My wife and I were randomly walking around Manhattan towards the Washington Square Park area when she spotted this restaurant that claimed to be all vegetarian and vegan food only.
Being a Muslim person, the halal tag better be on the store door or else I would stay away from the store as a vampire stays away from the sunlight. However, all that changes when a place claims to be all vegetarian and vegan. And before you start dropping your 2 cents, I know those are two different things, the store claims to have both of those options.
There’s a nice and clean, somewhat pricey, menu outside the door (sunlight for vampires, if you take anything over $10 to be the sunlight and anyone on a budget to be a vampire) which will pretty much show you all their food options with enough detail to convince you that they are fully vegan and vegetarian… well almost. All but 1 item is vegetarian and vegan… not sure why.
We decided to go for it anyway since we explore a new part of NYC every Saturday and with that, we sometimes explore new food joints as well.
Below are the items we tried and I will be sharing her and my thoughts on each.
#1 Popcorn Shrimps with a side of Chipotle sauce – lower half of the picture
Price tag: $8
My thoughts:
I absolutely loved the popcorn shrimps as an appetizer. I only wished they were more in quantity but quality was, one word comes to mind, exceptional.
They felt like real shrimps to me. I would probably go back just to have these again.
My wife's thoughts:
She thought they were delicious. They were crispy and the sauce was very nice. They tasted like real shrimps and would, therefore, make them a perfect appetizer.
doctrq#2 Dragonfly Dumplings with soy sauce and some tasty salad on the side (upper half)
Price tag: $10
My thoughts:
These dumplings claimed to be veggie dumplings with soy chicken (not real chicken) and that's almost exactly what they tasted like. I have definitely had better veggie dumplings in the past and would recommend skipping out on these if you're a dumpling person. They were really crispy and I like my dumplings soft.
My wife's thoughts:
She really liked them and she's a fan of dumplings in general. She thought these were different from the usual because they were crispy, while others are steamed. She really enjoyed the salad and the dressing as well and really enjoyed the overall combination of the two.
#3 Veggie Lo Mein
Price tag: $12
My thoughts:
I think I passed the bowl to my wife too soon and should have held onto it for a little longer. These were delicious. The noodles were smooth and tasted really good. The veggies were just perfect too. The quantity was decent and would not recommend 2 people to share one.
My wife's thoughts:
She really loves noodles so she liked the veggie lo mein. She wished that the flavor was stronger as this was very light on the taste buds. Since these are healthy, she liked them.
#4 Bamboo Chicken Curry with a side of rice and veggies
Price tag: $12
My thoughts:
I couldn't believe that this tasted exactly like chicken... and it wasn't. There were some potatoes and soy something that was dipped in some curry-like sauce which gave the whole thing an excellent chicken-like taste and feel. I don't enjoy white rice so I dropped all that in the curry and boy was it good. Even dipped the veggies in the curry too.
My wife's thoughts:
She was expecting it to be a little different from the description she read. There was nothing wrong with the taste but in comparison to the other items, she did not like this as much. For her, this tasted more tofu-ish than chicken. Overall giving it a 3 out 5 stars... which, knowing her, I think is great.
