Buddha’s Belly

Came here the morning after a late night birthday celebration.
It’s perfect for brunch because the portions are pretty big. I like that their egg options are light and doesn’t weigh you down through the day. I had the caprese
It’s café on the corner, has lots of parking around the neighborhood, closer spots are mostly metered. This Buddah Belly café has lots of outdoor seating along the sidewalk, as well as indoor.
The ice café later is amazing!!!

I am a HUGE fan of Buddha’s Belly. We were greeted by a friendly gal and was seated right away. My husband & I had a late lunch and had the entire place to ourselves. We wanted to eat light as we were going to have dessert just down the street. We asked our friendly host what she suggested. We ordered the Papaya Salad to start off with. Very nice and crunchy papayas. Enjoyed the flavors. We then ordered the Black Cod that just melted in your mouth and Garlic Fried Rice. I enjoyed the sweetness of the roasted garlic. We ate everything! No left overs.
They have recently expanded and added a lounge. This place has a full bar. Nice clean and refreshing atmosphere. We will be back to try more yumminess on the menu. YUMMMM!

I wrote a review a while ago that was written in frustration and anger.
I’m sorry Buddha!
I didn’t mean it.
Excellent Customer Service, and if they mess up they will DEFINITELY make it up to you.
Food is somewhat pricey but hey it’s pretty delicious.
You’ve won me over.

My husband and I happened to be in the area last weekend, and on a whim tried Buddha’s Belly– what a stroke of luck!
Right away we were charmed by the warmth but openness off the beautiful main dining hall. However, the more dimly lit lounge offered the mellow vibe we were craving.
Our server was spectacular! She (Lisa?) was the kind of person who is so sincerely friendly, you feel like you’ve known them a long time. She worked with we picky eaters, and even though she was making gorgeous cocktails for the other side of the restaurant as well, she maintained quick and attentive service!
As a vegetarian, I had many delicious options and settled on the vegan Pad Thai. It was scrumptious and my husband said his shrimp fried rice was succulent and tasty as well. Our cocktails were hand muddled by Lisa, who never missed a beat in conversation, and they went down perfectly. My Buddha Belly was so happy!
I highly recommend this experience!

Wow this place has great tasting food… been there a few time over the years, and they have catered some events I’ve attended. Just ate at the restaurant for the first time in a bit, they revamped the meal, and I just loved it.
will be going back. ALso love that they have some free parking.

My wife and I were looking to dine outdoors, and we wanted lettuce wraps. Those were our criteria. She had noticed this cute place while driving by and suggested it, and so off we went. They were having an outdoor bbq sort of thing, and it all looked very inviting.
We sat down outside and, as sometimes happens in LA, it had cooled off quite a bit in the last ten minutes. I checked, and it was somehow even colder inside. So we asked our waiter if he could turn on the heater over our table. «Sure!» Awesome!
We looked over the menu and about five minutes later the friendly waiter came back. He explained how much garlic was in the dishes that caught our eye and what could be modified. It was great. We were getting colder, though, so we asked if he could turn the overhead heater on. «Sure!» Okay, good.
After about five minutes, a waitress came by to bus the table next to ours. She picked the sloshing dog water bowls off of the ground bare-​handed and put them with the rest of the dishes to be washed. Gross. She used the same hand to move the thing of clean silverware and napkins around on the table. Grosser. But we have a dog, and maybe it was only a little spit, and maybe it hadn’t licked itself in a while… but we had to put that out of our minds so we could ask her if she could turn the overhead heater on. «No problem. I’ll let your waiter know.» We… already did that…
After about five minutes, our waiter came back to take our order. We ordered lettuce wraps and two other things. We concluded with, «Sorry to keep asking, but could you turn the heater on?» «Oh, sure thing!»
After about ten minutes, our waiter came back by to double-​check something on our order. We confirmed that he had it right, and reminded him about the overhead heater. «Oh, of course, sorry about that.»
After about ten minutes, the dog-​handed waitress came by and we asked her about the heater. «I’ll let your waiter know.»
After about five minutes, the first of our three dishes came out. It was the order of lettuce wraps. It came with all white meat chicken, which was a little heavy but overall quite good. It was also decent sized for the price. But it didn’t come with individual plates. Our waiter noticed and assured us he’d get those; we didn’t even have to ask. We DID have to ask about the heat lamps, to which he said, «I’ll get that taken care of right now.»
There were four pieces of lettuce, which we soon exhausted. Dog-​hands came by and we asked her for some. She told us she’d let our waiter know. Same with the heater. Same with the plates.
After about five minutes (this is about 45 minutes after getting there and feeling cold), I walked in and stood at the hostess desk. Our waiter was walking by and asked if I needed something. I asked if he could turn the heater on. He said, «Oh, sure. I’ll take care of it right after I take this order out.» I said, «I’ll wait,» and just stood there.
This is the amazing part.
The man who had been our waiter for the better part of an hour turned around, took maybe 15 steps, and flipped a switch on the wall by the kitchen. I looked at him, dumbfounded, and walked out to our table where my wife was giving me a shivering thumbs-​up. The heater was on. That’s all it took. That’s all they had to do. That’s all they had to do the entire time. ONE. SWITCH. I’m writing this review about two months later and I still feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. The amount of disregard for the customer was staggering.
So here is what was featured at my finally temperate table
— one cold-​to-​the-​bone wife
— one order of pretty good lettuce wraps, still mostly uneaten due to absence of lettuce
— no plates
— dog-​spit silverware
And for the first time in decades of purchasing meals at restaurants, my wife and I walked out without paying the bill. We’re not especially proud of it and it wasn’t exciting or fun. It was just the only way to escape without feeling thoroughly abused. What a sad evening.

