Bodai Vegetarian

Quaint and cozy and very talky Asian style restaurant. Portions are large so it’s enough for one dish to share with two people. As for appetizers they are not plenty in variety and touch-​and-​go in taste; what I ordered was bland (soup) but my main dish was very tasty. The fried rice seems to be very popular and runs out quickly.

If your friend happens to be vegetarian and invites you to Bodai Vegetarian Restaurant, then by all means, GO!!! omg. I was totally blown away by all the dishes, especially the soybean-​based imitation meat.
Service was quick (food came out in 10 – 15 minutes) and waitstaff attended to our needs with uncommon alacrity. I literally cleared all the dishes that was ordered that night. No vegetable was left uneaten.
Veg. General Tso’s Chicken ($ 14.20) —
If this is your first time here, then get this. You can’t go wrong with this. This is a staple Chinese dish that you can find in almost ANY Chinese restaurant! The veg. Chicken reminded me of chicken nuggets! The accompanying sauce was so intensely flavorful and the broccoli really balanced out the strength of the sauce.
*I FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO OF THIS DISH OMG^*
Teriyaki Veg. Steak ($ 14.95) —
The only thing that was different between this and the Veg. General Tso dish was the type of imitation meat, which is steak. I was moved by how the texture was really like that of meat! Amazing. It came with a tiny side of chips (???) Um. I’ll just take the imitation meat & broccoli. The chips were unnecessary.
Taro Bowl Delight ($ 13.95) —
A lot of Chinese restaurants serve this kind of dish as well. The taro is shaped into a bowl, breaded, and fried until golden brown. It was filled with a variety of veggies and veg. fish. Yum! What’s crazy is that the texture of the veg. fish is literally like that of real fish.
Veg. Lamb w/​Garlic Sauce ($ 14.20) —
Hmmm… I couldn’t really taste the lamb-​taste, but this dish was just as well seasoned and flavorful as the other three. The veg. lamb had an interesting shape.
Tofu Cheese Cake ($ 4.95) —
Delish. Was topped with a strawberry drizzle. I could hardly taste the tofu. Texture was soft. Taste was light and not heavy, compared to that of regular cheesecakes. Reminded me of a Strawberry Crumble.
I hope Bodai Vegeterian stays open for a long time. Nothing was too overwhelming nor underwhelming. I would be a vegetarian in no time. Try it, you won’t regret it! Looking forward to eating here again soon!

Absolutely love this place! The mock meat is delicious, the menu has a nice array of food, wait staff is friendly and attentive. Recommend the general tso’s «chicken», young chow fried rice, vegetable buns, and mock bbq «meat».

Yum! Definitely recommend this place. Literally just finished having a delicious dinner here. I left with a happy and full belly with some extra take-​out food. The concept is great because it capture authentic Chinese food but transformed it all to vegetarian meat and dishes. Super flavorful, fresh ingredients, decent price range, wonderful customer service and good proportions. They also catered to our request which was less salt and less oil. There’s plenty of seating area but it does start to pack up at around 8pm. I see why this place is hyped up, it’s quite the vegetarian gem in Queens. The only thing I would mention is that I wouldn’t consider this vegetarian restaurant to be a «healthier» alternative. Mostly because of the way the food is prepared. Like most Asian cuisine, it calls for lots of frying and oil. Therefor, if you’re looking to eat real healthy, you’ll probably have to go to some Americanized vegan/​vegetarian place. However if you want to experience real Chinese cooking with a twist, I’ll def recommend here!

The restaurant is now called ‘New Bodai’ and it’s amazing. Even better than when they were the old Buddha Bodai by the Queens Botanical Garden. The restaurant itself is bright and clean, but the food is just so good, that’s the draw. I love the fried veggie dumplings, the sizzling «steak» and recently discovered a faux lamb dish that knocked my socks off. I grew up eating at these Buddhist Chinese restaurants, my father would bring me, and faux-​meats are completely normal food to me, but this is by far the best I’ve ever had.

