New York subscribers got exclusive early access to this story in Eating New York, a newsletter featuring food news and advice straight from our critics’ mouths. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Photo: Tammie Teclemariam
On Monday, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Kitchen opened the first of seven planned New York locations. True to its name, the 245 West 46th Street branch of Paltrow’s “clean takeout” brand is a kitchen — with food that’s only available for pickup and delivery. “We are very much not a restaurant,” Paltrow told Fast Company, noting “we are maximizing revenue per square foot.” I don’t work or live within the midtown delivery range but was nevertheless curious. So I headed to the lobby of the Romer Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen to place a day-one order and find out if Goop Kitchen actually has the chops to compete in this city’s extremely competitive delivery market.
I am not a Goop disciple, but I was keto for years, during which time I ate a lot of Chop’t and Chipotle. I know bowl. GK’s menu of wraps, salads, and lightly seasoned proteins does not reinvent the wheel, but for many, the added value comes from a kitchen free of various triggers, as well as one with a seasonally updated allergen guide. While there are many “guilt-free” options like turmeric-spiced chicken broth and green beans that clock in at 40 calories per serving, there’s also fully caloric gluten-free pizza, which I added to my order with a side of dairy-free ranch, in addition to an $18.50 Brentwood Chinese chicken salad, an $18 Montecito turkey wrap, cold puréed vegetable soup for $10, half an organic rotisserie chicken (“just” $17), plus a brownie and some cookies.
When I attempted to complete my order at 4 p.m., I was presented with a message that the nearest time my order could be ready was 7:45, which didn’t change as I tried reducing the size of my order to a single dish. By the time I finalized it, my delivery time was set for 8:15, approximately four hours in the future. (I decamped to Le Tout Va Bien around the corner for some French onion soup and a glass of Chardonnay while I waited for my “clean” dinner to arrive.) When 8 o’clock finally rolled around, the delivery arrived on time, packaged in a white-and-green shopping bag with the “Goop Kitchen” manifesto printed on the back.
I started with a Goopfellas pizza, a thin-crust square pie cut into nine pieces that was topped with turkey sausage, pepperoni, onions, and jalapeños over “spicy no-vodka sauce” and a Fontina-mozzarella cheese blend. It was dusted with a “super secret pizza seasoning” that tasted like oregano and basil with Parmesan. The gluten-free crust was crisp and chewy in a way that reminded me of Domino’s thin crust and not something that was modified to meet someone’s nutritional needs, while the ranch was ranch: a cooling and rich complement.
Goop salad.
Photo: Tammie Teclemariam
The cassava tortilla of the Montectio wrap was less successful, both bland and slightly gluey, although serviceable, especially when compared to the average wrap you might find elsewhere. Its chopped kale, avocado, cheddar, and turkey filling was fresh, though I had already eaten a quarter of it before realizing the maple-mustard vinaigrette came in a container on the side. This separation, of course, keeps the wrap from getting soggy during Goop’s tested delivery periods of up to 45 minutes, which also explains the undressed Brentwood salad, where a shredded bok choy, cabbage, and snow peas mix is accompanied by one lidded cup of bright carrot-ginger dressing and another of grain-free “wonton” strips mixed with sesame seeds and toasted quinoa. Here’s the important detail: The clear plastic containers are large enough to shake the contents sufficiently, while their bespoke rectangular shape feels more chic to eat out of than the average cardboard bowl. (While remaining environmentally friendly, according to the website, “projections suggest that over the course of a year, the containers from a single Goop Kitchen restaurant can potentially save over 25,000 pounds of plastic from landfills and over 35,000 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere.”) It is a perfectly delicious salad that happens to taste like a lot of other salads out there. The shredded chicken was identical to the white meat on my half-rotisserie chicken, a not scrawny bird that could reasonably feed two, as advertised, which arrived still warm and lightly seasoned. It’s not going to be a candidate for the ongoing rotisserie-chicken wars, but it is on par with what I’d expect to find from the prepared-food section of a fancy grocery store, which is essentially what Goop cuisine aims to be.
The dark-chocolate-and-sea-salt brownie was rich and fudgy enough to satisfy any chocolate craving, while the almond-flour-and-coconut-chocolate-chip cookies were less indulgent, like dusty macaroons. I wouldn’t call the flavor of anything I ordered particularly bold, but everything was tasty enough with competently cooked proteins and impeccable vegetables, which, in addition to the convenience, should be expected at these prices. Most people could learn to cook food like this for themselves if it didn’t involve keeping all of the ingredients around and spending time on the prepwork: It is essentially upscale boy kibble delivered to your door. Or, in my case, to the lobby of a very accommodating hotel.
As someone who doesn’t live in one of the planned zones of Goop’s expansion, the hardest time to order healthy food is also when I’m most likely to order something: dinner. In the same Fast Company piece, Goop Kitchen CEO Donald Moore said that contrary to most fast-casual concepts, which do most of their business at lunch, almost half of Goop Kitchen’s business happens at night. Assuming GK can work out its initial logistical issues in the coming weeks — and it was day one; it’s likely it will — the availability of this type of menu could be a boon to a lot of “clean eating” New Yorkers underserved by corner delis and grocery stores in their vicinity. On the other hand, there’s nothing underserved about Goop Kitchen’s upcoming locations, heading to neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, Flatiron, and Williamsburg. Rather, they’re populated with people who can afford to incorporate the brand into their daily lives like so many other lifestyle conveniences, something that new, disrupting entities like Goop Kitchen count on. As Paltrow said, this is not a restaurant: It’s a moneymaker.
Sign up for Eating New York
Weekly food news, straight from our critics’ mouths and just for subscribers.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice