Bhava

This place is a awesome. The mushroom pâté was delicious, as were our entrees. Pretty sure everything’s vegan. The staff is super friendly too.

Not sure how this could get any less than five stars. For vegan food, the dishes are creative and full of flavor! The service was a little slow, but it’s a tiny restaurant with a tiny staff, and they were incredibly friendly and professional! They had a spiced pumpkin soup when we were there that might have been one of the best soups I’ve ever tasted!!! Entrees were well plated and tasty!

We went here last Thursday night while visiting New Orleans from Seattle, with our two (non vegan) friends who live close by. Wow. SUCH GOOD FOOD. We were all blown away.
the cheese plate was the best we’ve ever tasted… the mushroom pâté was excellent, the potato cake and the tamales/​crepes so so good.
Also a beautiful space, great drinks and excellent service. We did plan to come back but you’re not open on Sundays :(Still dreaming about your cheese plate…

My husband and I had the distinct pleasure of dining at Bhava last week, and it was better than perfect!
Upon being seating on the balcony with a view of the beautiful courtyard, we then dined on what turned out to be THE best meal we had in New Orleans, and one of the best meals we’ve ever had in general. From the pumpkin soup to the «cheese» board to the Thai Peanut Zucchini Noodles to the Molten Chocolate Cake… everything was absolute perfection! The food, the ambiance, the service — incredible!
My only complaint — that we didn’t find this restaurant sooner… I would have been there every night for dinner if so!
An amazing dining experience all-​around, and a fantastic ending to our time in New Orleans. When we go back, Bhava will be the first place we make our reservations!

I had a wonderful time at Bhava! Came here on a business trip and felt super weird about sitting and having dinner alone. However, everyone in the restaurant was so friendly and wonderful and made me feel right at home! That is, if I had mindblowing vegan food readily available in my home.
Every dish at Bhava is a full experience. Presented beautifully, perfectly balanced for the palate, and perfectly portioned. The cheese plate is so delightful! I’ve spent weeks trying to emulate it and I’ve just ended up with mashed cashews stuck to the side of my food processor. Bhava’s is far, far better. Try it!
The molten chocolate cake was the highlight of my entire trip to New Orleans. Fudgy, soft, explosively delicious! I wouldn’t trade one bite for all the beads on Bourbon Street.
The atmosphere is so romantic and warm — you’ll want to bring someone you deeply care about. And if you can’t, it’s ok, because you’ll feel a deep romantic connection to the food anyway!

Absolutely splendid. The best vegan food in New Orleans! How nice is it to have such a varied menu? Amazingly unique culinary delights here — it’s obvious there’s passion going on in the kitchen. It’s nice to know people can enjoy the local cultural cuisine via veganism. I enjoyed the mushroom pâté as well as the mushroom crepes.
The atmosphere is cozy, eclectic… quintessential décor with that flair of history.

Outstanding vegan & vegetarian food & atmosphere. Good service. Very creative, tasty, lightly spiced tapas style items. My wife & I shared 7 items. We sat on the balcony overlooking the beautiful courtyard, with light music playing below for dinner. It us a pleasant 20 – 30 minute walk down Chartres from the Hyatt French Quarter. This is a great place for formal or casual vegetarian dining. The pumpkin curry soup & kale chips were outstanding. The papas rellenas, quiche & salad, & tofu crabby cakes were also very very good. And we ended with a molten choco cake & one other desert which were great.

DELICIOUS! I wish the portions were bigger, but that is the only ‘complaint.’ Doesn’t help that I hadn’t eaten in 8 hours, so maybe the portions are actually perfect (and definitely reasonable).
The atmosphere is romantic and classy, but not pretentious. Staff is charming and knowledgable.
And the food: most excellent. The mushroom pâté was my favorite dish. We also had buckwheat crêpes and the meze plate, and a strawberry Buddha cocktail. Everything was fresh, innovative, and a great experience.

