05/06/09

Caravan of "Nightmares" Indeed

by mm550366

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 : (

• Cons: Horrible Service, Small Portion Sizes, Warm Smoothies, Pricy

Editorial Review

by Contributor

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

07/23/08

eeh.....

by MAbren

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......

• Pros: the live music was nice at first....
• Cons: slow wait staff

03/10/08

it is wonderful for what it is

by KT1black

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.

• Pros: open kind of late, nice live music, fresh food
• Cons: waiters bit slow, sometime get stuck in back room when it is busy

02/11/08

creatures you wouldn't want near you let alone your food are running around

by sukisan

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.

• Pros: none
• Cons: creatures

05/14/07

Caravan of nightmares

by pinkevil

This has to be one of the worst dining experiences in New York that I've had in a very long time. After we were seated, we saw another customer complain about having to wait too long to get a drink and then receiving it all melted, so that should have been a sign. The waiter didn't seem to be interested in taking our orders. It took him over 10 minutes to come back to the table and he clearly wasn't busy. His attitude wasn't rude, but he clearly wasn't friendly either. They were out of all sparkling waters, so we ordered something else.. The entrees come with salads and we were served those right away. Only they come without dressing. There was a teeny little bit of dressing on the bottom, but you could barley taste it. We got the entrees in a decent amount of time too, only they were barley lukewarm and lacked seasoning. We had the Caravan Feast and the Macrobiotic Platter. The food didn't taste bad, but it was clearly nothing special. You expect a lot more for that price. While we ate, the waiter never cared to check on us or refill our empty water glasses. Even after we were done and our plates had been cleared, our waiter was standing 2 ft. from our table chit chatting with another waitress.

On another note, the lady working behind the bar was crying while she was working, which made the whole place just seem really bizarre.

We originally wanted to order dessert, but since we were ignored the entire time, we just wanted to leave. About 15 minutes after our plates were cleared, we had enough of waiting and got up to go to the front to pay, since that seemed to be the only way to get anything accomplished. The manager (assuming that's who he was) didn't seem to care either. He apologized half-heartedly while the bad waiter was standing nearby, not saying a word.

There are so many other vegan restaurants in NYC. Most of them cost less and are a lot better foodwise and definitely servicewise. Save your time and money and stay away from Caravan of "Dreams"!!

• Pros: nice atmosphere
• Cons: bad service, mediocre food

03/07/07

I love Caravan!!!

by allala

I love them because clearly they love me. The food they feed me is so good & fresh. I feel healthier after I eat here then anywhere else. Period. I find the service terrific and I do not think they take too long. I will be moving from the east village to the financial district and I am so sad that I will not have easy access to the goodness & yummyness of caravan.

• Pros: delicious food
• Cons: none that i can think of

01/14/07

"What a Rip Off"

by khkrinzman

Here's the deal. I used LOVE caravan. I have been in NYC, vegan, and going to Caravan for years. Caravan's menu is really simple. While other restaurants have moved forward with culinary innovations, Caravan is still serving beans and sprouts.

Yet, Caravan charges upmarket prices for simple cafe food. It's really a poor value, disguised by the fact that the servings are plentiful. The service is awful. A recent visit proves both points. I go to Caravan for lunch. I decide to order this burrito. It's listed on the menu at $15, which I think is WAY expensive for a downmarket burrito at lunch, and before someone gets on my case with the organic argument, just forget about it, its rent we are paying, not quality. The waitress tells me they have no seitan, ok, so I say, I'll have tempeh instead...I end up with a totally different burrito, one with peas and beans and not what I wanted at all. Then I get the bill, and she charged me $17 for a lousy lunch burrito. I can't stress this enough, I spend tons of money on food---and I usually don't care about price, but it just seemed like a major rip off. The food at Caravan is stuff you (even I) can make at home. The decor is relaxed and east village circa 1995. It looks like that one vegan restaurant you find in every major city, with burritos, salads, and pasta dishes in a pseudo hippy "artsy" environment. I dig all that, actually, but they need to majorly adjust their prices and their service accordingly, and add a few new more complex dishes to the menu.

• Pros: old school east village atmosphere, really good tempeh, "big salads", lots of options, relaxed vibe, chill space
• Cons: completely uninvolved service, haven't updated the menu in ages, way, way, way too expensive for what you get.

09/12/06

avoid at all costs...bland food...mediocre service...weak drinks!

by boxybrown

Hands down THE MOST BLAND AND DISAPPOINTING culinary experience in my short time in New York (3 years). Even for the vegetarians in my group kept looking at each other chewing laboriously throughout the entire meal. The menu is extensive enough that maybe there are some hits but we went 0 for 3 on a diverse meal order.

It didn't help that the service was mostly mediocre too - the wait staff was really slow taking orders and bringing out drinks.

Speaking of which, the "house-blend sangria" was nothing more than kool-aid with bits of apples floating in it...if there was any alcohol a 10 year old could have downed a carafe without so much as a hiccup. If that's not a crime I don't know what is.

Everyone else seems to think this place is great. Maybe we ordered the 3 worst things on the menu so who knows. But we ordered strictly vegan stuff...I'm of the opinion that vegan cuisine should be something more than pitiful approximations of hearty, meaty dishes. Example: vegan paella (mentioned in someone else's review) is a downright delusional concept to me. So there's my bias in writing this review. But hey, we gave it a shot.

The only thing that wasn't disappointing was the fact that Venieros was only a few blocks away. I had never needed a piece of cheesecake so badly in my life, having sat through that trial of a meal.

• Pros: nice atmosphere, decent live music, extensive menu
• Cons: supremely bland and tasteless food, weak drinks, mediocre service

08/14/06

Great guiltless eating

by feffynyc

Always eat amazing food...always get the pate of the day with flax chips...always get a big live salad...always get excellent service...always love the live music...always come back.

It's my favorite restaurant.

• Pros: Delicious healthy food, wonderful live music
• Cons: Has been a little loud at times