Vegetarian New York: Bunny’s Review of the 5-Course Tasting Menu with Wine Pairings at Dirt Candy

Bunny recently tried the 5-course vegetarian tasting menu with wine pairings from award-winning chef, Amanda Cohen, at Dirt Candy restaurant in New York’s Lower East Side.

The lead-up to the dinner was not ideal as Bunny had been awake for 35 hours straight (after a long and bumpy overnight flight from Argentina) and was not particularly hungry when she entered the restaurant. 

But it ended up being Bunny’s best meal (so far) in 2018!

Reserve Ahead

Dirt Candy is extremely popular but Bunny managed to secure a last-minute reservation for her midweek dinner, most probably a cancellation, on the same day. It didn’t hurt that the slot that came available was the first sitting at 5:30pm.

In the restaurant, she and Mr. Bunny were seated at the kitchen viewing counter which was a bit of a disappointment at first as the restaurant was almost empty. However, the Bunnies ended up very much enjoying the experience since they had a front seat view to the open kitchen, and were able to observe how the food was prepared.

The Menu

Instead of an à la carte menu, Dirt Candy offers two tasting options for dinner: The Vegetable Patch (5 courses) and the Vegetable Garden (9-10 courses). Each one can also be ordered with wine pairings.

Bunny chose the shorter menu, Vegetable Patch, which includes Dirt Candy’s “greatest hits”. And of course she could not resist the wine pairings, despite her seriously sleep-deprived state. Particularly as Dirt Candy boasts a wine list featuring wines from “game-changer” female winemakers by small, family-owned estates around the world.

The Experience

The atmosphere at Dirt Candy was casual but warm, with some elegant touches. Bunny particularly liked the real candles, including in the unisex washrooms.

The service was excellent throughout the meal. The Bunnies didn’t have a dedicated waiter but each dish was brought by a different staff member, explaining the food and the accompanying wine in detail.

All dishes were shared which worked fine for the Bunnies although Bunny wouldn’t have minded individual plates either. Sharing dishes with Mr. Bunny is always a bit of a competition.

The pacing of the meal itself was quite good. Once or twice the Bunnies asked for a little break after a course so that they could savour the moment before the next course (and a glass of wine) arrived. 

Each wine was poured generously (for New York).

The Food and Wine

The 5-course tasting menu started with Korean fried broccoli that the Dirt Candy website describes as “crack in broccoli form”. Oh boy! Bunny has never done crack but if it is anywhere near as good as the broccoli she had, perhaps she should start experimenting… 

The sparkling rose accompanying the first course was also to Bunny’s liking, so much so that she had to finish Mr. Bunny’s glass as well.

Bunny also eagerly munched on the delicious Italian style bread with smoke infused olive oil that was served shortly after sitting down.

The second course was Portobello mushroom mousse and sauteed Asian pears with truffle toast. It was paired with a fitting French white wine (Bunny forgot the actual grape variety, sorry).

Next up was a smoky broccoli “hot dog” with some sauerkraut and a carrot slider, paired with another sparkling wine! This was a nice surprise, even the waiter mentioned he was sometimes a bit nervous to introduce another sparkling wine at this stage of the meal. Bunny gulped hers down with gusto.

Portobello mushroom mousse and carrot sliders

Brussels sprout tacos then followed. Bunny is not a great fan of Brussels sprouts (or anything to do with Brussels, really) but these tacos were excellent. Lettuce leaves served as the tacos shells and Bunny added smoked avocado, salsa verde, fried tortilla strips, some seriously spicy jalopenos, cheese and crema to her tacos. Healthy(ish) and delicious!

However, this was the only course where Bunny thinks the wine choice was not ideal. The tacos were served with a red wine when, in fact, there should not have been wine at all. Tacos should only be eaten with beer, Bunny says. Preferably Mexican beer.

Luckily things got even better at the dessert stage. First of all, there were two desserts: an impressive chocolate “mushroom”, melted with a hot chocolate sauce, and parsnip-based tres leches cake. Both were succulent and served with a well-matched dessert wine.

Despite the seemingly small portion sizes, Bunny was quite full, and happy, after her meal. 

She was also encouraged to hear that Dirt Candy can make the menu vegan as well. All you have to do is ask. Next time, she will come hungry and prepared and opt for the full 10-course experience in vegan form.

Healthy tacos at Dirt Candy

Bunny’s Conclusion

Bunny loved her dinner at Dirt Candy! The atmosphere was great, the food innovative and tasty, the wines excellent - and somewhat surprising - and the service attentive.

In addition, there was a strict no-tipping policy which Bunny very much welcomed. According to the information in the menu, the waiters at Dirt Candy are paid a fair salary so the customers don’t have to scratch their heads about tipping afterwards. Hurrah!