Ayurveda Cafe

This is a great place to eat when you don’t know what you want to eat. If you’re indecisive — as I usually am when I’m starved — DINE HERE because all the food is chosen for you. All dishes are vegetarian and caters to the six senses — sour, pungent, sweet, astringent, salty & bitter. Food comes in simple metal bowls & plates and come dinner time, unlimited. I had 5 pekoras and 10 macarons with no regrets and no judgment. Take a step into India and leave with a good fortune on your way out.

If you want delicious, carefully-​prepared Indian vegetarian food, YOU WON’T FIND IT HERE. AYURVEDA has been around for years. In the past we loved the way the spices complemented the veggies. Now everything tastes like they threw it together an hour before and boiled the crap out of it. No care, no skill in combining spices, tastes terrible. They must be cutting corners like crazy. I will never order from them again.
We ordered two dinner thalis. The main squash dish had pieces of skin still on, tasted boiled and not carefully cooked. The dal was so-​so. I don’t know what the fried thing was. It certainly did not resemble a pakora or a samosa. More like someone chopped some green veggie and slapped it on a grill. Did not taste Indian at all. Raita was thin and sour. Meals come with tamarind and coriander chutneys in tiny plastic containers. The coriander chutney tasted spoiled. Only the papadum and the bread tasted authentic. We didn’t bother with the gulab jamun. Shame on you Ayurveda. You think your patrons don’t recognize or value good and careful cooking? You are SO WRONG.

Best Indian restaurant experience I’ve ever had. I walked all the way from the staten island ferry through central park and had a raging appetite. Went into this small little Indian restaurant and they served delicious and plentiful food. I wish I lived near here so I could stop in all the time. Well done

This place took me back to my childhood days and reminded me of my granny’s cooking. It was most delicious, healthy and minimalistic. This is a place which would not only uplift your mood, but your spirit as well. The food served here is cooked in tune with ayurvedic principles, it is light, flavorful with just the right amount of spices and non-​greasy. I would rate it very highly, a must go for vegans/​vegetarians, and I believe this surely is one of the best Indian food places I have been to in a long time, it’s a gem, and I am so glad that I found it. Eating here left me happy and feeling healthy! :-)

Delicious, clean, 100% vegetarian Indian food that is served as a pre-​set menu. $ 9.95 for lunch, $ 15.95 for dinner. Small beer/​wine list. Almost everything is vegan. I initially thought the price for the tasting menu was a bit high, until the food arrived. The quantities are massive, and the quality is impressive. Then, the waiter informed me that the tasting menus are ALL YOU CAN EAT. Game changer!
Needless to say, I ate a lot. The best dishes were the chickpea broccoli curry and the fresh green salad. The vegan chickpea flour dessert was really special-​such a unique dish that you must try! Everything was flavorful without being heavy or oily. It tastes like they use very little salt in the food, but everything is so well seasoned that you don’t miss it. This is the kind of food you can fill up on and not feel bad about yourself. Servers here are sweet and helpful. All credit cards accepted.

Absolutely wonderful local business promoting holistic balanced nutrition and good karma. They offer an amazing deal for the quality of food. I believe in the principles in Ayurvedic living and this place is authentic and delicious!
They welcomed my class of preschoolers (free of charge) into the restaurant for a hands on demonstration on how to make authentic roti. They gave them a tour of the kitchen and a look inside the coal burning oven. It was a blast!

I have never been disappointed by this hidden gem in the upper west side. The food? Delicious and simple. The service? Attentive. The ambiance? Tranquil.
It’s also an amazing bargain.

This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
(Romeo and Juliet, 2.2)
Wow. I found love.
The most convenient area for my friend and I to meet is in the West 90’s. We have tried a few different places so far but I regret every meal I ate that was not here. My friend suggested it, and I agreed thinking that I am a vegetarian who loves Indian food.
The ambiance is like «eh», its not bad but certainly not NICE.
They put those indian crackers with the dipping sauces on the table.
They ask us if we would like brown or white rice – I choose white because I am a human being with actual taste buds. They bring us our food – platters with salad, a small potato pancake-​y thing, rice, and three ¾ cup size bowls – one was a tofu in a red sauce, one was that potato and green bean dish, and the third was a lentil dish. All were absolutely delicious. I finished before my friend and I did not finish my rice nor salad.
Then, the waiter (owner?) came over and was like «do you need more?» and I was like uhh, no, and he was like «It’s all you can eat»
I’M SORRY, WHAT?!
I ordered more lentils and green beans and they were so delicious and I was so full. Then, they brought us this little chickpea cake dessert, which was good/​interesting.
The bill comes – AFTER tax and tip, only $ 20. A STEAL. AMAZING. I CAN’T WAIT TO GO BACK.

