Padmanadi Edmonton Buffet: So Delicious You Forget It’s Vegan
Once a month Padmanadi Edmonton hosts a buffet at it’s Chinatown location. All vegan. The food is from Indonesia with other Asian influences. I saw this as my chance to try out even more of their fantastic menu.
Padmanadi is legendary in Edmonton for their creative and delicious vegan dishes. I’m very serious when I tell everyone the best ginger beef in Edmonton is found at Padmanadi, and it’s not even real beef.
I sell Padmanadi vegan wings at River City Revival House. I also visited Padmanadi during Chinatown dining week.
I headed to Padmanadi with a girlfriend who might be an even bigger fan of the restaurant than me. She’s an inner-city kindergarten teacher and Padmanadi provided all the protesting teachers with a free meal during the strike. The praise for the restaurant never ends!
How the Vegan Buffet at Padmanadi Works
I made reservations the day before the buffet. I was relieved to see they still had most time slots open. We chose 11:15 am, right after they opened so the food would be fresh and I could get to work after.
We had a 90 minute seating window and the price was $28 CAD.
On arrival at Padmanadi the buffet was explained. Everything is vegan, the drinks on the buffet are included. On this day it was strawberry lemonade, peach iced tea, green tea, and water.
Padmanadi charges a $2 per 100g fee for food wastage. You can also get to go containers and choose to have leftovers on purpose, but you must pay the food wastage fee for them. Later I saw lots of other tables were choosing to take food home.
Food at Padmanadi Buffet
The buffet had more than 20 dishes to choose from. It’s a lot when you want to try a little of everything.
The dishes are named after the items they are imitating. For example, Curry Chicken is actually an imitation chicken. Ginger beef is imitation beef. Many of the options have a soy, seitan, or bean curd base but they have nailed the texture, so it feels like you are eating meat.
My Favourite Padmanadi Buffet Dishes
Ginger Beef: Vegan beef strips with veggies in an addictive ginger sauce.
Curry Chicken: The vegan chicken comes yellow stew style curry.
Dendeng: An Indonesian style jerky with a sweet soy glaze.
Tom Yum Mutton: All the flavours of tom yum soup condensed in a sauce with vegan mutton.
Strawberry Sago: An addictive creamy dessert with fresh strawberries and pieces of jelly
What I Would Skip Next Padmanadi Buffet
The fried banana
The peach iced tea
The blueberry muffin
Padmanadi Community Involvement
I mentioned that Padmanadi supported Edmonton’s teachers during their strike, which meant a lot to my friend.
Padmanadi also supports the unhoused community by feeding them with the proceeds from their food wastage / take home program. They regularly participate in community fundraising. Back in April Padmanadi had a night where 50% of their sales went to HIV Edmonton. Over the pandemic they delivered groceries to local families in need. No questions asked.
Padmanadi Edmonton Location in Chinatown
Padmanadi is located at 10740 101 Street NW Edmonton AB Canada
Find out more about Padmanadi on their website.
Padmanadi can be reached by: phone at 1-780-428-8899, Instagram and on Facebook
Was Padmanadi’s Buffet Dinner Worth it?
The buffet at Padmanadi was an excellent chance for me to try more menu items. In the past I have always got the ginger beef at Padmanadi, now I’ll expand to eating the curry chicken and dendang often.
My friend got concerned about her shrimp allergy at one point during the meal until I reminded her, there’s no meat or seafood in the entire restaurant.
The food at Padmanadi is so good that you forget that you are eating vegan.
Don’t hesitate to eat Padmanadi, even if you are a meat eater. I am carnivorous but consider the ginger beef and curry chicken as contenders for best in Edmonton.
If you are looking for more delicious Edmonton Restaurants in Chinatown to try out I would suggest: 97 Hot Pot and Boualouang.
If you just can’t get enough Indonesian food (I can’t) check out the my list of the best Indonesian dishes I had when I visited.
Thanks for reading! Have a delicious day and Live Self Happy!
