Filed under: Bars/restaurants, Vegetarian, Yoga | Tags: new york, restaurants, Vegan, Vegetarian
Seems New York has an inexhaustible supply of vegan and veg-friendly restaurants. Just when I think I’ve hit all the most enticing ones, I hear of more I have yet to try. In the past couple months I’ve had first-time visits to three very different vegan restaurants that all had their own strong points and drawbacks. Here are some thoughts on the first one of the three:
Café Blossom
The oft-praised Blossom family of restaurants now has three locations in the city—the upscale Chelsea location (to which I attempted recently to go for dessert but was haughtily told there was a 45-minute wait … on a Monday), a new Upper East Side locale, and Café Blossom, on Columbus at 82nd on the Upper West Side. In January a dear friend of mine surprised me with a trip to the latter and wow, was it delicious!
Ambiance: Lovely! Minimal but cozy, classy but not pretentious.
black-eyed pea cakes
fettucini alfredo
Food: Fairly great! We started with the black-eyed-pea cakes, which were savory and light. My gentleman friend had fettuccine alfredo with tomatoes and wild mushrooms, and the sauce was perfectly creamy and flavorful (a feat of vegan cooking!) but the breaded cutlet that came with it was chewy and superfluous. I had the southern seitan sandwich with caramelized onions. The chipotle aioli was a good addition and the foccacia bread was terrific. The sweet potato fries? Meh. Pretty standard.
southern seitan sandwich
We weren’t thrilled by the dessert selection and the waiter at Blossom was nice enough to recommend we go to nearby Peacefood Café, which had a brilliant selection of takeout desserts and pastries. More on that to come in a future post.
Overall: A very nice experience, with attentive waitstaff and romantic atmosphere. Little bit pricy, but worth it.
Photo of Café Blossom interior from restaurant website. Food photos by me.
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A Lotus Grows in Brooklyn 
I canNOT believe you misspelled fettucinni. Although I realize now it’s not your fault — the Firefox spellcheck recommends “fettuccine”…
It also doesn’t like “travelling” with two “Ls” — my preference.
Oh, and you said a Peacefood review is upcoming…you already posted about Peacefood in what I thought was your most thoughtful and perhaps most brilliant review.
Comment by Cockroach! February 26, 2010 @ 2:20 amPer Merriam Webster: “Main Entry: fet•tuc•ci•ne. Variant(s): or fet•tuc•ci•ni or fet•tu•ci•ne or fet•tu•ci•ni” Eeek! *sound of brain exploding* Why so many variations, you wacky Italian spellers?!
I originally went with the spelling as it appears on Blossom’s menu here, so I’m leaving it.
And yes, there’s a great review of Peacefood here, which is linked in this post, but I’ve been there subsequently and have even more to say about their delicious vegan treats!
Comment by Carrie M February 26, 2010 @ 11:23 amYou called your own review of Peacefood “great” — you’re so full of yourself Carrie M.
OK, it IS great. Damn, I hate when you’re right.
Comment by Cockroach! March 1, 2010 @ 8:13 am