Like most good Bostonians (it is too a word, Spellcheck) I have a weird aversion to New York City. The Big Apple is a quick 4 hour ride on the Amtrak but in the 8 years I've lived in Boston I've only been there 4 or 5 times.
And like any good person in their 30's, when I finally planned a long weekend in NYC, my list of things to do was made up entirely of various restaurants to eat at. One of the benefits of visiting a big city is that it's not very hard to find a good vegetarian restaurant. New York has some of the best eateries in the world, so when you're there for a limited amount of time like I was you have to get creative when narrowing down your choices. Every place had an interesting menu, cool looking cocktails and fun decor! But do all of them have a fun, deceiving and potentially confusing name?
Butcher's Daughter does.
If Butcher's Daughter had not popped up on every single "best vegetarian restaurants in New York" list I found, I would have taken it's name at face value and assumed there was nothing there for veggies like me. And boy, would I have been wrong.
Butcher's Daughter has 5 locations, all in the coolest and hippest neighborhoods (Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles) and all designed to look like Blake Lively might glide in at any minute and order a green juice.
Just walking in the door here makes you feel like a healthier, better person, superior to all those savage omnivores you were sharing the sidewalk with just minutes before.
My dining partner and I chose this place for our last brunch in New York before hopping back on Amtrak and returning to our dirty water town. Even though we were on our way home, we were still technically on vacation which meant there was no shame in starting our day with a cocktail.
We went with the Cucumber, Kale and Green Apple Mimosa, because mixing green juice with champagne is the most aggressively vegetarian thing I've ever seen, and a Hot Golden Elixir because we were hungover and needed a healing potion.
I gotta say, these did the trick. The mimosa was refreshing a little bit zesty, and the Golden Elixir gave me the strength I needed to make my train on time. Also, how cute is the little bamboo straw?!
It's not often that vegetarians get to read an entire menu instead of scanning it quickly looking for the one or two things they can eat (hey there, house salad with a side of fries). Entirely vegetarian menus are wonderful because they offer endless choices, but they are also stressful because they offer endless choices.
Luckily I showed up to Butcher's Daughter with a dining partner, so I didn't have to stick to one meal. We went with the Tacos Verdes, Huevos Locos, and a side of breakfast sausage.
First up, Tacos Verdes!
Look at all that green-ness! So fresh! So good for you!
I am a big fan of Impossible Meat and will order it at restaurants every chance I get.
This was tasty. It was good! Did it need to be $20? Certainly not. I don't care if you put fancy lab-grown meat on it, any dish containing iceberg lettuce should cost a maximum of $10.
Next up, Huevos Locos!
Now this was a little more satisfying. Scrambled eggs, avocado, rice and beans, yes! It's basically a deconstructed breakfast burrito, spruced up with some turmeric and I'm all about it. $16 is still a little pricey in my opinion, but at least I was actually full after finishing this.
As a converted omnivore, one of the things my body still craves from time to time is breakfast sausage. Along with my pursuit to find the best veggie burger and the best cinnamon roll (that's for another post), I am also constantly in search of a vegetable-based breakfast sausage that will calm the Jimmy Dean demon inside of me.
So when we saw "side of breakfast sausage" listed on the menu, we had no choice but to try it.
While this looks exactly like Spam, it tastes nothing like it. For $6, I was glad we got a full plate but I have to say this didn't really add much to the meal. It helped me get closer to my daily protein intake, but didn't scratch that breakfast sausage itch.
So there you have it! Butcher's Daughter described in 2 drinks, 2 entrees and a side of sausage. A little over-priced, and while I could tell the food was high-quality and well-made, it's not the kind of food I find myself thinking about or craving later.
But if you find yourself in one of the hip cities these restaurants are in, I would recommend you stop by and check it out. It's lovely, it's fresh, and you will feel like a better person for having eaten there.