Please note that the meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!

I am a non-vegetarian eater and you may wonder what I was doing at Double Zero, a plant based restaurant located in the East Village, where Chef Matthew Kenney, a celebrity Chef specialized in plant based cuisine proposes an interesting vegan menu. Well, it is not just that I know the wife of one of the owners: my wife, Jodi, being vegetarian, I like to venture to vegetarian and vegan restaurants to try their food, being quite open minded about food from a very young age. But definitely, between vegetarian and vegan diets, there are big difference that some could find challenging. In a vegan diet, there is no animal products at all: no eggs, no dairy and from what I understand, no things like honey. Still, I had great experiences in the past with places like Elizabeth’s Gone Raw in Washington DC or, more recently Vedge in Philly. These are fine dining experiences for sure, but I had more casual meals at places like a location of Charritos, in Hoboken, that served only vegetarian food and had superb vegan dishes like the Quesongo, made with vegan cheese and mushrooms, that since closed; or the last example I can give is Delice and Sarrasin in NYC, a French restaurant with classic dishes like escargots or boeuf Bourguignon made vegan. I can tell you that I had amazing meals in all these places, blown away by the creativity of the Chefs, making you forget that you are in a vegan restaurant and will not have any meat at all! The secret I believe is to not try to reinvent too much meat, although now with the Impossible burger and the likes, you can do a. lot more, and use alternative products like almond or coconut milk, avocado instead of butter, or cashews to make vegan cheese (not so great for people with a nut allergy). That’s how for instance they make their margherita pizza at Double Zero: their wood fired pie is topped with a marinara sauce and a mozzarella made with cashew.

Or the cacio e Pepe bucatini made with almond parmesan and a cashew cream, reminding me a recipe my family has been making since I was a kid, non-vegan though as with creme fraiche and walnuts.

We also got to try the nachos from the restaurant next door, Bar Verde, that is now proposing a menu 100% gluten free. They are made with butternut queso cashew, quinoa chorizo, beans, pico de Gallo. I do not know if it is because nachos have something comforting, but I could not stop eating it and found the butternut squash cashew cheese quite good.

Dessert is also an interesting thing to do with no dairy and their cheesecake, made with cashew, although not comparable to what you would get normally, was delicious.

Overall, the meal was good, interesting in a way to see what alternative cuisine can be. I’ll explore more for sure in the future!

Enjoy (I did)!

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Double Zero - 65 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Double Zero, Plant Based restaurant in the East Village

I Just Want To Eat!