Hot, Soft & Fluffy Buns!

I think I may have mentioned in my profile that I like soft, doughy, bready things. Yeah, I love 'em - if I could roll myself up in dough, I WOULD!

Well, steamed Chinese buns and shui mai totally fit the bill! It's always such a treat for me to go to a vegetarian dim sum restaurant because we don't have any in the Sarasota area. Heck, it's so hard to just find a veggie dumpling here!

We found Legends Vegetarian Restaurant a couple of years ago on our first trip to Hawaii. So, it was a no-brainer that we'd be going back! I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into a soft, fluffy bun. The dim sum menu changes daily, on the day that we visited we had a choice of: a veggie filled bun, that was stuffed with chopped mushrooms, taro and cabbage; a "faux pork" char sui bun (which is a wheat gluten "meat" seasoned with a Chinese barbeque sauce; shui mai stuffed with taro, mushroom and cabbage; and a bean curd wrap (a veggie stuffing wrapped with a soy skin).

I'm all about the bun, so we had three orders of steamed buns (two of the char sui, one veggie) and an order of shui mai. The char sui bun was our favorite, the sweet barbeque sauce and soft bun melted in your mouth. I liked the veggie bun a lot (Kreg, not so much ... he likes the sweet stuff!) The filling had a nice flavor, slightly salty with more of a mushroom flavor and a starchiness from the taro. This one could have used a little dipping sauce since the filling was dry, but all we had was some soy sauce.

The shui mai were awesome as well. The wrapper was nice and thin, and the filling was not sticky. Same thing here with the dipping sauce, it would have been nice to have a choice of something other than soy sauce.

I definitely could have eaten two more buns and maybe another order of shui mai, but I was saving some room for a bubble tea! And there are a ton of boba shops in Honolulu's Chinatown.

Legend's also has a large menu filled with "faux" meat and veggie dishes. I can't say how good the dishes are as I've never tried any. But if the dim sum is any indication of the quality then the other dishes have to be great! Next time I'm in Honolulu ... I'll be ready for my bun.



Legends Vegetarian Restaurant
100 N. Beretania St., #109, Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone (808) 532-1868
open for lunch only, closed on Wednesdays