Sweet Veggie - El Monte

If your vegan/vegetarian, love traditional Chinese dishes and affordable high quality buffets, and if you don’t eat onion and garlic for any reason, this is your place!! They even make their own kimchi using ginger instead of garlic. My husband and I are cult-level obsessed with Sweet Veggie. The food is always fresh and well prepared, plus many options for whatever fits your mood.

Amazing vegan/vegetarian buffet, can't wait to come back again! And what's more is that there's a little grocery store inside that has all sorts of specialty vegan Chinese food and mock meats. You would not find them at any of the big supermarkets as far as I can tell, so totally worth checking out.

We had weekend lunch here and for the price we paid, less than $20/person for buffet weekend lunch, we didn't expect too much and no complain. We probably had to pay the same price (or more) if going to a regular vegetarian restaurant anyways.

We came right about the time they opened for lunch, around 11:35am. No long line yet and it was pretty empty inside. We lined up and paid for our lunch. The receipt printed the section and table number. We walked towards the back of the restaurant passing their buffet counters. Some food sections were still closed off and not serving any food. Currently, there were only 2 big counters serving food and drinks.

Food wise is average but there were many choices. The drink and cool dishes section were placed together. If I remember correctly they have 4 different cold drink - black tea, wintermelon tea, milk tea, passion fruit green tea. There were toppings that you can add to your drinks, like boba, jelly, etc.

I had two plates of different items and I was full by the end. We left around 1pm and the restaurant is now full of people and there was a line waiting to pay and dine.

There is a grocery food section where you can buy vegetarian items. There are plenty of choices, line vegetarian instant noodles, different types of drinks, sauces, dried ingredients, ice-cream and more.

I live in OC area, so it is a long way drive for me to come here. I don't mind stopping by again if I am in the hood.

Looking for a vegetarian buffet with a mini market? Must stop by! BRING A MASK! Or you’ll have to pay 25 cents for one.

Walk in and pay. They have prices on the door outside. You’ll get seated and you’ll have a letter and number so you’ll know which table is yours. It’s quite big inside!

Grab your plates etc and once you’re done with your plate, there’s a place for you to put your dirty plate, bowl, cups! Don’t leave it at your table.

Drinks: they have different drinks and you can make boba milk tea as well!

They have so many food options! My favorite were the flavored tofu dishes! So good!! Soup as well. It’s all very flavorful. Nothing bland. Best part is the the dessert! Shaved ice! They didn’t have bowls so I just used cups for my dessert.

Parking: come early because they fill up fast!

Highly recommend this spot!

Pretty good value and variety of dishes! I would go early 1-2pm to enjoy the food at its freshness. It’s a bit oily but fine. The staff was friendly, since it was our first time, the owner took its time to explain us how it worked and show us around. They have an inside market so all the products you eat you can buy uncooked right at the spot. There is no tip, it’s net prize which is great. It seems clean and organized. They had many beverage options and even tacos and pizza. I would come back.