It’s Day 3 of our Huntington, New York trip–our last full day here.
(Missed Day 2 and Day 1? Check out those blogs here and here)
Like yesterday, we kept breakfast at the hotel again since it’s included as part of our stay (and since most places aren’t open as early as when we wake up at 5am). I had my protein oatmeal bowl with some fruit and a glass of almond milk
Lunch: Bee Organic
The husband did not have a strong preference for lunch, so we decided to just wander and walk around until we found something.
We walked by a chalked sign in front of Bee Organic on the sidewalk that explicitly listed some vegan dishes–something I hadn’t seen from any other restaurant here, so I had to check it out.
Of course, to accommodate his diet, I had to make sure there was something not vegan for him. We checked out the menu inside and luckily found some salmon dishes for him, so he had some animal protein he could enjoy as well.
Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about what his experience was going to be like. Bee Organic’s menu is primarily vegan (as indicated by the green (v)‘s next to each of their menu items), and I know that primarily vegan/vegetarian places are not great at cooking animal meat.
Sure enough, the waitress strangely asked how he wanted his salmon cooked–medium or medium well–which is not a question you really ask about salmon (and yet, a question we kind of expected from a primarily vegetarian place).
Still, his salmon came out o.k. It was all very healthy and not lathered in oil or butter, as many other restaurants may do with their salmon.
I ordered the Spicy Tofu Bowl, which included crumbled tofu, black beans, brown rice, avocado, and broccoli.
The portion sizes were very generous. It was probably 3/4 cup of black beans and the same amount of tofu–I’d estimate about 15-20 grams of protein in that bowl with the broccoli and brown rice.
However, my bowl was similar to something I would cook at home–flavorless. It didn’t come with any sauce, the crumbled tofu was dry, and the black beans were lightly flavored with what looked like bell peppers. Like my husband’s dish, there was no use of oil in my bowl.
Overall, this place seems to offer some pretty healthy vegan dishes with good portions. So if you need something vegan, filling, and healthy, then this is definitely a good place to go. But just don’t expect anything mind-glowingly flavorful.
Dinner: Besito
We decide to end our trip with a meal at a white-tablecloth Mexican restaurant: Besitos.
And boy am I glad we did.
Their menu online lists out a couple of vegan options, but they also indicate that you can ask your server about making any of your dishes vegan:
So I did!
I straight up told our waitress what I usually say at a seemingly non-vegan-friendly restaurant: “I am the vegan at the table”.
She immediately responded by listing all of the options that can be made vegan. Their taco appetizer, the enchiladas, the salads…
I decided to go with the enchiladas, and confirmed that the rice and beans that came with it would be vegan as well.
At first, I was a little skeptical and worried that the enchiladas would be really small. I’ve seen enchiladas served at other white tablecloth Mexican restaurants before, and they come out super tiny.
This was not the case at Besito though. Here’s what came out (I’m sure this photo would have looked better with better lighting…it was super dark in there and I was relying on my camera’s flash mode to do its magic):
Basically, it was a LOT of food. A whole cup’s worth of beans, rice, and 2 fat enchiladas that were stuffed with avocado, corn, bell peppers, onions, spinach, and tomato in a ~8 inch diameter corn tortilla.
Oh and they also served us a gigantic basket or chips with salsa that was enough for like a table of 6 (when we were just two people).
The vegan enchilada though was definitely the star of the show. The yellow enchilada sauce was a sweet corn sauce that was super interesting and unlike anything I have ever had or would expect from an enchilada sauce. It was SO good. The vegetables inside were sautéed really well, and all of the flavors and textures just came together very nicely. Because there wasn’t any cheese holding together the contents inside the enchilada though, everything kind of fell apart when you tried to cut the enchilada up into pieces. So I ended up eating my enchilada deconstructed. Here’s what the inside looked like with all the veggies exposed:
The rice and beans on the side had good flavor too, but that’s probably because they were super salty. The black beans were just heavily salted beans, and the rice was a little undercooked, but covered in oil and salt so that it still tasted good.
Overall, it was a fantastic dinner, and a great way to end our last night in Huntington, NY.
The takeaway
Huntington, NY is the exact type of place that my husband and I enjoy going to for vacation. A small, walkable downtown area packed with a plethora of restaurants with options for both his carnivore and my vegan diet.
So if you are vegan like me and want to explore some restaurants that are vegan-friendly in Huntington Village, then check out my other blog posts about our Huntington food-ventures to see where else we went:
Day 1 of our Huntington, NY trip
Day 2 of our Huntington, NY trip
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