Broadway isn’t the hangout it used to be. At one time, there was live jazz on Friday nights and the restaurants were crowded with young people. Now, about the only place you might find a younger crowd would be Tower Café and maybe the new bookstore across the street.

Andy Nguyen’s, a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant, is no exception. Located on the corner of Broadway and 16th Street, finding a parking spot was easy.

Inside, the restaurant has areas that could use some repair. The carpet looks worn and is threadbare near some of the dining tables. At the front of the restaurant, above the tables, the ceiling needs to be redone. There are large watermarks where you can see the roof leaked at one time. Most of the dining area is set up to seat two to four people.

Andy Nguyen’s wasn’t always a vegetarian restaurant. Lien Thi Nguyen is the owner. Her mother passed away around ten years ago, according to Andy Nguyen, the owner’s son. Lien Thi Nguyen stopped eating meat for 40 days as a sacrifice based on her Buddhist beliefs. After that she said she could no longer digest meat.

“We continued to include recipes with meat in them, but the smell of the meat always made my mother ill,” Nguyen said.

“When we went to India five years ago to meet the Dalai Lama, we didn’t eat meat,” Nguyen said. “Three weeks later when we came back home, we changed our restaurant to a vegetarian cuisine based on Buddhism.”

Reading the Buddhist-inspired menu is entertaining. The owner has a Buddhist name for each dish. Transformation of the Mind is grilled Hanoi style soy meat in a lettuce wrap. Peaceful Curry is a soup made with curry, mushrooms and vegetables. Four Noble Truths is a rice plate with a grilled soy pork chop.

There is no hostess to seat you, but the server was friendly, knowledgeable and prompt. The menu has a variety of rolls and starters to choose from. For example, Treasure Rolls are made of rice noodles and Asian herbs. Crispy Lotus Rolls are vegan egg rolls. The Good Karma Sampler has lotus rolls, soy ribs, treasure rolls, wanton chips and spring mix salad with a dharma dressing.

Most of the dishes were prepared with some type of mushroom, vegetables and faux meat. If you’re feeling daring, you could try ordering the rice plate with a grilled soy pork chop. It’s hard to imagine tofu having the taste or texture of a pork chop.

I ordered soft garden rolls as a starter. I was served a generous helping of eight individual rolls that came with a very bland peanut dipping sauce.

For the main course I chose the Universal Love Lemongrass, described as sautéed tofu and mixed vegetables with soy chicken in a spicy lemon grass sauce. Along with that, I ordered the Radiating Light. It consisted of clear mung bean noodles sautéed with soy shrimp and mixed vegetables. If nothing else, I left feeling full of light and love, so it wasn’t a total bust.

The mung bean noodle dish was spicier than the chicken dish and the soy shrimp had a better texture than the soy chicken. The soy shrimp had the texture and taste of seasoned tofu, which doesn’t taste bad – it just doesn’t taste like shrimp. The soy chicken didn’t taste like chicken. It was rubbery and tasted more like those little wieners you buy in the can at the grocery store.

It was a challenge to find items on the menu that didn’t include mushrooms. Even though both of the dishes I ordered didn’t list mushrooms in the ingredients, they were included. If you love mushrooms, you will get your fill here.

Most of the dishes fall into the price range of $6 to $9, some being a little over.

I think they have a great concept. I’m sure there are those who love it. For me, I’ll stick to the real thing. Next weekend perhaps, a big, juicy burger.

Sally King can be reached at [email protected]