Carma Asian Tapas

The food was so good!
One of the best Asian food I have had in New York! They have tapas like dishes that are either typically Chinese like the soup dumplings (that are to die for) or they have revisited dishes like the Peking duck tacos that are made with the spring roll type of dough with avocado.
The decoration is modern and cosy.
And our waiter was so nice, he even showed us how was the proposer way to eat the dumplings.
The prices range from 8 dollars for a starter to 12 dollars for a Vietnamese noodle soup.
Plus, the service was really fast and the staff so welcoming.
In all, it was a lovely lunch, we will be coming again for sure!

The Soup Dumplings were great as they advertise. It was very delicious. The dishes were not small tapas sizes, but they were still small yet shareable. The restaurant décor and vibe seemed nice. I went there on a really slow Tuesday with a friend for a deal she got on Gilt. The server/​host was nice, but I was really shocked at one of the comments she made when I asked about a particular dish.
[Disclaimer] I don’t like to be a cultural snob, as I understand a lot of creatives (including culinary creatives) like to interpret cultural flavours. This isn’t a conversation about cultural appropriation/​appreciation, but simply about the disregard and disrespect with which the server spoke.
Basically, I wanted some specifics about a dish that was on the menu (as I had no idea what it was or how it would taste) and she responded with «I don’t know; some Asian stuff» in a cool, indifferent tone. For one, I actually wanted to know about what you were serving me, so «I don’t know; some Asian stuff» isn’t going to cut it. If you’re going to serve it, know about it so you can inform your patron. Secondly, I’m not very impressed with the tone. Sure if some uneducated patron thinks that all of Asia is one homogenous culture, that’s their problem, but you’d think that the server would be educated in knowing what the food is and where it’s from. As I said I would move away from the whole «racial/​ethnic» talk, it would even help your customer in knowing what to expect.
Obviously, this may all seem secondary and trivial, but the point is that it left a really bad taste in my mouth regardless of how good the soup dumplings were. And they were really good.

This place is way overpriced for rebranded Chinese food. I will say that the mushrooms and Shanghai dumplings were pretty good, but still way overpriced. The duck tacos were mediocre. The beef noodle soup and the veggie dish recommended by the waiter was pretty gross. I guess this is what we get for buying into the «fancy» Chinese food hype.

The Asian fusion train is still going strong. Carma is described as an East meets West tapas place. If you don’t mind, I’d like to put in my two cents regarding this term. To me, tapas means snacks, or shared plates. When it comes to Asian dishes, I didn’t think it was necessary to label the dishes ‘tapas,’ because traditional Asian restaurants are family style, hence sharing is already implied. In fact, all dim sum dishes are meant to be shared. So I thought that calling it tapas is a little redundant and unnecessary. But I guess calling it tapas makes it sound more trendy, like an innovative new concept.
Also I didn’t realize it was also a wine bar. Had I known, I would have asked our server for a wine recommendation.
Crab Soup Dumplings ($ 12 for 6):
The dumplings were the best thing we tried. Not surprisingly so, since the chef is from the DTF. By the way it seems as if they don’t want to spare any opportunity letting you know that fact.
Back to the dumpling … 6 little baos resting within a bamboo steamer. The skin is thin and delicate while holding a good amount of soup in each one. The crab flavor is definitely there. Very nice dumplings. The price is a little high compared to hole-​in-​the-​wall dumpling joints that I’m used to and have enjoyed.
Peking Duck Tacos ($ 12 for 2) — hoisin BBQ sauce, guacamole, crispy shallots:
While these weren’t bad, they weren’t good either. I usually do not enjoy shredded meat of any kind. But I think it’s especially wrong to shred duck. I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t have just cut chunks of Peking duck instead of grinding it away to a very dry, shredded pork consistency. The avocado helped the duck taste less dry, but kind of competed with the hoisin. I think fried wonton wrappers were used in the taco, which is nice. I was surprised the tacos were so expensive. There were only 2 tacos, so each $ 6 small taco has a little bit of duck. Is there some duck shortage I don’t know about?
Sake Braised PEI Mussels ($ 13) — coconut milk, sake, Thai basil, shallots, ginger garlic lemongrass broth:
This was presented nicely in an earthenware looking pot with a handle. The mussels were cooked well. I couldn’t taste a lot of coconut milk or sake, but I liked the broth. It was savory and not too rich. The diced up shallots were nice and sweet.
Sea Dog Blue Paw Blueberry — a sweet, slightly tart, berry beer in a Pilsner glass.
So the service was pretty good. I saw that they also have an adorable outdoor dining area in the back. There were a good amount of tables, and decorated with flowers and stringed lighting. They also take reservations on Opentable. Not exactly my preference for food, but still a nice restaurant.

