Veggie restaurants in Chinatown Manhattan

[nicolekaplan]

i am hooked on wheat gluten roast pork that my friend brings in from flushing, anyone have good recommendations for a veggie place in manhattan?

[vloglady]

There's a rather famous one on Pell street in Chinatown. It's all veg. We HATED it.

started off with the "ribs". They were sweet potatoes, I think. Terrible.

I had the General Tso's, by friend had some kind of orange beef. Can I say we HATED this stuff?

Don't know why Zagats gave it a couple of stars.

Now my other friend lives on Bleecker, right near the Magnolia bakery. There is one restaurant diagnolly across the street. A regular Chinese restaurant, but they have general tso's chicken and I think duck, all veg. That stuff was good, and only about $10. the waiter said it was fried gluten.

I've been googling stuff, trying to find the place. It's a corner restaurant, diagnolly across from Bleecker.

Really wish I could remember the name, but all I remember is that is is diagnolly across from Bleecker street and the Magnolia bakery. Next time I'm driving past, I'll check and post.

Good luck.

Susan

PS, I live in Flushing, where is that restaurant that has the wheat gluten? I'd love to get some decent stuff here.

Edited September 20, 2008 by vloglady (log)

[elicious]

Buddha Bodai on Mott St. - it is kosher and also vegan. They have dim sum and you can also order off the menu. It's pretty good and really cheap!

[Nathan]

Don't know why Zagats gave it a couple of stars.

←

cause only vegetarians are going to bother to vote on it.

[nicolekaplan]

thanks, i think that's actually the same place that's in flushing, didn't know they had a manhattan locale. i will have to check it out

[sickchangeup]

I was vegetarian for a few years (worth noting - cause when you are vegetarian, places that might not taste good otherwise - or to others that aren't vegetarian -... well, they taste good to you), and my favorite vegetarian place in Manhattan's Chinatown was the "Vegetarian Dim Sum House" on 24 Pell St. Among my regular dishes ordered were:

Shark Fin Dumpling Soup

Lotus Root Cakes

Mashed Taro Treasure Boxes

Rice Flour Rolls with Vegetarian Mock Ham and Coriander

Treasure Balls with Assorted Flavor

Sweet & Salty Dumpling

Monk Dumplings

I pretty much stuck to the dim sum menu, although they also have a very extensive list of other mock versions of regular dishes. I can't vouch for those, never tried them.

I can honestly say that I would go back there now that I've been eating meat for years... if only I could get anyone I know to actually try this stuff :-) "It's good!" I say, and get back nothing but blank stares...

[raji]

Shark Fin is vegetarian?

South Indian vegetarian is the only vegetarian food I can "go out" for. If you haven't been to curry hill recently, you are seriously missing out.

[sickchangeup]

Shark Fin is vegetarian?

←

It's 100% fake meat. Vegan/Kosher restaurant.

[TarteTatin]

We were there two weeks ago:

Buddha Bodai

in Flushing.

We are not vegetarians and our veggie friends took us there for dim sum.

First time in Flushing.

I distinctly remember the "pork" dish.

Delicious, as was a lot of the food...

Edited to say:

And the next day we went to a Dosa Indian vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan. I think it was around 27th & Lex? Sort of caddy corner across the street from Kaluystan's. That also was very good. I don't think we have dosa places in Philly, (that I'm aware of).

Edited September 25, 2008 by TarteTatin (log)

[irongut]

Shark Fin is vegetarian?

South Indian vegetarian is the only vegetarian food I can "go out" for. If you haven't been to curry hill recently, you are seriously missing out.

←

Any specific recommendations in curry hill?

-Pat

[raji]

Saravaanas

I still like Madras Mahal

Tamil Nadu Bhavan

Dimple for chaat

[Pan]

Doesn't Saravanaas have a new name? Saravaana Bhavan or something?

Madras Cafe in the East Village is also still good, though nowhere near the level of deliciousness of Saravanaas, or whatever they're calling it now.

I've never been to a vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown, but I will observe that Shanghainese restaurants make vegetarian items, including mock-meat, that's very good. I'd think you could get the following at most if not all good Shanghainese restaurants (definitely including Shanghai Cafe and Yeah):

Kao Fu (wheat gluten with mushrooms in a sesame-paste-based sauce)

Seaweed

Spicy Cabbage

Mock Duck

Mock Ham

Mock Chicken

With these and any number of other vegetarian cold dishes plus some hot dishes, you could certainly have a good meal.

[DanM]

We were at Buddha Bodai on Sunday for lunch. It is probably the only kosher Chinese restaurant I will willingly go to. My biggest bone to pick is how the menu is written. Some of the items on the menu state 3 or 4 pieces next to the item wile others are listed in the singular. When you have an item labeled as Steamed Pork Bun, I expected 1 bun, not 4. Due to this rookie mistake, we ended up with enough food for 5 people and tried to share with others, who were not interested. My favorite dish was the "tripe" dish. It was chewy translucent noodle type bits in a black bean sauce. The fish/seafood items were my least favorite. They were tough and chewy and nothing like fish. If I was in Chinatown and had to eat, I would go back, but I will not go across town for it again.

Dan