Among the vast variety of gimmicky-sounding culinary endeavors set up across New York is Third Kingdom at 21 East 7th Street in the East Village, the only mushroom-centric restaurant in town.
To be clear, the vegan eatery’s menu—which has now been certified kosher—features a dozen dishes starring the fungi cooked any which way—from dumplings made with daikon sauce and cilantro to a ramen dish prepared with house-made noodles, sesame coconut broth and fried enoki mushrooms.
Even the single dessert on offer—a lava cake with chocolate crumble, candied shiitake, rosemary and porcini ice cream (yes, that would be mushroom ice cream)—focuses on the vegetable.
Although updates regarding local restaurants’ conversions to kosher establishments always fill New Yorkers with excitement, at one point, we have to ask ourselves: are these eateries even good?
In the case of Third Kingdom, the answer is a resounding perhaps!
Some of the dishes fall flat, but others truly deliver, offering diners’ palates the chance to really dive into the exotic flavors that render fungi up to the task of effectively forming a restaurant’s entire menu.
The blue oyster dish, for example, which is Third Kingdom’s version of a steak, is stellar: the button mushroom puree is incredibly tasty, especially next to a deliciously prepared celery root and fennel concoction.
As mentioned in a review published in Time Out New York before Third Kingdom’s recent foray into the kosher world, the dumplings are also worthy of note.
“[It’s] a more traditional [order] and a great choice for patrons yearning for a classic [option],” reads the writeup. “[But] it’s the vegan raviolo—a single (rather large) fried mushroom on a bed of green sauce—that steals the show, perhaps one of the best vegan dishes in New York.”
Alas, there is an aspect of the kosher gastronomic scene to keep in mind: there are only a finite number of kosher restaurants in town, so any addition to the scene feels wonderful no matter how stellar the menu offerings are or aren’t. That is—fortunately and unfortunately—the plight of the dietary-abiding Jewish customer: we are at the mercy of the eateries that choose to open and we will likely return to any establishment, no matter how not-so-great.
The good news is that Third Kingdom—a name that, in case you didn’t realize, references the fungi kingdom, a biological group that stands apart from plants and animals—is actually pretty good. Add to it the fact that it provides kosher diners with food selections that stand entirely apart from just about any other menu offered in town, and you have yourself an absolute must-visit. You’ll never have kosher food prepared the way it is at Third Kingdom.
