Po Lin Monastery

If you’re heading up to the Tian Tan (Big) Buddha, make sure to take some time to visit the Po Lin Monastery itself. The Monastery grounds consist of a number of buildings and plazas. You can buy incense to burn outside and there are benches for you to take in the atmosphere and rest your weary feet. There is a lot of great detail and color in the architecture and design of the complex with the piece de resistance being the Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. As its name implies, it literally has 10,000 gold buddha figures inside.
FOOD:
The monastery offers two vegetarian restaurants — a sit down option and a little stall/​café. I opted for some cheap noodles at the latter. They were a little bland but nothing a bit of soy sauce couldn’t fix. It made for a cheap, peaceful snack while sitting outside in the shade.
TIP:
Some of the buildings prohibit photography inside, but the workers allow you to take photos from the doorway. Don’t be an ugly American and ask one of the monks if you can take their picture. This is an active monastery. Treat the monastery (and the monks) with respect.

This review is for their restaurant. When planning our trip to Hong Kong, one of the things I was most looking forward to was eating a Buddhist vegetarian meal here. And it did not disappoint! This was easily the best vegetarian meal I have had! The food was both flavorful and filling. Many at the table (all lifelong carnivores) commented that they could easily be vegetarians if they could eat like this every day.
The meal started with a soup (mushrooms, tofu, corn and other veggies). Followed by tofu in a lemon sauce, rolls, stir fried vegetables, spring rolls, fried rice, and crispy won tons. It was an 8 course meal, so I’ve forgotten a dish…
Although the food was excellent, the service aspect was nonexistent. Dishes were unceremoniously deposited onto our table, we were glared at when we asked for tea, etc. However, this is par for the course at most Chinese restaurants :-(so it wasn’t unexpected.
If you don’t want to dine in the restaurant or if you just want a snack, there’s also a food stall outside selling other vegetarian dishes as well as sweets/​desserts. Outside seating is available also.
Great experience!