Is Essex Market in NYC new or have I just been living under a rock my whole life?

Ok, let’s start from the beginning. My friend and I were meandering around the East Village, window shopping, not looking for anything in particular when we saw a giant red neon sign in the distance reading, “ESSEX MARKET.” Curious and with time to spare, we thought we’d quickly pop in to check it out, but the second we stepped inside, we were mind blown. It was like the Narnia of food halls. 

We were expecting to see six, maybe seven or so, shops. To our surprise, the whole place was ginormous, maybe even bigger than Chelsea Market and FILLED with food stands, shops, etc. It had multiple floors like a mall, so you could legit take an elevator to see all the amazing things they had to offer. 

We y spent over an hour just perusing all the amazing options they had to offer. Disclaimer, we didn’t look at every single stand for vegan options, so I’m sure there are plenty more options than the items I’ll discuss in this post, but if you search around the market, you could probably find anything and everything vegan. 

The two stands we stopped at were the juice stand, Essex Squeeze, and a Japanese market, NI Japanese Deli. My friend and I had drunk wayyyy too much the night before, so we thought we’d detox with a fresh green juice at Essex Squeeze. We each got the “Orchard St.” juice which had: apple, celery, kale, cucumber, and lemon in it. It was super good. If you like green juices, this is a really good one!! They also had a bunch of other vegan juices and smoothies, so I’ll have to try them next time I visit. 

At NI Japanese Deli, they had a sign outside explicitly stating that everything was gluten-free and vegan, except for the fish (similar to M Cafe in LA). They had sooo many yummy options, but I couldn’t get them all, so I decided on their veggie miso soup, inari, picked veggies, kabocha squash and red beans, and Dango (I think that is what it’s called). Dango is rice cake balls covered in a sweet soy sauce glaze. I always see mukbangers on YouTube try them, so I couldn’t resist. 

My review: the miso soup was incredible!! Like I said in my prior blog post, NYC winter is chilly AF, and soup just hits different. So I definitely recommend the miso soup. The pickled veggies were another one of my favorites. So flavorful. The Dango was really good for a bite or two, but I couldn’t stomach the rest. It was super yummy, but almost a little too odd to eat in a large quantity. The kabocha squash was ok. Tasted as it sounds. Wouldn’t buy it again. Last but not least, the Inari was sooooo bad. I usually love Inari, but this one was a total flop for me. My friend Rebecca got some onigiri rice balls, which she really liked, so if I go back, I’ll swap the inari with the onigiri. 

Again, these are the only two places we stopped at, but I have no doubt this place is FILLED with more vegan options if you look. If you find any, let me know and comment below! Happy holidays!!