While looking up places to eat in New York, I came across Candle 79. Even though I am not vegan, I wanted to try a vegan place because it’s really nice and relaxing to walk in to a restaurant and not have to stress over whether something contains dairy in it or not. As well, Candle 79 had really great reviews, so how could I pass it up?
So, after an afternoon of exploring Central Park and The Met museum, we explored the Upper East Side and went to Candle 79!
As mentioned above, Candle 79 is a completely vegan restaurant. None of their menus or signage advertise this, but I had found it under the vegan section on Yelp and the server confirmed that everything here is vegan. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge meat lover, so vegan or vegetarian food takes a lot to impress me. Let’s see how they did!
We were still pretty full from our lunch at Blue Dog, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to try this place. Since we already had plans for the rest of the trip and wouldn’t be in this area of NYC again, we decided on just having a small snack to at least try something!
Angel’s nachos, $16: Made with corn chips, ‘mozarella’, chili beans, tofu sour cream, and guacamole. The mozarella is the dairy & soy alternative from Daiya, which you may have seen in grocery stores. For nachos that don’t have real cheese, this was delicious. The tofu sour cream tasted like real sour cream, while there was a very generous portion of guacamole. The corn chips were really crunchy and thick as well.
The one thing I didn’t really like was the chipotle seitan. Seitan is a vegetarian meat alternative, made from wheat. I found it have the texture of tofu puffs, and didn’t really match the taste or texture of meat to me. So, I ate everything else which was delicious!
Housemade ice cream sampler, $9: The nachos were already really filling considering we weren’t hungry to begin with, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to have ICE CREAM. I was already sold when our server told us it was made with rich coconut milk. I’ve been deprived of ice cream for soooo long.
The chef’s selection that day was the strawberry coconut soy, mango, and vanilla chocolate. THEY WERE SO GOOD. Seriously guys, it was soo creamy from the coconut milk that you can’t even tell it’s dairy free. To this day, I am still thinking and wishing that I had Candle 79’s ice cream again.
My favourite was the strawberry, and I found myself savouring every creamy bite. The mango, although it was called a ‘sorbet’, was really creamy and tasted deliciously creamy as well. I found the vanilla chocolate to be too sweet, and that one melted quite fast, while the other two didn’t melt.
Whether you are vegan or not, Candle 79 is a delicious restaurant and worth trying out. I will continue to think about their vegan ice cream over and over again, especially since the weather is getting hotter now.
Thanks for reading!
Carmen
Empire State Building Line System:
View of the Upper East Side with Brooklyn across the East River. The buildings look short, but they are actually quite tall if you don’t compare them to the majestic Empire State Building.
I love Japanese culture because of how efficient everything is. While we were waiting, one of the workers went around and we all placed our order in line. As you can see, the restaurant is really crowded and small. We shared a four person table with two other customers against the wall, and there was no room for us to really move around.
Chicken paitan, $10: Totto Ramen’s original straight noodles in a rich and creamy chicken broth. This was immensely delicious, and super warm and comforting. It was raining in New York that night, so it was the perfect bowl to have. The pulled pork was also really delicious and really tender.
Miso Paitan, $12: The miso paitan has the same chicken base as mine, but with miso added to it. Again, this bowl was very delicious and flavourful. The pork was very tender and melted in my mouth, I wish we had also ordered pork on the other bowl as well!
Here’s a closeup of the ramen noodles in the chicken paitan. They were cooked perfectly and were slightly chewy. This was my first time trying the thin ramen noodles and I really liked it!
The noodles in the miso paitan were a bit different, and were more like the ramen noodles I was used to eating back in Vancouver. Again, these were cooked perfectly and had a lovely bounce to it.
Complimentary bread: To start, we were given a nice loaf of warm bread to munch on. The bread was fluffy, soft and came out lightly toasted. No complaints here!
Wagyu beef french dip, $23: Originally, my mom and I were going to share this because it sounded amazing! However, after telling my server about my dairy restriction, she told me the wagyu beef is smothered in butter before getting cooked. Sigh.
Prime steak salad, $25: I wanted to try the steak, but I didn’t want to pay $50 for steak at lunch so I went with the prime steak salad. That way, I was still able to try their famous steak! The salad normally comes with blue and Parmesan cheese, and dressing. Obviously I wanted to have the dairy component, but due to my stupid and frustrating restriction, and risk of getting super sick I had to order without it.
Since this is the sunset cruise, this scheduled cruise only runs once per day, obviously. The other cruises, such as the Landmark or Liberty Cruises, run twice a day.
Once the cruise started to move, people moved inside because it was a windy night and also raining a bit. But on a beautiful, warm day, you will definitely want to be on the balcony!
On the cruise, we also got to see some attractions on the other side of Manhattan. We passed a port where soldiers were deported to Europe in World War 1 & 2 in New Jersey. We also saw the old Colgate factory in New Jersey. These things we wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for our informative and engaging tour guide!
Passing by New York City, with the Empire State Building in the background!
We scored great seats since we went a hour early! The only annoying thing about our seats was that it was directly facing the stairs to the deck. Since the boat was going pretty fast and it was chilly that day, the cold wind blasted up to us whenever people would open the doors. It got a bit annoying because other customers held the door open for their friends, which made our entire area really cold!
Going under the three bridges that connect Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan! The tour guide, who was awesome btw, told us an easy way to remember the order of the bridges was BMW – Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg.
The sun was beginning to set at 8 pm! Pictured above is the famous Brooklyn Bridge, one of the first steel cable and oldest bridges in North America. We learned that when it was first built, citizens and government officials alike were hesitant to cross the bridge because it was the first time they used steel cable there.
I actually didn’t know the Harbour Lights cruise went around the Statue of Liberty, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was announced!
On the way back, our side of the boat faced Manhattan so I was able to take nicer city view photos. This is a photo of Lower Manhattan, featuring the World Trade Center building.