Delicious and Healthy Food at Yorganic

Yesterday, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, NYC Daily Deals and noticed a promotion at Yorganic -  free lunch for the first 300 people.  As soon as my call at noon was over, I grabbed my manager and ran down the street to this healthy, organic establishment in the Financial District.

I had been to Yorganic in the past, but yesterday the restaurant was giving out little boxes, which contained samples of several different items on the menu.  The wait wasn’t too bad and after about 10 minutes, we received our boxes (customers #254 and #255) and headed back to the office to eat our lunch.  Like most places downtown, Yorganic is a grab and go establishment with pre-made sandwiches and drinks, but you could also order a rice bowl to your liking.

Since I tried most of the free food we were given (minus the green tea), I thought I’d share a little rundown:

• Natural Remedy Organic Juice (made from organic carrot, apple, ginger):  I don’t think I like healthy juices.  I need some kind of sweetner in it, and the ginger made me feel like I was drinking part of a sushi meal (I associate ginger with sushi).  My manager liked it, but she also likes those juice diets and natural juices, so to each their own.
• Organic cold asparagus soup (made from organic asparagus, spinach, leek, shallot, onion): I really liked the soup and I didn’t feel like I was eating baby food, like what happens when I eat a vegetable focused soup at Hale & Hearty.  Would I go out of my way though to order it?  Probably not, but when presented with it, I thought it was good.
• Chicken Pesto (made out of free range & hormone free chicken, basil pesto, mozzarella, roasted red pepper, arugala, baguette):  I liked this sandwich and unlike most chicken sandwiches, you tasted other aspects of the sandwich than just the chicken – you know what I mean, when you bite into a chicken sandwich and you can barely taste the other toppings on the sandwich.  I’m the kind of person that actually orders my sandwiches based on the toppings.  The chicken was thinly sliced, so a bite of the sandwich left me with a strong taste and mouthful of the roasted red pepper -which I loved.
• Bliss Bowl Spicy Chicken (composed of brown rice, spicy chicken, seasoned cucumbers, bean spout,
  

  The sample of the rice bowl

  shitake mushrooms, organic egg, spicy chili sauce):  This is the reason to continually visit Yorganic.  These rice bowls are amazing.  I’ve had them before, and this one did not disappoint.  It’s like when you head to a salad place for lunch, but your base is brown rice, white rice, noodles or even lettuce and then you pick a protein, 4 vegetables and a sauce.  My go-to is the brown rice, spicy chicken, broccoli, asparagus, spinach and then I change it up between mushrooms or peanuts.  The chicken and rice will be served warm, but keep in mind the vegetables are cold (I was a little surprised the first time I tried it).  Usually I go with the spicy sauce, but be careful and don’t dump the entire container on it as your mouth will be on fire.  If you’d like to try a chef’s creation, you can do that as well, which is what I consumed yesterday.  By going with the chef’s creation you do save a little bit of money (about 3 dollars).  That’s the one thing that kills me about the rice bowls – you’ll be spending about $11 bucks for lunch if you go with brown rice, but on the other hand, I remain full for most of the day.  A bowl starts out at $6.95, adding brown rice is $1 more, and then a little extra if you order a protein.

• Yorganic Health & Nut Bar (made from organic nuts, granola, honey, hemp protein, raisin, craisin):  We couldn’t believe how amazing this granola bar was, considering how healthy it was.  The honey was a great natural sweetener and it actually felt like a delicious dessert, rather than something healthy that was thrown in the box.  I never noticed the granola bars in the store before, but if I wanted an afternoon snack, it is definitely something I’d consider getting.