Curly’s Lunch

I’ve had some fantastic meals here and some so-​so meals here. The best meal I ever had was a peach pancakes weekend brunch special. The vegan chicken parm and the Thanksgiving-​style turkey/​stuffing/​cranberry sandwich platter is pretty good, too. The garlic greens and corn bread are also really good. The most boring thing I’ve had was the meat loaf dinner, which was dry and every item on the plate was bland. Either way, it’s definitely a good place to hang out with friends. They actually have crayons at the table so you can color on your place mat!
The first time I was there a few years ago, the waitress seemed pretty clueless about veganism and which options were vegan. The girl who waited on me last week was also somewhat unhelpful, asking if I wanted a dish vegan, only to tell me that it’s not offered vegan. In between these times, I’ve had no issues with the staff, but I do question overall how knowledgeable they are of vegan items.
Also, what’s with the new name, «12 Carrots»? That’s got to be the least creative, boring name for a restaurant. It sounds like a place that no omni/​carnivore in their right mind would want to go so when inviting non-​veg friends to dine, I will continue calling it «Curly’s» :)

I had been juicing 2 out of my 3 meals at home for about 3 weeks when my best friend invited me to a show. We were supposed to meet at Artichoke pizza and while i love that place, its ingredients weren’t on my list of veggie juices. I had NO idea Curly’s was even there, but I do now. When I walked up to meet him, he immediately told me to walk into Curly’s and order whatever I wanted. The manager was so sweet and squeezed a ton of veggies into the most delicious juice made of beets, ginger, spinach, carrots, apple and parsley. Then, he sauteed fresh kale with garlic. I was in healthy heaven and had so much energy from the combination. The price was right and the portions were perfect! I cannot say enough about this place– it’s the bees knees!

the chilaquile were so so so so so good. i can dream about them.
and i also had the bread pudding! it was awesome.
and the serving sizes were so big.
it was funny, because we had such a small table and we had too much food, more than we could fit on the table. but we proudly finished it all.
my friend made some weird face with crayons, which i’m convinced they’d never put on the wall. but it was fun. it was a small tiny cozy restaurant and I would definitely visit again. the servers were really friendly and always smiling.

I only had a creamsicle smoothie since I’d already eaten and I was disappointed to find it tasted like banana although it wasn’t mentioned in the menu.
Overall it’s a cute place and the servers were really patient with my group since we had a little baby with us, but I didn’t like the smoothie that much.

This place rocks!
Ok so my slogan (Raw meat is all I eat!) is somewhat of an exaggeration. I do love raw meat but every once in a while I crave a non bovine meal. If you met me, you’d know immediately that I wasn’t a vegetarian but that I clearly love to eat. All I care about is that the food tastes good. I don’t discriminate.
Curly’s gives me the feeling that I’m eating healthy food that actually tastes good. Well, I don’t know how healthy a deep fried piece of tofu-​chicken is but it certainly tastes great! I’ve also had their veggie burgers, sloppy joe and burrito and I’m always happy and very full after. Their sweet potato fries are dynamite as well.
I like coming here for lunch because it has more of a casual atmosphere than somehwere you want to go for dinner but I believe they are open during dinner hours as well. Really cool décor of customer drawings all over the walls from the crayons and placemats they leave on your table. Of course vegans are artistic!
The cute hipster waitresses are a bonus as well. They might be a little spacy but I’ve never had poor service here.
Def check out Curly’s if you’re a veggie or vegan. If you’re not, come anyway because you will be pleasantly surprised!

i needed to find a vegetarian place for dinner in the gramercy park area– saw curly’s was highly reviewed so decided to give it a try.
BEST DECISION EVER.
my friend (who is a vegetarian) was so thrilled she had a whole menu of options to choose from. we split the white bean hummus as an appetizer (i found it to be really bland– definitely needs some spice). for our main course we both opted for sandwiches– my friend got the santa barbarella (she loved it) and i got the East Village Club. my sandwich was so incredibly tasty, fresh and filling! i devoured it in record speed. pretty sure they use morning star’s «bacon» which i LOVE, and there was a decent amount of grilled portobello on my sandwich, so that was a pleasant surprise (hate it when places skimp on the main part of the sandwich, ESPECIALLY if you’re not getting meat!)
we left no room for dessert but i will definitely be making my way back here to try their other sandwiches!
the waitstaff: very pleasant and appropriately chatty
the bill: awesome! $ 32 for beer, an app, and 2 entrees? DEAL!
the bathroom: less than desirable
overall experience: A

