I could talk for hours and still not be able to say all of the positive things about abcV. First, it’s a Jean-Georges restaurant, so of course you immediately know it’s going to be of a certain caliber. And the name is similar to ABC Kitchen, another Jean-Georges restaurant known, in particular, for its emphasis on using the highest quality, freshest, local ingredients that are of the season and producing well balanced, delicate dishes.
abcV is all of that, but focuses exclusively on highlighting plant based dishes. Everything on their menu is plant-based, non GMO, sustainable, artisanal, and organic. What does that boil down to in plain English? The best vegetarian meal you’ve ever had in your life.
They serve breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner, and trust me you want to go to all of them, and multiple times at that. But let’s focus on the dinner, which is scrumptious, amazing, and to die for. You should try to go with a few other people (we were a group of 4) so that you can order a bunch of dishes. These dishes are meant to be shared, so I’d say go with about 2 dishes per person.
Essentially, you should go about selecting what to order based on what vegetables you feel like eating. Each dish is created to highlight a specific vegetable. And each dessert is created to highlight a specific fruit or plant. You’ll best understand by looking at the menu, but the list of dishes below, which is what we ordered, should give you a good sense.
- Beets: wood roasted beets, Dijon, avocado puree, chili aioli, pickles, lovage
- Carrots: market carrots, stone ground nut and seed butter, chilies, lime
- Cauliflower: half head roasted cauliflower, turmeric-tahini, pistachios
- Celery Root: slow roasted celery root, coconut, cashews, warming spices
- Cabbage: fresh sauerkraut, horseradish, spices
- Spinach: spinach spaghetti, broccoli, kale, preserved lemon, garlic, parmigiano
- Dosa: dosa, yogurt, avocado, sprouts (dosa being a paper-thin Indian crepe-like pancake made from rice and black lentils)
- Strawberry Rhubarb: pavlova with strawberry compote and rhubarb sorbet
- Chocolate: chocolate mousse with a mint chocolate crumble and vanilla wafer
Incidentally, it isn’t all that important whether you even like the vegetable you’ve just ordered. You will like it when these chefs make it. By far, the hardest part is limiting it to a reasonable number of dishes. Which is why you should really just go multiple times. There was nothing we ate that we didn’t all thoroughly enjoy, but the standouts, we all agreed, were the celery root and the carrots.
The beauty in this cuisine is that it’s clean, fresh, healthy and just happens to be vegetables. This distinguishes it from most vegetarian and vegan cuisine that is seeking to create dishes that are meat alternatives. These are not meat alternatives. abcV is not striving to give you something that takes the place of meat or satisfies your meat craving. abcV is striving to convince people that vegetables are not just equal to meat, but superior. And they are absolutely succeeding. In a world where vegetables are “side dishes,” abcV masters making each one the star – the meal in and of itself.
Additionally, the ambiance is spectacular. Everything is white, pristine, calm, relaxing, and beautiful.
The service is impeccable. Literally. The servers are pleasant, well informed, calm, accommodating, knowledgeable, and are appropriately attentive. Though frankly, I would’ve even overlooked a bad setting and poor service to eat this food.
In my opinion, there’s nothing to improve. Please do yourself a favor and go to abcV the first chance you get (which will be 1 month from the day you call to make a reservation because yes, for prime time, you will have to book 1 month in advance).
