Vegan Bites: Goji Café Puts a Healthy Twist on Classic Chinese

Dallas’ Goji Café may just have one of the starkest juxtapositions of the food world branded on its front side. With the phrase ‘Healthy Asian Food’ proudly displayed below its restaurant sign, this spot might at first seem like your wanna-be Panda Express, claiming to healthify the deep-fried, meaty dishes of Chinese cuisine by adding a paltry side of vegetables.

A glance at Goji’s menu, though, reveals a slightly different approach. Still serving Chinese fast-food favorites, Goji Cafe is making all of its plates from fully plant-based protein, from chicken to beef to shrimp.

Begin with the fried lemongrass chicken, a dish made of seitan "chicken," fried to a crisp and coated in lemon and herbs. It's served on a bed of lettuce, and there’s something satisfying about the crunch in this dish. Although the seitan chicken inside didn’t quite match the tenderness we were hoping for, the shareable plate no doubt made for a light (and healthy) start to the meal.
Vegans may also revel in small plates like the “fish” fillet or the spring rolls, packed with seitan protein and wrapped in a deep-fried flour wrapping. For those less fond of vegan meat substitutes, Goji Café also offers vegetable-based options such as the classic rice paper summer roll.

The four-page list of entrées at Goji’s is no less diverse than the appetizers, varying from classic dishes such as kung pao chicken to those slightly more obscure like spicy shaken beef. The seafood-deprived vegan can perhaps find their happy place with the "shrimp" pad Thai, a dish that cleverly mimics the texture of shrimp with yam protein. With a starchy consistency and a salty aftertaste, Goji’s vegan shrimp is even colored red for added effect. Buried in a bed of thin noodles and topped with peanuts for an extra crunch, the shrimp pad Thai is surely an applaudable effort to emulate the real thing.
A guilt-free meal may culminate in Goji Café’s acclaimed cheesecake, a dessert that’s difficult to vegan-ize due to its customary cream cheese base. One bite of Goji’s creation, though, may just leave you wondering why it hasn’t been made vegan before. The filling contains the same palette-cooling tones as cream cheese, with a texture that may just be creamier than the real thing. Baked inside a graham-cracker-like crust that crumbles beautifully in the mouth, Goji Cafe’s cheesecake may just merit one more trip back — or two.

When asked about his goal in the restaurant space, owner Don Duong turns to the phrase, 'We are what we eat.'

“We want our customers to feel healthy while also saving the environment,” Duong says. Regardless of whether you’re a vegan, an environmentalist, a health food enthusiast or none of the above, it’s rarely a bad time to try one of Goji Café’s classic Asian dishes served heartily with a side of vegetables and environmentalism.

Goji Café, 2330 Royal Lane, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday - Monday, closed Tuesday.