Went there with my best friends for my birthday. It was perfect. I love the food here. I always love vegetarian food. And they didn’t disappoint me. I highly recommend. I definitely bring my bae back here next time. :D

Happened upon this restaurant from a Unilocal review. Serves only vegetarian mock beef, chicken and fish. I am vegetarian but my wife and her parents are not. We all went for dinner and the food was delicious. My wife and parents are big meat eaters and they loved the food. Prices are very reasonable and the staff are very friendly. Highly recommend. I will be b ack.

Absolutely delicious vegetarian! They have this delicious fake ham wrap appetizer that was so good. Mint, cucumber and some other herbs then deep fried with a drizzle of sauce.

Delicious veg Chinese place. They really know how to make the food sing! Loved the sautéed portobello mushroom and mushroom congee.

What an outstanding place! Great selections … Food is delicious and the staff is welcoming and friendly. Very clean and comfortable setting! Definitely worth a try!

THE WAITER SPILLED HOT CONGEE ON MY GRANDMA AND STOOD THERE AND WATCHED.
We have been coming to Bodai Vegetarian restaurant for as long as I can remember because my grandma is a vegetarian (back when they were at their old location too). As much as I hate anything vegan/​vegetarian/​anything without meat, I must say the food here is pretty tasty. We never had a problem here before today. This may because we did not recognize any of the old waiters/​waitresses and it looked like they have hired a lot of new staff members since the last time we came. From start to finish, our family lunch today was dreadful.
My aunt and my grandma were seated first and ordered three dimsum dishes (Portion A) before my parents and I arrived. My mom then ordered the rest of the dimsum dishes (Portion B). The latter portion of the dishes came out in a quick and timely matter and we ordered congee and noodles after we finished Portion B.
THIS IS WHEN OUR WAITER SPILLED HOT CONGEE ON MY GRANDMA.
THIS IS WHEN OUR WAITER SPILLED HOT CONGEE ON MY GRANDMA.
THIS IS WHEN OUR WAITER SPILLED HOT CONGEE ON MY GRANDMA.
Mistakes happen, I get it. But not only did he show no concern, he just continued to fill up the other bowls with congee. Meanwhile, everyone at our table is frantically moving around trying to clean it up and move my grandma out of the way. There is absolutely no way he didn’t realize what was going on. We had to run to get napkins ourselves to clean up the mess. Not ONE single sorry was said. He simply just stood there and watched us clean up after he finished filling up the bowls. I have never lashed out against a waiter ever in my life, but this was as close as I came. But, I didn’t want to cause a fuss because it was family dinner and he clearly must have been slow in the head.
Anyway, after we finished eating the noodles, Portion A had still not come out. We may have asked the waiters about 3 – 4 times and one of them kept saying, they take a bit of time to prepare and they are on the way out so we cannot cancel them. First of all, this is dimsum, you steam the damn plate for a few minutes and it is ready. So I called BS right away, but I did not know enough Chinese to form a comprehensive sentence to say anything. One of the female waitresses then comes out a few minutes later and tells us they will start making the dishes now… The remaining dishes ended up coming out after we finished everything else and after being lied to throughout our meal.
When we asked for the check and put money down, I’ve never seen such quick service to come collect the money. They all of a sudden decide to have some sense of urgency?
PS — the female waitresses were very sweet and kept checking up on us. But, it was these two incompetent male waiters that totally ruined our early Mother’s Day Dinner for my grandma.

I wish i could give this place 0 stars
The worst service. Went here with my friend for lunch we were not greeted we sat down and then someone brought us menus. The cold demeanor of this man and the way he looked at us didn’t sit well with me at all. We were ready to order our appetizers, I asked a question about what I was ordering and got no response, we said we needed more time to order the entrees and he took the menu and walked away. At this point we realized clearly we were not wanted there we got up and left. What a disgrace of an establishment.

very tasty vegetarian food, few of the waiters don’t understand English, so asking for an explanation is pointless. My faves: Corn Soup, Chicken Fried rice, flat soy noodles, general tsao chicken, sweet and sour chicken, duck appetizer and spring rolls

I don’t care for mock meat dishes, but if you have friends that must have meat every time they eat, (blame their upbringing), and you have a hard time finding a restaurant for everyone to enjoy, come here. The veg meat dishes will have them amazed at how true to taste they can be. and bring your appetite, you’ll think your mom is in the back preparing your food for a long journey.

