Buddha Bodai Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant

This place is really great. I have been coming to Buddha Bodai for over a decade… since they were located on Mott Street! (The location on Mott Street is not affiliated with this location – I was very confused about this for a long time, myself. So for any Unilocalers who are curious about what’s going on here – the Buddha Bodai at 77 Mulberry is the new location of the real, original owner) I had been going to the old location and wondering where the friendly owner had gone and finally I have found him again! One street over on Mulberry Street! The new location is very nicely decorated and the food is just as awesome as it always was. Over the years I have tried many dishes and here are my favorites: BBQ meat & rice, BBQ meat fried rice, general tso’s chicken, chicken lo mein, lemon chicken, black pepper chicken, sesame chicken, lettuce wrap with squab appetizer… and when the pea shoots are in season they are out of this world delicious.
Also, the lunch special is AWESOME.
And, of course, the dim sum is very fun and delicious too. I like the BBQ meat bao, the pea shoot dumplings, the fried taro thingies… so many yummy things!
I live on Mott Street but now I know I should come to Mulberry Street when I’m craving a REAL DEAL Buddha Bodai meal ;) This place is the best!

The whole office is crazy for their food. I especially like the «chicken» low mein. Try it.

Been here a few times, and have also eaten at the original in Mott street years ago. The first 2 times I ate at this establishment I was a little bit disappointed, but today I was pleasantly surprised. It may have been the dishes I ordered today or the chef made some recent tweaks, but I was super happy with what I had and would recommend the following:
** 3 cups chicken (amazing! they achieved a crispy texture to the vegan chicken and the small pieces of ginger mixed in were so good)
**BBQ veg meat
**ribs w black bean sauce
The soup dumplings that I had in the past was really good too.

A great vegan addition to the dim sum restaurants in Chinatown. This is a huge restaurant, so don’t be fooled by its unassuming door front.
I always loved Buddha Bodai but that place gets a little busy and I’m not sure if all of Buddha Bodai’s foods are vegan. But with the Mulberry restaurant, everything is 100% vegan.
I love the plethora of vegetarian dumplings options, as well as the deliciousness of the mock-​meat dishes.
The service here is great too. Give vegan dim sum a try!

Are you a fan of Chinese, but not a fan of meat? Add Buddha Bodai to your speed dial.
And c’mon, that name! It just rolls off the tongue. Repeat after me: Buddha Bodai. Buddha Bodai.
Their vegetarian «chicken» with mixed veggies comes in a curry sauce and is a sure fire crowd pleaser ($ 16.45). Be sure to try their portobello mushroom in black pepper sauce (14.45). The mushroom slices are huge. And get the brown rice, because it’s good for you.
Yeah it’s pricey, but go vegetarian like Ghostface Killah.

Really enjoyable with a very friendly and helpful staff Always wanted to eat in china town but my kosher diet made it a challenge Buddha Bodai solves that in a big kind of way the dim sum is outstanding So many choices But don’t worry The staff will explain all to you Veggie bar b w meat outstanding General tzo chicken great
Price quite reasonable Worth the trip for me from Long Island Worth ur trip too

Just OK is the most I can muster for this particular visit. We ordered three dishes: one all vegetables, one with veggie chicken, and vegetable dumplings.
The dumplings, while the flavor was decent, were falling apart because the dough didn’t adhere to itself. It made for a sloppy start.
The stir fried pumpkin dish had every other kind of vegetable in it except pumpkin. A pedestrian dish, similar to the mixed vegetables in white sauce that you can get from any take out.
The mock chicken and mushroom dish was good. Garlic and ginger were very prominent here, and a good lift from the less than fantastic fare thus far.
Service was what you’d expect in this neighborhood, and prices were average for the tourist’s Chinatown.

Just finished eating here with my family. Love the family style dining with circle tables. The food is amazing and the restaurants and bathroom was spotless. Food is amazing as well as service, very attentive. This location is where the original Buddha Bodai moved to – the previous one was taken over by somebody else. The owner is so friendly as well. Bought some dumplings to go so I could steam them later on – can’t wait to try them.

