Buddakan — Restaurant in New York

We came here for my boyfriend's birthday. First of all there was no host showing us to our seats. There was a lady who checked our coats and my friend told the lady that our group is all here and we're ready to dine in. She only said please wait for the host and did not tell us where to wait or who's the host. The front room is super dark we could barely see anything and we just awkwardly waited to be seated. After we were seated the server didn't greet us, he didn't explain anything on the menu, and whenever we're try to find someone for help there was always no one. The restaurant seems very short staffed, and the server seems not happy at all the whole time. Music was loud, people were loud so the serve could barely hear us when we were ordering drinks. And he wasn't being poliet when he didn't us, he was like what did you say? We repeated ourselves and he was like ok. After that they brought up appetizers before our drinks arrived, we ordered cocktails and a bottle of wine. So we ate the appetizers without any drinks. And finally the drinks came, we finished the appetizers and waited 30mins for the main course to arrive and at that time we finished the wine already, cause we had nothing else on the table! Not to say that I had to ask for the server to pour more wine cause the ice bin was not accessible to us, so the server didn't check on our table within the 30mins period I had to wave my hand at him to try to get my hand refilled. Now comes the crazy part, there was about 3 different food runners who brought food to our table. 2 out of 3 smashed dishes on our table! The spoon literally fell off the plate cause it was tossed on to the table. That happen 2 times with 2 different food runner. I looked very mad at the moment already and the guy stared at me end up walking away. The way the named each dish was so unclear as well we had to ask twice what were they serving. But we were so mad that our food was smashed on to thr table! After we finished the food, we were trying to look for the server to bring out our cake, we waited for at least 15mins to just look for the server my friend literally got up the seat to find someone for help and we found a girl who was not our server to help us, but she was like, I am not your server and walked away. Finally we found our server and asked for the cake, waited for another 20mins nothing had shown. My friend got up again finding the server asking what happened with the cake, he said a bunch of excuses, my friend was like just bring the check. So we did not end up eating the cake here, after 20mins of waiting for nothing! And after 3mins he brought out the cake unopened! And the check together. I was like of course you guys didn't even open up the cake yet! It's untouched for 20mins we were just sitting there! And the server did not respond to me, he left with the check on the table. I did not tip a single cent! And I briefly wrote my reasons on the check. This is the first time in over 10 years that I did not tip a single cent. There was just no service provided! No greetings from anyone in the establishment not even the host, everyone had a black face on! Server just don't wanna do his job or it's way to too short staffed. Food was mediocre, it could be better if it didn't ruin our mood for a birthday dinner and got dishes smashed on our table! I did not look for the manager during our dinner cause we were so mad and annoyed at the place and rush wanted to get out. And of course no manager reached out to us after seeing what I wrote on the check. Horrible dining experience at a fine...

If I could give zero stars for this experience, I would. My fiancé and I have dined at Buddakan many times and have always enjoyed the atmosphere. However, during our most recent visit—while hosting family visiting from Brazil—we experienced what can only be described as the most disappointing and unacceptable dining experience we’ve ever had.

We arrived at 11:45 PM and were assured by the hostess that seating and serving our party of four would not be an issue, as long as we placed our order by midnight. To start the evening, we were seated promptly in a dining room with several open tables. However, we were placed next to a group of guests dressed in an extremely inappropriate manner—two women with nearly their entire bottoms exposed, and another wearing only undergarments and stockings. This was both surprising and disturbing, particularly for a restaurant that positions itself as a “higher-end establishment.”

Within 30 seconds of being seated, a server approached us and stated that we had only two minutes to place our order—directly contradicting what the hostess had just communicated. We ordered promptly, but shortly after our food arrived, I observed a female manager repeatedly directing staff to begin clearing our table—even though our plates were still full and we already felt pressured to rush through our meal. After this occurred multiple times, a kind male manager acknowledged the situation, intervened, and reassured us that we could take our time, as the restaurant did not need to close for another 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the same female manager returned shortly thereafter and aggressively confronted one of our family members—who is not fluent in English—for merely holding a vape. While we fully understand and respect that vaping is not allowed indoors, her approach was unnecessarily harsh and inappropriate. It was the first time the vape had even been visible, no vapor had been exhaled, and the restaurant was empty. A calm and respectful explanation would have been entirely sufficient.

At that point, we requested the check, packed our food, and prepared to leave. As we paused briefly to take a family photo near the exit, the same female manager once again rushed over and aggressively informed us that we could not take a photo because the restaurant was closing.

As loyal patrons of Buddakan, we were shocked, disappointed, and frankly disheartened by the treatment we received. We recognize that working in hospitality can be tiring, but that in no way justifies unprofessional, rude, or dismissive behavior toward paying guests. If accommodating a party of four was truly too late at that hour, that should have been clearly communicated at the door—rather than offering reassurances that were later contradicted.

It is unfortunate that the efforts of dedicated staff, the experiences of loyal guests, and the overall reputation of Buddakan are being undermined by substandard and unprofessional management. In all honesty, we’ve received far more courteous service at our local...

i am so happy that this place lived up to the hype!! i’ve had a number of friends recommend this restaurant to me and it definitely did not disappoint. we started with the dim sum for 2, all things were good but some definitely stood out more than others. our favorites from the dim sum were the edamame dumplings and shrimp toast. we were both thought flavor on everything else was good but easily passable in the future. the potstickers were the most basic item but they were very full of pork which you do not normally get in other places. the general tso soup dumplings pretty much just tasted like soy sauce but there was a lot of meat. the carrot dumplings were very cute and pretty good but just not as good as the other items. i was not a fan of the cantonese spring rolls but i do not like shrimp very much so that could be why. we also ordered the ducks in a row, cauliflower lollipops, tuna tartare spring rolls and short rib. the ducks in a row had nice flavor but did not taste like bbq duck. personally i didn’t care because they were very good but that’s just something to keep in mind. the lollipops did not have any cauliflower flavor either but were very good. they have a nice truffle flavor which i appreciated as i love truffle. the edamame dumplings, cauliflower lollipops and tuna tartare spring rolls were my favorite savory dishes. the spring rolls are exactly what the sound like. they were on the lighter side and had great tuna flavor. the short rib came with mushroom chow fun which was good i just wish there were a few more mushrooms. the short rib fell apart and had great flavor. finally for dessert we ordered the ube mochi donuts and the pumpkin cheesecake. both were very good but my favorite were the donuts. i love mochi and i felt the portion was good along with the flavor. it had great mochi texture and the sauces on the side were extremely good. neither dessert was too sweet but good enough to fulfill a sweet craving. now for atmosphere this restaurant is huge and stunning. this may sound silly but often times i feel tables for two get crowded however these tables were bigger which was nice. it truly is a beautiful restaurant. our server was very sweet and gave us great recommendations. i would highly suggest to come here with a bigger group so that you can order a lot because things are...