abcV, New York NY

We were holiday-ing from London, so we decided to visit abcV with my husband & in-laws for our “one special meal” in NYC. We had SUCH a memorable time.

My FIL was reluctant to come as he doesn’t feel like a meal with complete without meat, but somehow he obliged and also felt the whole experience was worth it.

We LOVED the maitake mushroom dish (we ordered it twice), the cauliflower was delicious, as well as the eggplant dish. Also, had excellent cocktails (I got a martini & the spicy margarita).

Peyton, the current manager, made us feel so welcome and so well taken care of - his advice on the menu was excellent. The way he speaks about the restaurant & menu shows how much he cares for his staff and how invested he is in the experience of their patrons. We will be back on our next visit to the city!

Overall, our experience was lackluster. Very disappointing for a JG restaurant. The food was okay. Cauliflower was bitter and seemed off, but the service.was obsolete! Our server was completely aloof and lost (to be honest, he seemed under the influence). After taking our drink order, he asked us if we "wanted anything other than water". Wait, what? We honestly thought he was kidding. He sure wasn't. Had to remind him that he had already taken our drink order. He didn't check in on us after we got several of our courses, and after over an hour, never asked if we wanted another drink, nor did he check in to see if the food was too our liking. We informed the manager of the situation, although she was kind and receptive, she eluded the the fact that that was "one of her best servers" so she's not sure what's going on. As if it were us, not him. We informed her that we didn't care for the cauliflower, and she removed it. We then asked for the check. When she dropped the check and we paid, we shortly after received 2 cupcakes with a "happy anniversary" on the plate.it was not our anniversary. The server then randomly came up and asked if we wanted desserts. We informed him we had already paid. Clearly, the manager hadn't communicated that she dropped the check already. He then looked with complete confusion on his face as to why the cupcakes were on the table. Looks like the manager and server didn't communicate yet again. The manager quickly ran over and said, "Sorry, miscommunication", it was supposed to say "congratulations", as we had our baby with us. Overall, the experience was not worth the $200 bill. We were pretty upset and definitely left with a bad taste in our mouths. We seemed like just a check to them. Sad to see a JG staple performing like this.

The food was delicious! We opted to not go for the chefs menu and instead choose a couple of starters and one main course. The avocado salad was refreshing and with a little bit of a lemon kick and the cauliflower tasted delicious!
The deserts were on another level - the chocolate cake was divine and the peach vegan cream desert was light and refreshing.
Would recommend!

Presentation is not as delicate as when they first opened but the recipes are still pretty good. Quality is still pretty good. Good for a casual dinner or lunch.

Located at the lower edge of Midtown, next to Union Park, but between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, abcV looks like a midtown/uptown restaurant. Although the facade looks high-end, the dining environment inside is cozy and a bit. Asian style feel. As a vegetarian restaurant, abcV’s concept and cuisine remind me of Little Tree Food in Taipei [btw, abcV is a Michelin plate, and Little Tree Food is a Michelin Bib Gourmand and Green Star. I think this difference mainly reflects the price difference between Manhattan and Taipei). Both emphasize the quality of ingredients and focus on delicious vegetarian food. The goal is to allow non-vegetarians to enjoy their cuisine, but one is Eastern style and the other is Western style. Just style. Everything I ordered at abcV this time was delicious. The avocado lettuce cup menu showed only a few numbers, but it actually contained at least five kinds of vegetables. The taste of these vegetables was so rich and delicious that it exceeded my original expectations when I first looked at the menu. Then the burger is another one of a kind. It looks 87% similar to a fried chicken burger when it comes to the table. The filling is also crispy on the outside and like fried chicken, but the inside is filled with rich and plump ingredients that are full of flavor. I really have to applaud the abcV chef for his creativity and skill.

Waitress is very friendly and has a positive attitude which is another plus.

There are only a handful of vegetarian restaurants recommended by Michelin in Manhattan, and abcV is definitely one of them worth visiting and highly recommended.

It was crowded, turbulent and a bit loud. But I was also there in a large group. Food great!

Food and cocktails are extraordinary, but pricey. But I don't think one can find better veggie food.

Very good was pleasantly surprised! I am not a vegetarian so I feared missing out on meat for lunch but every dish was filling and flavorful. If you like meat get the mushroom pasta or hemp seed burger

This place takes food presentation to a whole new level of fancy! I mean, I ordered a few dishes, thinking I was in for a meal, but it turned into a magic show. I felt like Mr. Bean at the French restaurant trying to figure out what's what!

Now, about the taste, it was like a subtle orchestra playing in my mouth, not too heavy on the flavors, and I left feeling like I just watched a classy performance. But hey, restaurant, let's not turn ordering into a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Simplify that menu, don't make it as complicated as solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded!

Food was beyond below average, quantities enough to feed a mouse, prices as if it's Michelin starred. The food came cold (twice). Server was great, but the overall food was beyond terrible. Expect to pay $100 a head for a unsatisfactory meal.