This place is divine. Hands down the best Chinese food I’ve eaten in NYC. Bold statement, yes, but I’ve searched long and hard. What I love about this place is that it still has the traditional dishes you see in non-​Americanized Chinese food but fused with modern day flavors. The portions are on the smaller size so you may need to stock up — we ordered this eggplant dish, crab soup dumplings, pork belly buns, 3 bowl chicken and a few other things, all of which were so flavorful and delicious.
The place is super cute (and decently big) and the best part was this super sassy /​amazing server that we had. A real life Mr. Chow. Between him and the food, I’d say this place is perfection.

I wish I could 4 and half maybe someday.
We walked place was not crowded and we were greeted at the door and walked to our table. Mgr could not have been nicer and explained the menu to us. After giving his honest opinion we told us about this great wine. Well he was right wine was amazing. We then tried the duck tacos and wished we ordered 2 orders so good if I had anything to say is would have been nice to get 3 for 10 but they were great. Then had pick soup dumplings nuff said and then chicken. Everyone and everything was amazing and I will be back so glad we tried this place.

A really cute find!
This is an Asian tapas place with very fresh and tasty dishes.
We had the coconut milk calamari ($ 15) which was crunchy and fresh, had great flavor. We also tried the king poa chicken ($ 12) which tasted like a chili chicken. The beef soup dumplings ($ 10 for 6) were really tasty as well.
Love the interior décor and vibe here.
I would pass on the black sesame ice cream as it tasted a little like tires (not that I know what tires taste like, yes like the ones on your car). Also, prices were a little on the high end considering the portion of each dish.

Eat24 pickup of 2 pricey peking duck tacos was ready promptly, because the joint was empty, and because they were perhaps the smallest dish of all time. Peking Duck Tacos (2 Pcs) $ 10.00 (Homemade hoisin BBQ sauce, avocado, crispy shallots.)
Shame they’re so overpriced and overwhelmed with guacamole because they had serious potential. (Received a call from Anthony at 9am the morning after my review stating they’re considering moving from 2 to 3 tacos per order, and inviting me back to lunch the following Saturday.)
I’m sure folks often mis-​search for this place, as it’s not called Karma and not called Carmine.

My fiancé surprised me with a night out after traveling for work for a week. I believe it was within the first few weeks of opening. Manager Tony (excuse me if that is not correct) was super welcoming and passionate about this venue, for good reason! The food was fantastic, service was top notch and the menu is extremely impressive!
I can’t wait to take friends there next!

Came here on a Saturday for lunch and we were one of the few people here.
We sat outside in the courtyard, which despite the gorgeous buildout, felt quite lonely. We went ahead and ordered the little fried buns, the beef noodle, and the eggplant. Yeah, everything was good, but something was missing. The taste is there, and the flavors are clean and quite lovely, but nothing is special. In a city where there are hundreds of Chinese /​Asian inspired restaurants, this one is so forgettable.
Service was mediocre at best.
I do hope that this place does well, and I do hope that it succeeds. It’s got a lot of potential, just missing the wow factor.

The food here was A++ as a Taiwanese native we went there for lunch on a Sunday, lunch menu was ridiculously small, so we decided to order every item on the menu. The Xiao long Bao was amazing beef noodles was solid everything reminded me of home. I had absolutely no complain what so ever about the food and would recommend to any friend with2 thumbs up.
Here comes a part why I had to take a star out, as a fellow restaurant manager, I could tell the place was poorly manage (at least for Sunday brunch part) we had one guy who was pretty much manager/​hostess/​server/​bartender/​food runner. It definitely reflex on service and dining experience
I feel like this place is such a hidden gem, and I’m happy that we can go there with no wait (while the Bao in east village is pack all day long) but they definitely need better management or hire some more people. I really hope this is just a off Sunday. And my comment reflex on that particular day only. No matter how good the food is. The hospitality part is equally as important!

