LYFE Kitchen

Wicked fresh and plenty of gluten free options!
Came here for a quiet lunch. Place was moderately busy but the food came quick.
Super friendly staff.
Wish they had these in Boston.

Food is good but pick up service is consistently poor. I’ve ordered lunch 3 times and had to wait 10 minutes inside the restaurant when my order was meant to be ready. Additionally always check your bag because the drinks are never ready with the food so you will have to request the items that they forgot.
Got back to my desk and there was no cheese on my veggie burger as I paid for. Extremely disappointed

This place knows how to dress itself. The space is huge, décor is cute, and food is presented nicely. But execution is severely lacking. When you start to order, person behind counter will interrupt you. She or he will ask you for here or to go, which isn’t a big deal but the mannerism seems rather abrupt. I got the seasonal special Thai harvest salad which had me at black rice and butternut squash. It was very tasty and the cashews added a lot of texture. I topped grilled mahi on it and regret the decision now because 2 thin strips of overcooked fish cost me $ 5. Overall the flavors are good and the food is healthy, and on a Thursday evening the place was 90% empty. The $ 5 credit on levelup certainly doesn’t hurt. But I would probably not come back.

I ordered food to go through Eat 24, and it said my food would be ready in 20 minutes. I show up 30 minutes later, and they tell me to hold tight. Another 15 minutes later, I ask the lady at the counter what the deal is. Turns out, they hadn’t even started my order. Granted, this was 9:30 at night, and there were only 2 other people that had come in and gotten their food within the time that I was waiting there.
Not sure if it was a fluke or just terrible service, but I will never return to this location.

Very friendly staff, fast service delivered to the table, delicious food esp the garlic parm sweet potato fries. Healthy options including gluten free. Overall a winner!

What? How does this place not have all five-​stars? I would move to West Side just so I could eat here every day.
My stay in such a bustling area of New York was fueled by this fabulous eatery, and I just can’t understand why we don’t have something like it in SF. It’s all healthy, tons of vegetarian /​vegan options, a proper sit-​down resto, and just a delightful place to just enjoy your own company for an hour or two :)
You walk in, order from the huge on screen menu, take a seat, and they bring you your goods — for here or to go. Now keep in mind, this is an eatery, but actually a very well done, proper eatery. I can see that a lot of money was put into this spot. They’ve got an indoor herb-​garden in the waiting area, a ton of seating both upstairs and downstairs, and then low and behold — just a little bit of digging and saw that the executive chef is Oprah’s former chef. SCORE! Here’s the rundown:
**All kinds of options from sandwiches to salads to these ***fabulous flatbreads***. I highly recommend the gluten-​free margherita flatbed and the LYFE Veggie burger. One of the best burgers I’ve ever had, actually.
**You know I’m always on the prowl for fresh juice and smoothies. Well guess what, this place HAS THEM!!! Not a super ton of options, but I loved that kale and banana smoothie.
***But the real gems of this place are the LYFE waters. You GOTTA try them, especially when running around NYC. Super innovative, fresh and filling. I had a the Ginger Mint chia, which filtered water infused with ginger, lime, mint, chia seeds. DELISH.
At the end of the day, it’s not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but definitely the some of the best veggie options you’ll find for your money.

I have been going here for breakfast and want to share how good it is. The egg sandwich with turkey sausage is delicious and comes with tomato and some fresh berries. Also the pancakes are great. I just saw a note that they intend to stop breakfast service the week of Sept. 28. All of you reading this, please go here en masse with your levelup credits to get breakfast so Lyfe will change its mind and stay open for breakfast! It would be a sad thing if breakfast were to become unavailable here.
Also the décor is very modern and fresh and the service friendly.

Man, it saddens me to write an «A-​OK» review for this place. I’ve been wanting to try it for months, as it has great curb appeal and is just steps from my hotel. Maybe I had the wrong idea about what I’d be getting (expectation: healthy, light, fresh) and that is why I am disappointed (reality: creamy, heavy, unremarkable). All I can say is — LYFE Kitchen is somewhere between «meh» and «alright.» Not sure exactly what word best fits that description, but I do know that it’s one that will put me in no rush to return.
I walked in around 7pm, and the place was pretty dead. The girls at the cash register were friendly and helped me decide what to order, because the menu is stacked with some pretty tasty choices (I was looking at the unfired chicken & Red curry bowl, but went with the penne). I also ordered the corn chowder, as a number of reviews remarked on how delicious it was. Though it was indeed quite tasty, I wish I had held off on ordering this as it led to a 5+ minute conversation between the two girls at the cash register («How do I ring this up? My old boss said this, the new boss says that, *compare the two bosses and make some inside jokes*»).
I sat down at a booth in the back and diddled away on my phone for about 10 minutes — totally fine time to wait for food. My food came and it looked great, but it didn’t taste the part. Generally lacking flavor and more oily than I would have liked.
TL;DR — Reminds me of Noodles & Co, but with less streamlined service and more grease!

