Alice's Tea Cup

Last Thursday I met up with my friend for lunch at Alice's Tea Cup on the Upper West Side. This was my third visit and each time they have had plenty of vegan options! I like the Upper West Side location a lot because the ambiance is nice and they are more vegan friendly than the other two.

We waited a few minutes and then we were seated at a cute table. I had thought about ordering a sandwich but when I saw the scones I changed my mind. On my first visit, the waitress I had was vegetarian and she told us lots of their sandwiches can be made vegan. She mentioned the roasted carrot sandwich, grilled vegetables sandwich, hummus sandwich, etc. can all be veganized.

My friend and I each ordered the tea and scone deal. I ordered the two vegan scones of the day, banana oatmeal and coconut pumpkin with apple cinnamon tea.

Our orders arrived pretty quickly. Both of my scones were delicious. I especially loved the pumpkin coconut. It was filled with shredded coconut which I love. I also love pumpkin so this was a great flavor combination.

Pumpkin Coconut and Banana Oatmeal Scones

I loved the apple cinnamon tea! It tasted like I was drinking apple cider, yum!

I love the pots and cups they have at Alice's. My friend's pot had a cat on it which was really cute.

During my other visits to Alice's Tea Cup I've had various scones: mixed berry, almond carrot (my favorite), and banana chocolate chip. They have all tasted great.


Alice's Tea Cup
West 73rd St. and Columbus
New York, NY
http://www.alicesteacup.com/

Blossom

Tuesday night I met up with my friend and her coworker for dinner at Blossom. I have been to Blossom many times since I first discovered it in August. It is one of my favorite restaurants in New York.

First, we ordered the Crostini Tapas appetizer for all of us to share:

Crostini Tapas: toasted crostini breads with hummus, spinach walnut pesto and tomato basil bruschetta mix dressed with basil oil and kalamata olives

We all liked this dish. My favorite was the bruschetta crostini but the hummus and pesto were good, as well.

For my dinner, I ordered the portobello panini with no cheese. I am not very adventurous when it comes to ordering at Blossom. I almost always go with the portobello panini with sweet potato fries.

Portobello Panini: grilled portobello mushroom, zucchini, peppers with spinach walnut pesto on foccacia bread with a side of sweet potato fries

This was a wonderful sandwich. A vegetable sandwich and fries is my favorite food to order at a restaurant so this was great. It was piled with mushrooms, yellow and red bell peppers and zucchini and squash. The sweet potato fries were nice and crispy.

I ordered a hot chocolate for desert, but unfortunately they were out. Here's a picture of the lemon cake my friend ordered:

I love Blossom. The atmosphere is very nice, the service is pleasant, and the food is good. There are only a few things I would change. They should have a specials menu and they should have more vegetable-oriented dishes. I hate fake meat, so all of the fake meat dishes are pretty useless to me.

Cafe Blossom

466 Columbus Avenue between W 82nd and W 83rd St.

New York, NY

http://www.blossomnyc.com/

Candle Cafe

Last Wednesday night my friend and I had an epic dinner at Candle Cafe! This was my second time eating at Candle Cafe. My first visit was over the summer and I was not very impressed. However, this time, I loved everything.

My friend and I walked from my apartment to Candle Cafe and got there around 8pm. We had to wait around 15 minutes for a table, the place was packed. Once we were seated I had a hard time deciding on which special I should order for my meal. It was between the Indian Plate and Thai Wrap. I finally decided on the Indian Plate.

First we ordered an appetizer, the Mezze Plate.

Mezze Plate: Hummus, quinoa tabouli, lemon-date chutney, marinated olives, parata bread and zataar.

This appetizer was amazing! My favorite thing about it was the parata bread. It tasted just like Indian bread. Everything about this dish was amazing and so tasty.

For my dinner I had the Indian Plate.


Indian Plate: tofu spinach saag, black-eyed pea masala, yellow basmati rice, date-raisin chutney, cabbage salad and parata bread.

This was a fantastic dinner. The portion was huge! I was expecting it to be small and stingy like the Indian special I had ordered at Angelica Kitchen a few nights earlier but I was very pleasantly surprised. My favorite part of this dish was the bread, once again. It tasted so good with the masala wrapped inside of it.

My friend ordered the Thai Wrap.


Thai Wrap: spicy peanut grilled tofu, black rice, adzuki beans, string beans and sautéed peppers, carrots, onions, zucchini and cabbage in a coconut curry sauce wrapped in a spinach tortilla. Served with edamame salad and spicy peanut sauce.

It looked great and she enjoyed it a lot!

