Beyond Sushi, a vegan fast casual restaurant, recently opened their fifth New York City location, just blocks away from Bryant Park. The plant-based locale focuses on flavorful, locally-sourced and seasonal produce, bringing diners the freshest meals possible.
Like its name implies, they serve more than just sushi here. We started off an amazing evening at Beyond Sushi with a selection of their dumplings — the seasonal dumpling and The Badge (Charred cabbage, roasted onions, garlic, bell peppers, carrots and sesame oil, topped with chili toasted panko and cilantro with ponzu sauce) — as well as one of their noodle soups. The dumplings were outstanding, packed full of flavor and immensely satisfying. Among the noodle soup options, we went for the Coconut Curry, which contained butternut squash, asparagus, artichoke, chickpea, baby spinach and kaffir lime chips. It’s was very tasty and comes in a large portion, so definitely share with your date if you plan on trying other items. The Seaweed Salad is another great starter or side dish option if you want to get your green on.
Now on to the sushi! The rolls here are completely plant-based and are so beautiful and colorful. And you really can’t take a wrong turn no matter what you choose, both my guest and I had different favorites. The Green Machine roll, comprised of six-grain rice, English cucumber, and asparagus topped with charred edamame and almond pesto sauce was definitely different than what you expect of typical sushi, but it was a surprise standout for me, as was Sunny Side, which comprised of black rice, braised fennel, sundried tomato, and avocado topped with butternut squash and almond pesto sauce. The sundried tomato in this made it reminiscent of a sandwich and was quite interesting. Other favorites included the Spicy Mang (black rice, avocado, mango, and English cucumber topped with spicy veggies and toasted cayenne sauce) and Sweet Tree (six-grain rice, avocado, roasted sweet potato and alfalfa sprouts and toasted cayenne sauce).
Beyond Sushi also offers a selection of noodle salads, rice paper wraps, and rice bed salads. We washed all our delicious eats down with their refreshing drinks, which include Cucumber Mint Lemonade, Strawberry Yuzu Juice, Blueberry Lemonade and Watermelon Mint Lemonade.
This spot is definitely making it in to one of my regular lunch spots in the city. It’s fast, simple and surprisingly delicious. I was very impressed with the quality of the food here and the innovation in their dishes. I guess life without meat isn’t so bad after all!
Twisted Talk: Have you been to Beyond Sushi before? What’s your favorite thing on the menu? Discuss below!
