House of Vegetarian

07/06/10

Terrible overall experience

by IcanHazVeggiez

Myself and two friends tried House of Vegetarian, and we will never consider returning. We tried the mock duck, which I can only describe as an oozing puddle of icky. The barbecue pork left much to be desired...it was bland and mushy. Our steamed vegetable dumplings were quite gooey, and far from yummy. The beef and broccoli in garlic sauce was mediocre at best. The 'beef' was flavorless, but the broccoli was ok. The icing on the cake was the terrible service, with bad attitudes and snide remarks to boot.

In short, I would describe House of Vegetarian as the worst Chinese food I have ever had, served up by a plethora of rude women.

• Pros: The spring rolls were good.
• Cons: EVERYTHING else was awful.

02/15/10

Horribly unhealthy vegetarian food

by sarahgrdn19

Being a vegetarian for most of my life, I have been to many vegetarian chinese restaurants in the past. I have always left them feeling at least slightly more healthy than I would had i ate at a normal chinese restaurant, as vegetarian places are usually draw in a more health conscious crowd. I expected House of Vegetarian to at least serve some dishes that did not leave me feeling overwhelmed with grease, sodium, and the like. Well, I was very wrong. We started with the steamed vegetable dumplings: the only dish I found to be remotely edible. Next came the bean curd roll, covered in a concoction of grease and sodium. It all went downhilll from there. Next we tried the fried wontons, which my friend ordered. I cannot stomach fried food, so I very hesitantly took a bite and passed on the rest of it. We ordered the vegetarian roast duck appetizer, which never came. The service, might I add, was AWFUL, though this was to be expected in Chinatown, and did not bother me so much. The waitresses had attitude problems, and were quite inefficient in taking our order, but the food did come out in a timely fashion, as terrible as it was. Next, we shared the eggplant entree and the fried noodles with peppers and soy. I tried one piece of the eggplant, and could not eat anymore. It was THE GREASIEST dish I have had in my life. DISGUSTING. Do not go to the House of Vegetarian restaurant unless you are looking to get in 2,000% of your daily fat and sodium requirements in under 30 minutes.

• Pros: once you order the service is pretty quick
• Cons: VERY greasy and high in sodium, rude staff

02/21/09

AWFUL PLACE, HORRIBLE ATTITUDE AND DIRTY!

by tristanperk

We started out having an ok meal. The food was very roughly made, the steamed vegetable dumpling wasn't cooked completely. The shiitake mushroom with vermicelli was bland, and the stir fried string beans too salty and under cooked.

Ok, so you always take a risk every time you go to a new restaurant, but not only was the food of extremely poor quality, the workers had a very nasty attitude as well.

I found pieces of hair stuck on the place underneath our stir fried string beans' sauce, so it was OBVIOUSLY on the plate BEFORE we started eating the food. Not only did the workers denied that the hair came from the kitchen, they also blamed it on us!

What kind of an attitude is that to be treating your customers without respect?

NEVER AGAIN! Vegetarian Dim Sum at 24 Pell Street is much better, cheaper and MUCH MUCH MUCH FRIENDLIER!

• Cons: Badly and roughly made food, under cooked, horrible attitude, dirty.

02/21/07

Bland, gloppy American vegetables at high prices - why is this in Chinatown???

by foodie474

I enjoy the exotic vegetables that Chinatown has to offer, so I was eager to try the House of Vegetarian. However, I was disappointed by the poor creativity and preparation of the dishes, the high prices, and the blandness of the restaurant itself.

Our appetizer was the mock roast duck (made of two types of wheat gluten to imitate the skin and interior [except no bones of course]). The flavor, while not at all resembling that of meat, was interesting enough.

The other dishes were bad. An order of bean curd in curry had gloppy sauce. Any regular non-vegetarian Chinese restaurant would have prepared it better.

I ordered mixed vegetables in a bird's nest (a nest-shaped thing made of noodles) and while the nest was fun to pick apart, the vegetables were mostly American broccoli and more of that mock wheat gluten stuff -- that's not a vegetable!!! what was it doing in there? There was almost no flavor at all to this dish -- I avoided drinking tea because the "strength" of the tea would overpower the food.

Wonton soup was satisfactory but not a good choice because the membrane-wrapped tofu dumplings (or whatever they are) in the soup get all soggy and start to unravel.

I also got Cold Noodles with Sesame Sauce, one of my favorite dishes at non-vegetarian Chinese restaurants, but the dish here was bad. No flavor or spice at all except for a strange perfumey taste to the noodles, which were overcooked. The peanut sauce atop them was gloppy.

Prices???? Usually in Chinatown you can get a huge meal with leftovers for practically nothing. But not at House Of Vegetarian. Prices are 50%-100% higher here than at a normal Chinese restaurant, even for standard dishes that you can get anywhere, like Cold Noodles w/Sesame Sauce ($8.00), or Tofu with Curry Sauce (~$10.00).

BTW, there are no decorations at all on the walls so I hope you have interesting dining companions. There are no Chinese customers here. I'm amazed the waitress spoke Chinese.

• Cons: Bland, American vegetables, gloppy sauces, boring place with no decoration

08/04/06

Yummy Veggie Food

by monesh32

This place is one of my favorite Restaurants. The service is good. The food is phenomenal. Not all the dishes taste like meat but they still taste very good. And in the end...The taste is what counts. The lighting is dim and it might not be the best atmosphere but its nice and cozy. Get the Steak, get the Ham Fried Rice, Get the Braised Fish, Get anything Pork and Ham, Appetizers are good too. All in all this place is very enjoyable.