Diners who love vegetarian food are expressing dismay after the news that a downtown Victoria restaurant will be shutting down soon.
Lotus Pond Vegetarian Restaurant at 617 Johnson St. in Victoria has announced on its website plans to close down forever after more than 20 years of serving vegan or vegetarian Chinese food, including in the Szechuan style.
“This notice is to inform you that after 20+ years of serving Victoria, we have made the difficult decision to close our restaurant,” reads the posting on the Lotus Pond website. “We would like to express our deepest gratitude for all the support the community has given to us throughout these years, and will continue to provide you with our best service until our last day.”
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The owners wrote that the final day of operation will be on April 30.
Lotus Pond diners are not happy.
“This place, it felt like home to our family,” wrote one Lotus Pond fan on Facebook. “Great service and great food.”
This is one of several downtown Victoria restaurants that have shut down in recent months.
Agrius Restaurant announced “with a heavy heart” that its last service would be on Jan. 15. This news came after being named in February 2022 to OpenTables top-100 most romantic restaurants in Canada.
The blame was placed on inflation.
“This has been a very difficult and heartbreaking decision,” management announced on the restaurant’s Instagram account. “We have been so lucky to work with some of the greatest people from this city and beyond, who have consistently showed up and produced such great food and service. We have worked very, very hard to try to create more sustainable model for local food: from farmers and producers to the staff working in front and back of house, but in the current climate, this has proven to be incredibly difficult.”
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