Unlike my recent experience at Saint Austere, I really wanted to dislike Mulberry and Vine because it's one of those expensive new age food shops in the middle of Tribeca that is gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, nut-free, allergy-free, raw, organic, free range, etc, etc - a place that I know is good for you but still drives me crazy with its slightly pretentious attitude. But ever since our building shut down basically every lunch option within a 5 minute walking distance, I have started to actually venture out past the West Side Highway to get food. I had walked past this a few weeks ago and made a mental note to stop by later.
The general decor of this place is a very clean, Hamptons type aesthetic and it just oozes healthiness and mindfulness. When you first walk in there is an open fridge to the right with a few grab and go type items: small salads, yogurt, and sandwiches. One of the things that I saw that made me cringe was a homemade fresh juice that cost $11. WTF? That is just ridiculous. This isn't a sit down restaurant, but more of a cafeteria style place where you order and take the tray with you. The main concept here is that you choose from a variety of hot and cold dishes. For $12, you can get 3 cold dishes, for $13 you get 2 cold and 1 hot and for $15 you get 2 hot and 1 cold. I went with the 2 cold and 1 hot option. Even though I had kind of a bad attitude going in, I actually had a hard time deciding what to get because when I saw the food in person, it looked really good. For the cold, they had dishes like beets, quinoa, kale, carrot slaw, farro salad, soba noodles, lentils, eggplant, summer succotash, etc. I opted for the soba noodles and potato salad with wax beans and for my hot dish I got the chicken enchiladas. When I first placed my order they asked what kind of greens I wanted and I said arugula but what I didn't know was that it was an extra $1 (of course it was on the menu, but I wish they had mentioned it when they asked me). Despite that, the food looked really amazing and I was excited to try it. The soba noodles were delicious with a nice sesame oil dressing, carrots and snow peas and the potato salad tasted as healthy as a mayo based potato salad could taste. The red skin potatoes were extremely fresh and the wax beans were perfectly crispy with a nice crunch with each bite. The chicken enchiladas were made with corn tortillas and served with a mildly spicy tomatillo poblano yogurt sauce. Unlike the ones you get a Tex Mex places these enchiladas weren't oozing with cheese or covered in sauce - it almost tasted air baked. Who knew that Mexican food could taste good without the oozing cheese or sauce? Not me. Even though I was annoyed by the extra charge for the arugula, there was a lot of it and was a healthy nice base for the enchiladas instead of heavy rice and beans.
I was pleasantly surprised by my meal here and while it was great, it is still hard to justify $16 for lunch on a frequent basis. But as it gets harder and harder to find good places to eat around work, sometimes a trip to a place like Mulberry and Vine is worth it. Total bill: $16
Photo Credit: Yelp
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