Reviews & Ratings for Caravan of Dreams

11/08/10

Not too impressive..

by nycbassist

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...

11/03/10

Vegan done right!

by JustBeachyNY

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.

06/01/10

slowly improving

by gaiamcraft

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.

• Pros: Nachos, desserts, sandwiches

01/20/10

Getting Better

by samhenrik

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.

• Pros: Great romantic space; food tastes good, feels good
• Cons: Can get crowded

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