Bodhi Village — Restaurant in New York

I would give 5 stars but.....

Okay, let me begin with the (sole) positive: a diverse selection of vegetarian-friendly food that taste amazing.

Now, you may be wondering, why does it warrant two stars then? Well, customer service was a bit lack luster. I think we can all agree that staff ignoring your calls to place your order is not professional whatsoever. Additionally, we had to ask for the check twice. Despite us stating very clearly the first time that we would like the check and the waitress acknowledging our request; she did nothing but walk off and chat with other staff members. It took someone from our table (after several minutes of waiting) to physically walk up to the waitress in question and essentially demand for our check to work. But wait, it gets worse...

Next door, is a connected unground valet parking garage (that is presumably owned by the restaurant). Upon arrival, we found a stand where there's supposed to be an employee operating the valet parking, but was empty; instead, there was a sign telling us to call a number, which after we called, was the employee in question who then had to take a couple minutes to drive to his work station (I'm still confused by how and why he wasn't where he was supposed to be). Additionally, by the entrance of said garage was a sign that clearly states "two hours [of parking] for 8$", however, after we finished eating and went to retrieve our car: the person in-charge of the valet parking (who wasn't even there) told us ---over the phone--- to pay 20$. Now, I'm no mathematician but even if the parking employee did include tip AND tax (which he did not), the total would've come out to be 10.31$, so where did the 9.69$ extra come from? (Certainly sounds like an attempt to scam us if you ask me). What's worse is that the employee took our car key as he parked the car, as expected, right? However, we certainly did not expect him to leave the car UNLOCKED and unattended while leaving the key out in the open on top of his desk, where literally anyone could walk by and steal it. Before anyone attempts to defend this negligence, consider this: there is a ramp that leads down to the actual underground parking lot, but the employee responsible for the valet parking left it literally by the entrance (not even down the ramp). Additionally, our car key is very intuitive to us, in that you simply press a single button (with a lock symbol on it) to unlock/lock the car; this means that the employee in charge of parking our car did not even consider the idea of ensuring our car is secured. It's mind boggling to me that someone could have such neglect as to let a literal CAR be so easily stolen.

My suggestion: just get take-out/delivery, the horrendous customer service is not worth it at all. The food is the lone reason why I even gave this place two stars...

I first came here with a vegan friend of mine. I was vegetarian for the most part at the time. I loved the food! One time and I was hooked. Since then, I've probably been here about a dozen times and I take people here all the time and rant and rave about it. I'm now completely vegan, and I just simply ask the staff to double check. Some items do contain egg, but there are a lot of vegan options here. I try to get something new every time I come here. They have a dim sum/lunch menu 11-3:30 that has stuff on it that you can't get outside of that window. Buddha Bodai Delight is very good, but contains egg. I have tried Tofu with Cedar Sauce, Braised Tofu with Veg, Bamboo Pith, Mapo Tofu, Pad Thai, Shanghai Lo Mein, All the Congees (HIGHLY RECOMMEND), dumplings, pumpkin soup, spinach corn soup, General Tso's Chicken (gluten free btw), Singapore Mei Fun, Veg. Roast Meat Fried Rice, and Teriyaki Chicken over rice. The only thing I've tried that I didn't really like was the Mapo Tofu. As you can see I've been here a lot and tried a lot! I'm always discovering new and interesting things here and will jump at the chance to come here if I'm reasonably close by.

TIP: Their food is mostly family style and meant to be shared. You order a big entree to share, then everyone can get a bowl of their own rice. OR you can order from the section that has Congee, Pad Thai, etc. Those are more like "combo meals" and come with noodles/rice and are slightly smaller, but you still get a lot of food.

Service isn't always the greatest, but I honestly don't care because I love the food so much. Not all the servers are surly, just one or two. Usually they are helpful if you don't know what something is. They are also usually pretty busy when...

I was brought here by a vegan friend who loves eating here. It was pretty late - about 50 minutes before the restaurant closed but they happily seated us and served us with joy. You can tell they're proud of the food they serve. And it's a beautiful restaurant inside, too.

We ordered on their tablets, and they have quite a large menu. We knew we wanted the BBQ Roast Meat (vegan version of char siu) even before walking in. We also got the Pan-Fried Noodles with Vegetable and the Taro Bowl Delight. Food didn't take too long to come out (probably because we were the only ones dining in).

The Pan-Fried Noodles are a childhood favorite of mine and I haven't had it since well before I became vegan a little over 10 years ago. It was delicious and I didn't miss the seafood that normally comes with it. Nice crispy noodles that soak up some of the yummy gravy.

The Taro Bowl Delight was fun - we watched as our server cut it up into servable portions for us. The bowl was made of the deep-fried taro you find in Wu Gok (fried taro dumplings) and it was filled with veggies that also included some sauteed taro as well. Delicious.

And the BBQ Roast Meat was very close to char siu. The Manhattan Chinatown Bodhi Kosher Restaurant (not sure if they're related?) has vegan char siu that is more fatty and crispy that I slightly enjoy more, but this was still enjoyable.

We had a bunch of leftover food we took home since this was a lot of food for two people. I had these as leftovers for three days. Very filling.

Will definitely come back and will want to try some of their desserts and...