Table Of ContentTHE ONLY NUTRITIONIST AND 2012
FOOD CRITIC APPROVED
MANHATTAN RESTAURANT GUIDE
It can be difficult to find a restaurant serving mouthwatering, delicious food
that is also good for you. Not anymore. Nutritionist Jared Koch and several
food critics teamed up to taste the town, selecting over 100 of the healthiest,
tastiest and most sustainable restaurants in Manhattan—featuring organic,
hormone-free, antibiotic-free, locally sourced and eco-friendly food.
• Over 100 reviews (including new 2012 picks)
• A user-friendly nutrition guide packed with tips for eating healthier
• Easy to follow indexes of best date spots, cheap eats and more
• Free online database with new restaurant updates from fast food to fine dining
• Clean Plates Mobile version available at cleanplates.com
• clean Plates is the perfect gift for yourself, your friends and your family
Jared’s nutritional advice in clean Plates has the
Power to transform your individual health and
our collective well-being. —deePaK choPra, M.d.
Jared Koch graduated premed from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and M
is a nutritional consultant and health coach certified by the Teachers College of
a
Columbia University, the Global Institute for Alternative Medicine and the n
Institute for Integrative Nutrition. h
a
t
t
reviews Featuring alex van Buren, a former an
staff food writer and restaurant reviewer
for Time Out New York, has also written for
Martha Stewart Living, New York Magazine, 2
0
Gourmet.com, In Style and Everyday Food.
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cle an pl ates
Manhattan 2012
a Guide to the
Healthiest tastiest
and Most sustainable
Restaurants for Vegetarians
and carnivores
By Jared Koch
Reviews by Alex Van Buren
and Sarah Amandolare, Talia Berman, Jessica Colley,
Allix Geneslaw, Scarlett Lindeman, Andrea Lynn,
Megan Murphy, Lisa LeeKing Ruvalcaba
DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical doctor, and nothing in this book is intended
to diagnose, treat or cure any medical condition, illness or disease. Anyone with
a specific medical condition should consult a physician.
© 2011 Jared Koch Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in Koch, Jared.
any form or by any means, electronic or Clean Plates Manhattan : a guide
mechanical, including photocopying, to the healthiest tastiest and most
recording or by any information storage sustainable restaurants in Manhattan
and retrieval system, without permission for vegetarians and carnivores / by Jared
in writing from the publisher. Koch ; with reviews by Alex Van Buren
et. al. – Cliffside Park, NJ : Craving
Published by Craving Wellness Wellness, 2011.
Cliffside Park, NJ p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-9821862-4-4
Cover design by Jessica Arana 1. Food—Popular works.
Interior design by Gary Robbins 2. Diet—Popular works.
3. Nutrition—Popular works.
Printed inCanada 4. Restaurants—New York (State)
—New York.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I. Title.
II. Van Buren, Alex.
TX355 .K63 2011
641—dc22
2008940260
contents
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Acknowledgments
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A Note from Jared
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How to Use this Book
12
Restaurant Review Process and Criteria
17
Why Eat Healthier?
Design Your own Diet
22
The First Precept: Bio-Individuality
27
The Second Precept: Whole Foods
32
The Third Precept: Plant-Based Foods
48
The Fourth Precept: Animal-Based Foods
58
The Fifth Precept: Other Foods
69
Making it All Work
the restaurants
75
Clean Plates Manhattan Featured Restaurant Reviews
186
Index
acknowledGMents
My deepest gratitude, appreciation and respect to the following people,
without whom this book would not exist:
To all the chefs and restaurant owners dedicated to serving delicious
but healthier food. A special thanks to Dan Barber, Bill Telepan, Sarma
Melngailis, Debbie Covenagh, Amy Chaplin, Rene Duran, Melissa
O’Donnell and Michael Anthony for taking the time to be interviewed.
Alex Van Buren for her talents, integrity and great dinner
conversation. Angela Starks and Bunny Wong for all their help writing
and editing the nutritional content. Scarlett Lindeman, Allix Geneslaw,
Talia Berman, Andrea Lynn, Lisa LeeKing Ruvalcaba, Megan Murphy,
Jessica Colley, and Sarah Amandolare for writing great reviews.