Damn, honestly my first experience since stopping my vegetarianism where I was like «WTF was wrong with me?!»
Both items in my Eat24 pickup order were really just not good.
L11. Bean Curd in Cedar Sauce Special (Lunch) $ 7.50
Make It: Steamed with Sauce On The Side
Choice of Rice: Brown Rice
Choice of Side: Spring Roll
14. Fried Taro Custard (GF) (3 Pcs) (Lunch) 1 + 2.95 Delete
Subtotal: 10.45
Tax: 0.93
Total: $ 11.38

Excellent variety and quality! Hot and sour soup & triple mushroom spinach soup are great. The mock meats were really done well. I especially enjoyed the BBQ veggie meat and the veggie steak. Service was quick and friendly. Prices were reasonable. A fantastic vegan restaurant.

Vegan soup dumplings found here!
Sadly, they were 90% oil and maybe 5% soup. Maybe it was a bad batch? Nevertheless, it was not worth the experience at all. Perhaps my out of the roof expectations played a part in my disappointment (I expected it to complete my life).
I would definitely choose this place for veggie Chinese food/​dim sum over the other Buddha bodai location though. The service was excellent here.

NOT GLUTEN FREE!
Unfortunately, I ordered from this place last night because they had a gluten free menu on seamless. I chose the gluten free shrimp dumplings and the gluten free shredded mushrooms and broccoli. The dumplings were as expected, however the mushroom dish was this fried, gelatinous disgusting dish smothered in sauce, the only thing edible was the steamed broccoli underneath. I could only stomach to eat one spoonful of this dish, and even that, made me incredibly sick. I would not recommend this place if you have a gluten allergy.

Excellent restaurant and a breath of freshness in all the dirtiness of Chinatown. It serves vegan dim sum (although BEWARE!!! I saw on the menu that some dishes contain eggs… Not very vegan).
Dim sum I would recommend:
— Sticky rice shumai (just wow)
— Shrimp dumplings (so close to the real ones)
— Watercress dumplings
— BBQ meat appetizer (I swear this is real pork)
— The sesame fried balls are sweet and excellent to finish off your meal.
Also love that they serve peanuts and herbal tea like in China.
I wouldn’t recommend the dishes unless you are super hungry or want leftovers for days. Prices are high in comparison and the food is pretty heavy.
Come before 3 PM to enjoy dim sum otherwise they charge $ 1 more per plate after :)

I came to Buddha Bodai on a Wednesday for dinner. Now I’m a big fan of dim sum, so this place did not have it easy. Like most places in Chinatown, the staff does not speak English very well, but at least they have a menu that’s in English.
We ordered the BBQ Veggie Meat, Indian pancake, fried veggie shrimp balls, sticky rice shumai, cha siu bao, fried taro dumpling, sticky rice in lotus leaves (lo mai gai), and the veggie soup dumplings (xiao long bao).
So the first thing to come was the BBQ veggie meat, which looked and tasted like cha siu, but had the texture of a fishcake. It tasted just like the meat it was imitating. The Indian pancake was more like the roti canai you would find in a Malaysian restaurant. It came with a potato curry dipping sauce. It was OK. The fried shrimp balls had the taste and texture of actual shrimp, and were not as salty as the bacon wrapped non-​vegan version. I would pass on the sticky rice shumai, they’re just balls of rice with a little bit of the BBQ veggie meat. You’re much better off getting the sticky rice in lotus leaves, which is a larger ball of well seasoned rice with a larger amount of BBQ veggie meat. The cha siu bao were indistinguishable from their non-​vegan counterpart. If you told me they were from Jing Fong, I would’ve believed it. The fried taro dumplings were really good too.
Vegan soup dumplings look slightly different than regular soup dumpling. They had thicker skins and were missing the signature top knot. But somehow, they are better than regular soup dumplings.
The bill was pretty cheap in the end too. I would definitely return.

My husband and I are vegan and happened to be in the area on a Sun night so we finally had the chance to try this place. Our first impression of the menu is that it’s huge and we had no idea what to choose. We both ordered different soups, 1 appetizer (dim sum) and each ordered entrees. Had we realized how big the entrees would be we could’ve easily shared one.
Our server wasn’t very helpful and after belching while penning our order and coughing toward my husband when he brought the soups, we were pretty grossed out. I had the wonton soup and found it bland. It truly had no flavor so I didn’t bother and left it aside. The pumpkin mushroom was much more flavorful but kinda underwhelming. The entrees came out and my GF double rice noodle and chikn with veggies was a mountain of food. Easily dinner for 3 nights! It was pretty tasty but also greasy. It’s what I would expect from any local Chinese restaurant you’d order from. Hubby got the orange flavored General Tso’s + broccoli and it was drenched in sauce (typical for this dish).
We both packed up our food to-​go but we weren’t impressed so we’d prefer to go elsewhere for our asian vegan fare.