I’m a long time fan of Chef Anne Churchill. I used to head to The Bridge Lounge when she cooked there, and always made a beeline when she was at the Green Plate/​Crescent City Farmers Market and of course at Bacchanal too but am glad she is now rooting herself at her own Bhava. I have already eaten there four times and have brought different people every time who also loved the menu. The «cheese» plate, the tamales, soups are constant favorites of mine, but my number one is the tofu crabby cakes. Just pick a bunch of items and put away your thoughts about vegan and vegetarian foods and just have a healthy meal flavored beautifully offered in a lovely setting by a great chef.

i first had chef anne’s vegan cuisine when she did a special vegan event at feelings café last year. i was very impressed with the event and was super excited when i heard about the opening of bhava! i went on ²⁄₁₅ and had the special valentine’s day prefixe. just like last time, the trio of amsue bouche were amazing. the dishes she came up with were so delicious. my bf, a non-​vegan, said he wouldn’t have known the food was vegan if no one had told him. we both really enjoyed the pine nut cheese– brie d’amour. i have never had such good vegan cheese– most grocery store fake cheese are disgusting to me except daiya, and i was so impressed by the tastiness of the brie d’amour. the soups were a beet borscht and crab chowder. i especially liked the main entrée of crepes with an extremely tasty bean and vegetables purée inside. the passion fruit dessert with truffle was unlike anything i’ve had. the only thing that wasn’t wow-​worthy was the salad – but i am usually not super impressed by salads in general. it was very cute and intimate inside the restaurant. i hope bhava does well! there are too many times when i’ve tried vegan things in new orleans and have felt like i wasn’t eating anything special and i could have made the same thing for cheaper at home. it’s so refreshing to have very enjoyable vegan cuisine that leaves me wondering how she made such flavorful dishes, things i can’t replicate at home. i hope to come back soon and try the regular menu. ps – the sparkling buddha cocktail with homemade liquor and back yard grown blood orange was super fresh and yummy – very, very unique. i had a great time on my birthday.

We went to Bhava for the prix fixe valentine’s day menu. Every single thing was amazing. Fresh, natural foods (no pasta or veggie burger!) and amazing service. The atmosphere is cozy and warm, and we loved it.

I am so in love with the fact that Bhava even exists that they could probably serve me tissue paper and I would give them at least two stars. Moving from San Francisco (vegan food mecca) to New Orleans has made me realize how spoiled I was there with tons of vegan options, so I’m really optimistic and excited for Bhava’s success. The restaurant itself is adorable and romantic although finding your way in can be a bit of a challenge. (Hint– it’s the first door that looks like a big window.). Service is delightful, although a bit leisurely as there was only one server when we went on Saturday evening. Bhava is the type of place you want to linger at though and savor, so having to wait a bit is really a nonissue.
As far as food is concerned, the mushroom pâté & the crab cakes are amazing. Our table of four got two orders of those and absolutely adored them. The vegan cheese plate was good, and I appreciated having something like that, but I don’t know if I would get it again. My expectations may have been too high, as is often the case, but the plate was meh in comparison to their other food offerings.
My only other complaint is the wine. Mama loves wine, and mama loves to order whole bottles of wine… Sometimes two. It would be nice to see more bottle options and maybe some in the low to moderate price range as the food is all super affordable, but the wine is a little pricey. Sometimes I like to eat snacks with my wine (I guess most people call that dinner), so help a gal out.
I will definitely return!

Very accommodating even tho they hadn’t done take-​out yet… I enjoyed every course and will be going back often!

i can eat everything on the menu! + cute atmosphere — small portions = great place to try a lot of vegan offerings as long as you are not famished
I have been here twice and have to say the food is very good. I loved the vegan cheese plate and the potato cakes. The chocolate dessert was to die for! Our only compliant was that the portions were very small so we all left a little hungry even after ordering 3 entrees and 5 appetizers for 3 people.
Overall I think this is a great place and would come back again as long as i wasn’t famished!

Like, wow, get to this restaurant before other people find out about it! It is one of the best meals I had while in New Orleans. So fresh, so unique, and so not po’ boys. It was amazing. It seems like the menu changes daily based on the chefs inspiration, and the day we went the inspiration was fantastic.
I recommend the «cheese» plate which was brilliantly made there. Also the salad was incredibly fresh and delectable. The mezze is a great way to see what the chef is inspired by that night and try a little of everything. Desert was outrageously good. I would skip the wine list and go straight for a vegan beer.
Go early to chat with the chef and owner, and be aware that by 8 the dining room is filled with guests.

