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• All Vegan Italian Menu - Well Worth The Trip

I think this is the only Italian restaurant in NYC with an all vegan menu, or at least the only one that I know of that serves a variety of vegan Italian pasta dishes. It's located next door to Angelica's Kitchen, one of NYC's oldest vegan restaurants, Out of curiosity, I asked the waiter why there's a vegan menu, wondering if perhaps the owner went vegan. Apparently, it's because the owner was irritated that Angelica's always had a line out the door, so he decided to add vegan menu to see if he could entice some of their vegan customers. The waiter said that when Angelica's is full, they often get the spillover, so perhaps that worked. Anyway, on to the food. The vegan menu includes many of the same items as the regular menu, but veganized. They are all listed on their site: dishes like seitan Parmesan, veggie ravioli with Alfredo or tomato sauce, and so on. I had the ravioli with Alfredo sauce, and shared the stuffed mushroom appetizer with my colleague, as well as a basket of vegan garlic bread. The ravioli were excellent, and the sauce was very creamy and quite good. The stuffed mushrooms were good, but they needed a bit more time in the oven, but not too bad overall. The vegan garlic bread was excellent: crispy, lots of garlic flavor, and plenty to go around. Finally, I ordered a vegan cannoli, which they served as a split regular and chocolate, so half and half. It was delicious. Just a heads-up: the house red wine wasn't amazing, so if you order wine, consider upgrading a little. A couple other points: they don't accept cards, so come prepared with cash. It seems like it's less full if you come early, we were there at ca. 5PM on a Tuesday, and it was almost empty. The service was excellent. As mentioned elsewhere, it's surprising to see no women working there, and also that the main menu contains veal. This alone might make some potential vegetarian/vegan patrons run for the hills, but my philosophy is that the more people who order from the vegan menu, the more value they will see value in it, and one can always hope that some day they will revise their main menu, if fewer an fewer people order from it. In short, if you're looking for old world-style vegan Italian cuisine in NYC, this is as good as it gets, and I will definitely be going back.