Lan Cafe

This was my favorite restaurant in manhattan. Seriously. I was so upset when it closed. Please reopen

I really like this place and the food! I was around the neighborhood 5÷1÷15 and decided to have my friends try the place. I was so devastated to find out that it closed down! It’s been such a bad year for me in terms of having quality restaurants that I love to close down.
Almost all the menu items I tried are good. My favorites: tofu with broken rice, the tofu summer rolls, rice crêpe, phở and a bunch of other dishes. Staff is friendly. I’m so sad that I didn’t get to go there one last time.

This beloved spot is closing at the end of April 2015. Eat here now!
I’ve been a fan of Lan Café for many years: it’s a Buddhist, Vietnamese vegetarian spot operated by the Nguyen family. The space is simple and unassuming, cafeteria-​style. I’ve long wondered how many more years the slow moving, geriatric couple behind the restaurant would last, but that’s part of the charm of the place. Sometimes you wait a long time to order or to get the check. That’s okay, even though the space isn’t entirely conducive to meditation (it’s oddly like a colorful cafeteria).
The food is amazing. The vegetarian spring rolls are good, with rice noodles, tofu, and peanut sauce. But the real standout is the vegetarian phở. It’s the best I’ve ever had, with a delightfully aromatic broth, a slight sweetness, and lots of noodles and baby bok choi to round it out. The table next to us were jealous that they didn’t order this (newbies). I sincerely wish the Nguyen family would pass along this recipe before retiring.
It’s very sad to see small businesses priced out of the market in NYC. As the EV Grieve blog puts it, «The lease is up, and well — you know the rest.» Not acceptable.

The phở is phenomenal, with flavorful broth that’s not too heavy, not too weak. This is definitely the best vegetarian phở in the city. I also recommend the lemongrass seitan and the black sesame ice cream for dessert.
Lately, the restaurant has been opening around 7PM on Sundays and closer to 5PM on weekdays. Be flexible with your time and you won’t regret it. Also, be patient with the service… I promise it’ll be worth it.
You will have to try this out before the restaurant sadly closes in April 2015.

This place is so good. I love Vietnamese food and it is nearly impossible to find vegan Viet food.

Delicious vegetarian phở with a very rich and satisfying broth. I also tried the seitan baguette which i found to be a little empty. I like sandwiches with more filling than bread, but it had good flavor nonetheless. I think it was all good for the price and like that they have so many options. Cash only and BYOB.

The lemongrass curry with tofu/​seitan is amazing! For that dish alone, this restaurant is worth visiting.

I really enjoy this place. This dishes are very tasty and unique. I do agree the portion of the food is little. I would definitely come back to try different dishes.

I’m not usually let down by places with good Unilocal reviews, so I’m reviewing for now and will update when I come again.
Maybe they’re not known for their phở, but it was mediocre at best and not even a lot of it. It was $ 12 for a small bowl, after tax and tip $ 15? Nuh uh. It was sweet and just not very satisfying, I was still hungry when I left.
In terms of ambiance, there is absolutely none, no music, no décor, the staff was ok, really nothing to brag about.
It must be the other dishes that keep this place afloat, they sounded really good, so I’ll be back to hopefully understand what the hype is about.

The food here is good and they are nice people, but THEIR PRICES ARE ABOUT TWICE AS MUCH as the listed prices on their Unilocal Menu or website. Beware. I called in an $ 18 order according to their Unilocal Menu that ended up being $ 31.
Its one thing when its a out of date website that requires programming, but when its a basic social media platform like Unilocal,prices should never be so drastically different.

I NEED TO GO BACK HERE ASAP. Sooo goood. Places like this make me wish I lived in the city. No, just kidding. It makes me wish there were more places like this in NJ.
I’ll get right into it: the BBQ seitan appetizer was AMAZING. And when I say amazing, I mean actually astoundingly good. Their seitan is top of the line for faux meat. It had the perfect texture, it was grilled and smokey and.goshdangitIneeditnow. Around it came cucumber and tomato slices, and on the side, the perfect dipping sauce. Tart and tangy with a little sweetness and a little spice. I never wanted it to end.
For my main dish I ordered the phở, cause hey, its a Vietnamese spot. Gotta try the phở. Long story short, let’s just say I practically licked the bowl with that one too. After I was done with the soup, I ordered another appetizer of BBQ seitan. Because that stuff is just freaking delicious.
The service was great, it has a little family-​owned feel. The inside was not much to look at, just typical Asian style décor. But that won’t keep me from giving it 5 stars.
Even though I have like 20 bookmarks of places I want to try in the city, I have to go back to this place. I just have to. Simply put: the food is unforgettable.

Only tried the Vietnamese food here. Everything is vegetarian but was pretty authentic. We had the spring rolls, summer rolls, banh cuon (rice crêpe), shrimp papaya salad, banh xeo (Vietnamese pankcake), spring rolls over vermicelli, and com tam bi (broken rice with tofu).
Food took pretty long to come out but was worth the wait. Everything tasted very fresh and they got the flavors and spirit of the dishes right even though they didn’t use any imitation meats (tofu was clearly a block of tofu). Only complaint is that the portions are all pretty small – just means you should probably order more appetizers or another entrée!

I love Lan Café and would give them a solid 4 stars but tonight they said they would not deliver to me they only deliver in a 7 block radius. I’m eight blocks away. I’ve been getting delivery from them for about 4 years. Such a shame.

