New York, food critic Tom Sietsema says, is a metropolis of 8.5 million eaters with 45,000 restaurants. Food innovation never stops and restaurants are packed not just with locals, but also with tourists, indicated by a record of 56.4 million visitors dropped by in 2014.

Hence, plant-based eateries also thrive in New York with food bloggers publishing lists of best plant-based eating restaurants. Basically plant-based diet focuses on whole or minimally processed plants such as nuts, legumes, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and seeds while avoiding animal-derived foods.

On our recent visit to New York we explored several plant-based eateries favored by visitors and locals alike.

The Butcher's Daughter at 19 Kenmare Street in Nolita, Manhattan is a juice bar, cafe and vegetable slaughter house. The place promotes the word “butcher” as it treat fruits and vegetables as a butcher would meat. The chefs chop, fillet and carve fresh produce into healthy vegetarian dishes and press them into pretty and healthy juices.

We visited The Butcher’s Daughter on a Monday. Even way after lunchtime the airy place is quite packed with mostly students and young workers. It has 35 seats inside and 30 seats on the sidewalk.

Founded and designed by Heather Tierney, a former restaurant critic for Time Out New York Magazine, The Butcher's Daughter opened in 2012. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch in a daily-changing 100% vegetarian and non-dairy menu. Most of the menu items are vegan and gluten-free, and it can always prepare substitutions for most dietary restrictions.

Our lunch selection at the Butcher’s Daughter comprised of Vietnamese Bahn Mi – toasted baguette filled with mushroom pate, hummus spread, sesame cauliflower, radish, carrots, cucumber, cilantro and Harissa mayo and tempeh as a side order; kale and cabbage cole slaw; cacao suave smoothies made from raw cacao, cacao nibs, frozen banana, young Thai coconut, sweet almond milk; and Infused water with mint leaves.

Creative texture, temperature and flavor combinations make this a place not to be missed if you are in New York or in Los Angeles as it just opened a new outlet at 1205 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice.

Food freshness is top on the list as The Butcher’s Daughter is committed to buying produce from local farms making fruits and veggies taste better and also supporting community’s sustainability.

Sweetgreen is a cool, farm-to-table style salad chain that sources local and organic ingredients from known and trusted farmers. It has very convenient locations with the one at 311 Amsterdam Avenue that we often visited. Try to visit prior to lunch or dinner time so that you don’t have to stand in a long line.

We were fortunate to have been able to try each of the menu categories (seasonal, signatures, and make your own) during our stay in New York.

Umami Grain Bowl is on the seasonal menu, made from organic quinoa and farro, swiss chard, pea shoots, roasted mushrooms, red onion, roasted tofu, spicy sunflower seeds, miso sesame ginger dressing. Estimated to be 555 calories per bowl this is our favorite.

Rad Thai, at 375 calories per bowl, has a spicy cashew dressing over organic arugula + organic mesclun, sprouts, carrots, shredded cabbage, spicy sunflower seeds, cucumbers, basil, and citrus shrimp that we replaced with tofu.

Make Your Own needs some planning, as we have choices for bases, ingredients, premiums and dressings (light, medium, or heavy). In the end we settled for a mixture of romain, baby spinach, roasted potatoes, asparagus, local apples, organic carrots, toasted mushrooms, avocado, and miso sesame ginger vignairette.

Sweetgreen has 14 choices of dressings, 9 of them vegan. In our opinion, in addition to the fresh vegetables, these gluten-free and made in-house dressings are key to Sweetgeen’s success.

Founded in 2007 by Georgetown University alumni: Jonathan Neman, Nicolas Jammet, and Nathaniel Ru, Sweetgreen now has 43 locations in 8 states with more opening every week.

As with the other two plant-based eateries that we visited, by Chloe at 185 Bleecker Street, not far from New York University, is always full with guests during lunch and dinner time, even for a Thursday, the day we visited.

The restaurant is 100% vegan, featuring Chef Chloe Coscarelly’s signature house-made burgers, fresh pastas, seasonal soups, salads, cold-pressed juices, vegan ice cream and baked sweets.

It aims to share delicious, wholesome, plant-based food that fuels and energizes without compromising flavor, taste or satisfaction. The chef-driven vegan menu features locally-sourced ingredients in their most natural form to create inspired dishes, made 100% by the facility daily.

We ordered the classic burger, made from tempeh-lentil-chia-walnut patty, pickles, onion, beet ketchup, special sauce, potato bun. A light dish that we also had was smashed avocado toast veggie roasted asparagus with oven dried tomatoes and fresh basil. It always amazes us how plant-based meals can be so fresh, tasty and fulfilling.

by Chloe also has a large selection of Grab+Go, among others: detox kale salad made from quinoa, red cabbage, edamame, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, dried cranberries, almonds, sesame vinaigrette; sesame ginger soba: with buckwheat soba noodles, edamame, radish, sesame-ginger dressing; green hummus: baby spinach, chickpeas, olive oil, lemon, garlic, served with fresh crudite; and matcha kelp noodles made from  Panatea® matcha, kelp noodles, cashew cream sauce, almond parm, and scallion.

by Chloe, opened in 2014, is a partnership between chef Chloe Coscarelly and ESquared Hospitality, enhanced by the crative work of Samantha Wasser who has been involved with the Chloe brand from its inception, overseeing logo creation, overall brand identity, website & blog development, menu creation, retail product development, interior design, staff uniforms, expansion plans and more.

Chloe Coscarelli is a lifelong vegetarian, and vegan for ten years. She is an award-winning chef and best-selling cookbook author. Chloe first earned national attention after winning the Food Network’s reality-competition series Cupcake Wars, as the first vegan chef to win a culinary competition on national television.

New York is definitely a haven for plant-based meals enthusiasts. We hope to have more chance to explore the city with oriental plant-based eateries.

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Text & Images: Omar Niode Foundation