The menu has been expanded… Some new dishes are not as good… I would definitely stay with their OG dishes! The out door seating are is quite nice and well covered from the main busy traffic of Beverly Blvd!
Their drink menus is pretty good. Happy hours between 4 to 6pm are good time to get all tasty small dishes and worth your money!
Even though we were a bit disappointed with some new dishes… We still like this place and enjoy their original dishes!

I am so sad. For many years now, Buddha’s Belly has been one of my go-​to lunch spots for one of my favorite salads in LA — the Buddah Chicken Salad. After a couple month’s absence I stopped by Buddah’s this afternoon with a friend who also was a big fan. We were a little taken aback by the change of menu and what appeared to be new ingredients listed in some of our favorites, but keeping an open mind, we ordered forth.
Imagine my surprise to receive a few whole lettuce leaves (which is weird in itself since they don’t provide you with knives — you need to request a knife) with some poached chicken, some burnt (charred?) carrots and what looked like the remains of the crispy noodle bag thrown on top. To add insult to injury, the disaster was completely overdressed in a spicy, weird almost mayonaise-​ey dressing. Didn’t resemble the old salad at all and was completely inedible — I sent it back and thankfully, they took it off the bill. My friend’s vegetable curry was «tasteless» and the guys at the table next to us had similar complaints. Apologetic waitress confirmed there’s a new chef in the kitchen.
It seems I will now be on the hunt for a new Asian-​inspired chicken salad as Buddha’s Belly will no longer be fitting that bill. Boo!

The Black Cod was RAW horrible couldn’t believe other Unilocalers were saying this was one of the best dishes. They recently changed the menu they are no longer including any side dishes with a number of their other menu items. If you would like rice with your uncooked black cod or anything else your going to have to pay for it as a side.

Cheap– Chic– Fast– Healthy– Good
I’m taking a vacation from eating meat — and Buddha’s Belly was great for offering an exacting dinner like me a quick cheap dinner.
Everything was fresh and the flavors well balance. We found our table service excellent as well. There was a new menu and chef back in May 2013, and it seemed that everything was being really well managed there.
I had a noodle salad with heaps of fresh vegetables and lots of flavor, my friend went Korean beef and was very happy with the quality of meat and blend of flavors.

i wish zero stars was an option
So, my roommate and i drive by this place often and usually end up eating at Bao for dim sum or BLD for some awesome eats.
Well on this day we decided we would try something new and head to Buddhas Belly since we heard they got a new chef and it was supposed to be great. Well this was not the case. We did walk in with fairly high expectations since we had been craving some asian fusion. We started with Shisito peppers and the Tuna volcano… The peppers were pretty standard so no complaints there, but the tuna volcano tasted like a bad version of what they serve at Katsuya.
Next my room mate ordered the pad thai and i had order the sweet and spicy shrimp. Major complaints on both. First the pad thai although it looked pretty standard tasted so weird. IT had this terryaki flavour and sort of tasted like BBQ sauce. Now the shrimp were even worse they tasted like they were marinated in ketchup. Yup all in all pretty nasty!!!
Above the food being bad, the service was also pretty shit. There were 3 other tables in for lunch with just one server (which shouldnt be a problem in my opinion) my room mate ordered a Lychee cooler, and the waiter had no clue what was in it. She asked if it was carbonated and he said now, then it arrived and you could see the fizz…
All in all we wont be back
IT was all pretty gross

