GustOrganics 04-24-2010

Location: 519 Ave. of the Americas
Time: 6pm
People: RB and myself

Feelings: GustOrganics is an organic, green establishment that serves vegetarian, vegan and gluten free friendly dishes as well as several meat options. The theme reminded me a little bit of Siggy's Good Food in Brooklyn Heights, but GustOrganic is much pricier and much larger.

The service at this place is similar to many other vegan or organic restaurants: pleasant enough, but almost nonexistent. We waited for our food for nearly 30 minutes, and I noticed everyone else at the restaurant was waiting too. They of course completely ignored us when it was time to pay the bill. What is it with a lot of vegan restaurants with their aloofness? Do we need animal protein to function as a part of society? Or since we vegetarians have such limited choices, we wouldn't mind poor service so much? Whatever the reason is, it is irritating to have to wait for mediocre food for 30 minutes.

Beer connoisseur RB eagerly anticipated their organic beer selection, but he was disappointed to see they only offered Peek Organic. Beer lovers shouldn't have to suffer at organic restaurants. Souen has a terrific selection of organic beer.

My Lentil Stew ($15, French lentils, tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions) was tasty but nothing spectacular. The portion was large, and I could barely finish half of the bowl. It came with a side of my choice, the whole wheat spaghetti, which was oily and bland. I probably should have ordered quinoa instead.

RB's Chicken Stew ($18, slow-cooked chicken in tomato broth) looked more like five small chunks of dry chicken with tomato sauce with a large, large side of steamed kale. The chef may have had a grudge against carnivores because the chicken was bland and superdry, and there was nothing stewed or slow-cooked about this dish.

I am a big fan of the concept of this restaurant, but its execution leaves something to be desired. This place may give a bad reputation to organic vegetarian food.