Start the New Year Right at These Healthy Downtown Spots
The very best restaurants and cafes boasting resolution-friendly menus—from antioxidant-rich acai bowls to plant-based burgers and more.
Sticking to your New Year’s resolutions while living in New York City seems impossible, particularly when they involve healthy eating. Well, we’re here to make your life easier. Tip: Make your way downtown, where there are plenty of casual, wallet-friendly restaurants and cafes boasting resolution-friendly menus. From satiating, sky-high salads and antioxidant-rich acai bowls to flavor-packed egg dishes and plant-based burgers, there’s something for all tastes at these downtown spots.
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Founded in 1971, Souen is a trendsetting organic macrobiotic restaurant and East Village mainstay that offers an extensive Asian-influenced menu. Here, you’ll find sushi rolls, teriyaki or ginger-steamed fish, ramen with tahini miso or garbanzo broth, vegetable curry, veggie-packed pad thai, and more. You’ll also find that the shoebox-sized space is consistently packed with a stylish crowd of locals, and you’ll never find dairy, meat, or any refined chemicals or preservatives used to make their health-forward dishes. Still hungry after your broccoli tofu plate? Bookend your meal with a slice of guilt-free Kabocha Pumpkin Pie.
326 E 6th St; T. (212) 388-1155
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With a handful of locations throughout New York City, this popular, laidback joint has something for all taste buds: salads (the kale salad with marinated red onions, blue cheese, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, candied walnuts, and lemon olive oil dressing is perfect), sandwiches, burgers (vegan, turkey, or beef), desserts, and more. We love its East Village location, which is always bustling and tucked away near Tompkins Square Park on a busy section of Avenue A. For the health-conscious, it’s all about Westville’s vegetable sides, like yuca fries, roasted cauliflower with tahini, and brussel sprouts with honey dijon, to name a tasty few. Make it a meal and order the veggie market plate for $18, which will get you four sides. Tip: If the pesto mashed potatoes are on the menu, order them and thank us later.
173 Avenue A; T. (212) 677-2033
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Spring Cafe in Chinatown serves up flavor-packed vegan comfort food and cafe classics. The space is tiny, but the menu is massive: There are juices, smoothies, salads, soups, sandwiches, bento boxes, plant-based burgers (the Hawaiian vegan burger with pineapple and agave mustard sauce is a standout), and vegan cakes. Craving something with a spicy kick? Order Zhajiangmian noodles with braised vegan pork, tofu, veggies, and chili oil. Also delicious: the bao buns, the taro spring rolls, and the sweet potato fries. A refreshing pineapple iced green tea is a great way to wash everything down on sunny days.
153d Centre Street, New York; T. (212) 226-9669
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Tucked away on Clinton Street in the Lower East Side, this beloved-by-locals Moroccan cafe offers a variety of salads, sandwiches, grain bowls, smoothies, juices, superfood lattes, and some of the most gorgeous acai bowls in the city. Matcha fans, the “Matcha Green Bowl” is for you: Acai is blended with pineapple, mango, ginger, green apple, pure matcha, and spirulina and topped with granola, banana, coconut shavings, strawberry, matcha, buckwheat, and agave. Go on and double your matcha intake with a matcha latte. Feeling nutty? Go for the dessert-like “Mix Nuts Bowl,” where acai is blended with banana, walnut, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, almond butter, and almond milk. Toppings include granola, bananas, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and honey, and it pairs perfectly with an aromatic Moroccan Spiced Drip Coffee.
3 Clinton St, New York; (212) 677-5415
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Opened in 2018 by childhood friends from Sydney, this sun-drenched, brunch-centric Aussie cafe on Orchard Street has you covered in the wildly delicious and mostly healthy department. Menu highlights include everything from acai and blue spirulina bowls to a kale miso salad and soft scrambled eggs with kimchi. Plus, they’ve got a killer avocado toast topped with whipped feta and scallions. Also killer? The coffee. Be sure to order a flat white, an espresso tonic, or—your secret’s safe with us—an espresso martini.
131 Orchard St; T. (646) 370-4426
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Give your mind, body, and soul a boost at this cozy, healthy haven and East Village institution. Hidden away on East 6th Street, this warm and casual locals’ favorite has offered a vegan, raw, gluten-free, and kosher menu for over thirty years. Resolution-friendly dishes include their raw almond hummus, “chicken” Caesar salad, rosemary shiitake mushroom burger, and tempeh reuben. Come for dinner to enjoy live music, great vibes, and yummy entrees like cashew lemon pasta and creamy sesame miso ramen.
405 E 6th St; T. (212) 254-1613
WORDS Alex Catarinella
PHOTOGRAPHY @goodthanksnyc