I very much loved this restaurant for many years but after having lunch there today, I feel as if I have been jilted, deceived, and otherwise hornswoggled by the formerly fine reputation of this establishment. Having moved to a different part of Los Angeles, my occasions to visit Buddhas Belly have decreased over the past two years. When my friend from Santa Monica suggested meeting midway for lunch in the Grove Area, I was excited to suggest my old favorite, Buddha’s Belly.
I am painfully sorry to say that I am now sitting here with heartburn regretting this choice.
There is nothing that will disenchant me faster than a formerly excellent and well reputed restaurant that surreptitiously changes it’s menu and lowers the quality of the food, but doesn’t bother to change the name or the décor of the restaurant.
This, my friends, is Buddha’s Belly’s story
The lunch my friend and I suffered through today was of the same quality standard, junk food flavoring, and MSG content of a mall food court chinese take out counter. I am going to spare the reader of this review my particular sticking points of disgust with this meal, but suffice it to say that the quality of this lunch was so far beneath what was standard at Buddha’s Belly the last time I ate there, I left feeling both crestfallen and nauseous.
And it is still lingering.
As my grandmother used to say «Nothing wilts faster than a laurel that is being rested upon». It bears mentioning that it has been several years since I have witnessed venerated laurels rested upon quite this hard.
Never again.

It’s not you, it’s me. No, that’s not it. It IS hard to say I don’t love you anymore, but it’s the case here. For years, I defended a minimum 4 stars on Unilocal,but a recent visit forces me to go down to three. And, that feels a tad generous.
Service was fair. It wasn’t crowded at all when we got there, and it took several requests for the kiddie Etch-​a-​Sketch to be located and delivered. We had firm promises twice from our server, but no luck. After we were mid-​way through entrees, I corralled a busboy, and with the best Spanish I could conjure, he then went and got us one.
The Kids Chicken Fried Rice received no complaints. And it’s still huge, and looks fairly healthy. The Chicken Lettuce Cups I used to so adore came off still crisp but the chicken looked and tasted mushy. Plum sauce does cover up a multitude of sins, but after this — I would think twice about ever ordering this appetizer.
Less consideration would be in order for the Thai Green Curry. Yuck. It comes with a giant serving spoon in the soup pot. This is too big to work with. You’re better off dumping your side of rice (included) into the soup. Again with the chicken. Not too much of it — but ironically, I didn’t like it anyway. It tasted overcooked, spongy and kind of fake, but worse, not too fresh. You know when you have something in the fridge that you miiiight still be able to salvage and cook? It’s maybe a day or so too long in the tooth but you think it’s OK enough? Well, this is the flavor I had with the chicken. I felt I wasn’t eating fresh.
I left most of the rice but plucked out the veggies and chicken. And felt a little uncomfortable. I spoke to the server afterwards, who did the right thing asking if she could bring something instead — and had I seen her right after first tasting the meal, I would have said ‘yes’. I got filled up, but in the wrong way.
The check was delivered without asking if we wanted dessert or coffee etc. And I gotta say, meh. This is not the Buddha’s Belly I have loved. They recently switched their menu, though there are some old favorites available still. But, I honestly don’t want to go back anytime soon.

This place was great!!! I came here last weekend to have my birthday dinner with a party of 11. They gave me an entire room to ourselves– the service was superb! Joel did a kick ass job in serving us– he made perfect recommendations and knew what he was talking about when it came to the menu. He also connected well with the group and was definitely not boring! so important in great service.
I had the tasteful Tuna Volcano w/​Crispy rice, the deliciously flavorful Crispy Chicken Breast, and we topped it off with a suprise Dark Chocolate fondu. Everything I had was suggested. The staff there was sweet to us all. You can tell they have a good time working together. The ambiance was perfect to my liking. Everyone had a great time! The best birthday dinner ever! Thank you!

Not close to great, and really not-​so-​authentic. It’s mostly common dishes from Thai, Japanese, Chinese, etc. I had the green curry, and I wasn’t expecting chicken. I don’t remember seeing it on the menu, so I attempted to eat it and it tasted a little less-​than-​fresh. Otherwise it was good.
The woked asparagus was great.
Girlfriend has the salmon salad and while the salmon was tasty, the salad was a bit less.
The prices are mid-​range, the place is very clean and laid back. The food came fast, but after the fact the service came to a halt. Out waiter had his hands full– seems he was serving the entire floor, so I understand.
But, it really sucks when you are trying to eat and need water and we have to walk over to the waiter (who was serving three tables over, and never once looked our way in 20 minutes) and ask for it.
When it was time to pay, we waited about 20 minutes for our check and nothing. Again, we went to the host and asked her to get our waiter.
Don’t get me wrong, the waiter was great. He was just overwhelmed with his tables. But, in a perfect setting a good waiter keeps his eyes on all of his tables to make sure his guests are happy.
I will be back, but the place is what it is. It’s basically fast Asian food, with average service.