Jessica Arana for designing the logo and the book cover. Gary
Robbins for interior design and layout. The whole gang at Monaco Lange
for all of their invaluable suggestions.
Special thanks to Blake Appleby for always supporting, encouraging
and inspiring me and offering her insightful opinions. To all my family,
friends, teachers and clients who have contributed and enriched my life
in so many significant ways. Greg Monaco for his talents, perspective
and calm demeanor and for his invaluable advice every step of the way.
To Maji Chien, Niles Brooks Leuthold, and Laura Mordas-Schenkein
for all of their invaluable help and dedication.
And to Mat Zucker, Lynnda Pollio, Yvonne Roehler at Jenkins
Group, Kate Basrat, Ameet Maturu, Susan Banzon, Amy Bush, Angela
Davis, Chad Thompson, Sam Rosen at ThoughtLead, Peter Horjus,
Vera Svezia, Barry Flemming, Jeremy Funston, Lisa Vasher, Catherine
Cusamano, Mark Sclafani, Katherine Jamieson, Kathleen Spinelli,
Erin Turner, Michael Ellisberg, Nancy Weiser, Carey Peters, Brett
Lavender, Cassandra Caffaltas, Kim Blozie and especially Andrew
Cohen and everyone at EnlightenNext.
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a note fRoM JaRed
Welcome to Clean Plates Manhattan 2012. For those of
you already familiar with Clean Plates, I’d like to point out a few of
our most critical updates. Most importantly, in addition to Alex Van
Buren (my co-author and sole food critic for the original Clean Plates
NYC), I am now working with several more very talented food critics:
Scarlett Lindeman, Allix Geneslaw, Talia Berman, Lisa LeeKing
Ruvalcaba, Andrea Lynn, Megan Murphy, Jessica Colley and Sarah
Amandolare. They have contributed over 50 new reviews of Clean
Plates-approved eateries, making Clean Plates Manhattan the most
comprehensive and up-to-date list of the healthiest, tastiest, and most
sustainable restaurants in Manhattan. In addition, we’ve changed the
title from Clean Plates NYC to Clean Plates Manhattan to reflect our
intention to bring you Clean Plates Brooklyn in the near future.
If this is your first experience with Clean Plates, I welcome you!
Read on to learn more.
Eating healthier does not have to be challenging. Especially in
Manhattan. Especially with this book. In fact, it can be an easy,
pleasurable and sacrifice-free adventure. I’ve created this book for
you—for New Yorkers and for visitors to this great city—with exactly
that in mind.
Let’s face it: We dine out a lot. And restaurants can be bad-eating
minefields. Then again, who would say no if a delicious antibiotic-
and hormone-free steak or a plate of tasty organic vegetables
materialized in front of them? No one actually wants to consume
hormones, antibiotics or pesticides. It’s just that searching for the
good stuff takes time. Fortunately, it’s been done for you, and with a
one-two punch: every featured selection in Clean Plates Manhattan
is a restaurant that offers both delicious and nutritious fare. Rest
assured because all were personally visited and screened by myself,
a nutritional consultant, along with one of our talented food critics.
This book is about helping you make better, more informed
choices. In fact, it’s my intention that you actually will crave healthier
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food after reading it. You’ll learn that there’s more than one right way
to eat—a theory called bio-individuality (Makes sense, right? After
all, do you wear the same clothes as all of your friends? Why should
food be any different?). Sure, there’s a lot of nutritional information
out there, but talk about confusing. That’s why this guide provides
an easy-to-follow education about the most important foods you will
encounter when dining out. That way, you can use your knowledge to
implement the life-changing diet that’s right for you.
3 Ways you Can use This Book
• To find healthy tasty and sustainable restaurants in Manhattan.
• To learn how to change your eating habits when you dine out—and in.
• To transform your life by seeing how eating healthier can be pleasurable
and startlingly simple.
By now you’re probably asking yourself: Who is this guy? Why
should I listen to anything he says? Well, honestly, I’m not that
different from you. I want to be healthy so I can enjoy my life and
contribute to making the world a better place. Rather than bore
you with a long report about my life (you can learn more by visiting
cleanplates.com), I’ll touch on a few highlights for your peace of
mind.
