While back home in California for the Christmas break I just had to try more of Fresno’s emerging vegan cuisine. I heard great things about New Star Vegetarian Restaurant (1134 E. Champlain Dr. Suite 108, Fresno, CA) and so I decided to give it a whirl. I was more than a bit skeptical when I checked out their website only to see a picture of a dead crab on a plate. I wondered was this a pescetarian restaurant trying to be cool and hip by calling themselves a vegetarian restaurant. After glancing through the menu it was clear that New Star is an extremely vegan friendly restaurant with no animal products on the menu. But I will be emailing them about that crab picture.
But strange pictures aside, the food at New Star is fabulous. I went there with my two omni parents and between the 3 of us I think we got a pretty good sampling of the menu. I got the Fried Won Tons as an appetizer (good but not great), and the fried BBQ Chicken which was unbelievable. My mother couldn’t stop raving about how good my dish was. The sauce was a smoky garlic BBQ sauce that was light and sweet and went perfect over a bed of rice with asparagus. The vegan version doesn’t come with mashed potatoes but you don’t miss it. My dad had the New Star’s Crispy Orange Chicken (which can also be made with tofu), and he loved it. This is saying a lot coming from a traditional meat and potatoes guy. My mom went for the Cashew chicken and once again couldn’t stop raving out it. She even proclaimed that if she could eat food this great everyday she would be a vegetarian. We finished the night off with a slice of carrot cake. Although it was good, I can’t say it was the best carrot cake I’ve ever had (I prefer a moister texture to my cake) but it was certainly a good cake that I would order again.
Overall our experience at New Star Vegetarian was an excellent one. The servings were generous and we all had plenty of food to take home for another meal the next day. And I have to say a special note about our hardworking server. There was only one server in the whole restaurant and it was a very busy Friday night. However, she worked her way through each table like I have never seen! We didn’t have to wait for a thing, not one thing. She was attentive, didn’t forget a thing we asked for and was so inviting and sweet. For her alone I would come back. I can’t recall the last time I had such great service, especially from such a busy server.
Dinner Menu: http://www.newstarsvegetarian.com/_fileCabinet/diner_final.pdf
Lunch Menu: http://www.newstarsvegetarian.com/_fileCabinet/lunch_final.pdf
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm from Fresno and have heard SO many good things about this place! I've only ever tasted a friends leftover orange "chicken" but even the next day it was great and made me want to get over to this restart :) Loving your Fresno Guide, I can't wait to take my husband along with me to check these places out!
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I dined at this vegetarian restaurant tonight 8 May10 and we found this restaurant was the worst restaurant we had ever been to.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I ordered "pho" noodle soup and chow mein (chinese fried noodle) respectively. The noodles were tasted like some cheap instant noodles ($0.45 a packet) that we used to buy from the asian supermarkets . We could not believe the owner of the restaurant has the conscience to use this type of the noodles to serve to the customers. We did not enjoy the meals at all.
We could not believe how the owner could disgrace the Supreme Master Ching Hai by hanging her picture on the wall when they serving not freshly made noodle and charging the meals at an expensive price.
I rang the owner to make a complaint but the owner denied he was the owner and refused me from talking to the owner. He told me the owner was in Oakland which I found hard to believe.
He told me he had this business for 4 years and had no complaints, because he had fooled the white Americans who have not tried the authentic vegetarian foods. I am vietnamese americans and I can tell what is authentic and what is not fresh.
I could not believe he also denied he was the initiate of Supreme Master Ching Hai when he was asked.
Mr owner, you are disgracing our Supreme Master Ching Hai and her initiates and the Vietnamese people because you are not honest and you do not have the righteous conscience to do business like this.
If you do not operate your business honestly with good conscience you will start losing a lot of customers.
By the way your waitress whom she claimed was the manager was very rude and unfriendly. If I were you I would have sacked her. She always looked grumpy and angry.
When we got back to our hotel we were feeling sick the whole night. We decided that we would never go back to that restaurant as long as we live or even they offer free meals.
All the positive reviews submitted previously which I believe from the owner himself and his family or relatives or friends.
By the time I have posted this review I believe it would have erased the next day by the owner
To all the customers please ask the chefs or the waiters or the waitress to show you all the ingredients before ordering and do not be fooled by the decoration of the restaurant premises. There is a saying "do not judge the book by its cover".
To the waitress: please smile. Your grumpiness made me vomit on my plate. If I am the owner I would have fired you. You are frightening all the customers away.
I have left my cell phone number for the owner to ring me back and he never calls back.
My wife and I dined at this vegetarian restaurant tonight 8 May10 and we found this restaurant was the worst restaurant we had ever been to.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I ordered "pho" noodle soup and chow mein (chinese fried noodle) respectively. The noodles were tasted like some cheap instant noodles ($0.45 a packet) that we used to buy from the asian supermarkets . We could not believe the owner of the restaurant has the conscience to use this type of the noodles to serve to the customers. We did not enjoy the meals at all.
We could not believe how the owner could disgrace the Supreme Master Ching Hai by hanging her picture on the wall when they serving not freshly made noodle and charging the meals at an expensive price.
I rang the owner to make a complaint but the owner denied he was the owner and refused me from talking to the owner. He told me the owner was in Oakland which I found hard to believe.
He told me he had this business for 4 years and had no complaints, because he had fooled the white Americans who have not tried the authentic vegetarian foods. I am vietnamese americans and I can tell what is authentic and what is not fresh.
I could not believe he also denied he was the initiate of Supreme Master Ching Hai when he was asked.
Mr owner, you are disgracing our Supreme Master Ching Hai and her initiates and the Vietnamese people because you are not honest and you do not have the righteous conscience to do business like this.
If you do not operate your business honestly with good conscience you will start losing a lot of customers.
By the way your waitress whom she claimed was the manager was very rude and unfriendly. If I were you I would have sacked her. She always looked grumpy and angry.
When we got back to our hotel we were feeling sick the whole night. We decided that we would never go back to that restaurant as long as we live or even they offer free meals.
All the positive reviews submitted previously which I believe from the owner himself and his family or relatives or friends.
By the time I have posted this review I believe it would have erased the next day by the owner
To all the customers please ask the chefs or the waiters or the waitress to show you all the ingredients before ordering and do not be fooled by the decoration of the restaurant premises. There is a saying "do not judge the book by its cover".
To the waitress: please smile. Your grumpiness made me vomit on my plate. If I am the owner I would have fired you. You are frightening all the customers away.
Mr owner! since you are in Oakland I have left my cell number to your unfriendly waitress for you to call me back to discuss my complaints. I am looking forward to hearing you.