I have been in the restaurant business in one way or another for most of the last five decades. Vegetarianism and veganism seem to me to be perfectly normal, mainstream options for a diet, I even gave it a shot for a year at one point (though that was almost totally related to dating a really cute Italian boy from Queens who was vegan). Yet, for some reason, it seems like almost every eatery that opens catering to that demographic feels the need to invoke some sort of mysticism and references to “the East”. I don’t know if it’s the lack of awareness of historical vegetarian diets within western culture, a need to promote some sort of exotic aura, or simply following the trope. Most people, I’d venture, aren’t really interested in having their meals steeped in spirituality. Maybe it’s part of why it’s not my cup of tea.

But, here we are again… with a restaurant named after the mystical, symbolic hand symbols of yoga that “seal” the spirituality of the flow of movement. Welcome to Mudrá – Plant Based, Av. Córdoba 3942, Almagro. This venture, which opened right around the time of the start of the pandemic last year, obviously got off to a rocky start. But they waited out the strict quarantine, and created a whole revamped menu for delivery when it was allowed, and reopened for dining in when permitted. They’re not remotely following the limited seating guidelines, which is a bit surprising given their supposed commitment to health, as the place was jammed full of people, filling virtually every seat in the house on the day we visited, and mask-wearing, even by the staff, was a bit half-done. But we’d made it clear that we would only stay if we could sit outside, and they have a couple of separate terraces (the restaurant is on the second floor of a building above a flooring shop), including one small one with a single table for six that was just perfect for The Horde.

Now, Mudrá operates under the umbrella of Matthew Kenney Cuisine, an international restaurant consulting group that helps restaurants create vegan menus and, I presume, all the other things that go into opening up. I used to know Matthew, back in the days prior to his vegan awakening, when he was chef at the eponymous Matthew’s, Monzu, Canteen, and other restaurants, in New York. Many were the late night conversations over some truly creative food that used to come out of his kitchens. And, I reviewed his book on raw food vegan cooking a quite few years back. Overall, I went into this with high expectations for quality and creativity.

First off, I’m going to say, that service was inattentive. Though, I think that was a one-off, because the owner of the place was in, and entertaining three people at a table (the one right there in the open doorway), and was constantly demanding of attention. Prior to him sitting down, our waiter was actually quite attentive and helpful. But it got to the point where the few staff were spending more time at his table than all the rest of the tables combined. He was constantly waving them over to the table for one or another thing to be done, served, chatted about, or whatever. Some owners are like that. Some realize that that’s not the way to build good customer relations. Enough said.

The menu is, like most places these days, an online affair. It’s oddly designed, by breaking things into various subcategories, but you can’t easily see the whole menu at any point – you have to keep exiting out of the portion you’re in and selecting a different category and then waiting for it to load – as rather than being something like a dropdown menu of sections, each is on an entirely separate webpage. Kind of annoying, and just poor website design.

I don’t want to make it sound too negative, because overall we really liked the food and drink, the place, and, when we had the attention of our waiter, his service. Several of us started with the excellent house “virgin” cocktail, the Grey Shade, which is basically an Arnold Palmer made with grapefruit juice instead of lemon, i.e., half iced tea, half grapefruit juice, and some cane syrup to sweeten it. They also had a quite good lemonade. For some reason they were out of all wines by the glass and all craft beer on tap, and were only offering really expensive wines by the bottle and a couple of very commercial beers.

The food is kind of all over the map, from sushi to burgers to pizzas to Latin American staples, all done up vegan style. We sampled a bit of everything but the pizzas and desserts.

From the sushi side of things, we ordered a couple of handrolls (you get two, and you can mix and match from half a dozen choices) and one maki roll. There’s a heavy preponderance of mushroom based dishes on the menu, particularly oyster mushrooms. All great flavors, and the handrolls in particular, nice presentation. They’re not cheap – the handrolls come in at 280 pesos apiece ($3), and they don’t have an option to order just one – why not just price them at 560 for two? The makis run in the mid-500 peso range, or around $6. We’re kind of talking NYC/SF/LA prices here, especially keeping in mind that these are all vegetables, no seafood.

A couple of creative appetizers as well – one with a Mediterranean nod, with coriander yogurt, greens, and lavash bread; the other a beet tiradito, a sort of ceviche, with coconut and peanuts. The latter, actually, was my favorite thing on the table the whole time – easily the most creative and beautifully presented. Respectively, 480 and 200 pesos (a steal for that dish).

A trio from the Latin American side of things. Not the best presentations, and we thought the corn tortillas on the tacos and the empanada doughs were a bit chewy and hard (I’m guessing, and it’s only a guess, that rather than using vegetable shortening in the doughs, they use vegetable oil, which changes the textures). Good fillings on all of them, I think the oyster mushroom with avocado and a tofu based “sour cream” and chilies in the tacos kind of won out, but they were all really good. 480, 650, 720 pesos down the line.

And, another trio of different options. The “Thai Salad” with kale, papaya, mango, peanuts, tomatoes, and carrots – tasty, though personally I’m not fond of raw kale; the portobello in adobo with roasted vegetables and quinua; and, one of the “burgers”. The last, quite tasty, with a deep fried breaded oyster mushroom. But, putting something on a burger bun and serving it with fries, does not a burger make. If you made a patty out of the mushrooms, mixed with other things, I’ll give you veggie-burger, but just simply breading a mushroom and frying it, and then putting it on a chipa, a cheese and tapioca flour roll (presumably soy cheese) isn’t a burger. It’s a fried mushroom on bread. That said, it was good! 580, 450, 650 respectively.

Overall, great flavors. Presentations are a bit basic for the most part and could be spruced up a bit. A few things here and there that just weren’t quite “on”. Service I already talked about, but again, I think that was due to the circumstance of the owner being demanding of his staff’s attention to his table. Pricey – all of the above, plus non-alcohol beverages, rang in at almost 8000 pesos before tip. Which, if it was a non-vegetable meal, would have seemed totally reasonable. Somehow with all vegetables, most of which cost far less than meat or seafood to source, it feels a bit “up there”. At the same time, we were already talking about coming back in the future, so there’s that! It is nice to see a place doing something creative with vegetarian cuisine – that’s kind of been non-existent here for awhile since places like Verdellama, Casa Felix, and Kensho have all closed up over the years. Donnet comes close, but the dishes are hit and miss.