Plumeria Vegetarian

As a vegetarian, I’ve been waiting for the right time to pitch this place to my carnivorous boyfriend. When the (meaty) Thai place across the street didn’t have any tables left, SCORE. We had the Tom Yum soup, tofu Rama, and veggie pad thai. The Tom Yum was probably the most flavorful I’ve ever had (including all my stints in Thailand) with just the perfect amount of spice (4 out of 10 on their Spice Scale)! The pad thai was exactly how it should taste, and the peanut sauce on the Rama was absolutely heavenly. We ate until we were stuffed and had 2 boxes to take home! One entrée is enough to share, they were so big. The whole bill was $ 25, we have lunch for tomorrow, and the carnivore loved it :)

Cute little spot. Food was alright, I ordered the flower cups (tasty Flavors) and spicy noodle bowl. Overall, nothing extremely special. Portions were large though, inexpensive and good value for what you get (lunch leftovers!)

I’ve had Plumeria bookmarked forever so when we were in San Diego recently I definitely wanted to hit this place up. The parking sucks but we found street parking about a quarter mile away. That just meant I could eat more. The restaurant is small and was crowded but there wasn’t much of a wait at 7pm. I love finding vegetarian restaurants, especially if it’s Thai. I opened the menu and wanted to eat everything. I didn’t have the spandex on so settled on a few items to share. You aren’t just limited to tofu for protein here. There are also the options of vegetables, mock duck, chicken, beef, and shrimp. I’ve been vegetarian half my life, but if you haven’t tried mock meats, give them a try. You may just be surprised… at how gassy you get. The server was attentive, friendly, and had our food out on the table in less than ten minutes. The tofu flower cups were little fried tarts containing bits of tofu and vegetables which were even more delectable when drizzled with the accompanying cucumber salad sauce. The tom kha with tofu wasn’t my favorite here but was a good way to clear out the sinuses. The spicy noodles with mock duck… I will never mock or taunt you. Absolutely amazing. Reminiscent of pad see ewe but that mock duck totally steps it up flavor and texture wise. I have no idea why I ordered yellow tofu curry when pumpkin was an option. It was tasty none the less. Pumpkin curry, I’ll be back.

Awesome vegetarian & vegan food!!!
I came here Monday night at 8p with my boyfriend for date night & omg, this area was busy! There was zero parking! After 15 minutes, I had to park 3 blocks down in the residential area & that was lucky. There are a ton of great restaurants in this area so plan accordingly because parking can be difficult!
Customer service was friendly & fast!
Flower Cups (7) = Tofu, onions, peas, carrots, served in small flower cups. Served with sauce. — Mouthgasm. This appetizer is so good, I wish it was an entrée because I could eat 20 of them!
Eggplant with Fried Tofu = Bell peppers, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, chili, basil, house sauce, served with rice. — I loved the sauce! I do wish there was more eggplant versus everything else.
Spicy Noodles with Fried Tofu & Egg = Onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, chili garlic sauce. — No kidding, this dish is spicy! I got a #5 & this was even spicer than the Eggplant that was a #8! But nonetheless, this is a must order! The chili garlic sauce was mouthwateringly delectable!
Sticky Rice with Coconut Ice Cream — Ugh, I want more! The sticky rice was nicely sweetened & the coconut ice cream was so creamy… I will surely have dreams about this dessert.
Taro Ice Tea — A must order! My mouth buds rejoiced!
Thai Ice Tea (With coconut milk) — The coconut milk transforms this drink into a whole different, better drink!

Food — ⁵⁄₅. No Thai food in SD beats the flavors here.
Service — ⁵⁄₅. Fast!
Variety — ⁵⁄₅. Ample. Vegetarians are spoilt with choices.
Ambience — ⁴⁄₅. Neat. Can get noisy.
Price — ⁵⁄₅. Economic. Best Thai food for the buck.
Try the flower cups, garlic edamame, vegan curry rice, panang curry, spicy noodles. Total food-​gasm.

Flower cups — Delish!
Satay — Off the chain! (Vegetarian? That’s not real chicken? I couldn’t tell!)
Peanut sauce — On hit!
Edamame — Booyah!
Pad Thai — Mmmm-​Mmmmm Good!
Great food, great wine, had a great time. I can’t wait to go back.

This is nice a place, excellent vegetarian Thailand food, servers are so prompt to serve and offer the best of this place. Strongly recommend. Loved everything ! Specially the coconut rice and ice cream. Truly all is good.

