The Vegan Restaurant That Made Me Forget It Was Vegan

 A meal at Planta, the plant-based global kitchen where the caviar-topped potatoes are the least surprising thing on the table.

Planta bills itself as "plant-based dining, reimagined," with bold, globally inspired dishes, craveable cocktails, and vibrant spaces made for every kind of gathering. It’s a growing chain with locations across the US, and the menu runs from sushi to wok dishes to Southeast Asian street-food-style small plates, all 100 percent vegan. The room matches the pitch: it’s lively, stylish, and built for groups, with a full cocktail menu and the kind of energy that makes it work for a date night, a birthday, or a "we just want to share everything" dinner.

Chick’n Fried Mushrooms with nuoc cham set the tone. They are crunchy, crispy, and savory, with a tangy, sweet nuoc cham for dunking. If you handed these to a skeptical omnivore, they would ask for the recipe, not the ingredient list.

The 1,000 Layer Crispy Potatoes are the dish people post about, and for good reason. Paper-thin layers of potato fried to shatter-level crispness, topped with caviar, sour cream, and chives. It’s a loaded baked potato and a fancy bar snack at once, and it’s also one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, so ordering it is basically mandatory.

The Summer Rolls (cilantro, Thai basil, pickled carrots, papaya, tofu) were fresh and herby, with the peanut sauce and nuoc cham giving you a choice between creamy-rich and bright-and-tangy. They’re a good palate refresher between the fried stuff.

The Rainbow Roll was the sushi standout. Ahi watermelon, avocado, crispy mushrooms, slaw, and tempura bits make it a texture party, and the watermelon "tuna" is convincing enough to start a debate at the table.

On the wok side, the Drunken Chick’n came loaded with hon shimeji mushrooms, ginger, hearts of palm, and sugar snap peas. It’s savory, gingery, and a little smoky. The Beef and Broccoli swaps in wok-seared shiitake “steak” and tofu with scallion and sesame, and the shiitake has a meaty chew that does the job. It’s comfort food in the Chinese takeout tradition, upgraded.

Last was the Udon Noodles in truffle mushroom cream. It’s rich, earthy, and indulgent, the sort of dish you’d expect to be loaded with butter and cream. Order it, share it, and fight over the last noodles.

Planta works because it doesn't ask you to compromise. The dishes are built around flavor, texture, and fun first, and the plant-based part is almost incidental. Come with vegan friends, come with skeptics, or come with an appetite and no agenda. Either way, order the potatoes.

I Put On A Lab Coat, Did Shots, And Made Things Explode With My Boyfriend (Best Date Night Idea Ever?)

 Science and Sip’s Drunken Lab in Brooklyn is chemistry class if chemistry class had a DJ, a full bar, and karaoke.

Picture 5th grade science, but you’re 21+ and there’s a bar. At Science and Sip, you don’t just watch experiments. You run them. Beakers, pipettes, test tubes, the whole setup, all in service of foamy eruptions, color changes, and reactions that go boom.

Here’s the key distinction, and I love it: the bartenders make the cocktails, and you make the science. No DIY drink-mixing, no pressure to be a mixologist. Your only job is to be a (slightly tipsy) scientist.

You walk in and you are handed a complimentary themed drink and a shot. Honestly, that is the correct way to start any date. If you want more, there is a seasonal cocktail menu you can buy from, and it follows whatever theme the lab is running that month. Since it’s October, the Haunted Lab theme is going on, so the drinks lean spooky.

My boyfriend and I took our roles way too seriously. We were measuring, pouring, and watching our little potions fizz over like we were about to win a Nobel Prize. There’s something delightfully dumb about being genuinely proud of a beaker that bubbled. The reactions are big and visual, so you get that “ooooh” moment when the color changes or the foam starts climbing.

This is where Drunken Lab surprised me. It’s not just a quiet experiment session. There’s a live DJ, lab battles where you compete against the other tables, science trivia, and karaoke. Win the games and you earn free shots, which gives the competitive person in your relationship a lot of motivation. (You know who you are.)

The energy shifts as the night goes on, from “let’s carefully follow the instructions” to “why are we all singing at full volume.” I mean that as the highest compliment.

Who should go

✅ Couples who want something more fun than dinner and a movie.

✅ Birthday groups, friend hangs, and anyone who likes a little chaos with their cocktails.

✅ People who liked science class and people who hated it. Both will have a good time.

❌ Skip it if you want a quiet, low-key evening. This place is loud, social, and interactive.

Science and Sip is part bar, part party, part chem lab, and fully a good time. It works on a first date, an anniversary, or a “we’ve been together a while and need to do something new” night. Come ready to laugh, sing badly, and feel unreasonably proud of a foaming beaker.

I Played Squid Game IRL With 5 Friends And Nobody Got Eliminated (Emotionally, Anyway)

 Immersive Gamebox turns a single room into a full-on video game, and my group of six was the perfect size to take it on.

Immersive Gamebox is part arcade, part escape room, part “why didn’t this exist when I was a kid.” You and your crew get your own private box where the walls, floor, and tech react to your movement and touch. No gaming experience needed, which is good, because I’m not sure any of us would have qualified.

It’s also private. You never get paired with strangers, even if there are only two of you.

You show up about 10 minutes early to check in, and there are free lockers for your stuff. Then you grab a visor, which you wear like a hat for the whole game. Mine made me feel like an extra in a sci-fi movie, and I loved it. Drinks can be brought straight to the box, which is a flex I didn’t know I needed mid-game.

Boxes max out at 6 players, so my crew of six filled one perfectly.

Game 1: Squid Game

This is the Top Pick and also one of the hardest on the menu, so naturally we started there. You take on six challenges from the Netflix show, and yes, that means the games you’re picturing right now. Within minutes, six adults who share group chat memes were fully sweating over a children’s game.

The best part is how seriously everyone starts taking it. Friendships were tested. Trash talk happened. Someone suddenly became very competitive about something that, in real life, they’d never care about.

Game 2: Escape AI

After all that chaos, Escape AI felt like a totally different mood. It’s billed as the world’s first immersive escape room, and it’s a “brain buster” where you work together to solve the mystery behind an eccentric inventor’s disappearance. It’s a bit lower on the difficulty scale than Squid Game, but it asks a different muscle of you. Instead of reflexes and nerves, it’s communication and “wait, does anyone have the thing?”

Squid Game made us yell. Escape AI made us whisper-argue. Both are valid.

The experience is perfect for

✅ Friend groups who want something more interactive than dinner and drinks.

✅ Anyone who loves the idea of an escape room but wants more movement.

✅ Birthday plans, work socials, or date nights, since the games scale up and down in difficulty.

❌ Skip it if you want a quiet, sit-down hang. This is loud, physical, and a little ridiculous.

Immersive Gamebox is the rare group activity that works for people who say “I’m not really a gamer” and for the one friend who absolutely is. Play Squid Game when you want chaos and Escape AI when you want to feel clever. Better yet, book both, as we did, and see which friend turns into a villain.