eat: wild ginger (nyc)

Wild Ginger
380 Broome St
New York, NY 10013
Neighborhoods: Little Italy, Nolita
212.966.1883
I can't believe it's vegan!

I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to Asian fusion restaurants but I was pleasantly surprised by Wild Ginger. Unlike P.F. Chang's (ugh, I can't stand P.F. Chang's) all the dishes were delectably nuanced in flavor and I didn't feel like my tongue was being pickled in salt.


If you can only order one thing off the menu, order the curry samosas. The pastry shell is light and crunchy with just the slightest kiss of deep-fried oily goodness, and the flavors marry beautifully with the spicy coolness of the mint sauce.


Honestly? I don't know why I ordered the mu-shu vegetables. It was tasty but boring, kind of like a baked potato. Order something else, like the mango soy protein...


Whenever you go to a new restaurant and order something with "soy protein" in it, there's always a chance that it'll come out tasting like glue. Luckily for us, Wild Ginger's soy protein looked, felt, and tasted freakishly like succulent slices of chicken. The mango sauce cleverly balanced sweet and sour with savory, the vegetables were all crisp and fresh, and the protein was so delicious that me and my date got into a fork fight over the last piece.


Then of course there was the obligatory slice of chocolate cheesecake. Very tasty, but a little dense. Probably could've lived without it.

With an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert, the bill came out to around $50 including tip and tax. Going without the cheesecake would've brought it down to around $40. A little pricey for a young college student, but well worth the quality of the food and the elegant ambiance. The outstanding curry samosas and the mango soy protein have ranked Wild Ginger as one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan, and it's undoubtedly the best Asian fusion restaurant I've been to so far. So f--k you and your sodium content, P.F. Chang's.