Even carnivores should like Veggie Lovers

Once again, top New Year's resolutions include eating healthfully and sticking to a budget. At Veggie Lovers, the 3-month-old Chinatown vegetarian eatery, you can be resolute on both your waist and your wallet.

The owners are husband-and-wife team Fenni Gao, who runs front of the house, and chef H Liang Huang, who has cooked in several vegetarian Chinese restaurants in New York and New Jersey.

They are, indeed, passionate vegetarians. One of the restaurant's missions is to teach people the healthful attributes of a meat-free diet.

Lunch specials are served Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and include a choice of three from the following: wonton soup, egg-drop soup, hot-and-sour soup, egg roll, veggie salad and steamed white or brown rice. Specials range from $5.50 to $6.50, making this the vegetarian equivalent of a value meal.

For my carnivorous tastes, the hot-and-sour soup broth was flavorless, which seems hard to do if you are combining spiciness with tang. A better choice is the wonton soup, a richer broth with dumplings.

The shredded veggie stuffing in the egg roll also lacked any substantive flavor; however, the wrapping was perfectly crisp, tender and flaky.

I opted for General Tso's veggie chicken, which uses a soy-based meat substitute. I wouldn't say it tastes like chicken, but McNuggets don't taste like chicken, either, and supposedly they are chicken.

A nice stir-fried crust gave the "chicken" texture and crunch. The sauce nicely balanced the sweetness with ginger.

The more-than-ample side of brown rice was enough to feed General Tso's army. As one of my tasters noted, brown rice in Chinese restaurants tends to be dreadful, so we were pleasantly surprised that this short-grain had just enough stickiness to be tasty rather than gummy. White rice is also an option, but as long as you are this far into health, might as well go whole hog - or, in this case, whole grain.

Hitting a high note was the Sesame Cold Noodles appetizer ($3.50). Fresh egg noodles absorbed the flavor of the sesame paste and sesame seeds, and fresh vegetables that were obviously hand-cut created a nice textural contrast.

Unfortunately, the Scallion Pancake ($2.50) didn't reach the same heights. The texture was much too tough, although the soy-ginger dipping sauce was good.

The same can be said for the Pan Fried Dumplings ($3.50 for 6). The ginger-chili-pepper-soy sauce was very good, but the dumpling dough was too tough.