Buddha Bodai
“We also tried the fried peppers stuffed with veg meat, watercress dumplings,and sticky rice shumai.”
“I love congee more than the sun loves to exponentially grow each yea in order to absorb the Earth.”
“I especially like to order the turnip cakes, roast pork rice rolls, the ribs in black bean sauce, and they have hands-down the best zhajiangmian.”
Buddha Bodai
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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As the child of Chinese immigrants, I grew up eating char siu. It is a staple of the Chinatown diet. Delicious pork, coated with a sticky honey glaze with small areas of charcoal-burnt crunch.
If someone told me I would one day eat vegetarian char siu and like it, I'd say they were crazy. However, Buddha Bodai managed the impossible.
Their char siu dish brings that familiar honey-roasted flavor that I know and love in pork char siu. However, it seemed to be made with some type of soy product instead of meat. Each piece was soft, kind of like the pockets of fat found in their pork counterpart. Dare I say it, I might come to crave vegetarian char siu from time to time!
I also tried their triple mushroom dish, which combined three (no surprise) types of mushrooms, along with a couple other veggies. I liked how each mushroom brought a different taste and texture to the dish. Very yummy.
All in all, a really delicious dinner, even for a meat eater like me. 🙂 The bill for two came out to just over $40, which is very affordable. I am excited to return to try their dim sum!
Good vegetarian dim sum is really hard to find, especially if you're not in a vegetarian restaurant. I love being able to order anything I want on the menu and not have to worry if there's some sort of meat in it, so coming here was definitely a treat. I came here with a vegetarian friend for lunch after the Chinese New Year Parade. We had to wait for a while to get a table, but we also came on a popular day at a popular time. The wait, however, was worth it. We had fun picking out things from the extensive menu, but finally settled on these:
Pan Fried Turnip Cake – The clear favorite for both of us at the table. Will definitely order again!
Steamed Sticky Rice Shumai – These were really good, especially dunked in soy sauce.
Veg. Meat Bun – I really liked them, but my friend thought they were too sweet. It didn't taste like fake meat, but was more sweet, almost cinnamon-y. The ratio of dough to filling was a bit off. I would have liked more of the delicious filling and less bun.
Fried Eggplant Stuffed w. Veg. Meat – Quite greasy. The fake meat inside the eggplant was good, but I wasn't a huge fan of this one.
Mushroom and Bean Sprout Pancake w. Egg – Again, the pancake to filling ratio was a bit off, however it was still really delicious. The pancakes were a bit sweet, but the filling helped balance it out.
Overall, the food was a bit doughy and sweet. I didn't mind it too much and still really enjoyed the meal. It was a fun experience and you can get a ridiculous amount of food for almost no money. I'll definitely come back and try some of their other yummy dishes.
Buddha Bodai is a Vegetarian Kosher restaurant in Chinatown. I took the NQ train to Canal Street. You can take the 6 train as well.
Weekends are dim sum, so they have a menu with small, medium, and large dishes for the table and their regular menu. We ordered vegetable steam bun, spring rolls, fake shrimp balls, and the Buddha's Delight from the regular menu. I couldn't tell which items are vegan and which items are vegetarian. They do note items with egg in it. Like most Chinatown restaurants, they don't skimp out on the oil and fried foods. I liked the fake shrimp balls – the protein is chewy and the flavoring was nice.
They have reasonable prices, but not the cheapest joint in Chinatown. For two people, it came out to be $25 without tip. The dim sum dishes are small, and the prices can add up to more than you expected.
Good place for your plant-eater and meat-eater friends and family. They have enough seating for large groups and the food comes out quickly.
$10 minimum on credit card
Really like the concept of a vegetarian dim sum. We had several tasty dishes including a vegetarian hot and sour soup.
Taking one star off for too many deep fried dishes.
Stopped in at this 4-star rated vegetarian/kosher joint in Chinatown with fair bit of expectations. have to say that was very disappointed by my experience. Other than being a vegetarian place, I see no other reason for this pace to be ranked as high.
We started with the dumpling and hot and sour soup. The dumplings were sticky, seemingly stale and totally lackig any taste. Same with the soup. Our noodle entrees were also large in quantity but just bunch of veggies and noodles cooked with no flavor. Maybe the fake meats are a draw here, but no my cup of tea. Also they slip in a pot of tea at the beginning that is charged for. Didn't expect any service, exactly how it turned out. Am sure there is a lot of good Chinese food in the area, just have to be adventurous and explore to find good vegetarian options.
