NYC Eats

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all the outfit love yesterday. I’m so excited to write back to all your awesome comments. Today I bring you the first part in a two part recap of our trip to New York City. We did so much over the weekend I figured it would be easier to make a post about what we did and also one about what we ate. And you guys know me, of course I’m going to start with what we ate! Our stomachs got to enjoy a plethora of different cuisines this vacation. Here’s my review of it all.

When we got into the city Josh and I had hours to kill before we had to be anywhere, so we were happy to spend some time exploring what the City had to offer. We kicked things off by heading to Candle 79 for lunch, after multiple Twitter friends recommended the restaurant to me with multiple exclamation points. We had no idea what to expect, we just thought it would be something pretty tasty.

When we opened the menu, we realized it is a vegan restaurant! We were overwhelmed with all the amazing options.

I thought the inside of the restaurant was super cute. I’m glad we managed to get a table for lunch because while we were there the phone was ringing off the hook and the hostess had to keep on telling people they were already booked up for dinner.

I ordered the pomegranate chipotle-grilled tempeh because I saw that it came with brussels sprouts and fell in love. Between the rich, hearty gravy and the green beans and sweet potatoes, I felt like I was sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner with this dish. It was so good.

Josh got the live (raw) zucchini enchiladas and while I figured I would like, it I didn’t know I would love it. I shouldn’t be surprised since I eat veggie stuff all the time, but the filling made vegan cashew cheese and adding spinach was incredible. I want to come back to this restaurant so badly. In the meantime I’m going to settle for buying their cookbook so I can try to replicate absolutely everything. It was absolutely delicious.

After lunch we decided to walk around Central Park before picking up a snack. We somehow ended up at Baked and my eyes immediately went to the donuts they’re so famous for.

A red velvet donut? Yes, please!

Josh got the Nutella banana chocolate chip donut and I liked it even more than my own. That seems to be a theme when we go out to eat, Josh always orders the better food. Still, these were both fabulous.

After walking around the city for a while we decided to warm up with some coffee before going to see Sleep No More. I got a Nutella Espresso from Moda, a cute little fashion-themed cafe right across from FIT.

Sleep No More was such a crazy amazing experience. I’ll try to explain the play more in better detail in my post about what we did in NYC. Suffice it to say, it was a once in a lifetime experience. After the play we were escorted up to a separate bar and given food menus. We decided to munch on some fries while discussing our thoughts and reactions to the play. I feel like you need to see it multiple times to really get a handle on what’s happening with each character.

After an exciting, jam-packed day, we met up with Josh’s friends Nat and Michael, who were kindly hosting us for the weekend. The next morning, the four of us met up with a couple of Josh’s other friends and we headed over to Spanish Harlem for breakfast at Yo In Yo Out. It’s a French themed cafe that had the most delicious crepes. They were so incredibly tasty. Josh got one that was filled with goat cheese, honey, tomatoes, and asparagus that was extremely unique and quite delicious.

For dinner on Saturday Nat found a restaurant in the Village called Extra Virgin. It looked so adorable, and I was so excited to see what was on the menu.

The interior was stunning. We somehow beat the line and only had to wait ten minutes to get a table.

Extra Virgin would be remiss if they didn’t serve extra virgin olive oil at the table.

We started off with appetizers to share. This was the buffalo mozzarella medallions dish. It was phenomenal.

We also got a side of fries and gorgonzola fondue. Oh man was this stuff out of this world. I need to find a way to recreate it.

For our main course, Josh and I both got the one veggie thing on the menu. While some might complain about lack of options for vegetarians when dining out, I argue that you only need one really good dish on a menu to have it be a really good menu. These butternut squash ravioli with fried sage and walnuts did not disappoint. I ate every last bite.

After dinner Nat and Michael took us to Sockerbit, a Swedish candy store to pick up some goodies to eat on our way home the next day. I fell in love with the candy store, it was such a cute store and sold such adorable little trinkets alongside the candy.

Nat and Michael had fun with their gummy worms. 😀

To kill time after candy shopping and before our bar reservations we headed over to a tea shop called Bosie Tea Parlor to share a pot of black tea and warm up. It was a windy weekend!

After tea (can you tell our lives revolve around food?!) we headed over to Employees Only, one of the coolest bars I’ve ever been to. Thanks to Nat calling ahead we got our own table away from the crowds. They were easily at capacity inside.

The drinks were delicious. They were also expensive. One drink in NYC is the price of three in State College! You can’t beat the experience though.

We also decided to split some desserts as a table. This ricotta and mascarpone cheesecake was hands down the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. I usually like cheesecake, but I absolutely loved this. There was no sourness to it, just a delicious, fluffy, creamy taste, covered in butterscotch. I could have eaten this entire thing by myself.

We also split a tufahije. It’s apparently the national dessert of Bosnia. It’s poached apples layered with clove yogurt. While I loved the yogurt I do not enjoy baked apples, so I left this to the rest of the table after sampling a taste. They had no objections–the three of them loved it!

When we somehow started to get hungry again, we split a fancy truffle grilled cheese with parmesan french fries. It was fabulous end to a fabulous night.

Our last morning was spent at the Brooklyn Flea checking out all the cool stuff. I’ll talk about that more in the “what we did” post, but our final foodie adventure in the city was picking up Mac & Cheese from the Milk Truck for the trip home. To say it was amazing was an understatement. I totally get why that food truck is famous. I added in sauteed mushrooms and loved every bite.

And that is what we ate in New York City. We definitely lived it up. We feel so lucky to live so close to such an amazing city, and know we won’t always have that easy access so we want to enjoy it while we can. I’ll be back tomorrow with a fun post about getting your fruits and veggies through smoothies, and then will have my final NYC recap up on Thursday.

Question of the Day: What are some awesome restaurants you’ve tried lately? What is it that makes them so special? I love the atmosphere of a lot of city restaurants. They just feel so cool.