Bright Palace-Vegetarian Restaurant in Cary, NC

A family friend told me about a new vegetarian restaurant coming to the triangle. We have several vegetarian restaurants in the area and I always get excited when a new one pops up. The menu at Bright Palace has Cantonese, Japanese, and Chinese menu items. The menu is very extensive and was a little overwhelming to me when I first visited the restaurant. I am not used to having pages, upon pages of selections to choose from. I am lucky if I get two options on most menus.

(Diana enjoying seaweed salad)

The restaurant is completely vegetarian, but not completely vegan. They have many vegan menu items. They use vegan mayonnaise and meat analogs to make the entrees as close to the original dish as possible. Some of the ingredients that they use are organic. Everything I have tried is 100% delicious!

(Lise' enjoying imagination lettuce)

If you have never eaten a meat analog (such as a veggie dog, veggie chicken, veggie lunch meat, etc.), this is a great place to try it for the first time! I have never eaten duck in real life, but had veggie duck at the restaurant. It was surprisingly good!

(Me enjoying sushi)

My first trip to the restaurant was with Lise' and Diana. Although not vegetarian, they were brave enough to try the place with me. They both enjoy eating vegetarian food and were excited to try something new. We each ordered several dishes and shared. Below are the descriptions of the dishes we tried:

• Pan Fried Dumplings-Mung bean noodles, veggie ham, mushrooms, cabbage, black pepper.
• Crispy Tofu-Tofu, corn, shiitake mushrooms, potato, veggie ham, minced with bean curd skins.
• Braised Layered Tofu- Layered tofu, cabbage, vegan mayonnaise.
• Avocado Salad-House salad, pineapples, avocado, with chef's sauce.
• Seaweed Salad- Seaweed on mixed green.
• Imagination Lettuce-Sauteed taro, pine nut, sunflower seed, corn, veggie ham, carrot, green bean, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese celery, Romania lettuce.
• Aso-san Roll-Mushrooms, layered tofu, asparagus. Top: veggie duck, avocado, black pepper sauce.
• Matsumoto Roll- Mushrooms, king mushrooms, asparagus. Top: avocado, oyster sauce.
  

We all loved the dishes that we ordered. Since the first visit, I have been back several times. Diana and I are going again tonight. I cannot wait!