Try The lamb kebabs they taste amazing and they are 100% soy no meat. Another great dish they have is the oyster pancake. It’s very hard for me to find good vegetarian Chinese food because Chinese food is so heavily meatbased

Try The lamb kebabs they taste amazing and t

Amazing vegetarian restaurant! Everything from the food all the way to the service, it was just simply amazing! We really enjoyed our dinner here. The mapo tofu, the «lobster» with black bean sauce, & the wonton with spicy sauce, they were all really good. One of us had a bad experience of eating the Chinese vegetarian food before where the food were just really bland, flavorless. The food here is the complete opposite of what one of us had in the past. None of the food that we ordered were bland. They were all packed full of flavor. Don’t get too excited ordering a lot of stuff from the menu because the portion of the food here is huge! We had to bring some left over home.
Great service! The staff here were all very friendly & polite. If you are not sure about what to order on the menu, you can just ask them & they will be glad to answer all your questions. From time to time, if the restaurant isn’t busy, you can see the chef comes out from the kitchen talking to the customer.
Street parking in front of the restaurant may be tough to find around here, that’s probably the bad thing about coming here but that’s not a big deal. If you live nearby, just take a walk or just park one or two blocks away.
Another thing that we like about this restaurant is they accept credit cards unlike most Chinese restaurants in Flushing.
Amazing food! Great value! Great service!
Highly recommended!
We’ll definitely go back!

Very delicious food, taste better than the real thing. I had dim sum here and i enjoy it much more than having the meat version

Great vegetarian place. Food tastes good and service is great! I enjoyed the vegetarian dim sum food more than actual dim sum. Highly recommended!

One of the best dim sums I’ve ever had regardless of whether it’s vegetarian or not. In the middle of my meal, I saw 5 EXTREMELY hipster young adults walk in to grab a table. They were wearing high end clothes and out of all the restaurants in the city and Brooklyn, they came to dine at this particular spot! If that doesn’t prove it’s authenticity and delicious execution of its food, I don’t know what will.
Anyway, everything on the menu sounded delicious. Wish I was able to try everything out because the small amount that we ordered was THAT good. One of my favorites was the steamed vegetable dumplings and vietnamese rice rolls. Both had mushrooms, my favorite, and seasoned so well that I forgot it was only vegetables. The sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves was good too (it had vegetarian meat), but I don’t personally like the taste of fake meat. I want to come back and have their larger plates because I only tried the dim sums. But my vegetarian friend loved it and called it one of her favorite spots now.
For dessert, we ordered the mango pudding and it looked like an egg. When we cut into it, that’s when we realized it’s not really pudding. It’s a solid gelatin mango thing surrounded by cream. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was still tasty. Not overly sweet so it was a great way to end the meal.
I’ll definitely be coming back for more.

I am not a vegetarian. I am a meat lover. However, I would goto this place every once a while on the lunch time to enjoy its special and unique food. This restaurant is different from other vegan place because «All imitation meat taste different!!» That is something that take skills and heart to do. Imitation chicken taste close to chicken, imitation pork taste close to pork. They also cut the imitation meat different in shape and size to fit the look and feeling inside your mouth when you eat them.
So far one of the best vegetarian restaurant that I ate for my life.
The only down side is that this place sometimes get crowded and have to wait for long time…
Also, please try their spicy sauce. It is house made. Quite unique and interesting than all other places.

