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lan cafe is my hot spot. no joke DELICIOUS, fresh, healthy, interesting food at an affordable price. sure the decor isn't too modern, per se, the space is small, and the service is. . .unique but its all good. the owners operate this small restaurant, they are doing the best they can in terms of service (its stressful waiting on people!), and the food is AMAZING. definitely try to meatball sub, the shrimp papaya salad and the ham cabbage salad, the bbq seitan, the pho, and the carrot juice (so regal! served in a gold rimmed cup at least when i went it was).

I love you this!! Great food. It is not like a first date place. But hey! at long as the food is good right? Family owned business! My boyfriend and I have dinner here about twice a week here!! PHO! is great!!

I don't know how there are people knocking this place. It'sa vegetarian's dream.. absolutely wonderful food, and the price can't be beat!! Go with the avocado salad, the bbq seitan app, and the stewed seitan entree.. The service is not great, slow and not friendly, but not rude at all, may be a cultural thing? The atmosphere is also lacking, but that's fine, its 10 dollars for dinner.. Also, it's BYOB which is nice. I have yet to take somebody there who was not a convert...

Don't let the shabby decor and delightfully kitsch wall hangings (giant pineapple?) put you off. Their food is superb. I've eaten in the restaurant and ordered takeout numerous times - and I've never had a problem - apart from their methodical (some would say slow) service. I think I've eaten almost everything on the menu by now and my favourites are anything that includes grilled seitan and the stewed seitan. Highly recommended.

The food here is excellent. My friend says the veg Pho is better than regular pho I wouldn't know, but I love it as well. The seitan dishes are excellent. One of my favorite veg places in the city. The service is slow, but I believe it's because the 2 people I assume are the owners do all the work. It's also quite small I wouldn't attempt to go with more than 4 people.

When we arrived it took forever to get a table ready for us, and we had to stand in the tiny entrance way for a bit. When we sat down, there was a little sweet cake wrapped in plastic on the table. We noticed the other tables had them, too, so we opened and ate it. We figured it's complimentary. Well, it ended up on our bill and upon further enquiry they said that they put them on all the tables, and if you open it, you have to pay for it! That is just wrong. They took forever to even take our order, the food came out person by person and not at once, and I swear I was bloaded from the Vegetarian Pho. What they're famous for I guess are the $4.50 baguettes, which my friend tried, and said it was fine. The food isn't bad, it's just all the other stuff that goes along with it. It's a tiny place, so call ahead if you're coming with a larger group. The atmosphere is pretty much non-existent. That's it. Bring your own chopsticks to save the trees.

When first I heard tell of this new veggie Viet joint, I jumped for joy! Besides old friends, probably the only thing I miss about living in Boston, MA is a restaurant called Grasshopper. It's my all-time fave place to eat. Bhuda's Delight (also in Beantown) also serves great veggie Viet, so I was wondering when a place like this would show up in NYC. That being said, Lan didn't dissapoint. Upon biting into a Summer Roll, I think I actually may have cried -- tears of joy, of course. They were splendid! A delicate blend of all the perfect stuff I've missed so much! The grilled seitan on rice vermicelli reduced me to a blubbering mass on the floor! Unexciting perhaps, is the fact that more than 70% of the times I've tried to eat at this place, it's been closed during its posted hours. Add to that disappointment the slow delivery and the fact that they've just hiked their prices up without fixing them on here (GET ON IT!) and you're left with an overall experience that's less than perfect. All that aside, however, I've finally got another order of the afore mentioned dishes in front of me as I type and . . . I'm in Heaven! SEITAN TAKE ME AWAAAAAAAY!