Late yesterday morning, Chelsey and I found ourselves at South Street Seaport, waiting in line to buy tickets for a Broadway show. The Financial District isn’t exactly known for its restaurant selection, so I wasn’t expecting much when I used my phone to search for a vegan restaurant nearby. Only one place came up: Little Lad’s.
I’d heard of Little Lad’s before, but it’s random location kind of turned me off. Turns out that it’s a hole-in-the-wall vegan buffet and health food store, tucked away in the basement of a bank building on Broadway. To get there, you pass through a huge corporate lobby, head down some stairs and come face to face with this:
Not the most inviting ambiance, but Chelsey and I decided to take our chances on lunch anyway. Good call.
For just $6, you get to fill up a dinner plate and a bowl with as much food as you want from their entirely vegan buffet. Extra plates run $1. The buffet featured a cold salad bar, with lettuce and spinach, pre-made cole slaw, seasoned chickpeas, black pepper tofu, tri-bean salad, carrot and raisin salad, sesame seed shredded carrots and a Greek tomato and cucumber mix, plus various dressings:
A hot bar, with beans, brown rice, cooked fern heads, steamed cauliflower, pureed squash and sprouted lentils:
And a dessert station, with fresh fruit salad, granola, toasted coconut and two kinds of puddingy-looking stuff (technical description there).
I piled my plates high with a little bit of everything.
From my savory plate, I liked the tofu, squash and carrot-raisin salad the best.
And the fruit salad was another highlight, filled with lots of super-sweet pineapple chunks.
Chelsey and I were seriously impressed with the quality of food here. For $6 each, we left completely full of simple, well-prepared and delicious vegan food. It’s like we stumbled across NYC’s best kept secret 
What’s your favorite spot for a cheap yet incredible meal?