NOT ACTUALLY VEGAN: I don’t ever write reviews and it’s a shame that I’m writing one under these circumstances but feel it’s only appropriate given the nature of the restaurant.
My sister has an anaphylactic dairy allergy. Vegan places are always safe havens for her as we expected this one to be. In fact, only once in her life has she ever had an allergic reaction at a vegan restaurant — before today.
The meal was great until dessert. She ordered the molten chocolate cake and had an allergic reaction — meaning her ‘vegan’ meal positively had dairy in it. Although this is a typical and somewhat excusable event at a normal restaurant (which is why she rarely goes out to eat,) it is downright unacceptable and dishonest at a vegan restaurant.
If you are here due to lifestyle choices or simply because you prefer vegan, then this is an ok choice in a heavily Cajun dominated city. If you are here because you have entrusted the kitchen with your well being and depend upon vegan food for your safety, look elsewhere. We would have stayed to confront the staff but needed to leave immediately to get medicine at home.
This one experience will completely change the way we look at vegan restaurants for the rest of our lives. So incredibly unfortunate.

It’s no secret that Feelings Café, located beneath (and related to) Bhava, is one of my favorite dining experiences in New Orleans. Between the beautiful courtyard that is quintessentially NOLA and that rustic French countrysidesque interior, combined with an entire vegan menu that I don’t have to tell you is pretty rare here, it truly is as good as it gets. I don’t go a lot because I tend to look at it as a special occasion place (we have to have those). Similarly, I just loved the bohemian French Sentiments Wine Dive formerly located above Feelings. What I didn’t love was that it was only sporadically open. Bhava really seems to bring it all together. You have access to a fabulous wine list, creative vegan delicacies *and* the amazing atmosphere of Feelings (you can dine on the balcony overlooking their courtyard).
Simply put, if you are vegan, you must, MUST come here. Chef Anne creates a menu weekly that is completely unique. You won’t find any same old same old vegan eats here (ie, yay for no boring veggie burgers!). Instead you’ll find apps, snacks, entrees and desserts that are culinary creations of genius! I feel like the angels have smiled upon me because I can now walk to one of the best vegan eateries I have ever encountered. This will be the first of many reviews, I assure you.
What I ordered on my first visit:
–mushroom pâté
This is very strong flavored! It’s quite good spread on the crusty bread that comes with
–vegan cheese plate
Three housemade cheeses are featured and I’m not sure if these change on the regular. My favorite was the Brie-​style, as this was so incredibly creamy and mild tasting. You’d swear it was real cheese. I wasn’t as much a fan of the tempeh cheese, possibly because I’m not into the flavor/​texture of tempeh.
–Anne’s Waldorf Salad
OK so this is one of the best kale salads I’ve ever had and if you know me, I’m all about kale salads!!! It sports a flavorful creamy macadamia dressing with chia seeds and the textures of cucumbers, apples and chewy kale combined make this salad out of this world!
–molten chocolate cake
The «molten» part of this cake is where it’s at! While the cake itself could be more moist, we devoured the cake in mere seconds. Also appreciated: it’s not crazy sweet!
What I regret not ordering: the pumpkin curry soup. Everyone around us was going on about how incredible it is. Hopefully it will still be offered in the upcoming weeks.
I do believe I’ll be frequenting Bhava on the regular.

Good points: —
— Vegan (yay! in NOLA) and +1 for 15 options
— Flavorful vegan courses and not just lettuce tossed in olive oil, so yes that’s setting an example for NOLA
— Light, unlike majority of restaurants which use either butter or heavy cream as base
Not so good: —
— Tables are rustic but atleast ours had nails sticking out underneath
— They need couple of servers to increase their speed and quality of service
— Its not upscale, and you should never write that on your menu anyway.
Bottomline: If you are looking for great vegan food options, go here for sure. If you are a vegetarian may be give it a try. Carnivores this aint for you.

We don’t dine out very often, especially for fine dining, due to food allergies and my diet being gluten free & vegan. Upon hearing that Bhava was opening and first full vegan café for New Orleans, it was a must go.
Very sweet, intimate setting upstairs above Feelings Café.
Everything was absolutely delicious, full flavored, fresh, and nicely displayed. I was able to choose menu items good for me and my husband (who has no restrictions), was also happily satisfied.
We look forward to returning to try more menu options.
Portions are on par with any gourmet restaurant where the focus is on savoring the flavors and not feeling stuffed after.