Modern Love

"What It Is: A vegan restaurant in Williamsburg serving fancy-ish comfort food Perfect For: Vegetarians, Date Night We checked out Modern Love when it first opened, but went back to try it again before the review. It’s a little bit like a Brooklyn Dirt Candy - an upscale vegetarian restaurant with food worth traveling for. Modern Love’s menu is filled with comfort food, like poutine with mushroom gravy and a pinto bean burger with fried tempeh that looks like bacon. In other words, don’t expect to leave here feeling particularly healthy. That said, we really like the food here, especially the BBQ cauliflower wings and the tofu curry. The large, modern space would work well for date night or a group dinner - just know it gets busy and there isn’t much of a bar area to wait, so we’d make a reservation. The Verdict: Vegetarians will want to travel for this place, and non-vegetarians will be very happy here too." - hannah albertine, bryan kim, katherine lewin, hillary reinsberg, chris stang, matt tervooren

"Method actors stay in character even when they’re not on camera. Daniel Day-Lewis has a bunch of Oscars because he made the cast and crew of Lincoln refer to him as Mr. President for three months, and he learned how to trap animals and build canoes before filming The Last of the Mohicans. Regardless of the value of making a canoe before hopping in a helicopter to get to the next set location, we can’t argue with the results. So when we checked out Modern Love, an entirely vegan restaurant in Williamsburg, did we take a page out of DDL’s playbook and avoid meat for a month? Of course not. But you also don’t need to be vegan to enjoy the food at Modern Love, a cool spot where dinner won’t feel like a compromise for anyone. Modern Love’s name might make you think it’s the kind of place where servers say namaste as they bring you grain bowls, or that it’s a takeout spot that sells bags of ashwagandha for $13. That is not the case. It’s a modern space with high ceilings and industrial chandeliers, and we’ve had to wait for a table each time we’ve shown up without a reservation. Also, don’t come here expecting plates of micro greens on macro greens - the food here is as heavy as you’ll find at most comfort-food places around the city. photo credit: Noah Devereaux The menu is made up of vegan takes on classic comfort foods from around the world - they serve BBQ cauliflower wings and mac and cheese, but also stuff like arancini, fish and chips, and our favorite dish, the Caribbean jerk tofu. It comes with strips of spicy tofu, plantains, and coconut rice in a pool of curry, and whether you forage for ramps in the McCarren Park Farmer’s Market or you never pass up veal sweetbreads on any restaurant menu, you’re going to want to eat this. That said, there are definitely a few places on the menu where it’s obvious there’s no butter or cheese. If you’re not used to bacon cheeseburgers that have bacon and cheese and burger, then you’ll probably enjoy the version here. We are used to those things, though, and we’d rather eat an actual bacon cheeseburger and a poutine with real gravy. Either way, we’d advise you commit to trying the more interesting items on the menu for best success. Modern Love is a vegan restaurant, but that isn’t the selling point of this place. The selling point is that it’s a great place for a date or group dinner, where everyone will enjoy what happens to be vegan food. No method acting required. Food Rundown Tempeh Stuffed Avocado The majority of the dish is half of an avocado, so yeah, you’re going to like this. It’s topped with some mashed tempeh, which gives it some crunch. We wish they’d go heavier on the house hot sauce, or actually, just let us hang on to the bottle. BBQ Cauliflower Wings Pieces of cauliflower covered in a five-spice barbecue sauce that kind of reminds you of General Tso’s. You don’t really taste the cauliflower, but that’s fine, because we’d put this sauce on pretty much anything. Truffled Poutine Our server told us that this is the most popular dish here, which confirms our hypothesis that everyone wants gravy and fried stuff. However, the huge portion of fries is overloaded with salt, and the ricotta doesn’t mix well with the liquidy gravy. We’d go with just about any other appetizer instead. Bacon Cheeseburger Despite being topped with creamy cashew cheese, this burger (pinto beans, soy, and wheat) is pretty dry. In case you’re looking to cut back on your bacon intake, know that tempeh is not a satisfying alternative. Mac And Cheese The mac and (cashew) cheese tastes like what would happen if you used water instead of milk or only half the cheese packet when making a box of Kraft. It’s lighter than any other mac and cheese you’ll eat, but we’d order it again solely for all the stuff that comes on top - slabs of cornmeal-crusted tofu, which somehow taste like mozzarella sticks, and blackened cauliflower, and spicy pecans. Jerk Yuba With Curry This big portion of Caribbean-flavored tofu skin, curry, and coconut rice is our favorite thing here. The pool of curry has some spice, and the sweet plantains and rum-soaked raisins give this dish a ton of flavor. This needs to be on your table." - Matt Tervooren

"A vegan restaurant is an easy choice when you’re avoiding cheese, particularly if you can’t consume it because of an allergy. This Williamsburg spot does vegan takes on comfort food (so you’ll find things like Caribbean jerk tofu and BBQ cauliflower wings), and the menu should appeal to just about anyone." - emma mustich

"Modern Love isn’t your typical comfort food restaurant. This Williamsburg spot is entirely vegan, so the "fried chicken" is oyster mushroom and the “chorizo” on the nachos is made from sun-dried tomatoes and walnuts. About half the menu is gluten-free, but even if you’re with friends who don’t share your dietary restrictions, this place has great dishes that everyone will enjoy, such as the mac and cheese made with cashew cheddar." - neha talreja, bryan kim, hannah albertine

"When you want to celebrate an unexpected promotion or rent reduction or something more realistic, you have limited options that (like Kiki’s) are both excellent and affordable. But when you want excellent, affordable food that’s also entirely vegan, your options are even more limited. That’s why you should know about Modern Love. It’s a big, industrial-looking space in Williamsburg that’s usually packed with groups of people drinking wine and eating vegan versions of international comfort foods like truffled poutine and chickpea parmesan. And as a bonus, it takes reservations." - bryan kim, matt tervooren