In July 2014, GustOrganics, New York’s ONLY 100% organic restaurant and bar announced it was joining the Meatless Monday movement. We were of course thrilled to learn about this. The bigger news however came in January 2015 when it announced it was going vegan! Now this was big news. GustOrganics has been around as an omnivore restaurant for 7 years. To make the change to being vegan is a huge leap. The only caveat is that it wasn’t going to be 100% yet, 2 animal flesh items still remained on the menu, but the remaining 51 other options were going to be vegan. The owners were very clear that the only reason they were leaving these 2 things on the menu was because of pushback from many of their regular customers. If however, they can grow a strong base of repeat customers coming for vegan food, those items will leave the menu. To help them achieve this goal we knew we had to pay them a visit. So we did…

The restaurant itself is a large space with room between the tables which is often rare in New York City, where space is a premium and most restaurants try to fit in a many tables as possible without regard for crowding. The dimmed lighting creates a soothing atmosphere conducive to leisurely dining and conversation. The decor is well suited to its pre-vegan days with very dark colors and heavy curtains. However, now that it is has updated the menu and embraced compassionate dining, it could use some brightening to help reinvent itself. After all, when eating fresh, plant based cuisine, people really enjoy seeing the bright colors of their plates. The staff at GustOrganics is friendly and efficient without being obtrusive. Charlot, our server during our visit was friendly and knowledgable, ready to answer any questions we had about the menu.

We started our meal with some selections from the Tapas Menu. We tried the Coconut Maki Rolls, the Garlic Kale Pizza and the Taquitos (note: the taquitos are a new item and do not appear on the online menu yet). The maki rolls comes with cut into 8 pieces, so it is easy to share. The rolls come stuffed with sunflower hummus, avocado, cucumber, beets and sprouts, served with a cashew teriyaki dipping sauce. Ethan quite enjoyed these, particularly the sunflower hummus, however, I found the coconut a little too strong. The flavors are very bright and fresh making this a light appetizer so there is no fear that even if you didn’t share it, you would end up too full for a main course. The pizza is not what one typically thinks of when it come to pizza. The crust is made of chickpeas and comes topped with garlic sautéed kale, creamy basil pesto and herbed tofu feta cheese. This is another one that is great to share as it comes cut into four pieces. The chickpea crust is firm enough to support the kale without becoming soggy, yet tender enough to easily bite into. The kale is wonderfully seasoned sauteed perfectly with just the right amount of garlic so as not to overpower. As good as these two are, the best of the three was by far the Taquitos. The two taqiuitos consist of a sweet and smokey seitan and sautéed vegetables and fresh avocado piled atop two soft tortillas. All of this is them topped with a creamy cashew sauce. The seitan is delicious and its firm textured balances the crisp vegetables perfectly. I could have easily made a meal of these alone, although I would have had to order two orders of them and not shared. In fact, I may do that on my next visit. Unfortunately, the photo of the taquitos did not come out well, so you will just have to take my word for it. Or better yet, go and order them for yourself.

Coconut Maki Rolls

Garlic Kale Pizza

For our main course, Ethan and I both chose the Lasagna. Although there were many things we wanted to try, and will come back to try more, the lasagna was calling to both of us. This generous portion of lasagna is a mountain of sheets of al dente pasta layered with an eggplant ragu sauce topped with herbed crumbled cheese. The sauce is so rich and hearty I would have been happy just to order a bowl of it and some bread for dipping. There is some kind of nut in the lasagna to give it a meaty texture that plays nicely against the soft pasta. If we could have done it, we would have licked the plated clean.

Lasagna

Even though were we pleasantly sated by the time we finished the lasagna, we ordered dessert as well. No review would be complete without it. See the things we force ourselves to do for our readers? As soon as I saw Carrot Cake on the menu, I knew Ethan would be going for that. I was torn between the Chocolate Coconut Mousse Pie and the Red Velvet Cake. I asked our server, Charlot, for some guidance here. She said that they are both excellent, but that for sharing the cake would be better as it is a large slice. Done! It should be noted that all the desserts are gluten-free. For me, this is the only negative about the meal as I am not gluten-free. However, I am thrilled they have gluten-free desserts available. I would love there to be some non-gluten-free options, but I understand that they probably want to keep all the baking equipment gluten-free to avoid any possible cross-contamination. Both the cakes were a little dry, but the flavors were excellent. The carrot cake was wonderfully spiced with cinnamon and was covered in a creamy frosting. The red velvet cake had a nice cocoa flavor and had the same frosting as the carrot cake.

Red Velvet Cake

Carrot Cake

In addition to the full food menu, GustOrganics has a nice selection of fresh juices and smoothies. For those who want something strong, it also has a full bar which like the food is 100% organic.

Overall GustOrganics should be on your “must try” list. They want to go fully vegan and need our support. Please go and have a meal there and then be sure to review them on Yelp and let everyone know how great the food is. The service is wonderful and the food is top notch. GustOrganics is giving the other upscale New York City vegan restaurants some strong competition.

GustOrganics
519 Avenue of the Americas (at 14th street)
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212.242.5800
info@gustorganics.com