Vegetarian Buffet

When The Boyfriend and I first arrived in HCMC, we saw a restaurant that offered a vegetarian buffet. It was for a limited time around Tết (Vietnamese New Year). I thought it would be fun to go to a buffet where The Boyfriend could eat anything. However, when we finally decided to go, there was a wedding reception and the buffet offering was over.

Talking to my Vietnamese teacher, I learned that the 7th month of the lunar calendar (around August) is when many Vietnamese eat vegetarian all month to honour ancestors - I think... So I suggested we go check out the restaurant again to see if the vegetarian buffet was being offered. Luckily for us, it was!!

At 120,000 VND each (about 7 USD), it is not a cheap meal in Vietnam. There were two separate floors and we were assigned to go to the third floor. There were not too many people when we arrived, but it was full when we left. The offering was quite extensive: soups, salads, noodles, sushi, spring rolls and all sorts of faux meats. We ordered something to drink, not realizing there was also a drinks buffet, including tea and lemonade!


Everyone checking out the selection with festive green decor.


Some vegetable offering.


Some vegetarian gỏi (salads) served with bánh phồng tôm (crackers, usually shrimp flavoured). Our favourite was the lotus salad, minus the faux shrimps.


Faux meats under a heating lamp.

"Chicken" curry.

There was even someone making bánh xèo, filled with mushrooms.

Fruit offering, including peeled rambutans.

Desert offerings.