Headed in for lunch shortly after they opened at 11am. Typical Thai vegetarian style restaurant offering the classic dishes, the twist being the faux meats made of soy and whatnot.
Started the meal with the daily special Miang Kham. Crispy tofu, toasted coconut, peanuts, ginger, lemon peel, on lettuce wrap. On the menu it stated that to get the full experience of the dish, you should eat all the ingredients in every bite much like sushi. I thought that the lemon overpowered everything and the appetizer wasn’t ap-​peeling (See what I did there??). For mains, I got the Tangerine Chik’n. I love this dish at the Asian Bistro so I decided to take it for a whirl here. The sauce was similar but not quite on par, but the chik’n, broccoli and rice were all good and overall it was a good but average lunch.
In my opinion, Loving Hut is the way to go for this type of fare, if not heading into an Asian heavy hitter like Amarin or Siam Nara and see what they can whip up thats Vegetarian/​Vegan.

Vegetarian Thai restaurant. Boom! That’s it. Ordered a take out dinner over the phone. Spicy basil fish and duck salad. The lady on the phone was a little impatient and hasty until I told her it was my first and needed to «calm down». It took about 20mins to get ready and the price was fair too (17 bucks). The environment looked like any other Thai restaurant to me… with a nice outdoor seating. Nothing special. Also, terrible parking, which is common for businesses in that part of town. So far, this place met my expectations.

Always excellent here! The Thai tea with soy milk is SO good. Mock duck is really delicious. Had it on today’s visit with the drunken noodles.
If you’re familiar with the area, you know the parking situation. Those who aren’t, parking can be a pain in the rear because it’s all street parking and sometimes hard to find a spot.
Service has always been excellent. Friendly, quick, even when busy — no complaints!
Highly recommended for vegans!

Amazing Thai food and you won’t even notice it’s vegetarian!
Brown rice is to die for. Everything was great. Chicken satay and curry is what I got and I wasn’t the slightest disappointed. My bf eats meat and it was his first time at a veg place. He loved it.
The lychee drink is amazing if you like lychee. Service is quick and good portion sizes.
Parking sucks.

My roommate is bananas about this place so I end up frequenting it by association, and you know what I usually don’t naturally gravitate towards vegetarian restaurants but this place ain’t so bad ! It’s got your traditional thai dishes with their own respective vegetarian versions of them. This is just a testament that just because you’re eating vegetarian food doesn’t mean that it’ll compromise on flavor!
Pretty much every dish I’ve tried has been a winner for me. For ~$ 10 you can get a pretty satisfying meal. Pair your dish with mock duck /​mock chicken /​tofu and you can do no wrong. Spicy noodle, pad thai, pad see ew dishes are solid. Some other honorable mentions include Panang curry and spicy basil.

I am a religious regular at Plumeria. One of my staple places to go, I am always willing to try a new dish because nothing has ever failed to satisfy my taste buds.
My hands down favorite dish is the spicy basil with «chicken» and I always add eggplant. This is one of the few vegetarian places that I’ve ever been to that, as a meat lover, I really enjoy. My favorite appetizers are the chicken satay and the cheese wonton.
The one thing I will say though, it that they are too efficient and too fast! They come to the table a few too many times and the food comes too fast sometimes so I always try to stagger my order time between appetizers and entrees. It literally takes less then 10 minutes from when you order to get your food on the table so just keep that in mind!

I was excited to check out Plumeria. I made the trek there and was told to seat myself. I sat right by the kitchen and awaited my server. About fifteen minutes later I finally got service. The woman seemed perplexed as to why I had not yet been helped, me too.
I ordered the red pumpkin curry with fried tofu. It was a bit too hot for my liking and that is suprising because I like it hot. I was not asked for a heat preference beforehand either. My fault for not specifying I guess. The curry had a weird flavor to it. I didn’t really care too much for the main. The rice however was yummy and came shaped like a star which I liked. The veggie spring rolls were delicious! The came with a pineapple sweet and sour sauce that was delightful. I would definitely order them again as the rolls were fried very hard and were perfectly golden brown. I opted out of my usual thai iced tea, unsure why. All in all my experience was okay. I would go back to try other items on the menu but not the red pumpkin curry. It just didn’t taste like red pumpkin curry at all in my opinion.
— Service was average & slow
— Spring rolls were bomb!
— No on the red pumpkin curry.