Ordered take out for a club at school.
Sloppy Joe-​best vegan sloppy joe I had so far.
East Village Club-​best out of the 4 b/​c of the mushrooms =p, not dry
Buffalo Chicken Sandwich-​it was really good, not much of a spice, good moisture
Fauxphilly Cheesesteak — this was too dry. Not bad. It could have been better.
Overall-​good sandwiches

Love me some Curly’s. Has everything under the sun for a vegetarian except pizza but that’s ok because there is a pizza place right next door.
The only thing I don’t like about Curly’s is the service, and then to top it off they seem to rush people out. Like after I was done eating, the waitress took my plate then of course asked if I wanted anything else. I replied «not at the moment». She comes back 5 seconds later with the check! What part of not at the moment didn’t she understand? That is the part about Curly’s really grinds my gears. Other than that, awesome food!
Must try:
Sloppy Joe
Sweet pot fries
Vegetarian chili
Buffalo chicken sandwich

During one of my longer vegetarian periods, I Unilocal-​stalked restaurants that would make me not wake up wanting a greasy burger. I really wanted to like Curly’s, especially since I read great reviews and talked it up to my carnivorous sister and convinced her to go with me.
Very small place, we were seated right by the door which sucked because of the high traffic, but we really didn’t have a choice. The service was friendly and my sister liked the option of coloring on our placemats. The food was bleh. Totally forgettable. We ordered the «buffalo wings» and I had the dragon bowl q. bleh. I mmmed and yummed to keep morale up. Since my sister didn’t look ecstatic about her food, I tried to trick her into liking her food by pretending to like mine… yeah. sad. but I can’t fake yummy on Unilocal.It was okay. Wouldn’t go back, but I’m sure there are plenty of awesome things on the menu.

The food was pretty good. Huge portions and plenty of different options for whatever you’re hungry for! The brunch menu is served all day. They have plenty of drinks from Smoothies to sodas. The first time I ate here I ordered the chicken Bacon ranch sandwich. Eh. it was mediocore. I decided to give curlys another chance though, and ordered the Buffalo chicken sandwich on white another time. Pretty yummy! The fake crab cake salad is also amazing.
My major complaint with this place is the setup. It’s FAR too small for the amount of traffic this place gets. I didn’t have to wait ridiculously long. but tables are literally pushed ontop of each other and they don’t clean & overturn them for new customers quickly or even at regular speeds. Food preparation is also slow. It seems the kitchen gets backed up easily with carry out orders and the resteraunt combined. Last time i went they took so long to prepare the food that they offered 10% off our check. Which was really nice. The wait staff is pleasant and pretty attentive once your seated.
It’d really be in their best interest to expand and hire more cooks. With how much business they have daily its kinda insane they operate in such tight corners.

Slow service, but great vegetarian food!
Curly fries are tasty and came out very hot. I had the East Village Club, which was really nice– great fresh bread and filling. Friends all got breakfast items, which looked great as well. Would definitely go back, but maybe not during peak brunch hours because place is so small and we had 4 people. Really great chips and salsa that my friend ordered. Love that they have fresh iced teas that rotate as well.

This place is still a 3. That said, after going in today and NOT ordering anything fried and smothered in spicy deliciousness I was a little bit disappointed. They don’t make poached eggs so my mom opted for an egg white omelette, which although it was ordered plain was more synonymous with boring. The split pea soup was ok, and the vegetarian chili was actually pretty good. My 20 ingredient salad was also only ok, a little bit heavy on the cheeses I could have done without and light on the yummy grilled mushrooms and fresh bell peppers.
All in all, it was an ok meal for the price, but I think I’m going to save Curly’s for a day when I feel like pretending to be healthy and go all out with the fried burgers and disco fries.

This is, oddly enough, the second vegan place I’ve gone to in two days… I’ve gotta hit a BBQ joint soon I would, however, definitely go back to Curly’s.
My friend and I were meeting up to catch up and this was a great choice. Good food, small and not noisy so we could have good conversation. Each table has a white paper place mat and a small cup of crayons and because of this one of the walls is almost entirely covered with some of the finest crayon art you’ve ever seen. Some truly great drawings.
My «burger» was yummy, though I wasn’t crazy about the bun. I got a side salad (with tomatoes even though I asked for none) with a great carrot ginger dressing.
While all of this was good I would go back just to have their keylime cheesecake. It was absolutely delicious and I wish I’d have gotten one to myself instead of having to share.