This place was right across the road from where we were staying so I dropped into grab some quick takeout on a very chilly Saturday night. The restaurant is small with less than 12 tables but was fairly quiet when I arrived, as it was still early but filled up whilst I waited.
Though there were only a few tables, I was advised the wait was around 15 minutes and indeed, it was. I could see that one of the tables had been waiting a while (probably the table that arrived just before me) so food prep is a little on the slow side. It’s basically a family business with the son at the front taking orders and serving, the dad doing prep and plating and the mum doing the cooking so it seems she only cooks one dish at a time.
I ordered spring rolls and a Vietnamese pancake (a type of rice pancake stuffed with mushrooms, tofu, bean sprouts etc) and it came to exactly $ 20. This was a little on the steep side as the spring rolls alone were around $ 6 for 4 small spring rolls but, they were very tasty. The pancake included all the usual toppings of mint, shredded carrot, coriander, nuoc cham dressing etc, which was packed separately for takeout. Again, this pancake was pricey at around $ 11 and though well made and tasty, it was not very big.
Overall, I was happy with this place but if it had have been a warmer night, I would have walked further for better value. Having said that, this place is vegan so it will always have a steady stream of customers that won’t mind paying a little bit extra.

«If you’re hungry, don’t come here»
My party of 5 waited 40 minutes to get our food. I personally was so hungry that I literally wanted to just eat up the table (so vegetarian right?). Sorry, I love to eat meat, a friend picked this place! I don’t even know if I liked the food because it tasted good or was it the fact that I was already so hungry that I would eat anything…
I guess I can understand that it’s late night on Sunday, but still they didn’t even tell us or reassure us that the food was going to come soon. The place is teeny tiny so it’s not like they had a lot of people to serve anyway.
Wow I don’t think I was ever that hungry sitting in a restaurant. I had the pad thai and THEY did not list that there was peanuts on it (okay, maybe I’m a viet food noob) but do all pad thai dishes have to have peanuts?
I’m only mildly allergic to peanuts so… I had the rest of the dish anyway. AND I would not order anything else because who knows it might take another 50 minutes…
Probably not coming back here again.

I love this place. It’s delightful, cheap, delicious and oh so tiny. It feels more like you’re in someone’s kitchen than a restaurant and I mean that in an endearing way.
Being a sucker for seitan, I think I’ve only ever ordered that, which I can recommend. Make sure you wash down your delicious vegetarian meal with a Vietnamese iced coffee (sweetened with condensed milk, yaas!).

Little Viet garden in the East Village, slight emphasis on the little :/
Someone mentioned phở and I was so down. Nothing like that piping hot beef broth, slices of raw eye round, lime, bean sprouts, and the slurp of the noodles. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
I had no idea Lan Café was vegetarian. It wasn’t until I saw only tofu and seitan options that it dawned on me. I’m an open-​minded eater, but vegetable phở? Wasn’t really in the mood. I instead opted for some seitan lemongrass curry, which is a popular choice according to Unilocal.Sadly, that was the height of the night.
First, it took over 25 minutes for our entire table to get our food. We had enough time to finish our waters, go to the bank to grab cash, and go to the corner bodega and pick up beer (it’s BYO!). My dish came piping hot (yes) in a mini iron wok (cute) and smelled amazing (gimme). However, the portion was extremely small; even the white rice on the side wasn’t a full mound. The flavors were just that, flavors. It didn’t really mesh well and felt like it was trying to be something it wasn’t. And not to beat a dead horse, but the entrée felt like more of an appetizer if anything and wasn’t filling.
Yes, it’s cheap. Yes, I don’t normally eat vegetarian so I’m not the best judge. I tried others’ dishes and they were okay, still not my choice of flavors and small portions as well.
If you have that vegetarian friend that complains you never go to places that accommodate him/​her, it’s a nice place to meet up and kick a few back. Otherwise, I’d advise checking out other EV favorites.
btw, #200!

Good things come in small packages and come slowly. It’s worth the wait!
We had the vegetarian summer rolls, the Spring rolls, ham sandwich (#1) all for apps and then I had the curry tofu soup with baguette. All so delicious. I especially recommend the sandwich and the soup! YUM.
Amazing spot for vegetarians. Don’t come if you’re on a tight schedule. Sit and enjoy.

Came here earlier tonight with one of my coworkers. I’ve been meaning to come by for a while now, but it opens up at 2:00PM, and I normally have my lunch way earlier than that.
Place was fairly empty when we had gone in (around 5:30PM), but started to fill up by the end of our meal. I got their grilled lemongrass seitan over rice vermicelli, which was tasty and fresh. My coworker got the pad thai, which she said was yummy. They have a whole menu full of items that I can eat, and I’m excited to try them all out someday. I wish they took credit cards, though.

Many of my foodie friends have informed of this place, and since I try to stray not too far from the vegan/​vegetarian menu, I had to try this place out. I tried coming here awhile ago on Monday night, only to be sadly disappointed by the CLOSED sign. But this past week, I met a friend here and we were able to get in. At 8pm, the place is packed with people. We stand outside for about 10 minutes and a table opened up.
This place is no frills, so come with a friend or the old ball and chain or someone who really appreciates food and vegan nonetheless.
There are many references to Buddhism in the store including also an altar for Kuan Yin Pusa. She watches over the people. Very tranquil and peaceful.
An other guy takes our order of an iced coffee, a shrimp papaya salad and a lemongrass seitan dish. I judge a place by how well they make papaya salad and this place made a stellar dish. The green papaya had been marinated fully and small morsels of fake shrimp were a nice addition. I licked the platter clean. My friend’s lemongrass seitan was amazing. So flavorful and fulling!
I really really liked this place. Great for a casual dinner while catching up with friends. A great vegan option in the city!