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Citizens of

Looking for the latest Aussie plant-based Glowcation in New York with vegan options? Citizens is an Australian Café which first opened in Chelsea, New York back in 2016 but are growing fast.

They recently opened a second location in Gramercy quickly followed by a third on Bleecker Street in the West Village.

They serve Australian based cuisine, so expect fresh, healthy eats and drinks. And they also serve up some of the best coffee in town.

Three reasons to go there:

Australian based food based in the main areas of Manhattan.

Their avocado toast.

They welcome all kinds of dietary restrictions swith wide open arms and mention this on the menu.

The location

Citizins of… has three locations – Chelsea, Gramercy and Bleecker St. We went to the location on Bleecker street in the heart of West Village. It’s also home to By Chloe and you can read our review here of that Glowcation here. To get there you can get the subway to stop W. 4ST or Broadway/Lafayette and then walk for a couple of minutes.

It’s a buzzy, fun area to visit if you are in town for work or travel.

The space

The Restaurant is painted dark grey, almost black. It has some huge windows so the restaurant is flooded with light inside. It’s a busy street so expect plenty of New York hustle and bustle rather than a quiet chill out place. The ceiling is very high so it feels fairly imposing at first. In the back there are multiple tables with some round brown couches. In the middle of the restaurant there is one big long communal table. There are long bars on either side where you can sit on some bar chairs next to each others and people watch.

We sat down at the end of the long middle table bathed in natural day light.

You can sit down there and work on your computer. It’s a nice ambience and a great spot to get a good coffee.

The crowd

There’s a very diverse crowd reflecting the West Village, There are a plenty of tourists around, but also students working there on their laptop. It can get crowded, but it was a nice buzz when we visited.

What we ate

Citizens of… is an Australian restaurant with vegetarian, vegan and Gluten/Dairy free options but they also serve meat and fish dishes. On the menu card you can find the dishes with added letters after them, so you know what dishes are plant-based. We ordered the Smashing avocado toast, Belgian Waffle and the Curry braised Lentils.

The Smashing avocado normally comes blended with feta cheese in on top a thick slice of Multigrain bread.

We missed it being toasted and all the garnishes, but we got a big portion of sliced avocado, beetroot hummus and pumpkin seeds instead as we asked for no feta. It normally comes with citrus cilantro, candy cane beets and pickled onions.

We also switched around our Belgian waffle to make it dairy free. The staff were super helpful at making this possible. The Waffle is gluten-free and comes usually with banana, granola, peanut butter, fall fruits and sage-brown butter maple syrup. So we switched the butter to the Caramel, which they add on the banana bread. The waffle was perfect crispy and light. It could have done with a bit more of the caramel since the drizzle was tiny, but still very delicious.

And trying the curry braised lentils was definitely a very good decision. The green lentils came in a coconut curry sauce with some grated coconut.

They topped it off with some avocado, watercress and red sorrel. The avocado was a perfect topping, because it made the curry super creamy and portion wise it was exactly the right amount.

They make their own daily juices every day by themselves.

The bill

Smashing Avocado 14$
Belgian waffle 13$
Curry braised lentils 14$

The little things that make the difference

Citizen o…f is working on their take away home delivery menu and they also offer events.

We also like the wait list service they offer online making it easy to get a table.