Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Chinese
Buffet

大佛寺素食阁, at 广州市越秀区21号新惠中路, is a large restaurant with 300+ seats and air conditioning. Located inside the Gold Buddha Temple (Big Buddha Temple). There is also a vegan buffet on a seperate floor. Open Mon-Sun 11:00am-9:00pm.


Venue map for DaFo Vegetarian
© OpenStreetMap contributors

21 Reviews

First Review by veggieyogini

Schifi09

Points +1202

Vegan
08 Nov 2024

Big selection

big selection, very tasty! can recommend

jenso

Points +421

Vegan
12 May 2024

Overpriced

Ok good and very big portions. But dishes are between 40-70, which is a lot more than regular temple food.
If you look at the Buddha from the courtyard, you enter on the right and go one level down

Updated from previous review on 2024-05-12

AWG

Points +119

Vegan
30 Apr 2024

Good

The buffet is not vegan but vegetarian. It’s a bit complicated to communicate but anything that contains eggs or milk is clearly labelled. The buffet is on the basement floor. I was still a bit hesitant since there is no real distinction between vegetarian and vegan in general - I ended up using the photos from Vegan Passport to clarify what I needed.

Pros: Beautiful ambience

Cass706

Points +23

Vegetarian
27 Mar 2024

Great location, tasty food!

Went for the vegetarian buffet at Dafo (108RMB pp) and had an amazing experience. Staff was very kind and helpful. There is SO much choice, from cooked veg, fried noodles/rice, fake meats, soups for which they cook the noodles fresh in front of you, dumplings, a salad bar, sushi… a lot of desserts too across fruits, cakes, ice cream, mochi, tea… I loved that every dish was vegan/vegetarian, and would definitely go back.
Located inside the temple (-1 floor) which was also amazing to visit.

Updated from previous review on 2024-03-27

Pros: Variety of dishes offered, Tasty food, Location

Cons: Some dishes are only labelled in Chinese

JJCzinner

Points +16

Vegan
21 Nov 2023

VERY GOOD, if you order right

Review for restaurant, not buffet
Venue 5 star
Service 5 star
Value 5 star
Food 5 star if you order right

Dishes to order:
Brocolli fried rice
Tofus in bowl with sauce (braised tofu?)
Braised eggplant

amberinski

Points +25

Mostly Veg
30 Oct 2023

Great experience

Walking up to this gorgeous temple in the middle of a busy shopping street is simply magic—

The buffet on -1 floor was RMB108 and while it was a big spread, I felt the dishes were hit or miss. I loved finding vegan food in such a meat heavy city, but didn’t necessarily enjoy all my food.

Walking around the temple afterwards more than made up for it though!

ElenaIoannou

Points +277

Vegan
22 Jan 2020

Tasty.

Edit: I also tried the buffet, and even tho the food was nice, I wouldn't say it's worth 140yuan.

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of a temple. There's also a buffet on the -1 floor, but it's quite expensive at 138yuan.
I had the veggie pork and rice for 50yuan. The menu is in Chinese, but there're pictures for every dish. Chinese speaking staff, but they are helpful. I'd recommend it!

WilsonGo

Points +19

Vegetarian
24 Oct 2019

Very good

The buffet is a combination of Western and Eastern dishes. Salad buffet included. Splendid.

BriggitteJ

Points +3002

Vegan
23 Sep 2019

AMAZING BUFFET!

The vegetarian buffet is absolutely amazing! So much food you could never try it all. All of the non-vegan items are marked in English so it’s easy to tell the vegan items. We really enjoyed all of the food, they even have vegan sushi and desserts! There’s also a sit down vegetarian restaurant on a separate floor so you can choose how you want to dine.

theveganvisa

Points +216

Vegan
30 Aug 2019

Traditional Cuisine in a Charming Temple

In our opinion, this would be the go-to place if you only had one day to explore Guangzhou. Conveniently located in Beijing Lu, a popular walking street, DaFo Vegetarian offers great traditional Chinese staples like Mapo Tofu, braised eggplant (our fave) and rice dishes. Their portion sizes are huge - we weren't able to finish everything (which was a first for us).
Insiders tip: DaFo Temple is especially stunning when the wood-carved facade is lit up at night.

Updated from previous review on 2019-08-30

Pros: Beautiful location (Great Buddha Temple), Big portions for fair prizes - top value for money

Cons: Chinese only menu (but lots of pictures)

stateofzan

Points +39

Vegan
27 May 2019

Buddhist Blessing!

Large Chinese-Buddhist dining hall in DaFo Temple, 2nd floor! Chinese only menu, but with photos of every dish. Food gets served quite fast after ordering. Very well presented and absolutely delicious! Highly recommended. For a more affordable option, floor B1 has a buffet style dining hall!

