Angelica Kitchen - Vegan Restaurant

Rating:





Name: Angelica Kitchen
Location: 300 E. 12th St. - cross St. 2nd Ave.
Price: $30 for 2
Server: bad shoe guy
Chef: Peter Burley
Style: Vegan

Angelica Kitchen has been serving hippies for over 25 years. That's pretty good for a culture that eventually drops smoking weed and often re-introduces meat into their diets after they turn 30. Being the equal opportunist hungry bitches that we are, we don't shy away from vegan food. Every now and then, if you just don't want a colonic, have some vegetables instead. It's working for us.

Anyway, Angelica's looks like a ski lodge, with hooks on the walls for your coats, cafeteria tables and warm yellow and gold walls. As you might expect of any good hippie rooted establishment, there were fancy tapestry fabrics hanging from the ceilings. Hey, at least there's no incense and everyone eating either has a job or a trust fund to cover the bill. The hostess and all the servers sport some of the ugliest sneakers under one roof you may ever see. Other than that, no apparent dress code.

Besides the aforementioned hippies, the clientele seems to be a coming together spot for trannies, drag queens, yoga princesses and people who are just better and more conscious than you (in other words we were totally at home). It's cozy, it's warm and you just FEEL healthy when you sit there. On a side note, if you are looking for a healthy breeder female who will make a good mom for your offspring, you should become a regular here and learn to use 'sustainable' and 'green' and 'eco-friendly' in casual conversation.

But really, it's the food right?

The food at Angelica's Kitchen is actually fucking good. It's not heavy, it doesn't taste like potting soil like some vegan restaurants. Vegetables are used with abandon, and shock of all shocks -spices actually are too!

We had hot apple cider, which burned the roofs of our mouths it was so hot. But it was delicious and we had to stop ourselves from trying to get to-go cups for refills. I mean there is a limit to even our tackiness. We also had the Wee Dragon Bowl. Along with ancient wisdom, they serve up steamed veggies, beans and rice and the sauce of your choice. Myste had the wheat free cornbread, which - in keeping with vegan tradition, was so thick you could play street hockey with it. However it was, astonishingly, actually moist. How do you do that anyway?

I had their special, which was some kind of Morrocan tagine. It had sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, leeks, cauliflower, tofu, saffron tofu sour cream, rice pilaf, enormous trees of broccoli, and tomato. The broccoli was ridiculous. You need a chainsaw (or at least a knife, which they don't seem to have in the restaurant) to eat it. The flavor was savory, a little bit sweet, perfectly textured and filling. We loved it.

We love that there was no ice in the water, and no asking for refills. The glass never got empty. That's fucking cool. What's not fucking cool is that they are cash only. After 25 years, you can afford 5% visa/mc fee's. Pony Up.

Bottomline: Go there to work off a hangover, to feel better about yourself for not going to the gym, and in general to have a cheap, healthy awesome dinner/lunch. Do not take anyone who you need to impress with your uber trendy nightlife knowledge. Do not go if your dining companions are vegetable intolerant.