Stubborn Buddha, the Pan-Asian newcomer from restaurant veterans Kiki Donikian and Clarissa Powell, knows how to reel you in.
The room is lively, the cocktails are clever, the menu is beguiling, and the whole enterprise carries itself with the looseness of a neighborhood joint. Then there is Executive Chef Vijay Shastri, who for years was sommelier, beverage director and manager behind Highlands’ high-end Italian institution Paoletti’s, and whose time in kitchens stretches back to his teens and includes nearly two decades as chef-owner of Asheville’s Flying Frog.
Now, at Stubborn Buddha, the trio has channeled all that experience and those high standards into a deceptively casual concept. Dining there puts me in mind of what baseball old-timers used to call “easy power”: strength and capability so practiced that it almost looks like relaxation.
That may be the restaurant’s neatest trick. With its sleek outdoor bar and buzzy rooftop scene overlooking Main Street, the space feels in harmony with Shastri’s easygoing, mouthwatering food. Every dish seems to come with a twist, a zing, or, once in a while, a moment of cloud-parting luminescence.
Since opening in early 2025 in the former Midpoint space on Main Street in Highlands, Stubborn Buddha has continued to evolve. What began with a broad Pan-Asian menu has become more focused and considerably more sophisticated. Shastri describes the cooking as Pan-Asian informed by French and classical European technique — not fusion so much as a conversation between the two.
The objective isn’t heat for heat’s sake, but what Shastri calls “robust flavors”: complex, carefully constructed dishes that capture the curiosity of diners from the first bite.
And what a place to start. Gingered pork and vegetable dumplings arrive with tamari and garlic-sesame sauce, then a house-made chili crisp — five days in the making — builds its heat in patient waves rather than announcing itself all at once.
The Goong Ché is a Thai-style ceviche and a riot of temperature, texture and flavor: cool Onaga snapper and French blue prawns meet citrus, fish sauce and chilies, while passionfruit-mango leche de tigre supplies a sweet-tart flash. Mung bean sprouts tossed with cucumber, avocado and rice-wine dressing add crunch, with mint and Thai basil bringing a final aromatic lift.
Even potatoes refuse to behave like a side dish. Triple-cooked until shatteringly crisp, they’re tossed with togarashi, sea salt, sesame and nori, then served with house-made Sriracha mayonnaise and tamari glaze.
Pan-Asian flavors appear here and there: a lobster-and-lemongrass-infused curry, fragrant with lime leaf, galangal and shallots, gives an audacious, aromatic edge to a classic Thai fish preparation. But the dishes draw on a broad palette of influences. Slow-roasted, crisp-skinned duck, inspired by Chinese Peking duck, is jolted awake by a sauce of fresh tangerine, ginger and Japanese whisky and accompanied by garlic-sesame rapini and roasted squash. You can still get your steak fix: Wagyu beef, rich with black garlic, gochujang and aged shoyu, arrives atop a comforting nest of wok-fried sesame noodles with fermented soybeans, Chinese broccoli and mushrooms.
It sounds elaborate because it is. It just doesn’t eat that way.
That level of cooking doesn’t happen by accident. Shastri has spent the past two seasons training a kitchen crew that, he says, came to Stubborn Buddha with no background in Asian cooking. He speaks with unmistakable pride about how polished they have become. The confidence shows on the plate.
Perhaps that explains why Stubborn Buddha has so thoroughly found its audience. Shastri admits he didn’t anticipate the enthusiastic response, particularly to cooking this adventurous in a small mountain town. Yet diners have followed eagerly as the menu has pushed farther.
Beverage-wise, there’s a delightful focus on wine, with a small but meticulously curated list — hardly surprising given Shastri’s background — alongside sake and cocktails. The raw bar brings its own element of surprise, with an ever-changing selection of sashimi and crudo. Saturdays loosen the collar further, with lunch beginning at noon and local musicians playing from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Stubborn Buddha describes itself as a “casual take on fine dining.” That gets close. But what makes the place compelling is the tension between the two: serious ingredients and serious technique delivered without the ceremony that usually accompanies them. The food may be intricate. The pleasure of eating it isn’t.
Visit thestubbornbuddha.com for more information.
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