Pause Cafe

I just got a coffee here and it was AWFUL. It had a gross sour taste, like it was yesterday’s pot of coffee or something. I drank a few sips and then dumped it. The waiter at the counter was very nice though. Just have to work on making better, fresher coffee!

Haven’t seen a healthy and delicious place in NY like Pause Café. Good service is just the icing on the cake.

Here is how Moroccan and American cultures collide: While all customers look at their smartphones in silence and pick up their food/​drink once in a while, there is a constant, vibrant conversation among the shop’s staff. The staff’s conversation in Arabic is surely louder than music. They laugh, they greet, they cook in the merriest way, despite the detestable winter of New York.
What distinguishes Pause Café from their coffee peers is probably acai bowls. Pause gives a lot of fruit toppings. Acai smoothie underneath is also delish and fresh. This place is Hearty certified!

green juice better than acai bowls
i started frequenting the café about a year ago in hopes of finding an acai bowl that rivaled those of sunny california. they aren’t bad but i come here for the breakfast sandwiches and green juice. the juice is a steal for $ 4 and the reason why it is an easy choice for the first part of my two part weekday breakfasts.

Like many others, I stopped in Pause Café when the wait for Clinton Street Baking Company was two hours. Originally planning on ordering a coffee, I decided to get a strawberry banana smoothie ($ 4 w tax). The smoothie was super thick and delicious, although it was a bit short on the strawberries for my taste. The price was crazy reasonable considering they have a huge audience waiting for their pancakes across the street.
What I really loved was the patio outside. When its 65 degrees in December, you want to take advantage of the outdoors. The Pause Café sets up AstroTurf and cute porch chairs to sit on. This was super cute and smart.

+ Cozy spot with good lighting
+ Broad breakfast and sandwich menu. All rather fresh ingredients.
+ If you are a TWC customer, you can actually use the hotspot here for WiFi
— Lack of seating is the only drawback

Love, love, loveeee this place!
My first experience here was about a year ago. I really wanted an egg sammy, so I decided to try this place. The sandwich was just okay, it took a long time to make, and it wasn’t cheap. The coffee was good. I kind of avoided it for awhile after this.
Second/​third experience here both happened in a 4 day period because, well, I’m obsessed with their acai bowls. $ 8 dollars buys you a small (not that small) bowl of delicious, fresh fruit. I love the berry one and would get it every day if I thought it was financially responsible or very healthy. I’m not saying it’s not healthy, because it is loaded with fresh fruit /​nuts /​granola, but, I can’t consume that much sugar on a daily basis. It is however a great dessert substitute, pick me up after a long night, and overall delicious treat. I’m sure I’ll have at least one bowl a week until I move out of the LES. I want to try the matcha one, but don’t want to ruin the great thing I have going. Will post an update if I do!

Great little café with great healthy food and gentle Moroccan music playing in the background. Cute friendly guys work here and cute guys frequent this place. Its cozy with its cushioned seats and mosaic tables that feel exotic. I could study, read, and relax here all day. Rarely slow, customers come in fast and furious. Regulars make jokes with the staff who it seems have known them forever. I want to be a regular so bad. Until next time, pause café.
Items tried:
The acai bowl (delicious)
Smoothies and juices (very fresh)
Lox and bagel (just right with some avocado)

