American
Chinese
Delivery
Take-out
Kosher

The chef and owner has long time experience in vegetarian restaurant operation. This is Cantonese style based Chinese American vegetarian food. Relocated from 59-08 Main St. Open Mon-Sun 11:00am-8:00pm.


Venue map for Bodai Vegetarian
© OpenStreetMap contributors

23 Reviews

First Review by tltd70

LorraineMichelle

Points +77

Vegetarian
15 Sep 2023

Good vegan Chinese food

The taste of pork fried rice without the pork. Loved that I was able to savor my favorite Chinese food orders I used to make

Pros: "Chicken" with black bean sauce, "Chicken" low mein

bramhubbell

Points +843

Vegan
14 Dec 2022

Lots of choices

Typical Cantonese veg place. There’s a nice mix of fake meat dishes and veg dishes. The green beans are excellent.

tracyrocks

Points +1478

Vegan
18 Apr 2022

Awesome

Delicious vegan food! You place your order with the tablet and can indicate no egg in dishes with that option. My boyfriend and I love their other location in Boro Park in Brooklyn, but this place has a more authentic vibe.

Ameisherry

Points +8210

Raw
23 Aug 2021

Amazing vegan options

At the beginning I confused this is the same bodhi as the one in downtown Manhattan , turns out they are two different owner, the Manhattan bodhi is more Hong Kong style, here everything tastes amazing😄and reminds me about Taiwan , truly thankful :)

lime.skyblue

Points +536

Vegan
22 May 2021

Mostly Vegan (Uses Milk). Delicious "Fish" & Tofu Cheesecake.

When Bodai Vegetarian was at their old location, I regularly got their Fish with Black Bean Sauce dish (which comes with leafy vegetables): in my opinion, it's the most delicious vegan dish they have.

Most of the dishes here are vegan, with a few exceptions: they use dairy (milk) in some dishes, and perhaps honey (though I never encountered that personally). I asked a staff worker to point out all vegan dishes to ensure that my meal was 100% veg: so if you're in doubt, don't hesitate to ask!

talakoala

Points +699

Vegan
26 May 2020

Perfect for lunch

The food is fantastic and reasonably priced. The lunch special and dim sum are fantastic

futureghosts

13 Mar 2022

It really is a good lunch special. These guys also run the one in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Have you been?

ErinReneeAnn

Points +31

Vegan
04 Jan 2020

Delish

Amazing; I was so nervous never eat out and this was a great alternative and very clean. Very happy with my visit I can’t wait to go back and try some
More!

alicexyl

Points +544

Vegan
22 Oct 2019

Many options, quality ingredients, helpful staff

Lucky we got here before dinner rush. This place was popular! Menu had many imitation meat dishes, which my parents appreciated as they were moving towards plant-based still. Cool to see them use Chinese homonyms in place of characters for animals.

We got the veg fish belly fat casserole and crispy duck with taro. The casserole had amazing ingredients, especially big fat pieces of shiitake mushroom that you rarely see at restaurants. Tofu was soft on the inside. The veg fish filets had great texture! Not too salty, perfect for accompanying rice.

Crispy taro duck was pretty cool: crispy tofu skin wrapped around a flat taro cake that looked like duck meat, deep-fried. It didn't have the texture of duck, but it was pretty tasty and filling.

Definitely wanna come back and try other dishes!

Pros: Many options, Variety of imitation meats

blazeupe

Points +28

Vegan
02 Sep 2019

My favorite vegetarian place!

I love this place for dimsum! They have Vegetarian versions of all my favorite foods and the taste is on point.
Dinner isn't lacking either. I love the taro fish and sweet and sour fake meat dishes. There's so many options that you can go all the time and eat something different

rand0mbella

Points +34

Vegan
19 Mar 2019

teryaki chicken is so good

my friend and i stumbled upon this place before i was vegan! we were looking for something for her to eat since shes vegan! anyway we got a ton of teryaki chicken and were scared because of the weird smell haha. oh my it tastes so good though!

Pros: yummy

Cons: a lil pricey but worth it

xgennax

Points +52

Vegan
03 Mar 2019

Awesome Food

Great place for take out or dine in. Vegan friendly, but honestly good for everyone. Went here with my in laws and they couldn’t believe the food was vegan!

SendNooch

Points +264

Vegan
09 Dec 2017

Pretty Good

In general, I don't really like Chinese food all that much, but whenever I do eat it, I usually get it from here. I'd say the food here is pretty good, it tastes fresh, you get some pretty big serving sizes. They have a lot of food choices to choose from. The staff is nice but they're sort of all over the place even when they aren't busy. The restaurant is decorated alright, they have inspirational quotes on their tables which I think is cute, The food here for sure beats Chinese fast-food. My personal favorite items are the Walnut Shrimp and steamed dumplings.



