Todd B.
Yelp
Question for you - if you eat something and it tastes amazing, does it really matter if its made with animal protein or plant protein? Should it matter if it's beef or tempeh, chicken or tofu, or whatever or whatever, if it tastes out of this world? It shouldn't, and if it does to you, then you treat food like a child who doesn't like things without even trying it, and you should grow up.
Plant follows a growing list of high end vegan restaurants that are amazing. My lady and I have been to a few now - she being vegan and me being flexible - in Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Santa Barbara (not NY though, which is odd for us) - and each one is more impressive then the last. Then there are fine dining establishments with vegan options/menus - thinking of Mise en Place in Tampa and Kres Chophouse in Orlando - where they cater to omnivores but really knock the vegan options out of the park. Point is, we've been around the vegan block.
Plant sits in a vegan mecca of sorts in Asheville. Vegans and vegetarians have a lot of options here, but like many cities, your options for a date night or special occasion are slim. That's where Plant comes in. A small, romantic restaurant that is 100% vegan and 100% everything you could ask for.
They do 1/2 off wine Wednesdays (does not apply to every bottle), and so we naturally chose Wednesday to come. Had a delicious white Bordeaux. From there, we started with the vegan cheese board, because of course we did. 3 cheeses made from different nuts served with pears and pickled apples and olives and we went with the gluten free bread, which was wonderful (the fact that it was drowning in garlic and butter doesn't need to be mentioned). All three cheeses were creamy, so not much variety in texture, but they were all delicious. I'm surprised it lasted more then 5 minutes (that's what she said...sorry).
From there we split the chili con queso and the ramen. The chili wasn't really chili - more like a few large pieces of tempeh covered in a plant based nacho cheese with some pickled jalapenos and other stuff. Loved it. Yes, the gluten came back to bite me but sometimes the suffering is worth it. The ramen was, without a doubt, one of the best things I have ever tasted ever. It might have been the massive amount of salt - me being a salt addict - but I loved this dish. I've never ordered a vegan ramen before because I find tofu in broth to be tasteless. This, however, broke the ramen mold. I would eat this every day if I could.
Finally, for dessert, we got a crème brulee and the peanut butter cheesecake. The creme brulee was not good. Missed the mark by a mile and a half. Way too coconutty. However, the peanut butter cheesecake, which is not something i would ever order whether vegan or not, more than made up for it. Excellent consistency, delicious flavor, and a perfect end to an otherwise perfect meal.
Is there anything I can say negative? Well, the creme brulee was bad. Also, their reservation system is dumb. You can only make same day reservations but then they don't answer the phone and their voicemail is full, so you can't leave your info. We ended up showing up at 8 ish and having to wait about an hour. Not a big deal - we just went for a couple of drinks somewhere and waited for the text - but if you're hungry, keep in mind you'll probably have to wait.
Those negatives, however, don't even move the needle on an otherwise perfect meal. I loved it here. You will love it here. I don't care if you've never had a plant based meal in your life. You need to come here. I promise you that you will enjoy every bite.