Hmmm finally someone realized Chinese food is WAYYYY more than general Tsao’s and greasy Lo Mein.
Carma is a place where your Chinese food karma is at work. Menu is heavier on dumplings and those are indeed decent
Also liked the seaweed salad dish– a good combo of crunchy and flavor with my veggies. It’s more of a Japanese influence though
hot dish like the eggplants were solid too. Not tooo greasy like other black garlic eggplants, but comes full of flavor in a cute clay pot!
When we visited, the place is still fine tuning its wine list, such as by inviting a sake expert onsite. hmmm soo need to see how things flush out on that front.
Overall cute place … while service is just a bit awkward w/​awkward personal questions and sometimes slower turnaround

Chinese food in the West Village? That immediately calls for low expectations. But boy was I blown away.
1) Happy hour all night, drinks were half off — $ 12 for 2 Pink & Pretty cocktails!
2) AMAZING FOIE GRAS SOUP DUMPLINGS — thin skin, soupy, meaty and I tasted the foie even though I didn’t see it inside! (GET THIS)
3) 3 cups chicken was juicy and tasty with a kick to it, served in 3 cups…
4) Shanghainese Pork Shu Mai — kinda like sticky rice but in little portions, very good too
5) TEMPURA FRESHWATER EEL — LOOOOOVED THIS!!! The big piece of eel was lightly fried with a thin coating, served with burrata and cucumber… SUCH a genius combination. (GET THIS)
6) I would skip the rice cake with ikura next time, too heavy and peppery.
7) Great service
8) Clean bathroom!
Yes, it’s on the pricey side and it feels weird to pay a higher premium for Chinese food, but I enjoyed their creative menu!

The Quick: Great service, ideal location, huge restaurant with cute garden seating, good food (not great) and a little pricey. Definitely worth it with the current Groupon special!
The Details: I would like this place to survive on Carmine Street, but I just don’t think it will. The dumplings were delicious, six pork soup dumplings for $ 10. The five spiced beef was also very good. The duck tacos and pork bell were just mediocre. Overall nothing stellar that I would return for unless I had another groupon/​discount.
Pro Tip: Bring cash as the bar has two-​for-​one special all night cash only.
The Damage: Dumplings and three Asian tapas, came to ~ $ 41 before tip. We could’ve easily ordered another tapas since we were not really full.

Service was absolutely terrible. Spoiled the entire experience.
The manager was pretty rude to us from the onset. We told him we would have eight people and he made us back up and wait at the entrance. Another host tried to serve us and write us into the books but the manager stopped him, so we were left standing around. Then he told us to sit in the back and no one came to seat us and rearrange the tables. They brought us bottles of water but it took a lot longer for them to bring cups — and they miscounted so one person didn’t have a cup. They also neglected to refill the water bottles, even after reminding the waiter — he took the empty bottle never to be seen again.
They brought out the soup dumplings first and didn’t bring chopsticks. We stared at them as they started to get cold. The crab dumplings had a very weak crab flavor. The Peking tacos were nothing to write home about — some duck meat and guac inside a commercially bought taco shell. We ordered a lot of other dishes, including the beef noodle soup and pork belly bao. The flavors were decent, but the prices were expensive and portion sizes were minuscule. Not great value for the price, and the service was awful. I’d much rather go eat at a hole-​in-​the-​wall in Chinatown than suffer through this pretension.

We ordered 4 dishes and 2 arrived after 45 min we asked for the other 2 which then we were told they were given to another table and they run out if these dishes now. Meanwhile we asked for bread 6x which arrived after 30 min. When the manager came to speak to us he was miserable did not apologized nor compensated us.
Bad service
Rude manager
Don’t go
We left hungry and agitated

The place is a rustic-​modern restaurant with a nice garden seatings in the back, a favorable downtown restaurant.
Crab Soup Dumpling ($ ¹²⁄₆)
It was good as Grand Sichuan’s Crab & Pork soup dumpling ($ ⁹⁄₈); some more crab meat would be nice.
Japanese Eggplant w/​Spicy Garlic Sauce ($ 13)
Beside eggplant, twisted long green chili peppers, that gave a nice heat. with an unappetizing slippery texture — Thai, not Chinese but influenced. I often get eggplant w/​garlic sauce but I don’t like overcooked eggplant. It becomes a gloppy mess. Sadly, that’s what I recieved.
Food — 2 star
Ambiance — 4
Overall — 3.5 (if I dine in)