Summary: Great place for delicious vegetarian Thai food. Parking was a bit difficult out front on the main street but was able to just loop into some side street and parked in residential area. We ordered drinks, apps, and main entrees and overall was very satisfied.
Drinks: Gay le Cha (Lychee, lemon and black tea) — 4 Stars — Definitely very refreshing with the tanginess of the lemon flavor which offsets very well with the sweetness of the lychee syrup. The black tea wasn’t as strong as I’d hope which takes a point off since I would have liked the bitterness from the tea to round out the overall flavors a bit. But on a warm day, this drink is definitely a good recommendation to cool off.
Food:
Flower Cups (tofu, peas, carrots in a fried wrapper) — 4 Stars — Great crunchy outer wrapper that worked well with the softer fillings. The tofu cubes were springy and coupled with the fleshiness of the peas and hardiness of the carrot bits just gave a feeling of liveliness in the mouth. I really liked the sprig of leafy cilantro on top since that is a personal favorite of mine. The sweet and tangy cucumber sauce definitely was the kicker that gave the flower cups a boost of flavor and would be handicapped without it.
Satay Chicken Tofu — 3.5 Stars — Good flavor and done well but was didn’t have the crispiness level I’d have expected. Granted, there are some limitations as to how vegetarian version of chicken works with frying but that’s just my feelings regardless. Nothing too exciting happening here but still a worth appetizer to start off the meal.
Tangerine (Sweet tangy sauce with vegetarian chicken) — 3 Stars –Presentation wise, it looks very good. I liked the heart shaped scoop of rice and the pinch of black sesame on top. On my part, I can’t fight the unconscious feel that there’s a resemblance to orange chicken in essence even though everything points to Thai flavors. The chicken is hardened a bit with how they fried it which I liked but the sauce is what’s throwing me off. The sauce is just way too tangy in my opinion and pretty much overpowered everything. I started off eating heartily but had to slow down after a few bites because the tangy flavor was just really getting to me.
Ka Pow (Soy Duck, green beans, bell peppers, noodles) — 4.5 Stars — Really loved this dish. The spiciness level was just right and coupled with the fresh basil flavor and Thai spices, this all came together very well. The soy duck was a delight to eat. It obviously didn’t have the chewiness of real duck but the flavor in essence was there and couldn’t stop wolfing it down. Hands down a very solid dish and one I’d come back for.
Conclusion: Will definitely visit again if the occasion arises. Prices are reasonable and for the fare it is definitely worth going to try. There are plenty of other items on the menu that seems wroth going for based on the other Unilocal reviews.

I was in the mood for some good vegetarian food so I whipped out my trusty Unilocal app and looked up a few places.
I was drawn in by the pictures of the spicy pumpkin with crispy mock duck and it didn’t disappoint! My spice tolerance has increased lately so I went a little spicier than I probably should have. It was delicious nonetheless. Even my husband who usually hates faux meat loved the mock duck.
My server was courteous and ever preset and the prices were good.
All in all a great experience!

I normally don’t eat anything without meat in it but after a week-​long meat eating contest, I decided to give Plumeria a shot
Came here on a Sunday night at 7:30, this place got filled and packed pretty quickly! Good sign. I had a spicy noodle with the mock duck. I really liked the mock duck, pretty satisfying for a vegan item. Noodles were pretty good, but try to finish it at the restaurant as I saved some leftover and it got gross the next day,
I will totality come back, will have to try some of the appetizers and star rice.

First time going to a vegan restaurant. It was not all bad. I got the green curry with vegan shrimp and my friend got the penang curry with vegan shrimp. I shouldve just gotten tofu because the vegan shrimp (being a huge shrimp lover) was a bit… Unappetizing. It definitely has the taste and the texture but i kind of felt disgusted and would never try vegan shrimp again.
I think i shouldve tried a non thai vegan restaurant before i came here. But the reason why i give it four stars is because the service was nice and the curries tasted wonderful. There were flies that kept bothering us but other than that, the restaurant itself is nice and big.

Since first noticing this place I was confused about the concept of a vegetarian Thai food restaurant (Thai food being one of the more veggie-​friendly cuisines in most restaurants as a default)… and as such I mocked my friend Mama Red relentlessly for being a vegelitist as she was dragging me in here. But once we were seated with our menus and I saw all of the very many alternative meat options on the menu, it *clicked*. Yep this is pretty much vegetarian Disneyland. The menu strongly resembles a typical ‘choose your entrée then choose your protein’ style Thai menu, but with vegetarian chicken, duck, beef, and shrimp among the choices, there is a huge guilt-​free variety to choose from. There are also a large number of vegan selections and gluten free options, all marked on the menu.
We split an appetizer recommended to us by our server… mini tofu coconut nut wraps with a sweet and tangy sauce to drizzle on. Okay so these were basically just a couple of spinach leaves with a few nuts, tofu bits, and coconut shreds sprinkled on top… so when they came out Mama Red was on the receiving end of a very smug ‘Mmmhmmm… What did I tell you? Vegelitest!’ look. But we nommed them down and they were tasty as can be, so their minimalist nature was forgiven in hopes of a more substantial main course.
Here we were not let down. Mama Red got yellow curry and it was earthy and savory and delicious… chock full of potatoes as per her request, and served alongside a generous helping of rice that was molded into a star — nice touch. My soup, which was on their ‘specials’ menu, blew me away with its bold and balanced flavors. It was glass noodles in a clear hot and sour and savory broth served with mock duck (or was it beef?) which added a great texture and heartiness to this already-​amazing dish. I loved it — and thoroughly enjoyed every last drop of it (although half of said drops were enjoyed at home the next day since it was too much for me to finish).
So my apologies to Mama Red and to Plumeria for my mocking… I stand corrected. This place is legit and will be a treat to anyone who comes to enjoy it — vegetarian or non.