The kale salad with chicken was ok… as was the cucumber mint drink (I think they both just sounded better than they tasted!). The place is pretty spacious and really clean, and the workers are really friendly. Other than that-​I may check out their other dishes instead!

After work one day I needed to grab something to go, so I stopped in here. I’m always searching for a quick/​healthy bite in this city, and LYFE came up on my «healthy» hunt on Unilocal.
It was completely deserted when I got here, which thankfully made my food come out pretty fast. But it wasn’t any better or quicker than say, Little Beet or Digg Inn, which are both much cheaper. My meal cost around $ 16, you can get something equally large for $ 8 at Digg Inn.
I’m sure the lunch rush is a little different of an experience, but figured I’d put in my two cents.

Both My bf and I love this place.
The lunch is great price and overwhelming tasty.
I can’t get enough of their BBQ Chicken Flat Bread.
He think this place is quite healthy and tasty too.
We are frequent guests here.

Disappointingly, the menu’s description of the food items at LYFE Kitchen sounds so much more delicious than they actually taste. My one time experience at LYFE Kitchen did not live up to the expectation, so I would suggest finding another spot if you are looking for a healthy and delicious option.
I had LYFE Kitchen for delivery (Mistake #1). Not only did the food take over an hour, but it arrived rather lukewarm. If you are inclined to check out this place despite my low rating, I’d recommend that you eat at the restaurant.
I ordered the Art’s Unfried Chicken ($ 14.99), the Roasted Brussels and Squash ($ 4.99) and Baked Sweet Potato Fries ($ 3.99) to share. First, the Baked Sweet Potato Fries were cold and flaccid — Yuck! It came with a fancy house ketchup on the side, but other than that, I would not get the fries ever again.
The Roasted Brussels & Squash was 90 percent Brussels sprouts, 10 percent butternut squash. As someone who loves butternut squash, I was not a fan of this skewed ratio. The side also had dried cranberries and was mixed in with dijon vinaigrette, which was a bit too sweet to my liking. The butternut squash also wasn’t cooked fully so the pieces were still kind of hard.
My entrée — Art’s Unfried Chicken — came with a lame piece of super dry breaded and baked chicken with the same brussels & squash side and cashew cream sauce. I really liked the cashew cream sauce — it actually tasted like liquid-​y polenta cake. The chicken was really disappointing. I get that it won’t be as crispy as a real fried chicken, but this was super dry on the inside, kind of wet and soggy on the outside.
Maybe the food will taste much better if eaten at the actual restaurant.

Essentially a highway robbery. $ 16 for a salad of greens and about 3oz of mahi.
I ordered the Farmers Salad with no cheese, and they failed to include blackberries or pecans (as described). Made it through about half of the lettuce but it was really bitter and ended up tossing it. Super disappointing as I wanted to like this place, but the value is so far off– especially at that price point.

There was no air conditioning at LYFE Kitchen yesterday… or at least it felt like it. That’s not good for a place that serves «fresh» stuff and salads and what not and especially in the summer. By the time I got back to my office, which isn’t a far walk, my salad was almost room temperature, including the hummus… which was weird. Not sure if it’s because of my walk or because of the temperature of the restaurant. Regardless, it’s not a comfortable place to sit and dine, especially after walking in the heat.
As for the food, I ordered out using $ 5 credit on LevelUp and got a quinoa crunch bowl. The «crunch» comes from the vegetables (radish, cucumber, brocooli) and not some fried crunchy noodles or croutons as you may think. It also comes with tasty quinoa, a heaping serving of hummus, a nice healthy serving of fresh avocado, and arugula. You also get their chipotle dressing and house hot sauce — both of which were too cumin-​y for me. The hummus was almost at room temperature when I ate it and didn’t really mesh well with the salad. You don’t get any pita or anything to dip it with, so you kind of just mix it all in. I opted to leave most of it on the side, as I thought the bowl tasted much better that way. I also didn’t dump the hot sauce or dressing in it and used it little by little with each bite… all the flavors don’t really require dressing, but to each their own.
At $ 8.99, I haven’t decided if this bowl is worth the cost, but it’s definitely comparable to other «healthy» food places. I enjoyed the quinoa bowl, but didn’t like the hummus. I was tempted to try their banana kale smoothie and corn chowder, but will have to get to that next time, if I come back.

