Bodhi Viet Veggie Cuisine — Restaurant in Austin

Rating: 3.8/5

Bodhi is a vegan food truck run by local Buddhist nuns/volunteers. I love the mission they believe in—that wholesome vegan food is the key to a peaceful and healthy lifestyle. I recommend ordering to go, as your food will be aggressively attacked by flies if you try to eat there. Also, this is a CASH ONLY place, even if you order online.

Their menu is hugeee, so it took us a while to decide what to get, but the prices are unbeatable for what you get. They also prepare the food pretty quickly and package everything nicely.

Deep Ocean ($9): Crispy soy protein, chili, garlic, seaweed toast, and special chef sauce served on a bed of white rice. The best thing we tried here. The soy protein had a nice crunch, great flavor, and an addictive quality. In my opinion, you don’t really need the rice—they can be eaten like French fries.

Banh Mi Seitan BBQ ($6): It was really good the first time, but just okay the second. There was less "meat," and it lacked flavor. The bread was also soft, so I don’t think they toasted it.

Banh Mi Char-siu ($5): Not even close to char-siu texture or flavor, but it wasn’t bad. Same issue with the bread and overall lack of flavor.

Sticky Rice ($7): Soy protein, steamed sticky rice, crispy shallots, green onion, topped with house sauce. This item requires you to call in or order online ahead of time, as it takes a while to make. When we got it, it looked like they forgot the green onions. This vegan version lacked umami and isn’t something we’d recommend.

Signature Broken Rice ($9): Broken rice with shredded meatless protein (Cơm Tấm Bì), fried shredded potatoes, grilled BBQ seitan, char-siu, and homemade sauce. A great dish to start with since you get to try different proteins, and they give a generous portion. It was good but paled in comparison to...

This place is honestly quite good for vegan Vietnamese food. I can’t say that I’ve found many other fully vegan Vietnamese places in Austin or elsewhere for that matter. Everything I got was pretty good and the prices were definitely reasonable for vegan food. I will say that I did get bit about 10 times by mosquitos while waiting but I know that can’t be entirely their fault. Another thing is tbat the pho broth was a little lacking in flavor, but that’s understandable for vegetable broth and it was fine after I added the chili sauce and hoisin sauce. When I came they were out of a few things including the dumplings and the boba for the milk teas. That was disappointing for a few people in line around me, but I wasn’t really upset about it because I like my milk tea without boba anyway and they also promptly offered fried bananas instead of the dumplings which turned out to be quite good. They came with a sweet coconut dipping sauce. I would definitely get those again! Several people after me asked for a few entrees that they were also out of at the time but considering they are a food truck and their menu isn’t necessarily small; I’d say that’s alright. I got 6 items including a milk tea, two appetizers, a banh mi, and two entrees. The total was just under $40 including the tip. The workers were all pretty nice and talkative and they were also giving everyone in line a free half order of fried spring rolls which I thought was nice. (I’m sure this had to do with them having made too many because they were closing in an hour and they mentioned to someone that they were going to be closed for a week due to a holiday trip or something like that. I have to say that this actually saved my life because I was starving at the time.) All and all, they met my expectations pretty well and I’ll...

Food great, people awesome. Vegan boba?! Try the taro milk tea. Not too sweet, with a great flavor. My friend loved the green tea version. We went two times. Seeing the regulars interact with the staff was so telling. People come not just for the food but the great service.

It was challenging to find the actual food truck. It’s not visible from the street. Look for the signs and they will lead you to it. It’s right next to a psychic shop.

If you’re not super into fake meat, this may not be your vibe. I prefer tofu and wish there were more tofu based dishes. The tofu is deep fried with a beautiful crisp. The caramelized and orange tofu were delicious!! Most of the side veggies were steamed cabbage/carrot. A little plain but a healthy contrast to the heavier elements. Portions are so generous! Sesame balls, hot and crispy with a mung bean/coconut filling. Perfect way to end the meal.

If you eat outside, the flies are bad and very offputting. best to get take out. Not a critique of the biz at all, just...