The 1 stars is for the complimentary orange slices (best part of my meal) and the wet towel.
It's nice to have a Chinese food place where I don't have to worry about being vegetarian since it's all fake meat! My friends who eat meat even like this place. I usually order Buddha's delight and like the crispy noodles that go with it.
I'll be honest, I teeter tottered between 3 or 4 stars for quite some time..
We came here for dimsum on a Saturday afternoon because it is one of the very very very very very very very few dimsum places that are fully vegetarian and also have gluten free options.
They serve vegetarian and gluten free variations of all of your dimsum staples. If you're allergic to gluten, MAKE SURE you specifically tell them that. Even though we viciously circled the the statement on the menu that mentioned "gluten free" and requested that the sauce be on the side, two of our vegan shrimp rice noodles (churng fan) came with the soy sauce-based sauce on top (as is the usual way). When we mentioned this oversight, the lady took the dishes back to the kitchen, and returned. with. the. exact. same. ones. All they did was run the noodles under a faucet to remove the sauce. This was CLEARLY evidenced by the brown stains that remained on the and on the plate. Needless to say, the girlfriend avoided those, and I ended up being sad about have sauce-less churng. The manager was very apologetic for the oversight, and made sure that all of the other dishes came out correctly
OH, they also have Tamari (gluten free soy sauce), so make sure to ask for that if you need it.
Gluten free is a mixed bag for me as the texture and consistency tend to be so dissimilar to the standard options. The rice noodles and dumpling skins were just over the top sticky and chewy that you didn't really chew them so much as you you moved your tongue in odd ways to remove pieces stuck on your teeth and on the roof of your mouth. They all tasted great though.
We ordered 17 dishes because we're absurd monsters like that, and they were all delicious save for the bamboo shoot dumplings. I didn't love those.
My favorite dish was the vegan shark fin congee. You will never confuse it for the actual fake (because no restaurant really serves real shark fin–too expensive and controversial) shark fin, as this was more of a…fake chicken type texture, but the congee itself was delicious!
I'll definitely be back because it's one of the few places my gal can just go beast mode in. And she loves the food!
Fear not, all you non-vegetarian eaters! This place is DELICIOUS, and not just for being vegetarian and kosher. From the mock meats down to the fresh veggies, Buddha Bodai offers an extensive menu that will make you rethink vegetarian food.
Came in on a Sunday afternoon for dim sum and was told that all parties may be forced to share their tables if it gets busy. Little surprise there, but we decided to chance it for the yummy food! And good thing we did because the food was excellent and we didn't end up having to share a table :).
Unfortunately this dim sum spot doesn't do the cart offerings. Instead, they give you a check list featuring all the offerings and you can place your order by writing in the amount of each dish you'd like to order. As each dim sum dish is served to your table, the server will cross off what has already been ordered and served.
Here are my top picks!
Dim Sum:
– Steamed Sticky Rice Shiu Mai (Do yourself a favor and order at least 2!)
Sticky rice in a dumpling form with veggy bbq pork. Tasted like the real thing!
– Watercress Dumpling
Vegetable filling tasted fresh and authentic. Perfecto.
– Cruller Rice Roll
A classic dim sum dish I MUST order everywhere. Theirs was PERFECTLY crispy on the inside!
*Try the young chow fried rice from their regular menu. Absolutely delicious and you wont taste another fried rice similar to this one! Veggies were fresh and the mock meat gave the rice a nice smokey flavor. This will be my new go-to rice dish here!*
Unfortunately their Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) missed the mark for me. This is one of my favorite dishes of all time (next to the cruller rice rolls)…. I was a bit disappointed! The dough or skin they use for the dumplings is extremely glutinous and sticky. And don't get me wrong, that's how they're all made! But Buddha Bodai's shrimp dumplings were different. Too soft and fragile. They fell apart immediately and you could barely get them out of the dish.
It's also important to mention that you should not expect 5-star service at this restaurant. This is no high end NYC restaurant. As a diner who has eaten dim sum in NJ, NY, and China/Hong Kong – you come to realize that service standards vary in each culture.
Servers are quick and to the point. There is no excuse for horrible service, but I wouldn't dine at any authentic Chinese/dim sum restaurant expecting the server to spend 20 mins describing each entree to you or taking the time to get to know you and see how your food tastes. Just a point based upon other reviewers comments on service here.
For all you Chinese food and dim sum lovers out there – this place is worth the stop. It's a great dining experience as a meat eater and non meat eater! Go for dim sum early in the day so you can sample a little bit of everything 🙂