TBH, after thinking about it some more, I decided not to return to the restaurant just to pay the $ 5. It seemed more petty than being honest.
Further, the owner did contact me and told me the lady I spoke with was not the owner and he apologized. I appreciate the owner’s effort, but I stand by my review, and am still too affected by his employees treatment to return.

Excellent dimsum and «meat» entrees. They serve quite possibly the best faux meats I’ve ever tasted.
Great service. They were a bit frazzled at the end when the restaurant began to fill up, but hey, that’s understandable.
Sadly, I don’t remember all the names of the items we ordered but…
I definitely recommend:
— veggie bbq «meat»: trust me, you will not miss the real thing, or even notice the difference! Flavor is spot on and delicious; texture is comparable to chicken… well as good as it’s gonna get anyways
— soup dumplings: love the accompanying sauce
— fried taro custard: so freaking delicious; if you like taro, you will love this
The next time I visit New York, I’ll definitely be back to try the other items on the menu.

I always felt that the idea of tofu is to create so many flavors to accompany it with that you actually forget you’re eating tofu and Buddha scored with this one!
I ordered here for lunch because after my delicious bunsmith elite event I was on a mission to find buns in the area. LMAO. After heavy research on a boring Monday at work I decided to order some vegetarian meat buns and vegetarian steak with chinese broccoli and brown rice.
The price was way too low for the portions this was just super reasonable and that’s just not normal in FiDi. For $ 12 (including tip and tax) I had 3 HUGE vegetarian meat buns and a lunch special so big I had to save the rest for tomorrow’s lunch. Back to these buns though! Not what I was expecting because the bun is like a delicious sweet roll and I was expecting the normal korean white steamed buns but this was SOOOOOOO GOOD! The vegetarian steak was phenomenal! I had to wonder if it was really tofu. The only downside is that this place took a little longer than I anticipated to deliver my food. On the bright side, when it came I was completely satisfied with everything.

The mecca of all things carbs, and worth every calorie I may add.
This new location is not associated with the original on Mott St. They certainly made noticeable improvements, one of which is service! The staff here are friendly and accommodating.
There’s even more space, so you and your 15 friends won’t be separated and forced to sit in different tables. Perfect!
Like the other location they have lunch specials during the week! One distinction is that they serve dim sum all day, but be aware that after 4pm there is an additional $ 1 charge per dim sum.
On to the dim sum:
Flavorful,
Unique, and
Creative.
Packed with flavor, unique because you won’t have to sacrifice flavor for vegan eats, and creative because frankly where else can you have Chinese bbq rib that’s even better than the real thing!
Some honorable mentions are my favorites which include the buddha roll (bean curd roll stuffed with veggies and mushroom/​vegan oyster gravy), spinach rice roll and fried crueler.
They are 100% kosher and pareve! So this is one place you won’t actually have to worry about cross contamination with eggs or meat!
Just sit back, and enjoy the vegan noms. The boo and I certainly did. From the food to the service, Buddha Bodai’s got it going on!

Way back when, I was a full fledged vegan. For five years total in fact.
I know, what a shame, right?
Though I still believe fully in the fair treatment of animals, I had some issues with the diet itself and had to stop. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dabble in my old ways from time to time. Insert Buddha Bodai.
Not only vegan, but kosher vegan. They’re really drilling down into a specific niche with this project, but upon their first full day of operation they seem to be making most of their opportunity.
Launching on the first day of the Lunar New Year, I tried a couple of quick items. The shiitake mushroom spring rolls and the warm taro puff pastry. Both were really good with the latter being an early favorite. Perfectly flakey and the mellow flavor profile of the taro made for a sweet, yet subtle treat. The spring roll was pretty standard, through you’d be surprised to learn it’s made with no animal products whatsoever. It could have made any meat eater happy.
The décor has a hip yoga vibe with cool paintings of lotus flowers and such. A bit bright, but if they figured out a way to soften the room, you’d think some en vogue designer had a hand in decorating this place.
Oh, and if you’re a vegan — go. Now! It’s not often you can order anything from a menu without asking if it’s made with lard or if the same spatula touched a steak. Order with full confidence, friendo!