Restaurant Review: Good Karma Café (Red Bank, NJ)

I had the pleasure of joining the Celiac and Allergy Meetup Group (Hazlet, NJ) at Good Karma Café (17 East Front Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701) this past Saturday night. It is always nice to meet others who get exactly what I am going through and this time was even more so than most. Usually, at a gluten free get together I am one of the few people who also has a milk issue . . . Saturday night every single one of us did.

Raw Vegan Lasagna at Good Karma Cafe in Red Bank, NJ


The restaurant occupies a small store front on East Front Street in downtown Red Bank. The menu is about 50% gluten free (with some additional items that could be modified to be gluten free as well). There were a lower percentage of appetizer and dessert GF options but still an adequate number of each.

The menu has some familiar and unfamiliar items on it. And, some of the familiar sounding items arrived at our table in quite unfamiliar configurations (see the Live Lasagna picture at right and described below). I decided to try something new and different and went with the Indian plate which contained a sampler of Indian items I had never had before. Usually Indian food can be a bit tricky to navigate due to the ghee (butter) and yogurt, both of which are absent in a vegan restaurant. (Warning, this is not listed as gluten free on their online menu so be sure they prepare it gluten free if you decide to try it.)

Gluten Free Vegan Cheese Cake at
Good Karma Cafe in Red Bank, NJ

One of the women in our group ordered what appeared to be the star entrée that evening – the Live Lasagna. It was by far the most colorful and interesting plate at the table and she raved about it. As you can see from the photo (above right) it was three ‘lasagna’ rolls comprised of zucchini slices wrapped around creamy basil pesto nut cheese and sun dried marina sauce. (Note: anything on the menu labeled “Live” is raw.)

We finished the evening off with some tea and a couple of slices of gluten free vegan peanut butter cheese cake with a crushed nut crust.  Dessert when dining out is a rare treat for me because even if a restaurant has a gluten free option, it usually isn't dairy free as well. 

This is definitely somewhere I would consider going again (and ordering the lasagna) and I highly recommend it even if you aren’t a vegan.





Other area restaurant reviews you may be interested in:

Europa South (Point Pleasant, NJ)

Panda Asian Fusion (Freehold, NJ)