Bulan Thai Vegetarian Kitchen — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Have you ever happened across something so wonderful but widely unknown that it left you agape with its lack of popularity? The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Nutella, the astoundingly provocative underwear my girlfriend wears. All of these things should be fixed into the American psyche like Coca Cola or George Clooney's dreamy smile. These things should have their own holiday, yet there are many among us who are sadly unacquainted with these wonders of the World. High on this "wonderful, but fairly obscure" list is Bulan. Bulan is a small, charming Thai place where everything - even things I don't like - is delicious. There should be a line around the corner. There should be a snooty hostess laughing at those trying to just walk in and have dinner. There should be an obnoxious wine list that doesn't bother to list prices. But these are all pleasantly absent. There is never a line, the prices are totally reasonable (I don't believe anything on the menu is over $10) and the people there are so nice they make me miss my Grandma (the nice one, not the bitchy one). Now I know vegetarian restaurants often have a stigma about them. Many omnivores shy away from herbivore eateries fearing the old sawdust and rabbit food stereotype. While that is rarely the case these days, it is even less so with Bulan. You certainly don't have to be a fervent granola muncher to revel in the exceptional cuisine at this all vegetarian restaurant. You could be a mid-western "I use bacon instead of bread on my sandwiches cuz bread is fer hippies" type guy and still love this food. Each and every Yelper has the Tyler Guarantee* that, regardless of culinary preferences, you will unwillingly make noises generally reserved for adult films and third dates whilst en chew. I, personally, love the seitan "chicken" curry and the Thai Iced Tea so much that I've been known to have to "walk off the situation" after indulging. The Spring Rolls and the spicy "chicken" hot wings are even better. Be forewarned though, when they say "hot", they say it with a little giggle. Not the dismissive nod-and-a-wink giggle indicating they are calling it spicy, but it is actually about as hot as Jeff Goldblum in a skin tight uni-tard with a mouth full of tapioca having a grand mal seizure. No, no, no my friends. It is the evil giggle that is generally reserved for delinquents gingerly setting a blazing bag O' poo on someone's door step. This is the sort of spicy that can be used to strip paint or ward off demons. We are talking forehead sweating, nose running, stiff-arm-your-date-while-stealing-her-drink levels of heat - and it lingers. After devouring half a plate of these wings, your lips feel like crazed invisible weasels mounting an assault on your face. Yes, these wings will make your own face your enemy. They should be called "the wings of Satan" (or "wings of Seitan" if you are trying to earn your Clever merit badge). Order three Thai Iced Teas and eat them anyway, they are frickin' GREAT! They also offer a 5% discount if you pay cash, which is kinda nice. A word of caution; read the parking (rather the No Parking) signs if you drive there. Parking in the neighborhood behind Bulan is a risky endeavor and will likely turn a reasonably priced fantastic meal into a rather expensive...

I love my meats, but there are some seriously great veggie restaurants in LA that are just too awesome to pass up - this is one of them.

We came in for a quaint family dinner and everything on the menu looks absolutely delish! They do offer BYOB with a $5 corkage fee per bottle - which I think is such a small price to pay for that awesome beer or wine your hauling in!

For dinner we ordered: Thai Empanadas: 3 per order, ordered one with potato 2 with taro. I preferred the taro as it had a small sweet flavor to it. The potato empanada tasted almost like a samosa to me.

Veggie Hot Wings: 5 per order, not your typical gardein style chicken wang. It had a minced veggie meat put on a skewer to resemble a hot wing. It's their signature dish and it was definitely worth ordering.

Pad Thai with "chicken": So much better than I expected. I usually have a habit to order pad thai or panag curry at every thai restaurant I go to. I've got to hand it to the chef - this blew the meat pad thais I've eaten in the past, out of the water! If you love noodles, you've got to order this dish!!

Sizziling Pra Ram: we we're sure what to expect for this one, but the presentation on this dish was like a thai curry meeting mexican fajitas. A hot skillet with spinach, onions and other veggies then gracious topped with sizzling tofu in peanut sauce. Food orgasm. If we had to pick a favorite dish - this was it. We scrapped every bit of sauce off that skillet and licked our fingers clean of it. It was that good.

Pad Ka Prow with " pepper steak": Definitely another great dish. The pepper steak was nice and thin and looked exactly like real beef. The texture was a bit too chewy for me. I would probably opt for chicken over the pepper steak, but the flavors merried very well together in this dish.

So we polished off all the food, with none to take home. Since it was our first time, I wasn't aware of the BYOB policy. But I'm totally coming back with a bottle of my fav red wine and some sweat pants so I can fill my belly with all this yummy goodness!!

The service here was very friendly and made our experience here so much nicer. Since it was our first time in, our waitress was very helpful in helping us select from a handful of popular items on the menu. Our waters were always filled and they were prompt about everything. Outstanding job in my opinion!!

This awesome gem in Silver Lake deserves way more than 5 stars! You definitely have us hooked - will be back sooner than...

I read a review on Google for this place, and it was one of the most helpful and humorous reviews I've ever read, so to whoever wrote that, thank you for making me cry of laughter. So upon reading it I decided I had to find out what they were talking about. I went with my parents and we all agree that the food here is very good. Its not great, but its a solid menu. I had their Spring Rolls with Yellow Curry and Brown Rice. The spring rolls were great but the sweet and sour sauce left something to be desired. The yellow curry was near perfect but it doesn't come with onions. The carrots, tofu, and potatoes were also diced large, and they're always better when they're cut thin so see if you get it that way. And specifically, the tofu is better than most tofu, but its still a bit too spongy. The brown rice was your basic brown rice, but had a bit more pop to the bite which was a nice surprise. My dad had asparagus, and said that it was exactly what asparagus is supposed to taste like. My mom had the seaweed spring rolls and broccoli with fake chicken. She said the seaweed rolls were fantastic and that the broccoli was great but that the fake chicken was not good. Now most fake meats aren't good so I won't blame it on them too much. They also had teas and they said that the tea was just usual tea, which is a good sign to me, but i still stuck to soda. The people were very nice and gave us enough space so we had time to chat without being interrupted, which is important to me. They greet everyone when they come in and speak fluent English, which made it easy to communicate. The place itself was also pretty small but they made it feel roomy with soft lighting and clean presentation. And because the place is so small its right by a neighborhood so it can be a little hard to find parking. Overall it was a good meal, but I'm ultimately disappointed because the food was pretty expensive. For all three of us it cost about 60 dollars, which is way out of my budget, so I won't be returning. I hate to say it but if you're looking for a solid vegan restaurant, keep looking. I know this journey is long and hard, but being vegan is worth it. So I I'll run unto the night and gallop with my stead toward a better future. An adventure I cannot master on my own. A desire for good vegan food will not end until my stomach is satisfied and the cries of the children who know no better...