I’m always looking for a fresh, and hearty acai bowl whenever I’m visiting NYC.
There’s nothing more refreshing and healthy than feeling the cool acai smoothie and fresh fruits coursing through your soul (especially since I usually eat out a lot more than usual when I visit).
Pause Café is, by far, my favorite spot for acai bowls in the city. After having tried 4 – 5 places already, Pause Café is evidently superior to the rest. The acai smoothies are thick, filled with acai purée, FRESH fruits and hearty granola. I find that other acai spots in the city have thinner smoothies, muddled with almond butter/​peanut butter, which add creaminess but is lackluster in carrying the signature acai berry flavor. Compared to other places, Pause Café is more generous with the amount of fruit in their acai bowls. The fruits they choose are also sweeter and more fresh than other spots. If you haven’t had an acai bowl before, or looking for a nice refreshing breather/​pause in your busy day, this is definitely the place to go.
Their pastries are alright, nothing that exciting. However, no fear! There’s always Clinton Bakery across the street if you’re looking for delicious breakfast pastries. The heart of Pause Café is their amazing acai bowls, which are the closest to what you’ll find in California and Hawai’i. I also enjoyed their lox bagel, which is perfectly layered with the right ingredients in the center, surrounded by a warm, perfect New York bagel (way better than Russ & Daughters Appetizers, which carries cold cream cheese and unheated bagel – their lox is their star though).
I’ll definitely be back the next time I’m around the city!
P. S. I’d like to add that I love their vibe. The acai bowls are served in round mosaic bowls, which are placed in a vintage metal tray. There’s not a lot of room to sit down inside, but I love the chill atmosphere and smell of fresh fruits/​produce aromas in the air. Moroccan music filling the area, altogether with the owner’s tiny attentions to detail, bring a much needed «pause» to the daily bustle of city life.

I really like the East Village neighbourhood, there are so many cosy cafés there, and Pause Café is one of my favorites. There are a wide range of different foods (healthier variations are juices, smoothies and smoothie bowls but there are sandwiches and other stuff as well). I adore the atmosphere, it is a moroccan café where I can feel like home. The guys are super cute and professional. FIrst I had a very good Flu Fixer juice, my husband had a delicious tuna sandwich. We returned recently for a breakfast, the hubs got a Very Berry acai bowl and I had a Matcha Green Tea acai bowl. The topping was beautiful (totally Instagram friendly: D) and the berry bowl was delicious but my matcha bowl was extremely cold so I asked them to warm it up because I wasn’t able to eat it. They tried to warm it up but something happened i guess so they offered me immediately to make me an other one without ice. I got it soon and it was divine! I was very delighted with the problem solving. I also had a small espresso, and although I am a real fan of coffee and tried it like million times in million different places, I have to say that this is probably the BEST ESPRESSO in town! The prices are correct as well, the food is good, the guys are super-​super cute so I can truly recommend Pause Café!

Everything from their coffee, breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and baked goods are on point.
I treat myself to their Mixed Nuts bowl once a week, and when I come here, I try to spend at least an hour reading or doing work because the ambiance is gorgeous. I’m re-​inspired to read more, learn more, and put good things in my body when I’m here. Can’t say enough great things. It’s truly an LES treasure.

I stopped in with my boyfriend’s roommate’s girlfriend (try saying that 3 times fast) for a girly gossip session one morning. I don’t have many friends who are into healthy food or are willing to trek all the way downtown for it, so she was a godsend. After a brief subway ride from Bryant and a brisk walk in the cold, we made it to the teeny tiny spot. Every table was occupied, but considering there were only three it doesn’t say much. Accommodates 6 people comfortably, and 9 people MAX. The only seats open were at a tiny counter near the window, Not an ideal seating location for me considering I’m about 6 feet tall and this was clearly made for someone with half my leg length. We tried waiting around in the hopes of snagging a table, but we determined that wouldn’t be in our best interests. Lord knows tourists can’t look at the NYC Transit map on their phones. No, they need to examine a paper copy and take up an entire table, even if their coffees are finished and they have no other reason to be there. Ugh.
We both got chai lattes with almond milk and small acai bowls, the very berry for me and the mix nuts for her. The wait for our orders was pretty awful, but considering how many takeout orders were going out ahead of us I wasn’t that surprised. I’d say 15 minutes for our lattes and 25 for our acai bowls. When it came to presentation the items were spectacular. Not only when it came to the food, but also when it came to the tableware. I love the silver platters the acai bowls arrived on. But they were way too big for the counter we were sitting at. That’s right. Two lattes and two acai bowls couldn’t fit where we were seated. Absurd! Get some more space guys.
We both adored our lattes, a great level of sweetness and was easily the best almond milk chai I’ve had in the city. My very berry acai bowl was a bit disappointing however. It was cold and slushy without much flavor. Not very filling either. I wound up going home and having a second breakfast with my boyfriend. The mix nuts acai bowl looked better and was an interesting cream color. Next time I’d go for that or the matcha green tea acai bowl.
While Pause was overpriced for the quality of my meal, I would probably go back. The atmosphere was spot-​on (aside from the crowdedness). I’d recommend getting a latte, an acai bowl, and some kind of sandwich. Just an acai bowl will NOT satisfy you. Also, make sure you’ve set aside a good amount of time, you’ll have a bit of a wait.