After deferring my acceptance to medical school for a decade-
long stint as a successful entrepreneur, I decided that I needed to
figure out my health and happiness. As part of that journey, I not
only became a certified nutritional consultant, yoga instructor and
health coach but also healed myself from chronic irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS), fatigue and skin issues. I’m now a nutritional
consultant backed by eight years of immersing myself in the formal
study of nutrition—and five years of working with clients. I’ve had
some amazing teachers: Andrew Weil, M.D., Deepak Chopra and
Walter Willett, the head of nutrition at Harvard, in addition to many
experts in the fields of Raw Foods, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda,
Macrobiotics, Vegetarianism and High-Protein Diets.
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For my clients, and in this book, I synthesize those dietary theories
in an easy-to-use format—always keeping an open mind to discovering
the truth about what actually works for each individual. Thanks to my
experiences, I’ve had several insights over the years about how we eat,
all of which I will be sharing in more detail in Clean Plates Manhattan:
•
Eating well is the easiest and best way (along with exercise and
perhaps meditation) to positively affect your health and improve
your quality of life.
•
Contrary to conventional wisdom, healthy eating can be enjoyable
and satisfying, free from the typical guilt and confusion we usually
feel in relation to eating.
•
No single way of eating works for everyone, but there is a healthy
way to eat that’s just right for you and your body.
•
A quick way to upgrade your well-being: Select higher-quality
versions of whatever foods you’re currently consuming, especially
when it comes to animal-based products.
•
To increase nutrient intake and boost immunity, start with food
that’s fresh (locally grown), non-toxic (organic) and mostly plant-
based (more vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds). Think of it as a tasty
trio—local non-toxic plants.
•
Reducing your intake of artificial, chemical-laden processed foods,
as well as sugar, caffeine and alcohol, will have you feeling better
immediately.
•
Making small improvements over time leads to significant change.
•
What’s good for you is usually good for the environment. Growing
food locally means less energy consumption. Organic items don’t
poison the earth. And a reduction in the demand for livestock frees
up vital resources.
•
It’s entirely possible to commit to values of health and conscious
consumerism and fully enjoy the pleasures of life and this wonderful
city. Why? Because, increasingly, tasty and healthy food is accessible
to everyone from vegans to carnivores.
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One of the major reasons I wrote this book is that there’s a real
lack of helpful, well-organized information for people who wish to
dine out mindfully and still enjoy the experience of eating. Sure,
cooking at home is important and many nutrition books offer delicious
recipes, but the truth is, we New Yorkers eat out a lot—it is part of
the culture. Our city boasts amazing chefs and a stunning variety
of cuisines; if you live here, it’s likely that restaurants are where you
get a huge proportion of your nourishment. During my preliminary
investigations, I noted a few gaps in the advice offered by other books
and websites: 1) It’s easy to find places that list vegan and vegetarian
establishments—but none adequately distinguish which spots are
healthy (not all are) or which would be appealing for non-vegetarians.
2) Few are dedicated to omnivores who would like to frequent places
that serve organic, local and sustainably-raised animal products,
and those that do exist tend to be confusing, poorly researched,
and neither comprehensive, nor screened for taste. That’s why I
created Clean Plates to be the most exceptionally well-researched,
comprehensive and easy-to-use guide that exists; I’m certain it will
help you navigate the ever-expanding maze of Manhattan’s healthiest,
tastiest and most sustainable restaurants.
The main inspiration for this book, however, grew out of my
interactions with my clients. Several years ago, I began researching
“healthy restaurants” because I believed that I could both eat healthier
and enjoy the pleasures and diversity of this wonderful city. As I
shared my ever-growing list of healthier restaurants with my clients,
they actually started implementing changes and feeling better—a fact
that inspired me to thoroughly expand my research, hire an amazing
food critic, and set out to create Clean Plates. I learned from counseling
clients that real change calls for practical tools. I think of this book as
one of those significant tools.
This project is an extension of the work that I do with my clients:
a way to reach more people and contribute to a growing awareness of
healthy, responsible and sustainable eating. Together, let’s shatter the
myth that healthier eating is a sacrifice and prove that we can do it
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without the guilt, inconvenience, boredom and sheer lack of long-term
success that characterize the usual diets.
You see, eating clean food is admirable, but I am equally interested in
clean plates—the kind of food that makes you want to lick your dishes.
In good health,
Jared Koch
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