Pros: Strictly Vegan, Super delicious, Great location

Cons: Slightly Expensive, Chinese only menu and staff

shyshy

Points +55

Vegetarian
21 May 2019

B1 Level served fantastic buffet

RMB98 per pax
Wide variety of food, Japanese, Chinese, Western, fruits, cakes, juices

Veggiedancer

Points +244

Vegetarian
26 Aug 2018

Fantastic temple restaurant

The temple is beautiful. The food delicious and plentiful, and not expensive (300 RMB for 7 dishes). The staff is kind and all the orders are done via photos on an iPad.

Pros: Delicious , Buddhist , Inexpensive

Cons: Busy

Sorana

Points +2277

Vegetarian
15 Aug 2018

Peaceful atmosphere

Located Inside the beautiful temple, this restaurant did not dissapoint. We were greeted by extremely helpful and friendly staff and we even received a present before leaving, a bag full of different sweets and peanuts. The food itself was ok, a little bit bland maybe, apart from the eggplant, which was drenched in oil. Still, I had a very good experience overall. My impression was that this restaurant is primarily visited by buddhists that practice their belief at this temple. For example, a monk preaching a buddhist mass could be seen on different screens located throughout the restaurant. Another example would be that people would make a short bow/prayer after receiving the food.

Updated from previous review on 2018-08-13

Pros: Location - stunning exterior design, Good prices

Cons: Food too oily and/or bland

TanSL

Points +17

Vegetarian
14 Jun 2017

Nice place for vegetarian meals

Located within a large monastery, it is a wonderful place to hold banquets or have dinners as it is in Beijing Road, where all the shopping activities are located.

Prices are reasonable. Waitresses are friendly, and some tried too hard to please. However , our requests for condiments were either forgotten or have to be reminded.

They should redo the menu as many items are no longer offered. Another point to note is that our rice was served cold which is not very appropriate for Chinese meals.

Pros: Nice location, Nice ambience

Cons: Many items on menu are obsolete, Service staff should be better coordinated

Pascal_HK

Points +313

Vegetarian
09 Apr 2017

Great place

How to find the place: whatever the entrance you chose to enter the temple (the north entrance at Xihu lu is the most obvious), go to the main square inside the temple (follow the people; entrance is free), where you will find 2 majestic banyan trees (see picture1). The entrance to the restaurant is facing the largest banyan (picture 2). It is indicated in a small board (picture 3). Go to second floor.

The room is large. Large choice on a menue with photos; partly translated in English.

Service is slightly longer than what you get normally in China, but it is worth waiting. Food is very tasty. Mind that portion are BIG so don't take to much, unless you want to take away.

cykim82

Points +29

Vegetarian
23 Oct 2015

Nice ..

Chinese style vegetarian inside the buddha temple..

Minni

Points +261

Vegan
27 Dec 2013

So-so

I wasn't inspired by this restaurant. I've visited many Buddhist vegetarian restaurants adjacent to different Buddhist temples, and found this place only so-so. The ambiance was very bustling and the place is a little hard to find. Follow the instructions by the reviewer below!

Food here wasn't great, first of all it's not vegan, they use dairy in many of the dishes, like sushi. Putting cheese in sushi I find really unnecessary. Other dishes weren't great either. This restaurant isn't the cheapest there is, but the portions are big, so you could order one dish less than normally in a Chinese restaurant.

Cons: not vegan, hard to spot, food's not great

places-in-pieces

Points +679

Vegan
23 May 2013

large selection

it is a bit difficult to find, tucked next to a buddhist temple and flanked by a towering building (maybe a mall?).

anyway, once you locate it, you will be happy you made the effort. the selection is rather large, so you have many choices. i was with a friend that lives in guangzhou, so i didn't get to see an english menu, but all the items had pictures of the food.

we shared a large bowl of soup, that was amazing. it had mixed vegetables in a sour coconut like broth. we also shared an appetizer of fried vegetables made into thick crackers. they were a little oily. and, for our main meal we shared a dish of taro root, soy meat, and greens in a brown sauce. the serving sizes were large too.

if i make it back to guangzhou, i will definitely eat here again.

Kit117

Points +31

Vegetarian
02 Apr 2013

Amazing Place to Eat!

I used to love eating sashimi before I became a vegetarian. And I thought it was something I would never have again after I converted.

I would be wrong - this restaurant actually had completely vegan Japanese sashimi and it was delicious. I couldn't tell what vegetables I was eating but I absolutely loved it.

This place is a haven for vegetarian travellers in China where it is extremely difficult to find vegetarian food.

Also the place is actually located in the complex of a Buddhist temple right in the bringing road district (one of the most popular districts of Guangzhou). So the location is fabulous. The food is to die for and the service - eh it could be better.

I would go to this restaurant every time I'm in Guangzhou - no exceptions.

Please be sure to ask for the English version of the menu as their regular menu is only in Chinese. The text only English menu is a good way to reference with the Chinese menu as it has pictures of the food to match.

Pros: The location. , Quality of food. , Reasonable prices.

Cons: No tissues, water, etc, Hard to communicate with staff.

veggieyogini

Points +61

Vegetarian
13 Jan 2010

good food, nice atmosphere

good food, big portions, good value, friendly service, no english spoken but they have picture menu. a little bit difficult to find, on the first floor.




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