Even on limited time, I make it a priority to visit PLANTA whenever we're in the same city. I walked here from the Empire State Building, and it was bustling on a Saturday evening. I happily sat at the bar.

FIRECRACKER ROLL
This was on their April exclusive menu. Filled with Japanese sweet potato, avocado, unagi, and topped with gochujang mayo & chili salt. DELICIOUS! It deserves to be a staple menu item.

TORCHED AND PRESSED
One of my go-to menu items. This roll is so melt-in-your-mouth creamy. I drool every time. I even convinced some girls sitting at the bar to order this roll.

BANG BANG BROCCOLI
My numero uno go-to dish since I visited the SOBE location a few years ago. Will never not order this. Crunchy. Flavorful. Amazing in every way.

As they were leaving, a couple asked me about this dish and I let them each have one floret. They were sold!

(Not all PLANTAs have the same dishes, but luckily, two of my favs have been at all the ones I've visited: FL, CA, IL, & NY.)

TRUFFLE RICE
I tend to avoid the main dishes and stick with starters and sushi, but I wanted to try something different. Unfortunately, I should've followed my instincts. It had a nice flavor to it, but it was dry and the rice was overcooked. Disappointing. There was so much potential with the cumulation of ingredients.


As a PLANTA Passport holder who doesn't live near a PLANTA, I was excited to be able to use my birthday reward - a free dessert! But they didn't have my fav available- the giant chocolate chip cookie, so I ended up passing on dessert.

Service was great. As busy as he was, he kept my water glass filled.

The worst part about my visit is that I rushed out to catch my Uber back to Brooklyn and left my leftovers on the counter. I may have shed a tear about it.

Tip: there are outlets and hooks at the bar.

¡Buen provecho!

After stalking her instagram for THE LONGEST, and practically begging her to come to STL, I finally made it to NYC. For the first time in my life, I took the subway (all by myself too!), about a 45 minute ride one way just to make it to her food. I placed my order after I exited the subway (due to connectivity issues on the train). It was only like a 5 minute walk from the station to La Fonda so the food wasn't quite ready yet. No worries. I sat at La Fonda's bar and enjoyed the music and good vibes from the restaurant's staff and customers.

The food took a while to prepare (I ordered a lot though), so keep that in mind if you're on a schedule. When the young man brought my food, he apologized for the wait. It was an easy Sunday for me, so I had no issues with the wait. However, I did decide to sit at the bar and eat my food.

VACALAITO:
3 nicely sized fritters, made from hearts of palm, if I remember correctly. Very tasty! I ate my leftovers today - 3 days later, and they were even better! (Warm up the leftovers in air fryer for best results)

BEEFLESS EMPANADA:
Should've ordered 2 because I'm craving more. You get one large empanada. It was so tasty and the beef was seasoned exquisitely! 10/10 would order again!
(If you like a lil spice, order the chipotle sauce for dipping. So yum!!)

MOXTAILS:
Freggin fire. FIYAH!! The dinner came with moxtails (vegan/mock oxtails), white rice (they were out of their arroz con gandules), shredded cabbage, y maduros.

I added her Cilantro Garlic sauce to the plain rice and OMG OMG!! Do it!! I ended up ordering 6 cilantro garlic sauces and 3 chipotle sauces; they're that good!

I don't know what she uses for her moxtails, but the flavor and texture are insanely succulent. No weird chewy consistency to it at all.

Initially it appeared that the portion was small, but it ended up being very filling and plentiful. 10/10 would order again.


BISTEC ENCEBOLLADO:
A vegan spin to a classic Latin Caribbean dish. This plate is hefty! A huge portion of vegan bistec is accompanied by white rice, pink beans, tostones, y ensalada. I only took a nibble of this on Sunday, but today/Wednesday, I warmed it up and ate the rest. The flavors have settled in and it's better today than it was Sunday.

I spent @ $75 before the tip, which is decent for 2 meals and 2 appetizers.

So many other things that I want to try from Black Rican Vegan, so I cannot wait to return!

Horrible. after having to wait 3 months for an appointment, they cancelled on me same day, one hour before my scheduled appointment time. Apparently, a hygienist called off work that day, so no one else in the office could get me in for a cleaning? I'll be finding a new dentist STAT.

Taco Twist

Taco Twist brands themselves as an Indian Mexican Food Battle. I'm not really sure why they chose this description because they don't really have Mexican food outside of the tortillas that are available for tacos or nachos. And it's actually a Taco Twist/ Indian Street Food/ Pizza Twist collective. Confused yet? Let me try to help. I went during their grand opening and here's what I saw and/or tried:

TACOS -
You can get tacos on either a flour tortilla shell or naan bread. The naan is NOT vegan; it comes buttered. Of the veggie tacos, the buffalo bites, aloo chaat, and tandoori soya are vegan if ordered on traditional tortilla.
I was supposed to get a taco but I never received it. (It was a free taco offer; I didn't pay for it, so I just let it go and didn't bother to ask about it.)

BURRITOS/BOWLS -
You can get burritos or bowls filled with rice or noodles. The noodles are wheat noodles and vegan-friendly. There are 4 vegan options in this section: Soya Chaap, Tikka Masala with soya, Bombay Briyani (biryani?) with soya, and Love Noodles with soya.

I ordered the Soya Chaap, which came with rice (although I asked for noodles), peppers, and some other fillers that I don't recall. The soya had a grilled/tandoori flavor to it. I really like the soya, but the bowl itself was just ok. I also requested that it be spicy, but it was not.

BURGERS -
The veggie patty for the Simply Veggie Burger is vegan, however the bun is not (the buns contain dairy/butter). This peeves me to no end. Vegan buns are easy to find, even in Costco or Sam's. However, they do offer a workaround - vegan-friendly sandwich bread. But then it's no longer a "burger" is it?

One of us tried the Tawa Noodles Burger with the veggie patty and sandwich bread. They said it was good.

MASALA FRIES -
Delicious and spicy, finally!

TWISTED WINGS -
I ordered 12 planted based wings with Mango Habanero and Manchurian flavors. They are vegan, made with soya. This were actually really tasty. Soya melts in your mouth. There is no weird texture or aftertaste. I don't know if we got both of the flavors that we asked for (they all tasted the same) but whatever it was, it was delicious. I also requested 2 dipping sauces/ mango habanero and buffalo. They'd forgotten these, so I had to go back in for them.

PIZZA -
Lots of options, and they offer vegan cheese. I'm not a pizza person, but we were offered a free one (to try during their grand opening). It came out about an hour after we'd ordered and had already eaten our other food. It didn't appear to be the pizza that we ordered though. I said no cheese and it had cheese. (I do not eat vegan cheese either.). I took off the cheese and tried one small bite after my other two dinner mates had already said they didn't like it. I concurred. We took the rest to give away to someone hungry.

BREAD TWISTS -
There are several bread twist (aka breadsticks) options. One had plant based cheese and the other was a masala-type bread. I inquired about the latter but was told it wasn't vegan. Another person in my party bought the plant based cheesy bread, so I assumed it was vegan, but I cannot confirm. (I did not try any of the bread twists.)

Things to keep in mind -
It was the grand opening, so the forgotten items were part of the learning process. I'm sure they'll get better with time.

Room for improvement:
Better education for staff on vegan and what is/isn't vegan on the menu. A vegan bun for the burgers. A clear allergen chart for all menu items.

I like the diversity of the menu, ensuring that there's something for almost every palate.

Personally, I would return for the vegan wings and masala fries.