Zen Palate, Champs Bakery and Cocoa V

On Saturday, my friends Jessica, Rachel, Jenna and I had a very vegan day in New York City. We started out with lunch at Zen Palate. Our friend Jen and her daughter Prairie also joined us.

Zen Palate was a veggie mainstay in Union Square, but sadly it closed last year because the rent got too expensive. Happily it reopened a few weeks ago a few blocks away. The old location is now a TGI Fridays. (Boo!!!) I've read many bad reviews of Zen Palate and I'm not sure why feel the need to bash it so badly. (I think some people just like to write bad reviews for the sake of writing bad reviews.) I've eaten at their various locations dozens of times - the food has always been excellent and I've never had a bad experience. The new location did not disappoint. We were all thrilled with our meals and we left with happy bellies.

We started out with Autumn Rolls. There were actually 6 of them, but I forgot to take a picture before we started to dig in.

Prairie had two appetizers - dumplings and Thai Chopped Salad.

Jessica and I both had Mango Halo.

Jenna had Tex-Mex Moo Shu.

Rachel had Felicity Mushroom

Jen had Rose Petals.

After lunch, Jen and Prairie parted ways with us and the rest of us hopped on the L train and headed to Brooklyn to go to Champs, a new vegan bakery.

Jessica had a chocolate chip banana cake, which I had a few bites of. It was really tasty. Rachel and Jenna both had chipwhich style cookie sandwiches, which I also tried and gave a thumbs up to.

I didn't get anything to eat there, but I bought gluten-free scones and chocolate chip cookies to go. The scones were delicious, but they were too small!

After Champs, we got back on the L train and went back to Manhattan.  The subway station at 14th Street and 8th Avenue is the home Tom Otterness's Life Underground sculptures. 

Then we then walked The Highline. The flowers and plants have really grown since the last time I was there and everything looked really pretty. We then walked over to Cocoa V. We were hoping to get some chocolate to go with Groupons we recently bought, but sadly, they were closed until Tuesday. But that just gives us an excuse to have another City Day!!


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