Sacred Chow

Before meeting up with the lovely Our Hen House ladies for an interview, we stopped by Sacred Chow in New York’s West Village for a bite to eat. Earlier that day, we had eaten at V-Note so we weren’t very hungry; but we also didn’t want to waste the opportunity to check out an institution like Sacred Chow. It’s quite a skinny little space they have, and you can’t see the kitchen space at all unless you walk to the back of the restaurant. There were two other diners when we walked in and several more showed up shortly after we sat down.



Their menu is different than standard restaurant offerings. They have tapas (divided between plant protein plates and complex carb plates), heros (sandwiches also known as subs or hoagies in our part of the country), salads, beverages, and desserts. I had heard about the food from my friend Lauren, so I knew I had to at least try some tapas to get the full experience. Jim and I decided on the orange blackstrap barbequed seitan with spicy onions, the root vegetable latkas with Indonesian date butter, and cold sliced ginger soba noodles with sweet and spicy peanut sauce. Rebecca ordered a 4 Seasons salad, which had greens, beets, carrots, apple, strips of yuba, and a Dijon vinaigrette (which was technically a small and quite large). She also ordered the Very Berry smoothie with apple juice.



Needless to say, we ended up with some spicy vittles! The barbequed seitan had a thick and tangy sauce that just lingered on my tongue until I took a bite of latka, which balanced out the spice. The ginger on the soba noodles was just right for me, but Jim was already stuffed and didn’t care so much for the spice at that point. Rebecca loved the smoothie and snorfled down the whole thing in just a short bit of time (and she’s one of those slow eaters). We had enough left over to wrap up and take home with us. I really liked being able to share my food this way, family style; it offers a more simple alternative to a structured restaurant environment and the food is just as tasty. I so wanted to get some of their poundcake or velvet triple chocolate brownie to go—but I was stuffed already and didn’t want to bulk up anymore for our interview. I was so satisfied, in fact, that I really didn’t need any dessert at all and was fine until we ate breakfast the next day.



I would highly recommend Sacred Chow. It’s inexpensive, centrally located in the Village, and has a diverse menu and fantastic food.