Spring Street Natural

Thirty-five years before it was trendy to care, this Soho staple took pride in its all-natural approach to upscale cuisine. Ingredients are still minimally processed, and patrons rest assured that their dinner (when not vegan or vegetarian) met its fate in a humane way. But while proportions are generous, creativity and execution are often lacking. Plantain-crusted mahi-mahi is plain but passable, enhanced only by a tangy tomato and avocado salsa. Cornmeal-crusted tofu, similarly, smacks of Veg Cooking 101. The star of the menu, a shivery sweet corn flan perched atop a bed of roasted corn salsa, makes a bid for originality, but sadly, too little too late.