Good Karma Cafe — Restaurant in Red Bank

Color me unimpressed. After a great experience at vegan food truck The Cinnamon Snail, I became convinced that vegan food could be delicious. As a result, I became really enthusiastic about trying Good Karma... but on my first visit, I quickly learned that it was without basis.

The place is teeny tiny, barely room to breathe, sitting on top of the people at the table next to you. The servers were unfriendly at best, cold at worst, staring at us like crazy people when we asked if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait to be seated (because we'd never been there, & it's not immediately clear upon entering). Our server seemed annoyed when I asked if a dish that said it contained "sauteed seasonal vegetables" included mushrooms, to which, I told her, I am allergic. "Nothing here has mushrooms," she told me, practically rolling her eyes. Hey, sorry I didn't feel like vomiting the rest of the day; just checking.

I ordered the coconut crusted tempeh, served with a creamy coconut sauce & pineapple mango chutney atop jasmine rice & those sautéed seasonal vegetables. It was colorful, looked like it would be pretty good - & it was. The pineapple & mango were surprisingly tasty with the peanut sauce, & everything tasted fresh. Ultimately, though, it left me full but dissatisfied. It just felt... so vegan. Nothing particularly creative or innovative, nothing to disguise the fact that this was all basically rabbit food - just a plate full of fresh things, a glorified salad. My boyfriend got the Earth Burger & said basically the exact same thing.

To top it off, we were seated next to the most obnoxiously pretentious, stereotypical vegan couple on Earth. The woman treated our waitress terribly, asking for the ingredients in EVERYTHING & going on a tirade about some sort of fake sugar that she found to be a "bodily pollutant." The rest of their conversation focused primarily on bees, pollination, & locally sourced honey. Needless to say, I couldn't get out of there fast enough - expect that it took our server ages to bring us the check &, once we did, to run out payment. We practically ran out of there when all was said & done.

If I went back - though I don't feel particularly inclined to - I would want to try the grilled tofu with sweet & spicy chili sauce. Sounds like it has potential, but my first Good Karma experience was so mediocre that I'm in no...

Incredible vegan food, however my girlfriend and I literally have an issue with our order every single time we come here for takeout. In one instance we ordered an Asian Fusion BBQ Seitan wrap to-go. When we got home we realized it was Mango and Pineapple Tempeh (entirely different menu item). Another time we ordered takeout and were given a 20-minute ETA. We arrived 25 minutes later and the chef hadn't started cooking our order yet. We waited inside for about 25 additional minutes (very small place, not much room to move!) for a total of nearly 1hr. The food is delicious and we will wait an hour, just please let us know if you're backed up! Fast forward to today.. I ordered an Asian Fusion BBQ Seitan wrap and my girlfriend ordered a Spicy Buffalo Salad.. the salad was great, but the Asian Fusion came with ALL TEMPEH and NO SEITAN! What gives? What if I had a soy allergy? Seitan is literally the name of the dish, and it's the first time I've ever seen all-tempeh in it. They took my phone number so a quick call to say that you were out of seitan would have allowed me to switch my item.. the wrap was not as good with tempeh :( I also did not get a salad dressing. Worst part: both items rang up at the completely wrong price. The salad came up as $14, although every menu mentions $11. My wrap came up as $11 although the menu says it is $12. The prices seem to be all over the place when we get takeout (and never once in our favor, might I add). Please confirm your prices with what's on the menu! The food here is still the best so we will be back, but the takeout orders can be very...

Stopped by with my family on our way back from the Beach. I wanted to eat vegan so i decided to give it a try. The food was good, thats why their getting two stars. can’t complain about the food however, i had to ask the young waitress 3 times for something which she kept on forgeting. The first issue was when i called, i asked the waitress if there was parking and she told me sorry theres no parking and theres only street parking which i found odd however, it literally states on the menu that there is free parking at the complex next store! If you aren’t sure about something, ask! Also, when i told the waitress about it due to paying an additional $6 for parking she go’s oh idk. Not even an apology. In addition, the prices of the food was super expensive for the meal your getting. Your literally eating grains and veggies not meat. It should not be $20-25 a meal! Vegan food is promoted as a cost effective cuisine. I’ve eaten at so many vegan establishments with better quality food and good prices even in NYC! The last straw was them charging $2 for two small spoonfuls of hotsauce. I run a business as well however, one thing in a business that very upsets me is being cheap! Hot sauce costs tops $3 a bottle. How are you going to charge a customer for two spoons of hot sauce when there paying close to $80 for a meal. Will never come again, and I don’t recommend this establishment at all. Keep charging your customers 2$ for hot sauce. Maybe you’ll...