Brady Street’s Twisted Plants Is Unique

There’s been a revolving door at 1233 E. Brady St. including a Cousins Subs and most recently Betty’s Burgers & Custard. In June, Twisted Plants moved in, and based on two visits to their slick renovated space, Twisted Plants will be serving vegan/vegetarian meals in the Brady neighborhood for many years to come.

This counter service restaurant with six tables and two high-top counters can accommodate a maximum of 30, enough, because this is a fast-food joint with mainly burgers on the menu. Fast-food, because I observed most of their business was a steady stream of takeout. There are a lot more than burgers on the menu, but burgers are the main draw, and after sampling four, it’s obvious why.

The burgers are “fast-food,” but not McDonald’s fast, more like a sit-down restaurant where you wait 10 minutes for your take-out meal. My companion and I knew our meal would be made to order when the person behind the counter said, “It will be a few minutes,” always a good sign.

For the burgers as well as the brat and the hot dog, they use Beyond Meat, a plant-based mix that’s composed primarily of peas, brown rice, mung beans, and faba bean. It’s 100% vegan, healthy, and a complete protein. It’s also better for the planet than an all-beef burger. Beyond Meat comes to the restaurant in bulk and the employees shape it into patties for burgers, and cylinders for brats and hot dogs. The creativity comes in the toppings. That’s where it gets interesting.

For the Superbad, the burger is topped with grilled onions, jalapeno slices, a delicious chipotle ranch sauce, and for more heat, pepper jack cheese. The heat was enough to give your taste buds a wake-up call, but when combined with the burger and the griddled pretzel roll, it wasn’t so spicy that it would intimidate customers who are heat-averse. It was the same with the Soul Plane. When the spicy heat from the chipotle mayo met the lettuce, tomato, pickle, and the breaded, fried patty, it cooled the chipotle and blended the flavors.

The Sausage Patty turned out to be a brat with chopped onion and mustard. It tasted like a hot dog, a surprise since it came from the same Beyond Meat as the burgers.

All the burgers and sandwiches come with waffle fries and they are worth a mention because they have the right amount of salt and when you eat them in the restaurant, they are crunchy and soft on the inside. Also, the grilled pretzel roll added more flavor to the burger and the toppings, a classy touch, and worth the short 10-minute wait.

The How High sandwich introduced my companion to jackfruit, a tropical fruit that mimics pulled pork. For the sandwich, it was coated in BBQ sauce and combined with pickles, coleslaw, chipotle ranch, and onions. Because it was shredded it looked like pulled pork, and thanks to the BBQ sauce, it tasted like pulled pork. Only the soft texture, similar to a banana or a pineapple, told us it was jackfruit and not pork. It was delicious and we would absolutely order it again.

The desserts include Chocolate Cake, Oreo Cake, Lemon Cake, Brownies, and Cookies, all vegan of course. There’s also Ice Cream, a Kid’s Menu, Fried Pickles, and for a group, the Munchie Platter, a taste of 10 items, and a chance to sample the impressive variety of vegan foods offered at Twisted Plants.

This is a healthy addition to the multiple restaurant choices on Brady Street. Twisted Plants offers food for vegans, vegetarians, and the rest of us who appreciate a plant-based burger with creative toppings accompanied by a side of crispy waffle fries.

On The Menu

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The Rundown

• Location: 1233 E. Brady St.
• Phone: 414-837-2023
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m Tue-Thu, 11 a.m to 2 a.m. Fri-Sat
• Neighborhood: Lower East Side
• Website: http://twistedplants.com
• UM Rating: stars (average of Yelp, Trip Advisor and Zomato)