Tiengarden Vegan Restaurant

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Tiengarden's Chinese is not only vegan but free of what the menu vilifies as "the five impurities"—onion, garlic, leeks, shallots and tobacco. While it's doubtful you'll miss tobacco in your mixed greens, the lack of onion and garlic is a little worrying. Happily, the kitchen manages to create a number of winning flavor combinations out of crisply fresh, lightly cooked vegetables. Tofu, seitan, and gluten are prodded into an impressive number of textures—creamy, crunchy, bready, and even meaty. Peanuts, ginger, basil, bell peppers, along with vegan takes on sweet and sour and black bean sauces, add secondary notes. These culinary tactics work out well in noodle dishes like spicy Peking udon, or vegetarian standards like Buddha’s delight, redolent with the nutty flavor of shiitake mushrooms and tender bamboo shoots. Also good is the sweet-and-tangy bean curd and broccoli in tomato-basil sauce. Mock meat dishes are less successful: satay kebab, for example, looks like skewered beef but tastes more like beef jerky. Less exciting are the surroundings. Apart from a few hanging plants and some calligraphy on the walls, the tiny dining room consists of little more than ten tables and a counter. — Simon Spelling

This is the closest to truly personal treatment that you’re ever likely to find in a restaurant. The diminutive vegan café seats about as many people as a Manhattan studio apartment might, and each dish is prepared with great care. Try the seaweed rolls—tofu wrapped in seaweed and sheets of bean curd, panfried with lemon—and herbed home fries.



Extra
Monday through Friday there's a daily lunch special served with mixed rice and a baked spring role ($5.95). Salads ($4.95-$10) and bean curd, wheat gluten, or vegetable sandwiches on whole grain bread ($4.95-$6.50) are available all day. An unexpected bonus are the moist, chewy chocolate chip walnut and almond raisin dessert cookies that are rare examples of vegan baked goods that don't taste like compressed sawdust.

Recommended Dishes
Seaweed rolls, $5.95; five treasures, $8.95; spicy string beans, $8.50