Wandering Tales | Lower East Side

10:46:00 PM mandy 7 Comments

I have never heard of Smorgasbar until Bestie C mentioned it to me last week. She went and suggested we go together to finally try out lobster rolls. Of course, whenever our plans are made revolving eating it never ends up being just from one place. But neither of us thought we'd end up eating soo much! What the heck right? We were out and about anyways! With all the walking we did, I like to think we walked off at least one of our meals.

Our first stop off the subway landed us somewhere close to Doughnut Plant. This was an add-on to our day's itinerary because I had never had Doughnut Plant doughnut before and Bestie C said they were good!
Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street, between Essex and Norfolk
Hours: Every day 6:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Coconut Lime & Lavender Flower Yeast Doughnuts After sharing 2 flavors between the two of us, I knew immediately that I wanted to go back. I even joked to Bestie that if I lived in the area I'd probably go there as often as I could or at least enough to have tried all the flavors once. Of the two doughnuts we had, we both agreed that we liked the coconut lime version more. I didn't enjoy the lavender flower doughnut as much because it smelled a little too much like candles for my liking. But that means it had tons of it's namesake flavors, which is a good thing!


An elementary school's community garden I wish more schools who have the space available did something like this!


Red Hook Lobster Pound @ Smorgasbar, South Street Seaport
Left: Connecticut Style ...... Right: Maine Style I've seen Red Hook Lobster at Madison Square Eats many times, but never had the money to spend on the lobster rolls. We made the trip specifically for these and I must say...I felt it was worth it. Lobster is expensive in general and you do get a lot of lobster in each. The Connecticut style was a warm version. I think the sign said the lobster claws are poached in butter. Versus the Maine style roll is more like a cold lobster salad with mayo. Neither is very healthy but we also don't have the chance to eat this very often. So it's alright!! :P

We spent a while sitting on a bench by the water just enjoying the sun. Good thing it was a nice day out! NYC had a strange sudden cold & windy day just the day before. I even got a bit sunburned from our outing.

Left: Melt Bakery Lily Koi Ice Cream Sandwich (Vanilla Shortbread Cookie + Passion Fruit Ice Cream) The stop to MELT Bakery was Bestie C's pick. We have both been obsessed with their ice cream sandwiches since we had our first ones way back in the Fall at Madison Square Eats. We wanted to try their Zen Ice Cream Sandwich (with green tea ice cream), but they didn't make that the day we went. Apparently, they make their sandwiches fresh. So I guess we'll just have to keep visiting until we get our hands on it!

Right: babycakes (vegan bakery) Going to babycakes was my choice. This was more of an impulse decision when I realized how close we were to it. One of my high school teacher's favorite bakery was babycakes and I had been wanting to try it out for a few years now. I don't know what was stopping me because it is SOO close to Chinatown. I ended up buying their day old/2 for 1 cupcakes because I wanted to be greedy and try multiple flavors & bring home some for my little brother. The cupcakes were bashed around a bit on my way home so I didn't get a chance to take a photo of them. Perhaps I'll get a shot the next time I purchase from them! Their vegan cupcakes weren't bad at all. It wasn't as sweet as non-vegan cupcakes I have had (including the icing), which is great! However, the icing was a lot oilier when left out at room temperature. I wonder if that is normal?

We ended up making a full circle. Doughnut Plant, Melt Bakery, and babycakes are actually pretty close to each other. Just keep that in mind if anyone wants to visit any while spending their time more efficiently!

Have you had any good eats recently? I'd love to add it to my "To try" list, no matter where it's located!