Fantasia, Plantasia

Zen vibes and trendy plates are what Plantasia is all about. This spot can be described as “upscale casual“ with a palm fronded, Monstera-flocked stone Buddha as the restaurant’s unofficial mascot. Dimly ensconced overhead mood lighting and an atmospheric softcore electronica themed playlist.

It was honestly the nicest restaurant ambience-wise that we visited.

I will say, it took over 25m to receive our food, so that mayyyy be a reason they splurged on décor!

It’s zen… so you don’t get mad when they take forever.

Reina de Flores

Left: Reina de Flores // Right: Oasis

Dual-toned, sweet and slightly floral, this CBD-infused drink was pleasant to sip as we waited 20+ minutes for our meal. I didn’t feel any CBD-like effects, however, so definitely don’t order this drink expecting to feel any sort of CBD-adjacent vibes.

Oasis

This drink was quite a bit sweeter than the reina de flores and nicely tart owing to the cherry. I personally don’t like my drinks super sweet, so I end up watering it down a bit.

Dinamita roll

a nice mix of sweet, tangy and savory!

Smooth and slivered avocado slices hug the outside of the scrumptious sushi roll (say that five times fast!) and combines with the satisfying crunch of the tempura. Clearly I love this role! If you’ve had beyond sushi in New York City, you will 💯 enjoy Plantasia’s sushi.

Kushi manchego

Making up for all those years lost not eating corn dogs, #not

This was kind of like an upscale corn dog, except it has cashew cheese instead of a hotdog. I didn’t think it was anything special, but it was something fun to try. It’s cool that the outer tempura is made with amaranth.

Spicy ahi rice cakes

Interesting texture, and little else.

These reminded me of the puffed rice cakes I’d buy from grocery stores, except much fancier, of course. They came top of Kokomo legal Sabi chipotle mayo and watermelon “tuna.” An interesting flavor and texture play!

Creamy truffle udon (special)

A weird fusion, which actually sorta kinda worked.

I suppose this is Plantasia’s take on fusion cuisine; it was actually quite tasty and made me think about using udon noodles in Italian-type dishes. The sauce was a bit heavy, but I didn’t mind. It did have a strong truffle flavor, so just make sure you’re a truff fan.

Pho

Where is the rest of my food???

This was the most underwhelming dish; it was a tiny portion (I want to say like three noodle strands?!), And not that flavorful. The broth was super basic and nothing stood out to me at all about this dish, plus they used udon noodles, wwhich no Vietnamese person would ever use in a pho dish!!

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