We each decided to order a desert. I ordered the Marble Bundt Cake with Mocha ice cream.

The cake was good. I loved how it was drizzled with dark and white chocolate sauces. I especially loved the mocha ice cream. I was too full for ice cream but it was so good I had to finish it.

My friend ordered the Vanilla Cheesecake with strawberry topping.

I tried a little and it tasted great. I love strawberries so the topping really made it better.

As you can see, we had an amazing meal! I cannot wait to go back and try other great dishes at Candle Cafe.

Candle Cafe
1307 3rd Ave between E 74th and E 75th St.
New York, NY
http://www.candlecafe.com/

Vegan Treats Bakery

Friday night I went to an event in Allentown, PA so I had to make a stop at Vegan Treats Bakery in Bethlehem, PA on the way. This was probably my 7th trip to Vegan Treats since moving to New York. I absolutely love their pastries! Before thinking that I am a pig, keep in mind that I bought most of these to put in the freezer. Here's what I bought:

Chocolate Banana Cake

I couldn't taste the banana. It tasted like regular chocolate cake with chocolate frosting inside, but it was good.

Vanilla-Peanut Butter Cake

The cake was mostly vanilla, with a little chocolate in the bottom, and peanut butter frosting around it. This cake was amazing. I love the peanut butter!

Vanilla Almond Mocha Cake

This one is my favorite! The mocha frosting is out of this world. It tastes SO good. I love the almonds on the outside too. Almonds taste great in pastries. The inside was a regular vanilla cake but the mocha frosting and almonds made it amazing.

Vanilla and Peanut Butter Swirl Cheesecake

I love Vegan Treats cheesecakes. This one was excellent. I loved the swirls of peanut butter in the cheesecake and frosting.

Oreo Cheesecake

This cheesecake (and the rest of the cakes) was for the freezer, but I have had it before and I loved it.

Smores Cheesecake

One of my favorites!

Red Velvet Cake

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Triple Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate

Peanut Butter Brownie

If you want to eat the best vegan pastries in the east coast go to Vegan Treats Bakery.

Vegan Treats
1444 Linden Street
Bethlehem, PA
www.vegantreats.com

Angelica Kitchen

Last night I went to Angelica Kitchen in the East Village for dinner. Angelica Kitchen is an old favorite of mine, I used to eat there all the time whenever I visited New York. It was Saturday night so the restaurant was packed and had a bunch of people waiting to be seated. We had about a 25 minute wait until we got seated. It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to order. I ordered the Indian Thali special. I love Indian food so whenever I see it on a menu I usually cannot resist ordering it.



It tasted amazing! This special had coconut rice, curry roasted tofu and butternut squash, broccoli, dal, date chutney, and tofu cucumber raita. I love how the curry had my favorite vegetable in it, butternut squash. The broccoli was perfect. I didn't try the raita because I dislike pretty much any food that is white. My only complaint about this dish is it was a little stingy for $15. There were maybe 3-4 pieces of tofu.

My friend ordered a pantry plate.



The pantry plate had three items: hummus and pita chips, marinated tofu, and Saturday's Special Salad which was kamut roasted vegetables with basil balsamic dressing. I tried a piece of the roasted vegetable salad and it was very good. I also tried a little of the hummus and it had way too much garlic for me.

Angelica Kitchen
300 East 12th St. between 1st & 2nd Ave.
New York, NY

Peanut Butter & Co

Yesterday I went to Peanut Butter & Co for lunch. I am a big fan of Peanut Butter and Co’s peanut butters, especially the Mighty Maple flavor, so I enjoy going to their storefront. PB & Co is a little restaurant in Greenwich Village with many vegan options. All of the items on their menu contain peanut butter and they have two vegan breads to choose from, wheat and black bread.



This was my second trip to their storefront and I ordered the PB&J of the week. The sandwich was filled with white chocolate peanut butter and cranberry preserves. I wanted to order it on the black bread but they were out so I got the wheat bread. The PB&J of the week was delicious. Unfortunately this sandwich is only available for one week but if it were up to me it would be on their regular menu. The only negative was the price, $7, for a simple peanut butter sandwich. I also picked up a jar of Mighty Maple peanut butter and White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter.



The sandwich came with a side of carrots and potato chips.

The first time I went to Peanut Butter and Co I ordered the Dark Chocolate Dreams sandwich. It was filled with dark chocolate peanut butter, cherry preserves, and shredded coconut. The black bread was very tasty and filling. This was a wonderful combination and I would highly recommend it.



Peanut Butter and Co
240 Sullivan St. between Bleecker and W 3rd
New York, NY

http://www.ilovepeanutbutter.com/shop/menu