JAMMED ourselves in here since the TINY entrance hall is guarded by heavy doors!
we just got pizza from Artichoke Pizza next door & my friend decided he also wanted Curly’s disco fries (haha he’s a fatty). Since Artichoke doesn’t have seating, we asked the waitress if we could eat our pizza here as long as we ordered something. she said it would be fine
HOWEVER upon getting cozy at one of the tables in this SMALL restaurant, the manager decided we COULDN’T sit in. so my friend was forced to order it to-​go and we ate at a bench outside. RUDE (i’m only peeved about the back and forth decision)
—disco fries. basically a MASS of curly fries TOPPED with gravy and cheese… they did not taste that great, gravy tasted old… it was like extra calories for no reason!
perhaps I needed to try this place actually sitting in & perhaps their vegan options instead. but I did NOT feel welcome

A little bird told me the vegan Mac and Cheese at Curly’s was the bomb. So in my continued quest of «January is Vegan Month,» I convinced my «sympathetic omnivore» pal to grab Sunday brunch at Curly’s before a matinée. Unfortunately, we basically picked the worst time to go (1pm) and waited for a good hour before being shown to our wee little booth. I will give the owner credit who showed up horrified at the line somewhere between minute 20 and 30. He not only cleaned ship inside, turning out tables like gangbusters, but for those on the far end of the list, recommended another veggie staple, Hotel Tortuga. down the street (as they had no line) and even comped them $ 5 off their meal. We were, however, determined to get our mac on and once seated, I did just that — also opting to add in veggies for an extra $ 1. My friend got the Huevos Rancheros and on my insistence, the curly fries.
As I reckoned they knew we were starving having been out in the literal cold for an hour, we were served about 10 minutes later, each with a heaping plate of yum! Both items were delicious and such big servings — for such little prices might I add! — I barely made a dent (though I had to eat the rest of my friend’s fries, of course)
What I really like about Curly’s is that you can ask for almost anything on the menu as vegan, but they also offer eggs and dairy, which makes a nice compromise to take your friends who don’t like tofu as much as you. The old diner feel doesn’t hurt either and you bet whether I’m still veggie or not, Curly’s is added to my list of favorite, comfort staples!

I love this place. I love this place. Did I tell you, I love this place?
Whenever I meet my husband after work (he works nearby) I always want to go here.
I recently had a half pitcher of sangria, YUM! while I waited. Nobody rushed me and I chilled and chatted with the staff and thought about their disco fries and how much I wanted some! I managed to wait for my hubby before ordering, barely. The sangria helped.
The disco fries have gravy and cheese and are ridiculously good.
We each ordered the taco salad and could only finish half. BONUS! That means leftovers!
The atmosphere is über chill, the food is abundant and ridiculously delish, the staff is really nice and the tiny place is quaint.
Dunzo.

I always pass by this place and don’t pay much attention, mostly because I am always curious about that pizza place with the huge line, so this last weekend I wanted to try the pizza, but because I didn’t want to wait in the line I decided to have lunch at Curly’s… Oh! What a happy decision!
Tiny place, vegan vegan vegan, I love the variety of the menu, harty delicious vegan food, the service is ok, prices are right and the portions are huge.
I’ll come back for sure!

Although I don’t go here that often, I’ve had some great stuff here – the «suna» melt – which unfortunately had mozzarella-​style [soy] cheese on it instead of cheddar, so it tasted better than it looked; I won’t even bother uploading a photo. Last time I was here I had some very awesome mac-n-[soy] cheese, which made me happy. Their fries are curly, of course, and qualify for «best» status in a city full of «best fries.»
This is a tiny space, in which they’ve crammed as many tiny tables as they can – in true New York fashion. A few years ago we had Thanksgiving dinner here, the roommate had the Virginia «sham” – which wasn’t vegan, so I didn’t try it – and I had the Un-​turkey, which I do like better than Tofurky. The menu clearly shows which dishes are already vegan, or which can easily be made vegan. («EV»)
This space, in fact, has been sub-​divided; previously, a Filipino restaurant called «Lite Gourmet» took up both this space and the space next door, but when her lease was up, the landlord divided the space in order to reap double the profits. Such is New York real estate.

This place has such great food! Their Blue Plate Specials are always awesome, and their veggie burgers are always wicked good. Love their curly fries, and love Curly! The waitress I always get is a total sweetheart, and it’s awesome that they hang up your placemat artwork on the walls, in case you’ve created a masterpiece with the crayons at the table while you were waiting for your food. ;)

Right after the gym, I needed a quick and healthy food fix. Immediatesly, I busted out the trusted Unilocal app on the iPhone (represent!) and found Curly’s. Via Beka M.‘s review, I chose the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich — a crispy soy filet tossed in a spicy buffalo sauce on a wheat hero with lettuce, tomato, and blue cheese dressing. It was spectacular!!!
I grabbed a root beer as I waited for the order, delicious high fructose corn syrup! The staff behind the counter provided quick and friendly service. Thumbs up for Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch!