One Lucky Duck

One Lucky Duck is the take out companion of Pure Food and Wine. They prepare small batch, take-out, raw vegan sweets, juices, smoothies and ice cream. There is a small amount of seating where you can also get an array of salads and savory dishes. Walls are covered in nuts, truffles, cookies, coconut oil, sweeteners, dog treats an supplements. The vibe is cozy but busy.

This is one of my favorite vegan establishments in NYC so far. Needless to say, the list of things I've tried has been over several visits:

Smoothies:
cacao or carob latte – $9
banana, cashew milk, cacao or carob, vanilla

Thoughts: This is by far my favorite thing I've tried here so far. I get mine with carob and no sweetener. It's satisfying, thick and creamy.

green mango – $9
mango, cucumber, cilantro, coconut water, lime

Thoughts: Marvelous! If you love the taste of coconut water and want a good way to get in some cleansing greens, this is where it's at. The taste of cilantro is not overpowering so with the combination of cucumber, mango and lime, this makes for a deliciously fresh taste.

Sweets:
mallomar – $6
chocolate coated pecan cookie with vanilla cream GF

Thoughts: With a thick dollop cashew based cream on the top as its marshmallow and a crunchy chocolate dipped base, I'd say they're better than their mass produced counterparts by far. Trouble is, I could easily eat more than one, and if you want to be satisfied, two is a little overkill financially speaking.

moon pie – $9
chocolate brownie vanilla cream sandwich GF

Thoughts: If you're really looking for something raw vegan that seems to mimic its original texture, this is pretty close. I still have no idea how they got the cake portion to have the fluffiness of real wheat flour cake and still have it raw and gluten free. Not really for me though the flavor was great.

lemon bar – $8
almond coconut crust, tart lemon custard GF

Thoughts: I tried these as some free samples. While I'm not a huge fan of lemon desserts, these tasted much like a traditional lemon bar, but with better texture. I was pleasantly surprised.

chocolate caramel bar – $5
chocolate dipped pecan caramel bar O

Thoughts: I was a little underwhelmed by these. Felt there was a bit too much of the bar base and not enough of the caramel filling. **I wouldn't chance this one if you're gluten sensitive.

chocolate ganache tart – $12
chocolate ganache filling, chocolate crust GF

Thoughts: Coming from a self proclaimed chocoholic, this is an obvious favorite. Served with cashew cream, it is absolutely addictive. That being said, it's very sweet and may have you bouncing off the walls after if your blood sugar is out of wack or you haven't eaten enough solid food ahead of time to balance your nerves from the caffeine in the cacao. Also, the price for this seems a little steep for raw vegan tarts since I'm used to the $5-$7 slices in Canada but for NY the average seems to be $12-$14 though outrageous, it's in the ballpark for the city as I see it.

orreo cookie – $3.5
vanilla cream filled chocolate cookie GF

Thoughts: I don't know why but I tend to love raw desserts generally because of their moist texture due to fresh ingredients. This one just tries too hard to be like a real oreo. It's dehydrated to the point of a packaged cookie. Still tasty and one of the cheaper options if you're just looking for a sweet snack.

linzer cookie – $5
spiced hazelnut and almond cookie sandwich, raspberry jam GF

Thoughts: This is my favorite raw vegan cookie I've ever tried. The flavor is spicy and outstanding. The raspberry jam layer in the center is just perfect; not too sweet. Coupled with a smoothie, it's my breakfast made in heaven.

Rating: 9.5/10