Much awaited GNO !!!
After a wild night at ‘Great Room Escape’ (check them out:
) we were STARVING !!! Well, more like HANGRY !!!
We decided to check out ‘Plumeria’ since it’s been so long since we’ve been there. Reservations at 8pm, but they were able to take us in early. SWEET !
Ambiance:
–Parking is a hit or miss. It’s all street parking so be patient. We got lucky and found a spot a block away.
–This place is always busy (a good sign).
–Staff was very quick to seat us and had our table all set-​up.
–Love the cute appeal of this restaurant.
–Nice ambiance and very inviting.
Food:
We ordered a variety of dishes since we were a big group. Everyone seemed to enjoy their dishes and had no major complaints.
–Fresh spring veggie rolls with rice noodles, tofu, lettuce, wrapped in rice paper and served with homemade peanut dip and pineapple sauce. I really enjoyed this light and refreshing appetizer. It four decent sized rolls that I consumed myself since I wanted it as a meal. Can’t really go wrong with spring rolls and it was perfect on a hot/​humid day.
–Flower Cups– A unique combination of Thai seasonings with tofu, onions, peas and carrots, served in crispy petite flower cups. Accompanied by a cucumber salad. The girls devoured these cute tiny morsels. It’s a popular appetizer and good for sharing.
–Larb Tofu with mixed with fresh lime juice, fresh cut mint, green onions, cilantro, chili and brown rice powder, served with warm sticky rice. Original Thai style. Everyone raved about the mock duck, but I settled for the tofu. It wasn’t out of this world and was a bit oily. I would have liked baked tofu, but the flavor was addicting. The saltiness and sweetness combo was really delish and my gfs also loved the flavor. You can also pick your level of spice and I chose ‘3’ since I’m a weakling. It still had a bit of kick to it, but bearable. This would be good as a lettuce wrap too ! I wasn’t able to finish it all and surprisingly quite filling.
–Eggplant with tofu– Sautéed eggplant, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, crushed chili and basil in house sauce. Some of my gfs ordered this and thought it was okay. My friend preferred the eggplant tofu from Loving Hut since it’s sweeter, but this was much lighter on the sauce. I still love eggplant and will get this when I’m craving it.
–Pumpkin Curry — Pumpkin, eggplant, bell peppers, bamboo shoots and fresh basil in a red curry sauce with vegetarian chicken and another with vegetarian scallops. My friend enjoyed the flavors and even the vegetarian chicken since she really isn’t a fan of real chicken. My other gf thought the scallops really didn’t taste like scallops, but it was just okay. Everything else about the dish was good. I snagged a piece of pumpkin and YUM !!!
–Of course the heart shaped rice adds to the cute appeal of Plumeria ! Got to love that !!!
–Taro Iced tea was a popular drink and everyone enjoyed it. I opted for a new item I’ve never had: Rose parade tea (unsweetened). Perfect on a HOT day ! Tasted like grounded up rose petals. Weird, but delightfully refreshing ! Much needed !!!
In the past, I’ve also had their:
–Seaweed salad — Japanese style mixed seaweed salad with toasted sesame. Small portions, but it’s your typical seaweed salad. Nothing special.
–Satay — Grilled skewers of marinated tofu. Served with peanut sauce and a cucumber salad. Small appetizer as well. It was okay. Again, nothing special when it comes to grilled tofu.
–Tom Yum soup — Thai hot and sour soup with mixed vegetables and tofu, flavored with lemon grass, lime juice and fresh chili. I love this on a cold, chilly day. It’s a great starter to any meal. Light, warm, and comforting.
Customer service:
–Very friendly ! They are very patient (especially with large groups). Food came out on time and waters were filled throughout our dining experience. They are also very friendly and greet you as you enter and exit.
Overall, it’s one of my favorite Thai restaurants in San Diego. I wish it was close to home. I’d come here more often ! It’s always a go-​to when I’m in the area. Perfect solo, on a date, group date, or GNO !!!
Can’t complain ! They’re definitely keeping me as a customer !!! I’m a FAN !! Keep it up Plumeria ! 5 STARS !!!