I love me some vegetarian «meats»!
In all seriousness though, I’ve brought quite a few self-​proclaimed carnivores to Bodai; not only did they like the fake meat, they can’t get enough of it! If you are to pop your cherry for Chinese vegetarian cuisine, this is the place to do it.
I’ve been coming to Bodai when it was formerly at Main Street and Cherry Avenue. Now that it’s moved closer to the LIE, I don’t come as often, but it’s still one of my top recommendations for Asian vegetarian cuisine. They offer vegetarian dim sum and lunch portions for lunch, but most of their food is family style, so come with multiple people and the bill won’t be so bad to split! Here are my recommendations (not the actual names of the dishes since I don’t have the menu in front of me, but you get the gist):
Note: all meats named are obviously not actually meat.
Appetizers:
— Char siu pork
— Fried duck
— Appetizer sampler — contains both of the above, jellyfish, tofu, and chicken. My favorite!
Dim sum:
— Any rice roll
— Watercress dumpling
— Shrimp dumpling
— Turnip cake
— Fried taro ball
Soup:
— Shark fin soup — my favorite! And no need to hurt any sharks!
— Pumpkin soup
— Corn soup — there are two versions: one with chicken and one with spinach purée. Try both!
— Winter melon soup — this one is a winter special and comes in an actual winter melon!
Entrees:
— Braised tofu with vegetables
— Portobello mushroom in black pepper sauce
— Any kind of fish — but my favorite is the sweet and sour fish!
— Singapore noodles
— Any kind of pan fried noodles
Happy (healthy) eating!

Amazing vegetarian food. Service was great. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable. Loved the Cedar Fried rice. The best fried rice I’ve had. The spinach and corn soup was delicious. Highly recommended.

1^st time at a Vegetarian restaurant and I have to say, the food here is delicious! Even for someone who is not a vegetarian. We had the «chicken» and broccoli and the sweet and sour «chicken» and they are very good. The dishes were very tasty and I would recommend the «oyster» pancake.
I would definitely come back.

I have been a customer for about three years. I came when it was the previous owners and the change was for the better. I advise if your a vegetation that you check the ingredients for your meal. They do use egg in some dishes!!! Anyway this place is definitely top for vegetation meals. My favorite dish is the 5 happiness appetizer and my wife’s favoriTe dish is the walnut shrimp. This food is sure to please! Bring the whole family for a healthy meal!

sometimes you are just really hungry
but you are a vegetarian so a big fat meat meal is not on your menu
do you love Chinese food
are you in the mood for some vegetarian big fat hunks of (its not really) meat
YUMMY is New Bodai Vegetarian
menu is filled with all not vegetarian sounding dishes
like beef & broccoli
seafood soup
chicken chow mein
General Tso chicken
teriyaki steak
if you don’t eat meat because you don’t eat animals yet you still crave the taste try the beef dishes
they are hearty and filling
I love this place its old school style
white table clothes, simple furnishing and excellent service
I started with pumpkin seafood soup it was creamy and delish filled with chunks of seafood
my main dish was teriyaki beef with broccoli just fantastic
their hot tea was a perfect
we ordered cheesecake for dessert (vegan) sadly they had none left after heartfelt apologizing we were offered a free mango pudding which we gladly accepted
I can not wait to return

The dim sum here is great. The pan fried veggie dumplings were really tasty, the turnip cake is good and the watercress dumplings are great. The mock meat here is good, you can tell that it isn’t real meat but it’s still tasty. If you get the mock meat in small pieces mixed with rice or something else, it’s easier to think it is real meat. They are a bit pricey if you aren’t getting dim sum or a lunch special, they don’t have lunch specials on weekends. You also order dim sum off of a menu here, they don’t push it around on carts. A great restaurant to bring any vegan or vegetarian friends too. Though anyone will enjoy the food here unless they’re one of «those guys» that insist on having meat for every meal that are doomed to suffer clogged arteries later in life. But you should probably drag «those guys» here anyway if you get a chance just to show them vegan food is delicious.

Really good vegetarian place. No alcohol and the sign says no byob. We tried several of their soy meat options, chasu pork, a crab dish and a lettuce cup with minced pork. All soy based, not real meat. All were delicious. Makes me wish there were more options like this around where I live
We also had the large mango pudding. Lots of heavy cream around it, so it was delicious and not healthy. But worth it!

I will probably never be a vegetarian, but if I did, I’d eat here everyday.
Service is top notch, prices are ridiculously amazing, FOOD DELICIOUS!
Took my parents here since we’re trying to be healthier nowadays. We loved everything we had. BEST fried turnip pastry ever. Fresh pieces of turnip inside, not too oily.
The cha siu rice roll had this glistening sheen to it, and of course I had to take pictures of it. I’m not sure how I feel about faux meat, but shrug, ate it anyway. Such perfect rice rolls, I only dreamed of them before.
We also ordered congee, stir fry turnip cake (I really like turnip), and they both surpassed my expectations. On point!
ALSO, MANGO PUDDING is where it’s at.

