I second that. The food is very good and having a vegan yum cha makes life much easier if there’s any particular meat dish you don’t eat (even if you’re not vegan or vegetarian). The setting is lovely and peaceful too.

[…] We arrived at 12.30pm when the restaurant was still empty. By 1.00pm the restaurant was almost full with like-minded suits gossiping over their dumplings. The yum cha dishes came out thick and fast: fried spring rolls, different varieties of steamed dumplings, fried spinach rolls, green vegetables and rice noodles. Many of the dishes were similar to Bodhi’s, although the prices were cheaper (we had 6 dishes and a drink for $28). The service was friendly and the waiting staff were good at judging when to approach with new temptations. My only criticism is that most of the food we were offered was fried. Perhpas I’m used to Bodhi’s where there is a good selection of steamed food that I find kinder during the 3.00pm post-lunch stupor. However, we didn’t try the majority of yum cha dishes and you might be able to request steamed or less oily food. Before trying the yum cha I would have put Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian in the VVVVV category. I’d eaten there once for dinner when the restaurant was largely empty and lacking in atmosphere. However, for a great value vegetarian yum cha experience Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian gets a Super V. […]

[…] 1) Have vegetarian yum cha to celebrate your right to choose. I rate Bodhi’s, Green Gourmet, Purple Lotus and Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian. […]

First I want to say that this is a great website! very well designed.

I am not a vegetarian but my friend is, so I took her to this place for dinner. I ordered roast faux pork,
big mistake, didn’t like the taste at all. My friend ordered Thai fried fish and it tasted quite similar to a fish.

I made a mental note to myself not to order another faux meat dishes next time; although someone on eatability.com.au commented that roast faux pork at Green Gourmet Newtown is pretty good?

I should try Bodhi next time for Sunday morning yumcha instead of dinner

Hi James

Thanks for the feedback and glad you like the site. I think the Bodhi’s best food is the steamed dumplings and haven’t tried a lot of their faux meat dishes because I normally go for yum cha. I have some friends who swore by the faux meat at Green Gourmet - I was less enthusiastic the time I tried it at yum cha - that review is also on the site. Mother Chus is OK on Pitt St - but maybe steer clear of the seafood. Otherwise, Cabramatta’s vegetarian restaurants might be a good bet.

Another vegan commented this resto on a blog:
http://vegansydney.com/veganblog/?page_id=3
“Overpriced, yuppie bullshit that is riding the vegan and Buddhist bandwagon”

I like the Vegan Sydney blog - they’re frank and fearless and usually a reliable source for news on veg / vegan restaurants in Sydney. From reading the blog they seem to have a real problem with bodhis (which has been around for a long time, although at different locations), and are particularly scathing of the current management, which I think colours their view of the restuarant. I don’t know anything about that side of bodhi’s business so can’t confirm or deny.

Bodhis is definitely more expensive than Green Gourmet, and also more ‘yuppie’. Personally, I like sitting out in the park for yum cha so the last part doesn’t worry so much. I only go to Bodhi’s for yum cha (whereas I’d visit Green Gourmet or Mother Chu’s on Pitt St. for dinner) but I think their yum cha is great, esp. the wide selection of steamed dishes which can be rare.

Unfortunately, there aren’t too many places that do veg. yum cha now, so I’m grateful for all the options I can get!

I hate yum cha experiences. Gorging my hunger with the same steamed dumpings. I have to try Bodhis. I cant believe i have never seen this site!!

I’m so jealous, it sounds so tasty!

Anyone got a suugestion for veg friendly yum cha in Melbourne?

After being in Sydney for 5 days and having a tough time finding good veg food, this was a HUGE treat! I highly recomend it to anyone who likes Dim Sum which is fresh and tasty….a must try for all who come to Sydney.

We are hoping for some honest reviews - we have booked Tetsuya’s in March with 2 other friends as a special celebration. Anita, my wife, is a vegetarian and the receptionist took down details of what Anita will and will not eat, explaining that they have a vegetarian menu…

Has anyone been (who is a devout vege)? How was it from the vegetarian perspective??

My husband and I ate at Tetsuya’s about four years ago and had a great time. We are both vegetarian (no seafood or meat) and the kitchen came up with a full degustation meal that matched our needs. We only made the booking that day, but it didn’t present any problems. From memory, the food was delicious. Quite a few of the dishes had dairy products but it your wife isn’t vegan this shouldn’t be a problem. I’d love to hear how it goes!

i was at bodhi the other night for dinner and they had a wedding with over 100 people there, The place looked so wonderful in the park, lit up with hundreds of candels twinkling in the moonlight.
I think i will have to give bohdi a try for my B’day with such agreat astmosphere, i think my friends would love to do a glass of wine and eat there dumplings
i was suprised to read here about someone not enjoying the fish as it’s one of my favorite meals, with a fresh seaweed taste

I’ve been to Bohdis twice.
The first time was yum cha lunch. They’d offer a dish, then suddenly walk away as we responded we wanted some. The spring rolls consisted of cabbage and pepper.
The second was dinner. They were shit at serving us, taking notice of us; dessert came before a mains, they doubled orders up, amongst other screw-ups and crap service.
Third time lucky? I don’t plan on finding out. And recommend everyone give this place a miss.

Not so happy. Went a few days ago and this is how the night went….

We arrived at 5:30pm, the meals arrived at 8:30pm. The service was slower than slow, and the meals expensive for what was… eventually recieved.

The lack of any staff attention ensured that drinks often had to be ordered 2 or three times, which were added onto the bill - even though the original had never actually been consumed.

A very stressful and regrettable night for what should have been a fun evening with friends.

Certainly will not return.

We agree. We were very disappointed with the food and the service. The food is of average quality (basic, too salty and too oily) and certainly not worth the money - $6 for a soft drink! We found the staff’s English was very poor and their knowledge of what they were serving embarrassingly bad. We will certainly not be returning! They need to hear these comments so they can have a chance to (hopefully) change. I noticed they have a ‘comments’ box on their counter….Perhaps we should all make an effort to put something in it to make them aware of how bad they are.

I love Bodhi. I remember the “romantic first floor premises they had down on Hay Street” but I love the new premises too. It has become quite expensive over the years, compared to what it used to be, but it’s still worth it every once in a while for a treat. I’ve had dinner there too. The surroundings were nice, but yum cha is definitely their specialty.

Oh you rock. A friend just went looking for Bodhi’s in Haymarket to book his birthday dinner and lucked out. Thank you so much for posting this so I could find it and send him the details!