red bamboo
140 west 4th street
(212) 260 7049
red bamboo
type of cuisine: vegan soul food
culinary excellence: 8
vegan friendliness: 10
*recommended*
when i lived in new york, red bamboo was my go-to restaurant for delicious vegan grub in walking distance of film forum, ifc and nyu. there was nothing like a soul chicken sandwich and a glass of wine before class or a night out with luca involving collard rolls and chocolate covered strawberry shortcake. they have expanded their menu considerably since that time, but you can still expect fantastic vegan soul food in relaxing setting, a diversity of patrons, attractive tattooed servers and mock meat galore. ordinarily, i'm not a big advocate of fake meat, but red bamboo does it so well that it overrides my usual preference for non-fake food.
some of red bamboo's appetizers that i enjoy are the aforementioned collard greens rolls (crispy and perfect), salmon rolls (you will not believe how good these are), roti canai (unbelievably delicious soft roti with a savory dipping sauce) and sweet potato and broccoli tempura (outstanding). i was not impressed with the chewy cornmeal crusted calamari.
excellent entrees include the creole soul chicken (scrumptious soy chicken served with cooked carrots and zucchini and sweet corn mashed potatoes with a fantastic mushroom gravy), the crispy sole filet (in my opinion the best "fish" entree, also served with corn mashed potatoes and sylvia's honey lemon catfish (delicious and flavorful). reasonably good entrees include the salmon teriyaki (served with steamed vegetables and hijiki and not as good as mobay's veggie salmon), the voodoo sticks (savory shish kebabed seitan), coconut chicken (tasty but not super exciting) and fish and chips (pretty good if you are vegan and crave this dish, but probably not impressive to carnivores). mediocre dishes include the butterfly soy chops (same faux meat as the soul chicken only the patties are larger and topped with a sweet apple-raisin sauce; the side collards are swimming in bbq sauce), the tandoori chicken (stewed in sauce with potatoes) and the grilled bourbon chicken (good, but served atop a palate-clashing salad). the codfish cakes with mango salsa are pretty mushy and terrible.
as far as the sandwiches go, i recommend the soul chicken sandwich hands down. it's a little overstuffed, but it is addictively good. the sole on a roll is just like the entree but in sandwich form. the classic blt made me feel like i was 8 years old again. the philly cheesesteak was not particularly good when they first premiered it, but it's entirely possible they have made improvements since that time. same goes for the chicken parmesan hero. the mottalini is similar to the soul chicken sandwich but with mustard and onion instead of vidalia dressing.
the roasted garlic angel hair pasta and the sweet basil linguine are both very good, but why order pasta when this is a vegan soul food restaurant? boring!
desserts are delivered from vegan treats, so you can expect hella delicious cakes made with totally awful ingredients (i.e. hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, etc.) but hey, i think a big slice of chocolate covered strawberry shortcake or peanut butter bomb every now and then surely does more good than harm. the cakes are definitely better than the milkshakes and soy ice cream options. however, they are often out of the best choices on weekends, so you may have to settle for one of the fancied up cheesecakes.
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