky
Points +412
Good if not great - Edit
Woodlands provided a decent thali tonight, I liked that they offered to top up each thing as i finished them. Usually they dont offer unless you ask. I didnt need any refills, because the serving was big enough, but its nice that they offered.
Read moreI must disagree with the previous reviewer, and say that the menu appears to me mostly southern Indian to me.
Staff was friendly for HK standards.
Pros: Decent food, Decent Value
Cons: Pretty lacto
Guest
Richard Myers
Points +765
It Was Satisfying - Edit
We had a little difficulty finding the place and it definitely seems like a cafeteria. The food was good; we had a modified South Indian Thali and the only other choice would have been a Dosa. The place was fairly busy but lacked atmosphere and had a worn look to it. We left full and happy.
Read morePros: Food tasted good
Cons: Lacked choice, A little shabby
Guest
JohnnySensible
Points +7596
Vegan South Indian Thali - delicious - Edit
Have just finished a delicious lunch.
Read moreA South India Thali - papad - 2 rotis - plain rice - rasam - sambar - 2 chutneys - 3 vegetable oreparations - dahl - all for HK$ 77 / US$ 10 including tax.
Now feeling fully satisfied.
Updated from previous review on Saturday January 31, 2009
Ride up the escalator to the "Upper Ground Floor" - Woodlands is then on your right.
Open Midday to 15.30 & then 18.30 to 22.30 - every day.
Very "lacto-" & serving mostly north Indian food.
It is possible to "vegan-ize" some of the dishes if you discuss with the waiter - seriously.
I have been visitng the old location since the mid-90's & now the new location - several of my friends are hooked on the place.
The food is OK - good for the tongue.
The rice can be grim - I usually order a few veg dishes with dahl & the chapati's / roti's.
Guest
sglcklch
Points +3081
Glad they are back! - Edit
Came here for the first time for dinner since they reopened at this new location. Mostly South Indian cuisine with a couple of dishes from the North too. We ordered some idlis to start with, which were a nice alternative to the other deep fried snacks. For main courses we had a vegetable biryani, mashed eggplant with tomato, alu mutter (potatoes and peas curry), and some chapatis. The alu mutter was a mistake, I told them to cancel but they never did. It was mostly gravy with very few potatoes and peas. The biryani was tasty, came in a generous portion too. The eggplant dish was really yummy, good for the palate but very oily. Maybe better stick with their South Indian specialties. It was definitely a satiating meal though, pretty cheap too I thought. Will for sure come back and try their South Indian dishes instead.
Read morePS. To get here, just walk out from MTR exit P1 and the mall is right in front of you.
Pros: good value, location
Cons: cheap, can be oily
Guest
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