Healthy Lunch at Roast Kitchen, NYC

While there’s no shortage of lunch spots in NYC, not all of them have healthy options. And the same old salad or sandwich gets boring. I’ve found a new favorite for lunch – Roast Kitchen. It’s great because you can build your own “bowl” using hot or cold ingredients. The ingredients were fresh and it was filling and tasty. You can definitely have a healthy lunch at Roast Kitchen! 

Being on the upper east side (where we are sorely deprived of interesting lunch spots), I hadn’t even heard of Roast Kitchen. One of my clients who works in midtown told me about it. It sounded good based on her description … but of course I had to check it out before I’d recommend it. I visited Roast Kitchen last week and was pleasantly surprised!

Menu

The menu contains Hot Bowls and Cold Bowls. You basically “build your own bowl” – selecting either hot or cold ingredients. You pick your base of greens, then choose 4 mix-ins from a wide variety of vegetables, pick a grain (farro, quinoa or basmati rice), a protein (several different kinds of chicken, pork, sirloin, shrimp or fish) and a sauce. They offer 6 sauces for the Hot Bowls and 8 dressings for the Cold Bowls.

My estimated calorie count

I got the Hot Bowl with spinach, portabella mushrooms, zucchini noodles, broccoli, quinoa, grilled chicken and the Ginger Scallion Sauce (see pic). Being the investigative nutritionist that I am, I had to take my bowl home to “dissect” it to estimate the calories. Out comes the measuring cups and food scale!
~ 3 ½ oz chicken = 155 calories/ 0 carbs
– 1 cup quinoa = 230 calories/40 gm carbs
~ 1 cup of vegetables = 50 calories/10 gm carbs
~ 4 T. Ginger Scallion sauce = *this is my estimation: 150 calories/5 gm carbs
Total calories: 585 and 55 gm carbs

Roast Kitchen Locations

South Street Seaport (199 Water Street)
Midtown East (2 locations: 423 Madison  &  58 E. 56th Street)
Times Square (740 7th Av)
Union Square South (120 University Place)
Union Square North (870 Broadway)
Midtown West (520 8th Av)

My take:

I would definitely eat here more often if it were closer to me! The ingredients were fresh and you had a large variety to choose
from. I also like that you can get hot and cold bowls. If you are watching your carbs or calories, you might want to ask for ½ portion of the starch and get extra veggies. In addition, ask them to go easy on the sauce – or at least look for those that are labeled FF (fat free) or SF (sugar free).

Hopefully they will add the nutritional info to their menu soon. In the meantime, use my calorie estimation as a guide if you are watching your weight or carbs. Pic is of the friendly server at the Midtown East 56th St.  location (forgot to ask his name!)

What is your favorite NYC lunch spot?