Vegetarian House

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in all of Portland. I am steak and potatoes kind of guy, and still only like this restaurant to go to for Chinese food. The «chicken» and «meat» dishes are deceptive and the fact that it tastes like real meat with the texture of the food.
The tea is excellent. The hot and sour soup us excellent.
The staff is always very helpful. This is truly 1 of the hole in the wall gems Portland has to offer.

I’m so sad. I just learned they closed. I moved pretty far away and haven’t been back in a while but I crave it often. The folks who worked here (owners?) were so very nice, and I hope they are doing ok and were not financially devastated by the closure. Best of luck, vegetarian house people. I will miss your lemon salad and sweet & sour «chicken» forever

The food here is hot, fresh, and full of flavor. The lunch buffet is plentiful and cheap. Service is friendly and efficient. Five stars!

Portland IS nuts as one reviewer below me states. They are nuts because now ALL two all-​vegan Chinese restaurants have gone out of business. Came here once and had a good experience. They made all their fake meats from scratch. Food was tasty, and comparable to the prices of Green Wok (they both originated from the same ownership). We met the owners and learned they had been in the city for over a decade, and used to be quite a popular spot. I will keep to myself why I think the business went under. Heartbreaking to see yet another mom and pop place go under in the cultural wasteland that is Portland. Now all there is left is white hipster vegan food. Yay.

Tried to go for lunch… closed sign on door no tables inside. We would come here for dinner or lunch now and again for the seaseme chicken. Sorry to see that they have closed. Hope they reopen here or somewhere else.

Portland is nuts. As cute as this restaurant is, and as much as I feel for the owners, I won’t be surprised if this place is out of business soon. The food is moderately priced but is nothing special, let alone good tasting. Everything smells and looks dirty. Even the waitress had animal hair all over her, it fell in my tea and it totally grossed me out. I had to stop eating. Not to mention a buncha guys came in hasseling the owner about affording rent? They were arguing back n forth for about twenty minutes. Very uncomfortable and unfortunate. As much as I feel for this little ma and pa place, it needs a revamp in every aspect a.s.a.p.

$ 6 for all-​you-​can-​eat vegan chinese food? You don’t have to ask me twice.
My husband and I were visiting Portland from San Diego, and we had a hankering for Chinese food. As a vegan and a vegetarian, Chinese food can be hard to come by. The location of this place leaves a little to be desired, but that really didn’t bother me much. We walked in and were greeted almost immediately by the nicest waiter ever (I wish I had gotten his name), who sat us and explained the buffet. He also brought us some lovely hot tea along with our waters.
As for the food, everything was pretty great! For the buffet there were two mock meat options, egg rolls, soup, tempura broccoli, veggies, chow mein and fried rice, along with one soup. I wasn’t crazy about the soup, but my husband seemed to like it. Along with the buffet we ordered the crab rangoons (why? because we are gluttons). There were 8 of them, which was WAY too much, but we ate them anyway because they were delicious!
You really can’t beat the price, and the service was on point. I would totally recommend this place for any vegans and vegetarians out there looking for some Chinese goodness.

My friend is a vegetarian and its New Years, very few places are open for business. This place was conveniently located few blocks from friends place, and very easy to locate. Hot tea was served and menu order was taken promptly. It was disappointing to note only hot tea or soda was served. For food all are vegetarian food and most seemed similar in ingredients. Fake meat made of soy and not much variation in taste or texture. Overall its filling but not satisfying so I give it three stars.

Oh man, so sad. I always love these crazy vegan Chinese restaurants and was excited about the novelty of an all-​veg buffet. Portland could do so much better!
The buffet part was actually okay. Food was kind of dried out by the time we got there, but after a while they did a refill. Both of the veggie meat dishes were good, the veggies and starches were fine, only the egg rolls were bad — weirdly burnt tasting. For only $ 8, I’d do it again.
What was disappointing was the food we ordered. My wonton soup featured a very bland broth with a slight nasty flavor that reminded me of dirty dishwater. Odd, because the soup in the buffet tasted just fine. The wontons did not save the dish; they were made with thick dumpling wrappers with barely any filling. My partner’s baby bok choy with mushroom dish was bland and sadly overcooked.

