Candle 79 is a vegan restaurant on the
Upper East Side. And make no mistakes, this is a restaurant. Dark
wood, wait staff in black, tablecloths...an elegant place. This
ain't no Billyburg sprout-shilling hipster shack. You won't find a
Birkenstock or an ironic beard anywhere...and I was glad for that.
It puts a different face on veganism. The hostess was very nice and
seated us even though the third member of our party was late. (A big
plus to me. Entirely too many places refuse to offer this
consideration and it fucking bugs me.) Our waiter was a fun guy. He
answered all of our questions...even the sometimes strange ones from
Adrienne. At some point he told us we were his “weird” table.
The folks that keep him entertained and laughing while he deals with
other less personality-endowed clientèle.
We started ourselves off with
cocktails. Drinking something called “The Reforestation”, which
was much like a less sweet mojito. The company that makes the vodka
used in the drink supposedly plants a certain amount of trees for
every bottle they sell, hence “Reforestation” This led to some
strange questioning of our waiter. He took it all very well. Didn't
even roll his eyes at us.
We didn't really go with a traditional
app, entree, dessert kind of meal here. As a matter of fact, I'm
pretty sure we didn't order a single entree at all. We just kept
ordering appetizers and sides. Maria, Adrienne and I basically
turned Candle 79 into a vegan tapas joint. Whatever caught our eye,
we ordered it. What we started with and in what order was
inconsequential and truthfully I simply don't remember the order of
it all. Thankfully, I took some notes.
We had some Seitan Wheatballs with a
Tomato-Basil Sauce. These were excellent. Excellent enough that we
got a second order of them. Under the right circumstances, in the
right dish, I could see them as a substitute for a regular meatball.
The sauce was clean and tasty. The balls had a nice flavor to them.
Even a little bit of crunch. I liked these a lot.
The Polenta Fries, I wasn't as big a
fan of. They were a bit bland to me. Maria loved them.
We had Grilled Oyster Mushrooms with a
Jalapeño Vinaigrette that were OK. The mushrooms themselves were
pretty good. But really, it's hard to fuck up grilled mushrooms.
Unfortunately, there really was no heat. Maybe they forgot to put
the jalapeño in the vinaigrette because I didn't taste it at all.
A Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad was
pretty good. Not great but good, which will be a theme through most
of this review. It came with some root veggies and cranberries and a
pretty tasty garlicky rosemary dressing.
There was a Mushroom Fricassee special
that came with polenta and stuff. I honestly don't remember a lot
about this dish other than I liked it a lot more than the jalapeño
vinaigrette mushrooms.
Guacamole Timbale, which is basically
a guacamole and black bean cake. I'll give it to Candle 79, they
make a fantastic guacamole. The key, really, to good Guac is fresh
ingredients and the right ratio of them. They've got that down!
Then we had “Angel's” nachos.
This was the most disappointing thing I ate. The refried beans and
salsa were really good. I could even live with the fake cheese they
use. It doesn't taste like cheese but whatever. It was the seitan
meat stuff they used. There's no reason for it. You can have nachos
that don't have meat. And this isn't meat anyway. It's braised
Goodyear tires. Completely ruined what could've been a decent dish
for me.
We even managed dessert. A Mexican
Chocolate Brownie that came with Caramelized Bananas and a
Chocolate-Ancho Chile sauce. That was pretty damn good. Maria said
you can always count on good desserts at a vegan place. She was
certainly right about this one. To go along with our brownie, Maria
and I shared a spiced espresso. Might've been just a little too
spiced for my taste actually. I think I'd have liked this better if
it was in regular coffee.
If you're a vegan looking to have a
real restaurant experience, where you don't feel ostracized because
of your particular food choices, this is a place for you. If you're
not a vegan and you're just accommodating your weird friends, this
isn't a bad choice. It honestly didn't feel like a complete meal to
me. But that could have just as much to do with us not ordering
entrees at all as it did with the food, although I suspect it might
not have. I didn't love that we paid what were basically steakhouse
prices for that meal for what amounts to side dishes. It was a good
experience with good food and good service with great people. Candle
79 wasn't really worth what it cost and based on that I'm not sure
how eager I'd be to go back. But I can certainly see the appeal if
vegan is the way you roll.
Candle 79
154 East 79th Street
New York, NY, 10021
212-537-7179
http://www.candle79.com
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