This place definitely deserves a 5 star.
The food here is absolutely delicious filled with high quality ingredients. I’ve tried many things here including omelettes, smoothies and coffee and I could not say one bad thing about either one. You get to create your own omellete using their list of ingredients that they offer including SMOKED SALMON which is what I used in my omellete. I also had their bestseller smoothie aka the «crunchy protein» which was delicious, healthy and filling. I am actually going to go back there for brunch today after I finish this review.

This place is so great I’m here at least once a week!
The staff are all awesome; super nice and really care about the customer!
Everything on the breakfast menu is great– especially the Super BLT and Bagel with Lox. Super fresh and tasty! The smoothies, juices, and acai bowls are also always delicious and healthy! So many options, as well!
The place is tiny but beautifully decorated and a great atmosphere! Highly recommend!

Love this place! I came here to kill some time and fill my stomach for a bit after being told that the wait for Clinton St Baking Company would be 2 hours. If you’re craving the famous brunch pancakes from across the street but can’t go for 2 hours on an empty stomach, you should wait at Pause Café! There are a bunch of relatively small food options that will leave you feeling satisfied but not too full.
I ordered the small matcha green acai bowl, and it was amazing. Sometimes, I can be a bit of a health nut, and this bowl of fruity deliciousness was the best combination of healthy, sweet, and refreshing that I could have asked for.
My friend ordered a breakfast sandwich, egg + avocado + tomato + onion on a baguette, and while it was good, it wasn’t anything special.
The décor here is super cozy, despite being very cramped. I would not recommend coming in a group of more than 3.

I love this place!
I walk over normally on the weekends and grab a delicious Acai bowl and latte.
The guys here are super friendly and courteous and I don’t think you can go wrong with anything on their menu

Quaint little Moroccan style café. This hole in the wall seats approximately 8 people inside and two outside. The tables have a beautiful pattern and the bowls are really pretty!
Went on a Saturday afternoon and it was pretty crowded, but we were able to grab a table by the time our acai bowls were ready. They were delicious and not too slushy or watery, also had a lot of fruit on top!

Pause Café… You always have just what I need.
Pause Café boasts an extensive smoothie and juice bar, with several additions that wont break the bank like wheat grass shots, sunflower seeds, vegan protein powder and more to blend perfectly with their large variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains.
A small, but very comfortable and cozy seating area will leave you feeling right at home and their superior customer service and catchy atmosphere will set you at ease.

Fun local coffee shop that is always buzzing. I typically stop in for a Matcha Latte and a pastry, and I never leave disappointed. They have Caneles from Balthazar Bakery, which are always a treat. Definitely try one if you haven’t before! Service is always quick and friendly, even if they are busy.
There are only a few tables and seats, and they are pretty cramped, so I usually take my drinks to-​go.

Pause Café is a cute and cozy café with tons of healthy options. I stopped by for breakfast around 11AM on a Saturday morning before heading to yoga nearby, and managed to snag one of the seats by the window. The café is small (a couple of two-​tops and two counter seats by the window) and was pretty crowded the entire time I was there.
I decided to get a chai latte and an acai bowl. There are a couple of different acai bowl options such as berries and greens, and for each flavor you can choose to get it either blended or topped. I went with a blended matcha acai bowl, and it was fresh and delicious with a hint of spiciness from the ginger. The chai latte was pretty good too, though definitely on the sweeter side. Coffee/​tea and acai bowls aside, they also have an extensive menu of sandwiches, smoothies, and juices, including $ 2 shots of things like kale and other healthy sounding stuff.
Overall, Pause Café is a nice spot to grab breakfast. Just don’t come with too many people (like more than two) otherwise it’ll be hard to get seats.