Like the Vegetable Garden, Yuan Fu is located in a strip shopping center right on the Pike. We were seated in a functional booth and handed menus and a pot of hot tea. The menu was fairly standard Chinese-American fare, but the dishes were all vegetarian instead of animal products. So there were duck dishes (made from tofu skin), chicken dishes (made from tofu), pork dishes (also from tofu), beef dishes (from gluten), and seafood dishes (mostly made from tofu with skin).
We talked about what to order and settled on sharing asparagus with two mushrooms, beef with broccoli, and kung pao chicken. Erin ordered a bowl of asparagus and corn soup, and I ordered a bowl of the hot and sour.
The soups came first with the standard small plate of fried noodles. The noodles tasted like they had been fried well in advance, and I realized I'd been spoiled by the fresh, hot fried noodles I've been served in other restaurants. The soup, however, was a pleasant little bowl packed with several kinds of mushrooms, tofu, and bamboo shoots. There were several morsels in every spoonful, and the broth was hot and mild-spicy. I would have liked a more sour flavor, but then I adore sour foods and have generally been displeased with the sour level of hot and sour soups. This one had a lot to offer, and I thoroughly enjoyed each spoonful.
Erin's corn and asparagus soup was pretty mild, so much so that he ended up having to add salt to it. There was no discernible asparagus in the soup. It seemed just like a decent corn soup, and I didn't see anything about it worth recommending to anybody else. Nothing's wrong with basic corn soups, but they're not what I'm seeking when I walk into a vegetarian Asian restaurant.
Our entrees came out in short order, along with little bowls of brown rice (we'd been asked if we wanted white or brown rice when we ordered, something I've never been asked before. I assume any vegetarian restaurant will serve brown, and any nonvegetarian restaurant will serve white. I think this kind of option is one of many reasons why Yuan Fu may be a good place to take your nonvegetarian friends who aren't as familiar with whole foods.). The asparagus was excellent for this nonseasonal time of year, and was stirfried in a thin, mild white sauce with shiitakes and button mushrooms. My only complaint was the button mushrooms. Who the hell eats button mushrooms in an Asian restaurant? I would have expected wood ears, or enoki, or something else more flavorful and authentic. Oh well.
The beef with broccoli was thin slices of seitan (wheat gluten), broccoli spears, and carrot slices sauteed in a savory brown sauce. It reminded me pleasantly of the beef and broccoli I recall from earlier nonvegetarian days, and seemed like decent meatless comfort Chinese food.
I'm not that fond of kung pao dishes, but I tried a small bite of the fake chicken anyways. It came in a dark brown sauce with lots of green peppers, some peanuts, and a couple of hot chiles. The sauce was surprisingly mild for kung pao, and I'd say the chicken was okay but nothing amazing.
My overall impression is that Yuan Fu is pretty good, but not nearly as good as Vegetable Garden. Their prices are very similar to VG, but they're far less convenient for us to get to and I don't imagine we'll make a point of driving up there again. Their "spicy" dishes are way too mild and Americanized for my tastes...even the hot and sour soup, by far the best dish I tasted, fell short of packing the wallop I expect it to deliver. I might go back with nonvegetarians who feel adventurous but aren't ready for the more authentic Vegetable Garden, but otherwise there's little point in paying them another visit.