This place has displayed a $ 5 Levelup credit on the app for months now, and they finally accept it, so I ordered up a chocolate budino and used the restroom. The thing, basically just a mass of chia seeds and chocolate, took a while. Chic corporate décor (the best part being the plants display near the door) and a nice upstairs area if you’re into midtown dining.
Transaction Amount $ 4.34
Credit Applied — $ 4.34
Total Spent $ 0.00

This place is huge and is great for a casual meal if you’re trying to get away from the crowds of Columbus Circle. They have seats downstairs AND a whole upstairs area where they provide to-​go style table service. When you walk in, there’s a cute herb tower that screams «we’re healthy!», reinforced by calorie and sodium counts next to every item. Oddly enough they also have a ‘healthy’ cocktail menu, which is both confusing and intriguing. I think they’re going for a über-​healthy-​friendly-​neighborhood-​chain drinks while you eat feel…
I ordered a Kale-​Banana smoothie ($ 5) which was super good, and my friends ordered Art’s unfried chicken (breaded & baked) and artichokes. I would say the prices here are pretty reasonable and the food here is good and less guilt-​inducing than the places i usually eat.
Wish that the décor wasn’t so outdated (otherwise i’d invite friends to hang out), but love the fact that they use LevelUp, and would definitely come back for lunch/​dinner/​healthy cocktails (???).

I’m so lucky that the only East Coast location (so far) of this CA import happens to be right across from my office! Talk about yum — but healthy! Everything is fresh and has fewer than* 600 calories. I love the sweet corn chowder, squash lemongrass soup (seasonal), vegetable chimichurri salad, and perhaps my favorite lately is the fish tacos (not surprising for a CA chain). I get them without the aioli and they still have so much flavor and aren’t dry at all. I haven’t been disappointed with anything off the menu yet, and many other things sound delish. I don’t think you can go wrong here.
Plus, they’re super friendly, have a ton of seating including a big upstairs area, and if I ever make it after work, the cocktails sound yummy.
*Extra props for stating this claim using correct grammar on their website.

I am obsessed with LYFE Kitchen. I’ve been going here at least once a week. The food is delicious, fresh, and healthy. I love that the calorie counts are listed for all dishes (and drinks). My favorites are: Art’s Unfried Chicken – the sauce on the brussels sprouts and squash is finger licking good (i actually want to lick the plate clean…) and the breaded chicken is juicy and flavorful and the goat cheese and mushroom pizza is also excellent – the crust is superb.
The space is quite spacious and inviting; however, this seems to lead to the entire restaurant being nearly empty every time I visit. I’m concerned that they’re not doing enough business to stay solvent. People really need to find out about this place because it is an awesome fast casual option where you don’t need to feel as guilty about enjoying a delicious meal.

LYFE Kitchen is new to the NYC food scene, and has made quite an impression to say the least. Working nearby, I frequent LYFE for lunch, even though they’ve only been open a week or two. It’s geared toward healthy eating, with all of their mains between 500 – 600 calories. Their calorie *and* sodium counts are plainly listed on their togo menus, so you know what you’re eating before you order. (They are a major chain, so I believe they are required to nonetheless — with locations in Chicago, California, Texas, and Nevada.)
So far, I’ve had the
— Vegetable Chimichurri Salad with Grilled Salmon
— Grilled Chicken and Avocado Sandwich (served with a small portion of their marinated kale and carrot salad)
Both mains have been excellent. LYFE is getting popular — for example, today at lunch their were many people waiting for takeout orders (I counted maybe 15 just in the front ordering area), and yet they are still getting orders out quickly and efficiently. The staff and managers seem to go out of their way to make your experience at LYFE a pleasant one — they are truly outstanding.
At this point, they are not on Seamless or any other online ordering other than their own website — but I’ve been assured this is coming. :) You can also call ahead your order to pick up as well.
Keep in mind, this is an order and sit down (or takeout) type of restaurant — in other words, not a place with waiter service.
I would definitely recommend trying LYFE, and I know I’ll definitely continue to come back for more.

So I came here early on a Saturday morning, trying to look for a snack for road trip and ended up being very pleasantly surprised by this new hot spot! The breakfast items sounded delicious but I had to shoot for a juice smoothie. I tried the kale, banana and ginger.
As I paid, I was shocked that the juice was under $ 6.00 for NYC that is unheard of. Everyone in there is super friendly and served me with a smile.
Nice job guys! #Winning
As I sat down on this sofa against the wall, a young man came out from behind the counter to hand deliver my drink. Well done sir.
The combination of kale and banana was nice but the ginger kick at the end was just right. I will be frequenting LYFE again to try the food but so far so good.