Angelica Kitchen - Delicious, Creative, Vegan Fare in the East Village

The Kleiner and I, in search of a delicious and unique vegetarian meal, visited the Angelica Kitchen in Manhattan's East Village for dinner last Wednesday before Thanksgiving.   The Angelica Kitchen didn't call itself 'Vegan' officially, however, the menu was completely devoid of any product derived from an animal.  Washington, DC does not seem to have too many exclusively vegetarian restaurants, the main ones that I know about are Vegetate (which to our dismay is closing and looking for a new space) and Soul right by Howard University.  There are a lot of vegetarian options in the cities restaurants, but not straight up pick anything you want on the menu vegetarian joints.  In fact, I liked it so much that I invited them to open one in DC, but, I'm not sure they want to trek so far south -- a shame!

The atmosphere of the Angelica Kitchen was perfect in my eyes - softly lit, orangey, little wooden private tables and large windows looking at the city.  On this night friends and couples could be found chatting intimately and enjoying heaping plates of freshly prepared veggies.

The Angelica Kitchen featured a very comprehensive menu with lots of unique options of different vegetable fritters, tofu formulations, pastes made of curried cashews, dragon bowls and veggie filled sushi.  We opted to try the curried cashew paste with raw vegetables that left us with a punchy, spicy taste in our mouths.  I had a dish with roasted red squash, green salad with mustardy dressing and balsamic marinated tofu with mushroom ragout. YUM!  Hows that for creative vegan?  The Kleiner had a vegetarian Rueben that could be described not as a fake Rueben but what a rueben would be if was not meant to be composed of corned beef.  We skipped desert preparing for Thanksgiving day, but the menu had a variety of vegan deserts that tempted us greatly. 

To note, it is Bring Your Own Bottle - so grab one if you want to imbibe and enjoy the creative fare!