In a city that is home to an almost bafflingly large array of pork dumplings and immensely popular giant lumps of sweetened pork, vegetarian cuisine tends to find itself marginalized as something of a niche market. In fact, tell your average Tianjinren that you are going for a vegetarian meal and they are likely to look at you with an expression that blends confusion, mistrust and downright revulsion. However, despite the local mindset, vegetarian food is beginning to grow in popularity, albeit slowly. At the forefront of this growth is Seven Pattra Leaves. Housed in the skeleton of a defunct Japanese restaurant, Seven Pattra provides a wide menu full of meat free treats. Many of its signature dishes involve the use of tofu and other meat alternatives in replicating traditional Chinese dishes. Some of these aren't bad. For example, the 'Iron Plate Beef Steak', which is made from soy protein, is filling and tasty. But, others, particularly the Beijing 'Duck', feel a little contrived and provide diners with little more than a slightly less tasty version of the original dish. Instead, Seven Pattras excels with some of its purer vegetarian offerings, which seem to have a little more identity and individual flavor. Chief amongst these are a fantastically flavorful nut and pepper combo and the Fruit and Norway Fish, which blends several different exotic fruit.