Delicious vegan food and great service! It’s a little pricey for individual lunch plates but the buffet is only $ 8.00! It’s only until 3:00 pm Monday — Friday though. Highly recommended!

I have been a vegetarian now for almost 13 years and finding vegetarian Chinese is food isn’t easy. If I was in Corvallis I would go to China Delight. So when a friend surprised me here for my birthday, i was STOKED! With that being said, the place is a wreck. At first I thought perhaps this friend was taking me to some shady @** burnside location to dump my body. I don’t know how other Unilocalers described this place as «clean» but at least for Portland standards it is a dump. However I was brave enough it stick it out and turns out I love the food. When I want some «comfort» Chinese food this is the place. The hot and sour soup is amazing, and I love almost all of the «shrimp» dishes I have tried !
On the downside I do have a few complaints as of my recent trips here which dropped the review down to a 3. This place gets greasier and greasier every time I am am there and the large ear-​wig looking bugs crawling on the wall made me want to run for the door. The smell is not pleasant; honestly it is such a toss up because if this were any other more common style restaurant (i.e. not 100% vegetarian Chinese) I would have run for the proverbial hills. What this place needs is an investor and a MAKE-​OVER. I would love to see the potential of this place, maybe we can get it on one of those food network or HGTV make-​over shows?
Second complaint, is with the service. I was so so disappointed last time we went there. It was a nice summer night and we went for a stroll, knowing full well they close at 9 and trying to hurry. We arrived at 8:30, which I admit as a server would suck if you just get a new table that close to closing; HOWEVER, we waited as the server was busy seating a new 4 top table, and had 3 other tables who appeared to be just on their «soup course»; he then took a to-​go order, and as we patiently waited, knowing this guy was working hard for the money, he finally informed me it was too late for us to be seated! Not the only instance of terrible service. I would say it is half and half on both extremes. Half of the time amazing, friendly service, the other half terrible, eye-​rolling, unenthusiastic service.
However with the good and with the bad, I will be back; I just think I will be ordering more «to go» so I can pretend this place is pleasant smelling and clean.
Pros: FOOD FOOD FOOD
Cons: cleanliness, smell, service.

I visited this place for the first time during a visit to Portland. I loved it! It was quiet, clean, and had a neat kitschy look to it. The server was very nice! I had some sort of chow mien noodle dish with something that looked like little ham slices and it was amazing. My friends had a sizzling noodle bowl and some sort of «chicken» broccoli dish. They «sizzled» the noodles right in front of us, which was entertaining! And I don’t know what kind of vegan «chicken» they used for the broccoli dish, but the texture and flavor was amazing!
The price, service, and quality was great. The only thing I wish hadn’t happened was when I left the building, the door to the business next door had a window and I could see cooked dead ducks hanging, as the business next door appeared to be a meat market of sorts. Eww.

I ate the buffet for lunch. It was very appetizing. Plus I got a free pot of tea. Great for a cold day. Very cheap. I will definitely be back.
I have gone back to this place many times. One of my favorite places to eat in downtown Portland. I’m sad I don’t live there anymore. I will definitely return here when I visit Portland again.

