Caravan of Dreams

Recommends

ivoryenglish

Joined 4 years ago

East Village Vegan/Organic restaurant. Creative food, "almost tastes like meat." Good service.

Doesn't Recommend

nycbassist

Joined 5 years ago

Not too impressive... I've been a vegetarian for 10 years. What I can say about this food, is that it is fairly creative, and not your typical, "Wow, it almost tastes like meat" kind of vegan restaurant. However, the prices are a little outrageous. I'm sorry, but $16 dollars for a burrito?? It's simply not THAT good.

The thing that really bothered me was, that at these prices it's absurd to not accept plastic. I had a party of 4 and the meal came close to $200., drinks and tips included. I hardly ever carry around that much cash, so in order to pay the bill, I had to go out and find an ATM, (paying the fee, of course..) leaving the rest of my group as hostages. This is not a little coffee shop, which understandably wants to keep their costs down. This is a $16 dollar burrito restaurant. Really...

Recommends

JustBeachyNY

Joined 4 years ago

Vegan done right!. I'm a vegetarian (not a vegan) and this surpassed my expectations! Had the spinach ravioli special with avocado, tasty and of course fresh.

Impressive menu and very creative. I could've tried every dish! I'll have to come back pronto. Highly recommend, even if you arent veg.

Recommends

gaiamcraft

Joined 7 years ago

slowly improving. I agree with the other review. I have been coming here for years, mainly because the hours are convenient and the few things I order are always good. But nothing else really except of late. It has improved! The menu looks simplified, and the food is a bit tastier.

I have never had a problem with the service, except I suppose if the place is packed, a wait is to be expected.

The classic nachos are a delicious treat, so is the tofu pesto sandwich. The salads are great but avoid the soups - especially the miso soup which is an abomination to the Japanese staple. The desserts are nice but I'm usually too full to partake.

Recommends

samhenrik

Joined 3 years ago

Getting Better. I've eaten at Caravan off and on for the last three years. I've dealt with some of the things others have mentioned: service issues, high prices. But something surprising happened recently: I noticed Caravan is getting better.

I stopped in a couple weeks ago for dinner. The space was still romantic, with low lighting/candlelight, brick walls, and a great pair of jazz guitarists playing Triplets of Belleville-style gypsy jazz. The food was better than ever. The paella is the best I've had in a long time (vegetarian paella is not on a lot of menus in town) and my girlfriend's burrito was everything you'd want in one: rice, beans, veggies, rich guacamole, bright salsa, without all the heaviness you'd find in regular burrito joints.

I had a draft beer (organic hefe-weizen) that was delicious and my girlfriend had a Pink Lady, a fruit smoothie that tasted like dessert. Perfect.

I went back tonight with some friends (my suggestion) and Caravan didn't let me down. The food was great again, the service was spot-on, friendly and attentive, the music and space were relaxing, and that hefe-weizen went really well with seitan taquitos with pineapple.

I am officially on the Caravan.

Doesn't Recommend

mm550366

Joined 4 years ago

Caravan of "Nightmares" Indeed. I was initially exicted about checking out this vegetarian restaurant but from the get go my experience was anything but dreamy...

The hostess practically ignored us, then sat us all the way in the back

Our waitress was a mess, it took her 20 minutes to even get us water, let alone take our order

We ordered mango smoothies and they came out looking and tasting like hot pureed babyfood with stringy bites of bad unripe mango in it

The waitress told us that the blender over heats and to this she added "its normal"

(trust me, i have two culinary degrees, and that is NOT NORMAL)

then she gave us atitude about sending them back

The food took forever coming out, meanwhile our waitress was busy recking havick on our poor fellow diners, screwing up orders left and right

When the food came out i thought i'd ordered the wrong thing

I had ordered the ravioli as an ENTREE

what came out was 6 sad looking raviolli swimming in a plate of white sauce

i will admit that it didn't taste that bad, but for the price i paid i was very dissapointed

needless to say we didn't even bother with dessert

we left and were both still so hungry that we went on a late night hunt for chocolate ice cream

but i can asure you i'm still having nightmares about my meal there : (

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Editorial Review. East Village vegan-kosher restaurant with a multicultural menu featuring everything from ginger curry stir fry to seitan quesadillas.

Doesn't Recommend

MAbren

Joined 5 years ago

eeh...... I went to Caravan of Dreams for a large dinner party and was not impressed at all. The food was okay but not worth the $45 my portion of the bill came to. Also, the wine selection was a disaster and the wait staff did not seem to be in any kind of hurry to take your order or deliver your food. I do have to say that some people who were at our table love it there so......

Recommends

KT1black

Joined 5 years ago

it is wonderful for what it is. There are not many places you can do in the east village with a menu like this, i have my favorite on the menu and stick to them, the salads are big and filling. I brought a girl there for a date who liked to eat "healthy" and she loved it.

the waiters are a bit out to lunch and service was a bit slow, but we were not in a rush.

it felt good to eat all those veggies.

Doesn't Recommend

sukisan

Joined 5 years ago

creatures you wouldn't want near you let alone your food are running around. I have been wining and dinning in New York city for 3 years and never have I seen anything like this.

Creatures stand for: code: romeo, oscar, alpha, charlie, hotel, echo, sierra) as

I know it's the LES, and there are creatures everywhere, but seeing creatures run by my table and having to point it out to the waiter is not acceptable. The waiter quite instinctively crashed the creature with a menu. He then apologized as if this happened commonly. No surprise whatsoever.

At that point I had lost total appetite and couldn't keep my eyes off the floor which eventually led to seeing another creature. Again, I had to point it out to a waiter.

I then asked to talk to the manager who apologized and said there was nothing he could do, that this happened occasionally even though he exterminated every week.

I'm sorry but even on occasion, live creatures running around my table when I eat is not acceptable for me. Especially if there's nothing special about the food. Yes it's vegetarian, yes its live, but come one, it's New York city, I have plenty of options!! Plus it's soooo expensive for what it is. I recommend you go to GOBO if you want good vegan food with great ambiance and NO creatures.