Absolutely loved this place. I was so happy to find a vegetarian place here. I’m visiting from out of state and being a vegetarian in New York is a bit difficult.
The service was subpar, they constantly forgot about us but it was during the lunch rush and there were only three servers for almost a full house. They were extremely busy so we were okay with that. Luckily the food made up for it.
I’ve been to quite a few chinese vegetarian places and this comes up at top. There are SO many options. There isn’t just meals, there’s little appetizers like a café too. We struggled with trying to figure out what to order. The stuff we ended up with were delicious. Our favorite ended up being the dessert, which was the mango pudding! Definitely should try it!
Overall, I would come back again and again when I’m back in town! The only downside is that each plate is a bit more expensive than most places. And average dish is $ 14.50. unless it’s lunch special.

One of my biffles is vegan. As an avid rabid meat eater, sometimes (a.k.a. all the time), this can be quite painful.
We’d just picked up our other friend in Queens and were on the hunt for an affordable, vegan friendly, delicious brunch. And we were hungry, so layer on within a ten mile radius. Tall order.
New Bodai was our dream come true… And more. A dream that leaves you so satiated that you are sad to wake up and be in real life again.
New Bodai is the home of drool worthy, legit dim sum. And. It’s. All. Vegan. Whaaaaat.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m a staunch believer in traditional dim sum, and of meat. But they somehow tricked my taste buds the entire time, such that I never thought about how everything was vegan. I simply sat blankly enjoying mindless deliciousness.
Their dough is homemade and great. I will be coming back here. Pork bun, taro ball, spring roll, yum!!!

The food at New Bodai is DELICIOUS! If you’re a vegan or vegetarian in Queens you should definitely check this place out.
Parking is street parking which can be tricky but we lucked out and found a spot after only a couple of loops around the block. We were seated as soon as we entered. It’s a casual place, not your neighborhood take-​out spot casual but not fancy by any means.
I’m pescatarian and my friend is vegan so this place was like heaven to us. Luckily she’d been there before because the menu is expansive and I’m indecisive. I was in the mood for some soup so I had a mixed vegetable and tofu soup-​it was nice and light, just what I wanted. We shared a veg. roast pork appetizer and a veg. general tso chicken entrée. The portions are large so that was plenty for the both of us.
Both the veg. pork and veg. general tso chicken were knock your socks off delicious. The pork was roasted and the chicken was fried. I used to eat meat and could’ve sworn this was the real thing. They were seasoned to perfection.
The service was decent, a little on the cold side but our glasses were never empty, our food was delivered quickly and there was always someone around in case we needed anything.
I’ll definitely be back to New Bodai!

The best vegetarian place near me. Although it was my first time here, it’s not my first experience eating vegetarian. We ordered shrimp with broccoli and walnut, a crab dish, sweet and sour chicken with fried milk, pea sprout dish and cedar fried rice. It was more food than what we could finish but we were glad to take leftovers home.
The waiter, waitress and owner were so friendly and courteous. I would definitely recommend family and friends to come here.

This vegetarian restaurant has dishes like any other Chinese restaurant, however everything is vegetarian! Most, if not all of the dishes is soy based. It tastes just like the real meat dishes, like roasted pork, BBQ pork, sesame chicken and pork.
The chef/​boss is very friendly and is willing to recommend dishes, and he takes pride in all his dishes. I believe he’s 60 – 61 years old, but he looks like he’s in his late 40’s. As he said in his own words, secret of staying and looking young is to eat healthy, and he’s been vegetarian for 20 – 30 years now. He does what he preaches and that’s what I like about this place.
The prices however are a little steep considering that this isn’t real meat, but it is a good experience and you’ll be impressed on how much it tastes like the real meat dish. I’ll be coming back here soon.

