Six Decadent Vegan Dishes to Order at Le Basque
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Some cuisines are easier to veganize than others. Chinese and Thai dishes, many of which feature tofu and don’t require dairy, often just need small tweaks to be made vegan. Unsurprisingly, vegan pan-Asian restaurants are easy to come by in the city. Vegan French and Spanish restaurants, on the other hand? Not so much. The patron saints of French cooking are butter and cream, and Spanish cuisine is often meat-centric. The options may seem slim for a vegan craving escargot, but fear not: Le Basque is here to broaden the horizon.
As the name suggests, the restaurant, located right off of Union Square, serves food inspired by classics from the Basque region and beyond. Opened in late 2024, Le Basque is among the more recent projects from chef Guy Vaknin, who currently has Manhattan’s vegan dining scene under his spell. Vaknin originally made waves in New York with Beyond Sushi, his chain of restaurants serving entirely plant-based sushi rolls, noodles, and other fresh takes on Japanese cuisine, and he’s since gone on to open restaurants serving Mediterranean, Mexican, and Italian food, among others.
Like Vaknin’s other spots, Le Basque’s style is best defined by its respect for and interest in plant ingredients, as well as a willingness to pilot futuristic meat and fish alternatives that even a die-hard meat eater might admit taste shockingly similar to the real thing. “My approach to plant-based cooking has been to give the customer the same feeling that they would have in any other restaurant, and show the customer that having a meal at a plant-based restaurant or a vegan restaurant doesn’t have to be what they are used to – not just salads and sides,” Vaknin says.
Here are the six dishes most emblematic of Le Basque, explained in Vaknin’s own words.
The Resy Rundown
Le Basque
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Why We Like It
You won’t find veganized Basque, French, and Spanish classics served in a glamorous, moody space anywhere else in the city. -
Essential Dishes
Housemade bread and butters; escargot; and mushroom paella. -
Must-Order Drinks
Try one of the sangrias or the zero-proof La Vie En Rose.
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Who and What It’s For
Come for date night, intimate birthday celebrations, and with vegan, vegetarian, Kosher, and otherwise curious dining companions looking to change it up. -
How to Get In
Reservations are available 60 days in advance, but don’t hesitate to walk in — the restaurant is plenty spacious. -
Fun Fact
The most popular dish is escargot. Chef Guy Vaknin theorizes that even non-vegans are excited to try a version of the classic French dish that isn’t actually made from snails.
More From Resy
1. Artisanal Breads and Housemade Butters
Given that the bread and butter of so much European cuisine is, well, bread and butter, it’s an area Le Basque pays special attention to.
‘We have our own bakery, so we make all the breads in all our restaurants,” Vaknin says. “We start with a sourdough that is made in-house and has been going with a starter for the past two-and-a-half years. We have our demi French baguette and our brioche … and we make our own butters as well … [one with] with dehydrated olive and caramel, and [another with] thyme and confit garlic. I think that doing the fundamentals in a restaurant is extremely important, and that was one of them.”
2. Truffle Beef
“We have a pintxos section, which in the Basque region, is for after work. It’s sitting down, having a nice glass of wine and some bites,” Vaknin explains.
The dish Vaknin calls out is the truffle beef, which is made from a base of Impossible meat, prepared in a black garlic lemon sauce. “We grill that on a bed of truffled goat cheese puree with a quail egg on top, and all that is plant-based,” he says. The quail egg is custom-made for the restaurant by a company called Yo Egg. “And, we have burnt shallot skin oil with red wine vinegar that cuts through all that richness from the truffled goat cheese.
“It’s one of my favorite pintxos on the menu,” he adds.
3. Steak Tartare on Potato Pavé
The latest addition to the pintxos section features two trendy foods that are typically not vegan-friendly: steak tartare topped with caviar. The raw steak is, of course, plant-based, made by a California-based company called Fysh, and the faux-caviar is made of seaweed.
“It’s done with extra virgin olive oil, capers, dill, shallots, and grain mustard — a French mustard that we mix together,” Vaknin says. “It’s all chopped together and sits on a potato pavé, which is layered potatoes that we crisp up in the fryer, and on top of that, we have our aged balsamic and fresh dill and a little bit of seaweed caviar.”
4. Escargot
The most popular dish on the menu — reigning perhaps because it’s among the most iconically French dishes — is escargot. In lieu of snails, Le Basque’s version uses mushrooms to provide that slightly chewy, meaty texture.
“We basically took wood ear mushrooms that are chopped up and roasted, put them on the bottom with a mixture of cheese that we import from Italy from a company called Mia — it’s chickpea-based — that we shave on top, crush it all up, drizzle it with our vegan butter, crispy garlic, parsley, and serve with toasted homemade baguettes,” says Vaknin.
‘We wanted to bring into the menu a heavier influence from the French,” he explains. “It’s something that is a little bit more relatable, comfortable, and intriguing to people that come to a vegan restaurant. I think that people are excited to try something like that, knowing that they’re not actually eating snails, which most people have a problem with.”
5. Mushroom Paella
Le Basque’s menu takes inspiration from cuisine from as far south as Valencia, and serves two variations of paella: one with plant-based chicken and one with mushrooms, both of which are individual-sized and made to order.
To make the mushroom paella, “we use Bomba rice, chorizo that we make in-house, saffron, tomato paste, and tomatoes, basically creating a base for the paella — cooking that until it crusts on the bottom, all with a mixture of mushrooms. We use wood ear mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, and chanterelles. Out of the oyster mushroom, we cut calamari-shaped and scallop-shaped mushrooms to give the whole experience. And then on top of that, after it’s baked and it gets a nice crust on the bottom, we add on a cherry tomato jam, just to give bursts of flavor across the paella, top with parsley, and serve with fresh lemon,” Vaknin says.
6. Tarte au Citron
After a rich meal of faux-buttery, faux-meaty dishes, there’s one citrus dessert on the menu that will tempt even the fullest of stomachs.
“I think that the lemon citron tart is one that is the most innovative in terms of how it’s made,” Vaknin says. “We bake our own tarts with a cherry jam on the bottom, and then it’s filled with a Meyer lemon custard. We top it off with a meringue that we make from aquafaba, basically like a marshmallow fluff that is torched on top. We have dehydrated elderflower and vanilla in it, lemon zest that has been caramelized, a little bit more of that cherry jam on top, and fresh mint. It’s a light bite after a lot of the dishes, which are traditional French, so they’re a little bit heavier. I think that the tart has a good contrast to everything that is on the menu.”
