Avant Garden is a wonderful vegan restaurant in East Village, New York.
When you walk through the door there is a very nice ambiance. We didn’t make any reservations but we were fortunate that we got seating at the bar, so we could see all the chefs work in the open kitchen. Is there anything better than watching people passionately create one wonderful plate after another?
Avant Garden is truly upscale, vegan dining. They let vegetables simply be vegetables. They bring out the very best of each ingredient while bringing together various greens, veggies, fruits, grains, nuts, legumes, herbs and spices in a wonderfully creative way. Every plate is like a colorful painting, bursting with colors and flavors.
The two of us shared four dishes and each of them was a feast for the eyes.
We enjoyed a baby gem salad with smoked tomato, ranch and preserved lemon with avocado as a starter.
Next was the toast with cremini mushroom with onion marmalade, grapes, herb de Provence and walnut puree on the side.
We topped it off with two great main dishes; roasted carrots with faro, ramp chimmichuri, tzatziki and some pita bread and my favorite parpadelle pomodoro with herbed gremolata.
Unfortunately, we had no more room for dessert but we had a great evening watching the chefs create those amazing dishes. And the food was superb!
Here are a few more food pictures directly from Avant Garden’s website:
On their website they say:
“We’re confident that anyone who feels skeptical about vegan cuisine will experience a major shift in their convictions after one bite at Avant Garden, and we like to think that through this act of changing hearts and minds, we’re helping to make the world a little bit of a better place, one beautiful dish at a time.”
And they do. I couldn’t agree more.
Whenever we go back to New York, we will definitely be back here!
About the author: Mariëlle van de Kerkhof — happy urban gardner who loves to travel and eat great vegan food! www.mariellevandekerkhof.com