It’s not very often that the terms Kosher vegetarian dim sum are thrown together. But New Bodai does it.
I came here with my family when my sister was on a vegetarian stint. The only other time I’ve had vegetarian dim sum was at Buddha Bodai in Chinatown. I think the similar names is just a coincidence. In any case, I thought New Bodai was much better.
Their menu is really extensive. They serve dim sum until 3:30, so get there early! We tried a ton of their options, and I thought they were all good. Fresh out of the kitchen (no old ladies with carts) and came in waves.
Among the things we had:
Turnip cake
Taro dumpling
Veggie and peanut dumpling
Fried tofu
Fried crullers in rice noodles
Watercress dumplings
Turnip pastry puff
Prices were very reasonable. Cheaper than in Chinatown, and on par with some in Brooklyn. My favorites were the fried tofu, the fried crullers and the turnip cake. But everything was really good.
As though we needed it, we also ordered two hot dishes. The first was a curry mixed vegetable with tofu casserole, served over an open flame. The curry was flavorful but not too spicy, which is a rare mix. Loved the veggies and the sauce.
We also did the Bodai fried noodle dish. It had mushrooms and probably 3 or 4 different types of leafy greens. It was good, but a very large dish. Took the rest of that one to go.
As far as dim sum goes, I thought New Bodai was a very good restaurant (even if it was meatless). I was definitely able to stuff myself with more food because it was vegetarian. And in terms of vegetarian dim sum goes, New Bodai is my new favorite (with a sample size of 2).

New Yorkers are famous for always looking for the «next big thing.» Just ask Stefon:
. So, when I heard that there was a vegetarian dim sum place out in Queens, I was skeptical that they were going to be more than just a quick and fleeting fad. Far from it, I’ve had this place bookmarked for over a year before I made the trek out there to see if it was any good. This was a mistake, in that I could have been eating delicious Chinese food that is safe for the meat-​challenged like myself.
I started with the vegetable dumplings (see photo) which were a definite show-​stealer. I could have eaten a whole plate of just those. I actually contemplated just getting three more orders of those as I flipped through the menu of page after page of things that I’d like to try. This restaurant seriously does faux… everything. I mean, seriously, how do you make a faux fish!?!
They also had a watermelon soup which was served in a watermelon. Talk about presentation! They were wheeling the thing out, and I just had to stop the waitress and ask her — what did they order and how do I get one?
I also had a stir fry over rice that was served in this big metal tray with an individual heater underneath it to keep it warm. So much attention to detail and presentation that it really made me feel like I was at a banquet. Only downside is that if you order a lot if might not fit on the table. I saw a mom and daughter switch to another table just to fit it all on there.
My stir fry had a lot of mushrooms in it, which I’m not a fan of. The fake beef was well seasoned and yummy, so I mostly picked that part out and ate that. I will absolutely be back to try some of these other options, and try to bring six friends with me so that I can steal a bite of their entrees since I could come here every day for a month and still have menu options that I would like to try on their HUGE menu. My food was honestly only three stars, but I think it’s mostly the heavy dose of mushrooms so I’ll reserve judgment and the experience was half the fun. Go check it out!

If you hang on my every word (as you probably should), you’ve probably heard me mention my grandmother. She’s over 100 years old, which in itself means that she can do whatever she wants at all times. However, she also happens to be the best person on the planet, so I will go to the greatest of lengths to make her happy.
Even if it includes eating a vegetarian banquet.
Now, I’m not against the concept of vegetarian cuisine per se. Some of the best things I’ve ever eaten have not included meat in their preparation. However, I generally don’t enjoy fake meat. I feel like vegetables/​tofu should just embrace their non-​meatitude, and stop trying to pretend to be something they are not.
Knowing all that, please believe me when I say that New Bodai serves the finest of faux meats. I have never so thoroughly enjoyed a vegetarian kosher Chinese banquet, and I’ve actually been to my fair share of them.
I don’t know how they do it, but their fried «shrimp,» «beef» and broccoli, roast «pork,» whole «fish» with pineapple, and all the other fake meat offerings taste as much like their real deal counterparts as possible, and I genuinely enjoyed this meal rather than merely tolerated it.