Nachos @ Sidewalk Cafe

In addition to having the best grilled cheese in the city, Sidewalk Cafe, located on Avenue A at E. 6th Street, also has the best vegetarian nachos!  The chips are thin and crispy, covered with an ample layer of Monterey Jack cheese.  The salsa is chunky and perfectly seasoned.  The nachos also include yummy sour cream and sliced peppers!  Add $2 for guacamole that’s so good that they could change the restaurant’s name to Side-guac Cafe!

Seamless Web is Great!

I love to order from Seamless Web!  It’s so convenient.  I love to be able to order food online.  I hate calling in orders and having to worry about whether the person on the other end of the phone has a competent grasp of the English language.  It’s great for vegetarians, because you won’t end up getting a meaty item because you were misunderstood.  Check it out–www.seamlessweb.com!

Tofu Pad Thai @ Klong

Klong, located on St. Mark’s near Third Avenue, is a great place to visit for lunch.  The lunch specials are only $6, including an appetizer, and the atmosphere is really nice.  Plus, it’s in a nice area, near the K-mart.  Klong is also great for delivery.  They always get the order right and it’s delivered quickly.  Plus, its on Seamless Web, which is a great website to order food from.  

Klong’s tofu pad thai, while not quite as yummy as Thai Basil’s, definitely holds its own in the pad thai competion.  The tofu is also really good–crispy and firm.  Klong also includes a lot of tofu in it’s pad thai–yum!  The pad thai seasoning is a little sweeter than my ideal, but it’s still really good.

Vegetarian Breakfast Heaven @ Odessa

Odessa, located on Avenue A between E. 7th St. and St. Mark’s, has the best and cheapest breakfasts in the East Village.  The egg dishes are great, and the sides are even better!  Each egg dish comes complete with home fries and toast.  The home fries, cooked to a crisp in a skillet with peppers and onions, are yummy.  Add 35 cents to get Challah bread toast included with your meal.  The Challah bread is fluffy, slightly sweet, and served in two huge slices.  The toast is practically a meal in itself!  A cheddar cheese omelet, Challah bread, and home fries runs around $5.  Great food, great deal!

Broccoli and Garlic Sauce–Mee Noodles

Mee Noodles, at Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street, is my favorite Chinese restaurant in the city.  The Broccoli and Garlic sauce lunch special is great!  You can order in with flavorful egg fried rice…yum!  You also get a vegetable spring roll which is really good as well.  Sometimes the garlic sauce is a little spicy, but it’s usually just right.

Tofu Pad Thai–Thai Terminal

Thai Terminal has the best tofu pad thai I’ve had in the East Village.  The taste of the noodles and seasonings and the quality of the tofu were comparable to Thai Basil in Hell’s Kitchen–and that’s quite a feat!!!  The serving size for the dinner entree, however, was quite smaller.  I’ve only been here once, but would love to go again and try their inexpensive lunch specials!!!

Red Bamboo

Yum!  I loved going to this restaurant, located on West 4th Street and Sixth Avenue.  The menu is entirely vegetarian.  It’s a great feeling to know you can order anything off of a menu!  The Soul Chicken Sandwich was great.  Their soy chicken nuggets are so yummy–perfectly battered with a realistic texture.  The fries were okay but not that impressive; however, the nuggets made up for it!

Tofu Pad Thai @ Mini Thai Cafe

Mini Thai Cafe has a very convenient location on Avenue A between E. 7th and E. 6th Streets.  Unfortunately, the location is the only good thing about the restaurant.  Their tofu pad thai is no good!  The tofu was mushy and undercooked.  The tofu was so bad that it was inedible and had to be pushed to the side of the plate.  Additionally, the noodles and seasonings did nothing to save the dish–they were mediocre at best.  This was probably the worst tofu pad thai I’ve had in the city–the microwavable pad thai you can buy at Duane Reade is better!

Nutrisystem–Vegetarian Meal Plan

I was really excited that Nutrisystem had a completely vegetarian meal plan.  But, alas, it was the grossest thing ever.  One of the meals consisted of a powder that was supposed to become mashed sweet potatoes when you add water and microwave it.  But the stuff never thickened, so I had sweet potato flavored water for dinner.  The only good thing about Nutrisystem was that they completely refunded my money after I sent the food back.

Tofu Pad Thai @ Thai Basil

The tofu at Thai Basil (Ninth Avenue at 56th St) is the best the city has to offer!  Perfectly crispy on the outside, the tofu deliciously compliments the pad thai noodles with which it is served.  The pad thai is perfectly seasoned. It is not too sweet, like the pad thai at many other restaurants in the city.  The portion size is also ample.  The lunch special is only $6.95, and includes a small salad and delicious vegetable spring roll.  I’ve tried lots of pad thai dishes in the city, and Thai Basil’s is the best by far!