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 Gobo
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 1426 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Cross Streets: (between 80th and 81st Streets)
Phone: (212) 288-5099
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User Rating
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9.67
Highly Recommended
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Editorial Review
There are lots of great vegetarian restaurants in the city, but how many of them can be hip?
After a recent Saturday night visit to the West Village’s newest Vegetarian scene, there’s at least one downtown. Gobo owners Darryn and David Wu, children of Zen Palate founders, set out with a lofty vision of excellent dining when they named their first restaurant for a plant known for its purifying effects and claimed that their goal is to strive to, “awaken the ‘root’ of five senses for each guest.”
The artfully backlit signage catches the eye and draws the attention of walkers-by through the gigantic picture window onto an intimate juice bar nook in the front of the restaurant. Well-dressed couples and groups sipped wheat grass, not Grey goose, while waiting for one of fifty seats along the walls and in one long row facing the exposed kitchen. The sounds, and more importantly, the smells coming from the the kitchen manage to take attention from the attractive wait-staff navigating the narrow rows between tables.
The wine and beer list, with a tasty Belgian white ale for $7 and international and Californian wines for about $9, is memorable without killing the wallet. Bubble tea (The chewy balls coming at you through the oversized straw are tapioca.) kept the table quiet while I enjoyed the “coriander and orange peel” finish of my beer.
The scallion pancakes, not overly oily like they are in many Chinese restaurants, were brightened by the mango salsa while the tofu rolls, while good, seemed a bit small for five dollars, but sat beautifully in a layer of mango puree. Consider waiting a few minutes before biting into the piping hot spinach and soy cheese wontons.
With much of the menu reflecting their parents’ focus on creating vegetarian dishes reminiscent of traditional Chinese cooking, the seitan medallions in citrus sauce did not leave the non-vegetarians in the party looking for beef. It also, as the waiter mentioned, fulfilled our fat quotient for the day.
While its flavor was not ground-breaking, the texture of the spiced bean curd and pepper stir-fry was fittingly inventive for a menu looking to stretch the envelope. The bean curd, often found as slippery, almost shapeless cubes floating in a heavy bath of brown sauce, was sliced into pasta-like strands and tossed with well-cooked green onions, bean sprouts and shoe-string-cut red peppers. The three of us split these along with the moo shoo style pine nut and vegetable medley served with lettuce wraps.
We did not save room to try the all-vegan deserts, but are planning to go back for the lunch menu, which is served prix-fixe for around $8.
With properly moody lighting and a hostess about as close to New York Cool (rude) as an upstanding vegetarian restaurant can be, Gobo easily rates a place in the all-too-precious third or fourth date in a relationship where you’d like to see a fifth.
Following their downtown success, Gobo recently opened a second location in the Upper East Side. |
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Restaurant Information
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Vegan
Vegetarian
Vegetarian Friendly
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Asian Fusion
Chinese
Global Fusion
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$$$ ($21 -$29)
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