Broadway East

It would be very easy to hate a restaurant that composts its own waste, carbonates its own water, has a 240-square-foot "living wall" of plants, and bills itself as New York's first "flexitarian" restaurant. But we ate at Broadway East last night --- and definitely didn't.

This much-buzzed about restaurant for vegetarians and their carnivorous friends recently opened on the Lower East Side. The location shows in the red velvet banquettes that line the walls, the global house music playing a little too loudly, the starkly furnished downstairs lounge, and the flip-flop and fedora-wearing fellow diners.

But the scene-y-ness is redeemed by the food. We began with olives for the table, exactly what they sound like, followed by a fennel and blood orange salad, which the chef thoughtfully divided onto two plates. With crispy dried olives and peanuts providing the texture, the salad was one of the best we'd had in a long time.

For the main course, we had a chickpea and sweet potato bsteeya, a North African pie usually made with pigeons (but mercifully fowl free here), and a Korean market plate, which included grilled tofu, brown rice with quinoa, kimchi, and spinach handrolls. Both dishes surprisingly mixed spice with crunch. We drank cabernet franc and seyval blanc from the all–New York wine list. Dessert was a crumbly black cocoa cake with pistachio ice cream that we're still tasting (in a good way).

As we checked out the living wall on our way out, we thought of the perfect tagline for the place: Never sanctimonious. Always savory.

Photo: thanks