I expect no less from Carma when
1. Their executive chef used to work at Din Tai Fung.
2. They charge nearly double of what Nan Xiang dumpling house in Flushing charges for their soup dumplings.
3. It’s in West Village, one of the more posh (er) areas in Lower Manhattan.
With all that said, this place does live up to the hype. The food here is a great alternative to dim sum. In addition to the soup dumplings, I got Jasmine Tea Shu Mai, Peking Duck tacos and Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup.
If you like Shu Mai definitely try their take on jasmine tea Shu Mai, it’s served green and they use a different wrapper. It even comes with a sweet and savory sauce. I didn’t taste much Jasmine tea though but it was quite flavorful in a savory sense. Definitely not your average Shu Mai.
Crab soup dumplings all the way! They’re definitely the best ones I’ve had in NYC and I’ve tried Joe’s Shanghai and Nan Xiang dumpling house. The meat here is different in that it’s soft and almost melts in your mouth. The crab soup is more savory, sweet and juicier than the pork one so I would get the crab over the pork.
Peking duck tacos weren’t that spectacular, it was good but not great. The meat could be a little more juicy? The sauce and the avocado was a pleasant addition to it.
Can’t leave here without the Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup! The broth was delicious! It was semispicy but that’s what gives it more of a kick in flavor.
All in all, not bad for a late dim sum lunch or an Asia style tapas dinner. They serve more items during dinner time so I recommend coming then, the lunch prices roll over to the dinner menu for the same items so you’re all good on the wallet’s end!
P. S. They offer happy hour from 4pm — 7pm: buy one drink and get one free! (Alcohol only I believe)

Solid place for decent Taiwanese food. After hearing good things, my roommate and I came here for a Friday lunch and it was beautiful outside (although a bit noisy due to the construction on Carmine Street). We were initially seated inside, but the host suggested we sit in the outdoor backyard garden area to avoid the construction noise. The outdoor seating is definitely a nice touch, and something that most Chinese restaurants can’t say they have. The décor overall is elevated
Onto the food. We got the pork xiaolongbao, pork chop over rice, and Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The soup dumplings were very delicious and well crafted. They had the incredibly thin skin, which gives the dumpling the texture you want, but were strong enough to hold in all the liquid. The pork chop over rice came with all the fixings: Chinese greens, and a hard-​boiled soy sauce egg. The rice itself was stir fried with vegetables and gave off a green hue and was good. The pork chop itself was pretty standard and meh, but the dish itself was very well done. The beef noodle soup had great flavor and good chunks of beef, but was very greasy, which was a shame, because Taiwanese beef noodle soup is one of my favorite dishes, and it’s hard to find a good bowl of it in Manhattan. This was better than most, but the kitchen definitely has to dial back the oiliness.
Service overall was very attentive and friendly. Prices are a bit more expensive than you would find in Chinatown, but the quality is good, and I guess that’s what you get for the nicer space and the West Village location. They seem to have a lot of happy hour specials from day to day, so with the outdoor space, that could be a pretty fun spot to be. I’ll be back for a leisurely meal, and will try some of their other dishes.

*** HAPPY HOUR ONLY ***
I randomly came here after a long day of work in search of a new place for Happy Hour.
The restaurant space itself is semi-​spacious with a back patio that has additional dining seating. The whole space spells MODERN. The bar area sits enough for 6. The bar seats were one of the more comfier bar seats in recent memory.
Service wise, the bartender/​server was friendly, engaging and was just doing her thing. This was in spite of that fact that she had to take care of the whole floor including the back patio all by herself with a some help from her supervisor.
This restaurant had opened roughly 2 months ago so they are fairly new. I noticed this as the barback/​server in training had a hard time finding things such as Sapporo and or which glass to pour what in. No biggie, he wasn’t my server.
Their happy hour is pretty good as their promotion is 2 for 1 on ALL DRINKS during happy hour throughout the month of May. I’m not sure what modifications to their happy hour they are planning to make after May but I’ll update in June. Beer wise they do NOT have any one tap. All bottles. They do have a good selection of wine, sake and cocktails. I stuck to the beer. Of the 3 I tried/​retried, Angry Orchard Apple Ginger and Sea Dog Blue Paw Blueberry were my go to. I’d skip Ithaca Cascazilla Red Ale unless you enjoy IPAs.
Then I read a Unilocal review mentioning beef noodle soup. What??? You know I had to tried theirs being the beef noodle soup connoisseur that I am. That Taiwanese Style Beef Noodle Soup ($ 12.00) was just okay. The broth was good but nothing to brag home about. The noodles were on point. The one thing that they were missing was the cubed sour cabbages. The portion was also on the smaller side.
I heard good things about the soup dumplings here. Perhaps, I will try them next time I come here.
They are still working through the kinks as they don’t have a host/​hostess on duty yet and might very well be understaffed. Your best bet for good service and the least issues if any with food coming out of the kitchen slow might be during lunch but definitely not dinner as they do have a good crowd for that.
FAN.