A really great lunch spot. The food was quite good and reasonably priced ($ 13 for a filling lunch with table service!).
A word to vegans — the prix fixe menu had some non-​vegan components that you might want to ask to replace before ordering. The bread that came with my meal was a chapati, which typically uses ghee in making the dough, and there was a little bowl of yogurt that came with everything. The staff was quite friendly, they’d probably be amenable to subbing in extra of whatever else they’re serving that day to keep the meal vegan. That chapti though… mmmmmm. delicious.
I do agree that the dishes are mildly spiced, but I still found them flavorful.
Don’t be scared of the empty dining room at lunch, go on in and eat some tasty!

O Ayurveda Café traz todos os dias um prato ovo-​lacto diferente, com a opção vegana do mesmo!
Comida deliciosa influenciada pela Ayurveda e o melhor, por $ 10 você come à vontade
Lugar simples, com comida muito boa e barata! Fácil acesso pela linha 2!
Vale a pena!

Very kind people here.
It’s a set menu, and tonight it wasn’t what I would have ordered if I could have ordered any dish, but it was still OK. I think restaurants tend to make their food more amenable to American palates, which favor kinda bland spiceless stuff, comparatively.
But yeah. Still good, healthy, tasty food — and a very friendly establishment! Would recommend, of course.

Very bland, watered down for the american palette. Not authentic in flavor. Paneer was actually tofu. Chai was milk. if you’re Desi and used to rich flavors, I wouldn’t recommend this place. Staff was nice.

Great for vegetarians — everything they serve is vegetarian :) Loved the set menu, and it changes daily. The staff was super friendly. I will be coming back for sure!

Great ambience. Really brings out the Indian feel to it. Quantity of the food is good for the cost. Staff is friendly, and the place was not very crowded when I went there around 1pm for a vegetarian platter. Being an Indian myself, I just didn’t enjoy the quality of the food much. I’ve been to far better Indian restaurants in NYC where they serve authentic Indian dish.

Food was decent. The daal and Chana sabzi weren’t too great, salad was just mostly lettuce, but the other curry, raita and rice were good. The rotis were really soft and warm. For dessert we were served broken wheat kheer which was good portion and very tasty. Overall, it’s awesome when you’re a traveler and when you want to eat something wholesome and healthy, for a very responsible price. If you’re here only for the tastebuds, it’s going to disappoint. But if you are here to fill yourselves up to the brim with home-​like food, this is your place.

I enjoyed lunch here very much. I’ll post photos, so you can see my lunch & dessert. Lunch is $ 10, includes dessert, & it is all you can eat! When I had read that in a Unilocal review before dining here, I thought, well, maybe that’s not up-​to-​date, so I did not fully expect that, considering it seems everything just goes up in price wherever you go. What a lovely surprise!!! It IS all you can eat!!! I also like that you do not have to even think about what to order because it is one menu for the day, & you just have to decide if you would like brown rice or white rice. The meal comes with bread. Small round bowls are served within one large round tray & that is how your meal is brought to you at your table. Two sauces are also brought to you in a small tray. We had Tamarind sauce & a Cilantro sauce. I LOVE CILANTRO!!! Both sauces were very good.
Here’s what my meal consisted of today – some of what I can recall – dark lentils in a lovely lentil sauce, /​black chick peas with potatoes/​, green spicy something/​little salad/​yogurt & I think dill. And one cabbage & something fritter. All are in their own small silver bowls. I ENJOYED EVERY MORSEL OF FOOD. And, I LOVED TODAY’S dessert. It was very, very thin, whole wheat noodles, but this looked & tasted like a fabulous, ultra THIN noodle rice pudding, with a subtle bit of cinnamon. I LOVED THE TEXTURE & FLAVOR OF THIS DESSERT. I will definitely be back!!! Service was very, very nice. And, I loved the saying on paper that I selected from the «word box» at the end of my meal. Healthy, good food at a great price with kind, caring service. I did not see the word box, so I did ask. Be sure to do the same because it is fun & cool! Enjoy.
This is the PERFECT PLACE to bring someone who says: «Oh, I can never decide what to order, can we have a few more minutes?» It is ONE MENU EACH DAY! Delicious! No thinking necessary – so that means it is also great for anyone under a lot of stress! Dine here!!!

