I noticed that we didn’t have a topic specifically dedicated to vegan and vegetarian eating, so I thought I’d start one.
We are not vegetarian, far from it. But the majority of meals we eat throughout the week at home are either vegan or vegetarian. We’ll cook meat or seafood once per weekend and when we eat out or take out, we’ll order meat or seafood. However we do enjoy ordering vegetable dishes, which are sometimes among the best on the menu. We have had excellent vegetarian meals out, such as at Shook last summer. And when go out with vegetarian or vegan friends, we’ll usually pick places that are either exclusively plant-based or mainly so.
So we ended up at Planta Yorkville yesterday for lunch as we had friends in town, some of whom are vegan. We ate there once before when it first opened and found it mainly OK, with some bright spots. We had been more impressed with Planta Queen a year or two later, but our friends had been to Planta Yorkville before and wanted to go again.
Our server was friendly, attentive, and fairly knowledgeable about the menu. The kitchen was a little inconsistent with the timing of sending out dishes, for which our server apologized. Food remains good, though not necessarily what we would seek our regardless of a friend’s dietary preferences.
We started with an oat milk latte, which was nice but not particularly warm. The pineapple, sage, agave, and lime agua fresca (off the March menu) was better, nicely balanced and refreshing.
The Dragon Roll included lightly fried broccoli, spinach, avocado, and a “spicy unary” sauce. The rice could have used a bit more seasoning, but otherwise this was nicely done.
1000 layer crispy potatoes (also off the March menu) featured little towers of finely sliced potato, seaweed caviar, sour “cream”, and chives - good execution overall, although the vegan sour cream had a coconut flavour that made it seem a little more like dessert.
Shakshouka - split pea fritters (instead of egg), tomato sauce, tahini, sumac, nice flatbread - piping hot and pretty well-flavoured.
Spaghetti vongole (March menu) - chickpeas, white wine, parsley, crispy garlic - simple and delicious, with perfectly cooked pasta; the best dish of the meal. Calling it vongole though takes away from the dish though as you expect something seafood-y in flavour.
Our second round of drinks included a Cucumber Mule - seed lip garden 108, cucumber water, simple syrup, lime juice, ginger beer, rosemary, and dried lime slice - not bad, maybe it needed more mixing. The Very Dark and Stormy was better - activated charcoal, vanilla chai syrup, lime, Fever Tree ginger beer.
Sticky Toffee Pudding (March menu), with excellent vanilla ice cream and sesame crunch was very sweet and had a lovely texture. It went well with coffee (to offset the sweetness).
Granola, chia pudding and strawberry/blueberry compote was a main on the brunch menu, but we ordered it as we really liked the chia pudding last time we visited. This rendition was pleasant enough, but the chia part actually a little bland this time.
All in all, we still prefer Planta Queen and will at some point try Planta Cocina.
