Popular Chinese vegetarian buffet in Chinatown’s Diho Square, offering a wide range of meatless items seven days a week.

9108 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036
(713) 772-2888
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10:30am–9:00pm, 7 days a week

Both of our childhoods included plenty of time spent with grandparents in Florida. For one of us, that meant frequent trips to Duff’s Smorgasbord, a chain of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants favored by the thrifty retired set. Grandpa would gross the kids out by loading his plate up with mountains of carelessly-intermingled roast turkey, gravy, cornbread dressing, pickled beets, lime jello, and other unreconstructed “American” staples. At Pine Forest Garden, you can have a similar experience, only with vegan Chinese food. Walking in on a weekend afternoon, we observed a thoroughly non-trendy crowd of families with kids and groups of mostly older folks filling their dishes up with vegan specialties from the well-stocked chow line. We grabbed a table, told our waitress we were getting the buffet ($10.50 each), and proceeded building the first of several tasty pyramids of vegetables, tofu, and other assorted vegetarian proteins on our plates.

The good: There were lots of different items on the buffet, and the steam tables were frequently replenished from the busy kitchen. We especially liked the crystal dumplings with a savory diced mushroom filling, dishes of braised cabbage, mushrooms, and other leafy vegetables, and, incongruously, tiny sliders with lettuce, tomato, and slices of vegetable protein on crispy little sesame-seed buns. The chief dessert on offer, a rolled glutinous rice cake with red bean filling and a dusting of coconut, was also quite good. You should be able to find plenty of items to pique your interest as you load your plate.

The bad: Despite the fact that there were a lot of items on the buffet, many of them were similar-tasting and all of them were, to our taste, relatively bland and lacking much in the way of seasoning and/or acid. Depending on your personal level of spice addiction, this may or not be a problem (Grandpa wouldn’t have minded much). We leaned heavily on the pots of chili paste provided on each table. Also, it seemed a little pricey for a meatless buffet at $10.50 per person.

The verdict: If you are a vegetarian or vegan and want to pig out indiscriminately with no fear of accidentally consuming flesh or other animal products, you’ll appreciate this place a lot. It’s also a good choice for omnivores who simply want a break from meat and a chance to eat something relatively healthy for a change. Furthermore, we both like seeing a restaurant going all-in for more sustainable cuisine in the midst of a global climate crisis. Pine Forest Garden is also going on our short list of places to take out-of-town vegetarian visitors. Note: if you’re in a hurry, Pine Forest Garden offers to-go trips to the buffet at $4.99 a pound.