There’s a new plant-based experience in town, thanks to the opening of Omakaseed at Plant Bar. Omakaseed is a vegan omakase dining experience in New York City’s Nomad neighborhood. It’s located inside the all-vegan restaurant, Purple Thai.
New York City Vegan Restaurant: Omakaseed
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The experience comes from Vegan Warrior Project and SimpleVenue. They’ve created a Japanese-inspired service complete with an eight-seat sushi bar. It offers five seatings per night and clocks in at one hour. The vegan omakase celebrates fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Michelin star Executive Chef Roberto Romero leads the experience with Chef Jorge Pineda, Chef at Omakaseed and Executive Chef at the Vegan Warrior Project.
The globally-inspired omakase is curated and offers guests “a dining experience that uncovers the complexities of each vegan sushi course, completely transforming the vegan sushi concept,” says Pineda.
What can you expect at Omakaseed?
The 15-course experience is $65 and features small bites of plant-based eats. Flavors you don’t think of combining — like torched satsuma mandarin and togarsahi on a bed of cauliflower puree — will have your tastebuds happily surprised.
The menu is served over the course of 60 minutes. It may seem like that’s far too many bites for an hour, but you’ll be fine. Nearly every dish is one bite, so it goes quickly. You’re seated where the action is. Chefs create every dish in front of you, so you can watch it all.
While the menu will change every month or so, here’s a look at what the current menu offers.
1 – Potato Veloute
A hot soup with matcha foam.
2- Pulled Oyster Mushroom Salad
Served sunomono style with cucumber and seaweed in yuzu.
3 – Cauliflower Puree
One of our favorites, it features torched satsuma mandarin and togarashi on a bed of light and fluffy cauliflower puree.
4 – Pressed King Oyster Mushroom Nigiri
Another favorite, this nigiri has incredible flavor.
5 – Tomato Nigiri
Topped with kombu seaweed and licorice salt, which we’ve never had before.
6 – Carrot Nigiri
The thinly sliced carrot is koji-cured and smoked and then topped with a delicate white kelp.
7 – Spaghetti Squash Nigiri
One of the more unexpected nigiri, the fried onions and spaghetti squash are an interesting choice.
8 – Zuke Daikon Nigiri with fried shallots
9 – Smoked Eggplant Nigiri
The smokiness made this one of our top picks for the night.
10 – Cucumber Gunkan
A ball of cucumber, pressed and marinated, inside seaweed was refreshing and light.
11 – Truffle Avocado Oshizushi
Our eyes lit up when we saw the truffle shaved in front of us. Put on top of the avocado, it was hard to taste the truffle. But, the avocado was definitely one of the most perfect, creamiest we’ve ever had.
12 – Smoked Pineapple Nigiri
Torched at the bar, the thin slice of pineapple adds a smokey sweetness to the seaweed we loved.
13 – Shiso Takuan Maki
Pickled radish and Japanese mint make this another unique flavor combo that was surprisingly good.
14 – Loaded Japanese Yam
The loaded Japanese yam was another of our top picks. It’s served with sweet pepper relish.
15 – Melon & Almond Ricotta
The lightning-fast meal ends with two cold melon balls with whipped almond ricotta and nori.
$66 per person. Seatings at 5 p.m., 6:15 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8:45 p.m., 10 p.m.
1204 Broadway, New York, 10001; 347-997-1615 (text only); Weds. – Sun. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Reservations required.