I surprised a vegetarian friend the other night by taking her here, she’s only been in Portland a year and she loved this place! I’ve only been back in Portland a bit over a year, but lived here before and have been to Vegetarian House many times. I wanted to go for a current visit before reviewing the place.
It was exactly the same as in the past. The ambiance is still beyond dive-​y. If you want to out-​cool your friends and also scare them a tiny bit, take them here for sure. It’s an… interesting…part of downtown.
But often the dives have the best food and the food is pretty darn good here. I’m not veggie and still enjoy it.
The interior is mint green and strange, they weren’t playing the weird spiritual veggie programs on the TV like in past visits, so maybe they clued in that people were creeped out by it?
Every time I’ve been here, they are always out of some of the appetizer items. They’ve never, every had the crab rangoon when I’ve visited and they were out of potstickers on the night we visited. So we got the spring rolls for a starter. They arrived hot, crispy and tantalizingly tasty.
My friend got the sweet and sour «chicken», which I’ve had before and it’s pretty yumm-​o, but my dish was even better. I’d never tried the orange «beef» before and wowzers, it’s definitely one of my faves now. Imagine some super crispy morsels of tangy, orange flavored goodness and multiply by three. A taste explosion for the tonsils!(or lack of them).
This was some seriously good stuff. They also brought lots of free, hot tea. Other dishes I’ve greatly enjoyed here have included the General Tso’s «chicken», the lemon «chicken», sesame «chicken» and moo shu «beef.» Avoid the «shrimp» dishes like the plague, the mock shrimp is rubbery and disgusting.
If you’re ready for a really good veggie meal, this is the place.

I CANNOT for the life of me understand how this place has so many good reviews on Unilocal!I am not typically so horrendously disappointed by Unilocal!reviews, but this one… Oi…this one was SOOOOOO SOOOO SOOOOOO BAD!
What we ordered:
«Crab» rangoon… the best thing we ordered but it was still bad. I’m not sure what was inside of it but it’s a shame they call it vegan crab.
Orange «chicken»…essentially pressed and frozen cubes of tofu coated HEAVILY with batter and deep fried for fifty thousand years. No veggies.
Sweet & Sour «beef»…paper thin pressed, frozen slices of tofu, again coated heavily with batter and deep fried. The «beef» was so thin, I had to inspect it to make sure it wasn’t just deep friend batter! Scant veggies and rotten pineapples.
The server was nice but doesn’t understand basic customer service. I informed him the pineapples were rotten. He took the plate back to the cook and then brought the plate back and said the cook said the pineapples were fine but they were willing to make us another. I again insisted the pineapples were very obviously rotten (they tasted like sour beer). I instead asked him to just take the pineapples off and that there would be no need to make another.
I also asked if we could get a more veggies for the dishes we already ordered. He told me that we could order a vegetable entrée. I asked if they had a side of steamed veggies. He said no. Essentially I would either have to deal with the 3 pieces of carrots and a few onions on my dish or order an entirely separate entrée in order to get a decent amount of vegetables. I guess it was silly of me to think a vegan restaurant called Vegetarian House would have VEGETABLES on their dishes.
We took most of the food to go and was going to give it away to anyone who wanted it, but 15 minutes after we left, both my nephew and I got sick and ended up throwing the food away. It was the worst… ABSOLUTE worst vegan food we have had since moving to Oregon.
I’m usually open to trying things again if I didn’t like it the first time, because sometimes the food or the situation is an anomaly… but this one is on my NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN list.
This place is a disaster and stain on vegan cuisine.
If I could give it negative stars, I would!

Vegetarian House was the first restaurant I tried upon visiting Portland two Aprils ago, & I’m so happy, now that my girlfriend & I have made our move from Berkeley, that it is less than a mile away from our apartment. We’ve had the buffet twice ($ 8 all-​you-​can-​eat) & the first time I visited I had the General Tao’s vegan chicken & Orange vegan chicken to go. The buffet today, as it was a week or so ago, was plentiful in freshly prepared, vegan versions of the standard Americanized Chinese buffet. Our waiter, who is the only person I’ve ever dealt with in Vegetarian House, was/​is excellent in terms of cordiality & swift to replenish drinks & remove finished plates. We’ll visit weekly.