Went here for lunch with the co-​workers, you can park in the streets with coins. The restaurant looks very clean and modern and has some Asian accents. It has a bit of a hip ambiance. Really good service though not always the most attentive when you need them, had to wait a bit to waive someone down.
When ordering, I was a bit confused as to the ethnicity of the food… it seemed to be more Thai fusion than Chinese. Everyone has been raving about the ginger fried rice so I ordered it. The result was the most bland fried rice I’ve ever eaten. I had to borrow my friend’s curry sauce and some hot sauce to add ANY flavor back in the dish. Overall, I didn’t feel satisfied with the food. Overpriced for what you are getting portion wise, it’s almost like bar food portions.
There’s really nothing special that would make me come back again. There are just too many alternatives in the area to come here again.

NOTE TO SELF: Never point at a menu and order. I tried that here and although I wanted the mouth-​watering sounding Chicken dish, the Thai Grilled Salmon with spinach, jalapeño and egg fried rice served with creamy Thai basil sauce appeared in front of me.
2^nd NOTE TO SELF: If you ever have a miscommunication with a server over your order, be sure to do it in a place that has great management like Buddah’s Belly that will take care of you.
I loved the $ 16.95 Thai Grilled Salmon that I was given for the $ 9.95 price the Chicken dish would have been. It melted in my mouth and the rice was specially prepped and the tastiest I’ve ever had; literally. So I agreed to keep it.
My wife needed to feed her vegetarianism so she ordered Eight Vegetable Fried Rice ($ 9.50) with broccoli, edamame, corn, carrot, red bell pepper, green onion, blue lake beans, crispy spinach, egg.
She started getting her orgasmic face by the second bite so I had to take a taste; it was seasoned great and loaded with veggies; tasted awesome. (I did refrain from sharing my orgasmic face in public; just doesn’t play out the same when us guys do it – Google «When Harry Met Sally»).
Food: 4 stars
Server Mike who should watch where people are pointing: 5 stars
Manager who gave me a specialty dish for the price of the Chicken I wanted AND offered to also send me home with the Chicken dish for good measure: 6 stars if we had 6 stars here. (I refused the take-​home order of the Chicken dish because it is rude to take advantage of people and I’m not into that).
After our experience here our Buddha bellies left full of goodness and the service was second to none so I say check it out but don’t forget the free parking in the small lot in front and please… do not point at the menu.

Neo.Chinese.Psuedo Chinese. Pan Asian. American Asian.Asian American… Asian Fusion.
Well whatever you want to call it, I feel like it falls into one of those categories.
Whoever owns this place, they do a decent job of mimicking where you really want to go. that hole in the wall Chinese joint in a smelly alley way that might have figured out there was a market on neighborhood pets.
Sorry tangent.
I like this place. I liked enough to be back twice.
My favorite thing here is the Fried rice.
The phad thai is a bit to heavy on the sauce and a bit on the mushy side.
It’s trendy, service is top notch, and the food seems to be very consistent when you come here. Prices are decent and there is usually a nice crowd that shows up here.
Try it out, I think you’d like it.

This was much, much better than expected. Based on the name and ambiance, my expectation was low — but, it beat eating in SaMo Place. I went for the Chinese Chicken salad which isn’t light, but very tasty.
Nice booth and we had excellent service!

If you read my previous review you may notice I was a bit pissed off. Maybe more than «a bit» but let’s not split hairs, I had been let down by Buddha’s Belly a number of times. Due to just how much I went off I have to say I was more than surprised when I received a notably polite email from the management and when someone wants to make something right, hey, I’m all ears.
They wanted me to try again, at least one more time, just to see if they could do better. Obviously I was skeptical but hey, why not, they’re close to my house and have organic tofu. So here I am, as you can see I’m much more calm and three stars ain’t too shabby. I had lunch last week and while I wasn’t blown away I have to say I was a lot happier than I had been. I went with the Spicy Vegan Curry and while it wasn’t spicy at all and could have used a wider variety of vegetables, I will say it was decent and that I was satisfied. The tea wasn’t the best, but I’d drink it again. The staff was friendly too which gets them bonus points, this was the first time I’ve dined in.
All in all I won’t be running back to BB, screaming and yelling to the world that this is the best Asian food to be had. But truthfully I’ve had a lot worse and I have to give a little credit to a place that makes sure they have organic tofu and a vegan option on their lunch menu. One thing I will say is every dish I’ve had, the vegetables and rice have been cooked perfectly. That’s something that many places can’t boast, and seriously, overcooked mushy vegetables or undercooked rice will destroy a meal. If BB could just step it up on the little details, maybe think a little bit more outside the box on the creative side of ingredients and flavors, well hey, they could have something going for them.
We shall see.