Buddakan - Philadelphia

restaurant week

It was great as usual. This place never disappoints!

Marc is awesome. Great service!

Restaurant week visit. The food and ambiance was great but i felt rushed. I was offered water but not given any other beverage options until I asked about them.

The food and service were really good. The portions were very small. This was my first time there not sure if the portions are normally that small or because it was restaurant week

Service and food was amazing! Loved how patient the staff was. Each dish was beautifully presented and tasted delicious. I love the dumplings, pan seared sea bass and the donuts on their restaurant week menu. Looking forward coming back

Always enjoy it. But it's very very dark. We sat upstairs and actually joked with the bartender about not being able to see!

Excellent food and good service. I loved the drinks too!

Girlfriends birthday. Very fun and the food was amazing

Wonderful food, wonderful atmosphere, wonderful service

Our experience was brilliant, I asked for a table by the window and they honored my request, the Zengria was amazing and the food superb :-)

Great food and service

Birthday celebration.

Been here several times; terrific and creative Asian food!

Service was great! Food was ok but the ambiance of the restaurant was perfect.

Buddakan was a restaurant on my list that I’ve been wanting to visit. When I arrived i was greeted with a warm and inviting atmosphere, The staff was friendly. The ambiance and decor is chic and very sleek. I was not as much a fan of the food. It was heavy on the salt and lacked other seasoning. You could have gotten if not the same or a better quality of food from some place else.

Steven Starr single handily revitalized the restaurant scene in Philadelphia, and Buddakan remains my favorite of all of his Philly sites, and we have eaten st a number of them. The Asian fusion menu is delicious. They are very accommodating regarding allergies and special dietary needs.

The tuna pizza was one of the best thing I have ever eaten.

We had excellent service and as always loved the food.

Great spot for a table of people of disparate ages and tastes. A wow setting with something for everyone.

It is still one of the best Stephen Starr restaurants!! A favorite!

I was entertaining my book agent who lives on LBI and knows a lot about food. He loved it--and I did as well. Have had many means with you and anticipate many more tasty experiences. Downstairs is good at lunch--but due to noise level, I prefer upstairs for dinner.

We had an amazing time at Buddakan. Our family was visiting from out of the country and for our last dinner my uncle decided to take us here. We where a party of 13 with 4 children in tow.

The prices are rather daunting at first but the meal is really worth it. Our server Mark was just AMAZING! So accommodating and patient. He answered all our questions and gave detailed descriptions of the dishes.

Since we were a rather big party we did our food family style. These are some of the dishes that we ordered:

1. Dungeness Crab Sticky Rice
OH MY GOD. Let’s just say this was a packed with flavor and most importantly CRAB! This dish can be eaten alone or you can pair it with an entree.

2. Peaking duck
I’m a peaking duck girl. I’ve tasted a lot of peaking ducks and this rates pretty high. The flavors aren’t overwhelming and they give you a boat load of hoisin which is always a must when eating duck.

3. Edamame Dumplings
Talk about different. This was the dish that surprised me the most. With its peculiar hue of green and it’s sauce I was hesitant to try it. However I’m glad I did! This dumpling has the right balance of truffle and shallots in the edamame purée, all perfectly wrapped in a thin dumpling wrapper.

4. Char Grilled Aged Beef*
If you can only order one thing on the menu this is probably the one you should go for. Perfectly cooked at medium. When they place this dish Infront of you it needs to be eaten with everything. From the Szechuan fries to the watercress salad, have a little of everything on your fork before you take that first delicious bite.

5. “Dip Sum” Doughnuts
There is always room for a little dessert and you better save room for this sugary goodness. Deep fried doughnut covered with 5 different species did not disappoint. It’s light, fluffy and comes with this gingered cream cheese that makes you want to just lick your plate.

Overall it was such a great experience! It will become a favorite in our family and we will totally come back!

Fantastic food. Little expensive but reasonable for such good food.
Def get the Calamari salad even if you don't like Calimari! Best dressing ever. And the dumpling sampler is really good - especially the edamame dumplings!! And the miso cod is like dessert it tastes so good.
Speaking of dessert - the poached pear is amazing.
Enjoy!

Wonderful food served tapas style.

Always a great experience here. The food is amazing! One of my favorite restaurants in the city.

Food was great service was excellent environment was great no complaints here

First time eating here and all four of us were delighted. Excellently prepared food with a lightness of touch (not over seasoned) and presented beautifully. Beef satay and pork dumplings stood out as appetizers, as did my main course of duck. Service was top notch - discrete but attentive. Will definitely return.

I asked for a certain table and they stated that since I only had a party of 2 that I couldn't sit the but there was no one else dining at the time or when when we left. They stated that plates were meant for sharing but the portion sizes were small. The ambiance was amazing. But the food was mediocre. The drink menu wasn't that appealing either.

New Year’s Eve always memorable there . Great food , music and dancing then fire works from outside

Everything we ate was good, the service was good, only issue was we called to ask if they could make our reservation earlier, and they could not make it any earlier than 10:30, but when we arrived there was plenty of space available.

Awesome experience and a great way to celebrate the new year.

As usual excellent meal and great service. Everyone is always so friendly!

Buddakan is delicious! We love the food and the atmosphere. Our waiter was great and very friendly!

The food and location are fantastic. Edamame dumplings are addictive. The only small downside was the cocktails, a bit on the sweet side and our waitress didn’t know much about any other drinks or how to ask the bartender for something more classic/boozy. Food more than made up for it, but I’d have a bar in mind for either a pregame or a nightcap (Charlie Was A Sinner is my recommendation).

Very good food... Pork Belly buns were phenomenal and Crab sticky rice was equally as good !! Little noisy, but Great service. Parking not bad. Nice part of town. Staff very nice.. Great Restaurant for change of pace !!

Not the best experience,we requested a non dairy menu , which we ordered from But was given a dinner with dairy. Partner is allergic too dairy and got quite ill , which ruined the rest of our stay in Philadelphia . Sorry to say we will not be returning. We even requested non dairy menu when we originally made the reservation so disappointed!

Service good, food good but not extraordinary and the noise level was stunning

As always buddakan is a great place to bring friends. We went early in order to have dinner after day downtown. We mostly had drinks and appetizers. All were very tasty and the waiter timed them for us to graze while we talked. Great taste. Great service.

One of the top 3 or 4 meals I have ever had. Many members of my family and myself are professional chef’s. To be that high in my experience’s with food really is high praise