Amazing food, amazing service and amazing atmosphere! And only 10 for a huge meal! :) ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend

This is an original. The food is clean, well prepared. It’s all you can eat which is a nice touch.
Great tea. Lovely, laid back place with excellent service. A real neighborhood restaurant.

Healthy food. A little too bland for an indian. Overall good experience. Best is that they allow u to share the thali. Yes. Again.

It was 10 o’clock on a Monday night, and I had been walking around looking for a place to eat. None of the places I passed on Broadway seemed to have the right atmosphere I was looking for. I wanted to relax and eat in an environment free of noise pollution and tourists. I almost caved and went to the pizza place, but I decided to walk two blocks up to Amsterdam. I saw the orange awning that said Ayurveda Café– Indian Vegetarian food. I walked right up to it. Inside, the front of the restaurant had signs talking about their food experience. There was also a table that had statues of Ganesh– the elephant God. I knew then that I had come to the right place. Upon entering, there was only one other person there, a Jewish man with a Yamaka devouring his plate of food. I sat down and was given a metal cup of water. I looked around the restaurant, appreciating their Ohm symbol at the front, along with Hindu gods and goddesses. I started reading about Ayurveda– which means knowledge of life. It is a traditional Hindu medicinal system which involves balancing the diet and including yoga and meditation. I had just come back from living at a monastery upstate, and had been eating only vegetarian food. When I came back and ate a little bit of meat, I started getting indigestion and stomach aches. I follow a pescatarian diet, so my body is not used to eating large amounts of meat. This kind of food is exactly what I needed. Ayurveda café serves pre fixed meals for a set price for lunch and dinner. For $ 15.95, you get an appetizer, 2 vegetable entrees, salad, raita, bread, rice, chutneys and a dessert. The foods consist of 6 flavors to balance your diet; sour, pungent, sweet, astringent, salty, and bitter. Great value! I liked how the food came in simple metal bowls and plates– very industrial and simple. The appetizer of the day was a crispy flatbread that came with mango chutney, a green chutney, and a sauce that had an astringent taste that is vaguely like barbecue sauce. I also got a King Fisher, which is a type of Indian beer that I never tried before.
The main courses came in a big silver plate with little bowls on it containing all the foods. For the entrees, I had curried vegetables and a mushroom curry. The raita was wonderfully cool and went great with the salad and naan. I had lentils and a zucchini fritter to go with the rice. The food portions look small, but they are very filling. Everything was given in the right portion so you don’t overeat. The only slight setback was that the food wasn’t that hot, but it was towards the end of the night and they were about to close. I found myself having trouble finishing the food, because it was a lot! For dessert, there was a dish of noodle pudding– like rice pudding but mainly with noodles. On the way out, I took a slip of paper from the box at the front that has quotes in it. It contains words of wisdom that can help you with your daily life. I loved the concept of eating healthily and their soothing Indian music. I will definitely come here again and again!

This is our place. Always cozy, great food and really nice people. This is what I love about New York, it has places hosted by their owners.
The all you can eat service makes everything simpler. You can go there to eat with your partner, family or friends and talk without being disturbed by the waitress.
The food is amazing and since you can repeat whatever you like you can’t get out of there hungry. Everything givens homemade, you can taste it, and the bread comes warm.
Inexpensive place to eat for what you get.
If you like vegetarian Indian this is the right restaurant.
I totally recommend this spot.

Excellent place to eat, this was the best meal value of my entire NYC trip. I went in for lunch, there is no food menu but there is a menu for drinks which includes a variety of lassies, wines and beers. The main meal is a thali that consists of rice (brown or white), raita, salad, fritter and a variety of vegetable dishes.
At the end, the server brings dessert, in my case it was payasam which was delicious. There is also free wifi, I asked the server the password and she gave it to me. The check added up to $ 10.85, awesome!!!

Lecker & Sauber & Freundlich — Sofort wieder.