Candle Cafe, NYC

On our last day in NYC, we decided to have lunch at Candle Café. My recollection of the café was that the food was nearly as good as Candle 79. This was not my experience this time.

I started off by ordering a fresh juice of ginger and carrot, which was really delicious. For lunch, I ordered the Cajun-spiced seitan sandwich. It sounded similar to the sandwich I ordered at Blossom du jour, but I knew it would be much better. Based on the description, I didn’t realize it would be so fried so when it came out I was surprised. The seitan was actually very good – the Cajun flavor was great. It came on a focaccia bread with a side of ancho chili aioli, which definitely added to it. It also had avocado and steamed greens on it. While I loved the greens, I felt like they took away from the flavors of the seitan. I was tasting too much of the greens and not enough of the seitan, which was disappointing. So, it was good, but it could have been better.

Zach ordered the Tuscan seitan parmesan sandwich, which was also fried. It was topped with Daiya cheese and was very good. It was just too deep fried and I felt it needed lettuce or something else other than the “chicken” and “cheese.”

This was still the second best meal we had all week for lunch, but I expected more from the sister restaurant of Candle 79.

Candle Cafe
1307 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10021
(212) 472-0970