Vandal: Around the World without Leaving the Table

May 19

May 19 Vandal: Around the World without Leaving the Table

From the hugely successful team behind New York City staples such as Tao and The Stanton Social comes Vandal, a “celebration of art, architecture, and food of global street culture from New York to Vietnam to Barcelona and beyond”. At least, that’s what they claim on their website. Travel and food is my catnip, and someone claiming they can give me both in one restaurant sitting? I had to see this for myself.

The entrance to this two- level space is through Ovando, a high end full service floral shop. Upon entering you are taken to a long hallway dotted with large archways opening the way to the bar and dining room. To my left were scantily clad girls taking selfies with a gigantic pink break-dancing bunny sculpture. I made my way to the bar to meet a couple of friends, it was late on a weekday so it was not very crowded. Spanning the entire length of the wall behind a fairly long bar is a mural, in fact, anywhere you look there is some form of art, even in the bathrooms. The space was designed by Rockwell Group, and the team commissioned seven “Vandals” including British street artist HUSH and Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant, to decorate the space. They managed to create an ocularly stimulating experience without feeling overwhelming.

When our table was ready the hostess grabbed us from the bar and led us to a not entirely comfortable half circle booth. I’m not sure if it was that we’re too tall or what because our knees were knocking into each other under the table.

The menu, instead of being divided in traditional appetizer, entree, and dessert sections, it is divided by sizes of “small” “medium” “large” “extras” and “street sweets”. As advertised their menu did contain a little bit of everything from around the world, down to their desserts which ranged from Thai to French and everything in between. This eclectic mix of street foods and family style dining make Vandal perfect for group dining. As the indecisive person that I am, the menu was perfect for me too.

Our first dish was of Chinese influence: the Crispy Bao Buns with brisket, crunchy asian slaw and sesame. The heaviness of the brisket was excellently contrasted by the refreshing crunchy asian slaw and the buttery subtly sweet bun tied everything together nicely. One order came with 3 bao buns, each one perfectly sized to satisfy your craving without being too filling so it was perfect for sharing. Although if you’d like to eat them all yourself, they would be as satisfying as a traditionally sized entree.

We then jumped over to Mexico and ordered the Grilled Chilean Sea Bass Tacos. The order also came with 3, similarly sized to the Bao Buns (which makes sense since they’re in the same “medium” section). The sea bass was extremely fresh and cooked to perfection. I do wish their “salsa diablo” had been spicier, this one didn’t even tickle, but over all this was a solid dish.

From here we moved on to Thailand and ordered the Papaya Salad with lemongrass toasted peanuts, thai basil, pineapple mint and lime. “Knocked it out of the park” would be an understatement for this dish. The papaya mixed with the lemongrass toasted peanuts created an exquisite crunch and the pineapple mint and lime refreshed the dish and gave it a tanginess that you want to savor for days. Definitely one of my favorite dishes of the night.

We finished the savory portion of our night in Japan with the Bacon and Miso Ramen with pork belly and a soft poached quail egg. The rich umami broth was delicious and the texture of the noodles was perfectly soft without being mushy. A very good dish but not distinguishable from any other pork belly ramen out there. The best part though was the size; instead of coming in gigantic bowls that one person can barely finish, these came in small individual bowls perfect for savoring the dish without exploding from being too full.

For dessert we ended our night in Italy with the Nutella Cannoli with house-made Nutella, ricotta filling and Godiva liquor. This was my only disappointment of the night. I know what you must be thinking, “how is it possible that anything containing Nutella can be disappointing??” and “Are you insane??” but alas, their “house-made Nutella” was bland and the hazelnut goodness was completely absent from this cannoli.

All in all I absolutely love the concept of not having to choose one type of cuisine, and as many travelers will tell you, street food is one of the best parts of traveling. Although I would have liked to see some of the “street art” go with the cultures the food is representing in order to have a more cohesive multi sensory experience but maybe that wouldn’t match with the contemporary art scene thing they were going for. There were some hits, some misses (mostly hits) but overall it was a great experience. Although I never lost the feeling of being in a trendy New York hot spot, the only time I had papaya salad that good was in Chiang Mai, so they get an A in my book.

The Essentials:
Type of Cuisine: Global Street Food
Ideal Occasion: A night out or a group dinner
Best Place to Sit: Anywhere.
Ambiance: Trendy & lounge-like
Service: Extremely kind and attentive
Can’t Miss Dishes: "Thai Papaya Salad" & "Crispy Bao Buns"

Open for Dinner Sun-Wed 5PM-1AM & Thur-Sat 5PM-2AM

Vandal
199 Bowery,
New York, NY 10002
212-400-0199