My first time visiting Portland, I was thrilled when I googled «Vegetarian» and even more giddy when I googled «Vegan». This city is my city, to quote Patrick Stump, and I love it. And then while being obvious tourists in Chinatown, we stumbled upon this joint. Seeing the $ 8 buffet sign, we Texans moseyed on in.
There are fat vegans in the world.
That’s the first thing I made myself remember as I saw the one-​cart buffet. It’s a mainly fried feast of chow mein, deep-​deep fried tofu, even more deep-​fried faux meats, more fried items (e.g. wontons and what not), soup and some sauteed vegetables. Our server told us everything was, in fact, vegan (not just vegetarian; kudos)… but don’t misconstrue that with being healthy.
Nevertheless, it was all relatively good and definitely filling for being a mere $ 8. The food tasted fresh, had flavor and didn’t feel like it was sitting out under the hot lamps for eternity. The jasmine tea was fairly strong.
I’m told they have a menu outside of the buffet. I definitely would be back to try something off there — something not fried.
The restaurant was clean (a bit bland and without music, but clean), the restrooms definitely acceptable and the service good.
One thing that did concern me though is that raw vegetables were sitting out on some prep tables along the walkway to the public restroom in the back. Yep.

Intrigued by this place for a long time, I finally had a weekday off to take advantage of the lunch buffet offerings and check out the veg take on Chinese. Kudos to them for doing that in the first place, super Portlandy and definitely satisfies a need for the fine vegans of Stumptown.
It is, however, not the greatest. Worth checking out, should you be craving Chinese in Old Town, and normally thwarted by the oft questionable meats, or shall I say «mystery meats», MSG, and other junk often found on most Chinese buffets. But it’s not totally amazing or anything, and was pretty greasy. Don’t mistake meatless for low-​cal, that’s for sure.
Did like the options of 5 – 6 entrees, spring rolls, soup, and tea for a pretty low flat rate… if you are starving, you could definitely make the most of it. Expect to see things like lo mein, fried rice, various forms of chick*n or faux beef with the usual sauces and accoutrements. Would love to see some more actual veggies amongst this veggie food, though.
If I return, I will definitely order off the regular menu as I think I experienced all the buffet could offer me (and I’m not normally a buffet-​eater, so take that with a grain of salt).
Service is sparse, but not in a bad way. Enter, be seated, get your plate, fill it up and settle into some dubbed kung fu movies showing above the register. You could get in and out very quickly for lunch or stay and hang out unbothered. Interesting cult vibe rounds out this quirky little place.

I had order Togo, Veggie Pork Fried Rice, very tasteful, not greasy at all. very good portion size. I would totally recommend this dish.
I also ordered the Orange Flavor Veggie Chicken, it was ok. I wouldn’t reorder it.
Love how everything on the menu is Vegetarian. Lots of dishes to pick from.

Holy crap I found it. When you move to Portland, you think things will be a little easier on the food front. You figure– hey, I’m a vegan. Portland’s cool, so there have to be a ton more vegan places to eat here than back home, right? So, so wrong. But thank you, oh thank you Vegetarian House! You are my safe haven, the place where I can munch with reckless abandon and FINALLY trust that I’m not eating Porky.
I absolutely love everything I’ve eaten here. I reccommend the house special Pan Fried Noodle, but frankly, you can close your eyes and point to any place on the menu, and trust you chose the best thing on the menu. You can get it to go, or dine in, it doesn’t matter cause you’re gonna be happy. Admittedly, the place could use a renovation (it’s a bit dated) or at least a little music for ambiance, but it really doesn’t matter once you get the food. You’ll be in vegan heaven.
Also, the server that’s usually there (forgive me, I was too busy nom-​ing to get your name) is absolutely awesome. Tattoos, funky dress, and a really really welcoming attitude. You’re getting waited on by someone who really loves this food, and it shows. So enthusiastic, you could have sold me on any item on the menu. Which is exhaustive by the way, in the best way possible. I guarantee they have something here you want to eat, even if you’re a meat eater.
Now, let’s top it all off with the price– completely affordable. For once, I get really good value for my money in P-​town. Couldn’t love this place more, I’m crazy about the food, the service, and everything else. Oh, and it’s in Chinatown, so when you’re done eating, waddle your way around and check out the hundred other cool things you can do in this neighborhood.