Updated from previous review on 2017-12-09

Pros: Variety of Options, Good Food, Inspirational Decor

Cons: Parking Issues, Food Can be on the Greasy Side, Staff is Friendly but Not Attentive

RichBeBe

Points +757

Vegan
13 Jul 2017

Slightly Slipping But Still Good

I have been going to Buddha Bodai and now Bodai Vegetarian for at least 15 years and always a big fan. But lately I feel they are slipping. The food does not taste as "clean" as it once did. Clean is in not greasy, over-cooked typical American Chinese restaurants. It is still good, but not great. Also the service is not nearly as attentive and I feel like an afterthought when I there.
If I was new there I might be more impressed with the food as it is still good. But overall it has slipped a bunch over the years.
Now I hope they recover as I am going to be working two blocks from there and it makes a great lunch option.

Pros: Extensive Menu, Lots of Dim Sum choices, clean

Cons: Some dishes tasted greasy, tough parking (but it is NYC, so expected), Not the most attentive staff

baruchadam

Points +398

Vegetarian
04 May 2017

So so

Greasy version of Buddhist vege food. Doesn't come close to the similarly named restaurants in Manhattan.

ChloéCampos

Points +22

Vegan
24 Mar 2017

Good food

Nice Food! I was amazed of how realistic the chicken tasted... Will def. go again and try more food

LakhbirSingh

Points +31

Vegetarian
29 Jun 2016

Not a clean place to eat

I had been to this place so many times but I guess today would be my last time here. serving dishes we not properly cleaned, it had a pink residue on them. Food is not good either. I guess either they have changed their chef recently or they just don't care anymore. I had lomein and it was burnt and to oily. Usually there fried dumplings are good but today they were totally uncooked and raw. I felt like I wasted my money today by going to this place. I would never come to this place anymore. I would rather give them 0 star for today.

Cons: Expensive, not clean.

steveveg

Points +2186

Vegan
04 Feb 2016

In the Buddha Bodai tradition

The food is what I expect from a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. The menu is similar to the other Bodai's. We had some of our favorites here: sauteed pea pod leaves, taro fish, braised tofu skin and vegetarian mushroom duck. The dishes were excellent. An enjoyable dinner.

Harlequinade

Points +33

Vegan
06 May 2014

Good

The food is good - but I don't find it to be particularly amazing. With that said - I find Vegetarian Chinese food to be the most - obvious/typical - of the vegetarian food you can get - because of the tofu and everything.

But it's still good.

Also, if you go there when it's packed the customer service kind of fails.

Pros: Good food, Pickup, Stays open fairly late

Cons: Boring, Sometimes suffers from bad service

Brok O. Lee

Points +3380

Vegan
04 Mar 2014

Love This Place!

If you're in Queens or Nassau County in Long Island, go here! Delicious food, and mostly vegan; cannot emphasize enough what a huge selection there is on the menu for vegans! I recommend the stir-fried turnip cake, wonton soup, sticky rice in bamboo leaf, and watercress dumplings. I always come here several times when I'm in the area.

Pros: Huge selection for vegans, Delicious food, Excellent service

Cons: Can be hard to find parking

slo0go

Points +1884

Vegan
02 Feb 2014

New location, same delicious food!

This place used to be located further down Main Street, and was the Queens location of Buddhai Bodhai. It has pretty good dim sum until 4pm, and their other dishes are a treat as well. I especially enjoy the lettuce song, which is a fake meat and pine nut mixture wrapped in a lettuce leaf with hoisin sauce. The taro bowl and the BBQ "meats" are good as well. For really good pork buns, though, I would recommend Vegetarian Dim Sum House on Pell Street, in Manhattan, which is a block or two away from the Chinatown Buddha Bodhai location.

SethV

Points +103

Non Veg
30 Oct 2013

Adventurous AND Affordable

The cuisine was a bit different than most Chinese veggie places, but it was clearly authentic. Tasty choices, albeit the faux fish was not to my liking. Fed three for under $50.

Pros: Large portions, Very friendly staff, Good food

Cons: NYC "B" rating, Spicy was not so spicy

TheGrassIsGreener!

Points +40

Vegan
04 Sep 2013

Delicious!

So good!!!!

tltd70

Points +13

Vegetarian
18 Apr 2012

Newer stuff new staff

Food is authentic Cantonese with dim sum til afternoon. I like the new location much better although there's no parking and a little far from the train. Staff seems nicer, food seems taste better cook with less oil. Definitely worth the trip and I will be there again soon!

Pros: authentic, dim sum til 3:30

Cons: street parking, smaller




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