Hmmm. I have many thoughts on vegan/vegetarian places like this and I am debating whether or not to spew them here. I think I will hold off. Ehhhh.okay fine I will summarize quickly: $32 for a head of cauliflower is wwiiiiiiiiilllldddddddd. It's probably like 300 calories total lmao. If I'm spending that much I at least want to walk out feeling satiated you know?

Again, this is not a knock on abcV, it's just the whole vegan-fine dining industry as a whole.

On the other end of the $32 coin, that head of cauliflower was ODE*! I don't even know how cauliflower could be that delicious. I would have lost a lot of money if we had a bet that I would say "oh my goddddd this is unreal. " about some cauliflower lol. Thankfully, I'm not a betting man. Unless it's on myself, then I completely double down.

The dosa and mushroom walnut bolognese were also unbelievable. A similar out of body experience that I had with the cauliflower. I still don't even know what dosa is but it was HITTIN!

The interior of this place had me feeling like I am in Greece. But not one of those places that you can feel they try super hard to get the Greece feel. I don't know how to articulate what I am trying to say, but yeah. When I walked in here I felt like I could take a clean breath. A very calming space. I feel like they must have a crazy air purifier in here or something ahahaa.

In terms of pure taste of food, this was the best vegan restaurant I have ever been to, and I've probably been to like 9 at this point, just for context.

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*ode (O-Dee) = At this point it is almost entirely context based, can really mean whatever you want it to mean: alot, really good, too much, etc.
"yo bro, i like shawty ode. "
"Bro, that cauliflower was ode! "

The flavor combinations in each dish we ordered did not taste good. We tried four appetizers and four main courses among our group and nothing tasted good and some things were too bad to finish. The place is overpriced as well, and the servings are small. The wait staff was lovely and the restuarant is pretty but I would not recommend this this restaurant because the food was terrible.

I work in hospitality and was referred here by my culinary team. I SEE WHY! Food is incredible, so fresh and light. Proper food and so much flavour. Prime ambience, excellent service, nice large menu of food, cold pressed juices, mocktails and alc. 5+ star

I was not thrilled with our waitress. She acted like she didn't want to be there and didn't want to be bothered. We even had to ask her for water. The food was wonderful! The atmosphere is bright and clean!

AbcV (the vegetarian sister restaurant of abc kitchen) has all the trappings of a high end yuppie watering hole. The place is big and spacious, nicely appointed and popular. The problem is the food. There were four of us dining and the six dishes we tried ranged from pretty good to pretty terrible. The menu tries hard to be modern and distinctive (see photo), but instead is pretentious and incomprehensible. For starters, rather than a hunk of bread and dipping sauce on the table they charge $17 for a little piece of focaccia. The avocado lettuce cups which is supposed to be “light and fresh” was instead very heavily spiced. The chickpea hummus was decent, but the sweet and hot peppers were inedible and the spaghetti with kinara cheese was about as far from “warm and nourishing” as you can get. I mean seriously, how do you blow spaghetti? Just a really questionable mix of ingredients. To top it off, all portions are tiny and everything is overpriced.

We dined here recently for our 10th anniversary and what an absolute treat! I will start this by saying that I really wanted to go to a different 3* vegan restaurant in the city, but was delighted that we pivoted to abcV after the experience we had.

FOOD+VALUE
The food was absolutely 10/10 stellar. My partner swears that the bread is the best he has ever eaten. Our waitress was able to recommend some truly amazing dishes for us. We tried the artichokes, beluga lentils, shiitake mushrooms and the roasted eggplant and I can recommend each and every one of them. Flavours were perfect and the ingredients tasted like they were of high quality - which is so important for vegan food. Each dish seasoned to perfection.
We also tried the chocolate pudding and the mango tart for dessert. Highly recommend the chocolate!
Prices reasonable for NYC.

STAFF
We called in to change our reservation time the day of and the staff were friendly and accommodating. On arrival, the staff were welcoming and friendly and it was the wait staff (I didn't catch our waitresses name!) who really made this experience extra special for us. Ryan, the beverage manager, made an effort to visit our table (every table it seemed) to personally welcome and thank each guest for dining there. Some of the best service I have experienced in the city. Unpretentious, relaxed but still top notch. My water was filled after every sip I took - kudos.

AMBIANCE
We arrived early so the place was fairly empty but filled in quickly. The restaurant is cozy and modern looking, without feeling too cheap. We really enjoyed the decor and the natural light coming through the windows. The tables were also a reasonable size so that we could have a few share plates at any time.

Thank you to each and every one of the staff who made our Anniversary extra special. Thank you Ryan for taking good care of us, its so evident that you put service first. We cannot wait to come back!

They really need to do something accousticly. It's super loud, almost unbearable. I appreciate that everything is vegetarian but would be super helpful if they actually labelled the vegan dishes.

Absolutely delicious. I’m vegan and gluten free and there was so much to chop from. Plus all the non vegan people really enjoyed.