Vegan Meals Out – Page 2

Zizzi (UK wide chain restaurant)

August 24, 2016 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Branches of Zizzi can be found all over the UK and it’s great to see a chain restaurant making the effort to cater to vegans. They now have a specific vegan menu which you can ask for on arrival and although having a basic pasta with tomato sauce is a tad uninspiring (even though you can add extra veg to it) it’s when you get to the pizzas that the real excitement starts.

Zizzi use a vegan cheese made from rice milk called Mozzarisella which I really like. It’s gooey and melty and really adds to the pizza experience. You can of course ask for veggie pizzas without cheese as Zizzi’s standard pizza bases are vegan already.

We went for the vegan garlic bread (they also do a bruschetta) and when it came it was enormous! Laid out on a big slab, you could really see the cloves of roasted garlic and sprigs of rosemary which made it extremely appetising. It was very tasty and perfect for sharing around. All their vegan dishes come with a little ‘vegan’ sticker on the side, which is a reassuring measure to eliminate confusion.

We ordered a basic pizza with different ‘create your own’ toppings. You can choose from: artichokes; butternut squash; caramelised balsamic onions; roasted garlic cloves; fire roasted red peppers; field mushrooms; black olives; green chillies; balsamic tomatoes; roasted red onions; spinach.

Caramelised balsamic onion and mushroom pizza

(A more limited version of this list is what’s available to pop into your pasta.) I went for caramelised balsamic onions and mushrooms. The onions had quite a strong flavour and added a certain zing. My companion went for peppers, mushrooms and artichoke. The variety of toppings makes for (almost) endless combinations.

After the huge garlic bread and the pizza, we were too full to manage dessert on this occasion. Yes, that’s right, they have vegan dessert! Not only one, but a choice of three. OK, two of them are sorbet (lemon or strawberry), but one isn’t!

The third option is a coconut and mango swirl gelato and I tried this on another visit to Zizzi.

(The picture isn’t so great, but it gives you an idea…) I must say I was impressed with the taste. I love a bit of coconut and this was as satisfying as any gelato, vegan or otherwise, that I’ve had. It was the perfect cooling experience after I’d added a bit of chilli oil to my pizza!

Yes, we took some garlic bread home in a doggy bag!

I find it enormously encouraging that more and more chain restaurants like Zizzi are recognising the importance of catering for everyone. It’s getting easier and easier to eat out as a vegan and surely we’re entering some kind of ‘golden age.’ It’s never been more convenient to be a vegan, so if you have someone in your life who’s interested in this cruelty-free lifestyle, send them to this website. Now you can add Zizzi to your ‘stress free places to dine’ list! Hurray!

Toby Carvery 2016

August 18, 2016 by Tofu Temptress 1 Comment

As I’ve said before, a carvery isn’t the obvious dining option for the vegan-about-town, however, it may surprise you to learn that there are more vegan options to choose from here than at many similar styled establishments. If you wander into a typical pub you’ll be lucky to get a baked potato and beans. More often than not, you’re simply offered chips (and who knows what fat they were deep fried in…) Cheerfully, Toby Carvery is a UK-wide chain who seem to have observed that meat-eating people have vegan mates who should be catered for.

And so it has come to pass that on their menu they have three main meals suitable for vegans. When you order them though, be sure and ask for a plate of veggies, as the ones in the main carvery area are cooked in butter. The roasties are fine though, as they’re cooked in vegetable oil.

First we have the Spiced Carrot and Chickpea Wellington (they used to have a nut roast wellington, which I remember being nice.) I’ve not tried the new version, but it looks good and I’ve had favourable reports from companions. To be honest, I rarely turn down pastry.

Next there is the Lentil Cottage Pie, which is my favourite. The lentils are always big and tasty, never a mush, and the gravy and crunchy crustiness round the edge would have most meat-eaters sold I reckon.

Last but not least, there’s the Butternut Squash Crumble, which manages to taste both healthy and yummy at the same time, which, let’s face it, is rare. Most types of crumble are fine with me. I’m quite partial to the rhubarb variety, but that’s another story…

Another thing that sets this place apart from most of its rivals is the fact they have a vegan dessert on the menu that isn’t fruit salad! Praise be! Not only is it not fruit salad, it’s chocolate! Chocolate and Cherry Torte to be exact. It’s moist enough not to need any of the dairy add-ons they have, so you can happily enjoy the torte naked. (No, not like that.)

So there you have it – a very vegan-friendly carvery. My local one now even has pictures of vegetables on the walls! So, even though you may be forced to walk past a counter full of heated up dead animal parts, it’s no worse than accidentally finding yourself in the meat section of the supermarket. Just walk on by. Nobody is forcing you to eat anything you don’t want to and you don’t have to wait long for vegan sustenance as the service tends to be fairly quick. All this plus a cheeky beer made for a very pleasant night out with friends.

You can find your local Toby Carvery here.

Casa Angelina, Edinburgh

September 28, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

As you descend the few steps into Casa Angelina, the atmosphere is one of stepping back in time.

Like stepping back in time... — Like stepping back in time…

This Edinburgh building has been around for a long, long time and it makes for a great atmosphere. The area at the front is for waiting on a table or buying or collecting cakes, and a tempting array of baking greets you as soon as you walk in. As well as the beautiful (and as I was to discover later, scrumptious) cakes and scones on display, they will bake to order and they even do wedding cakes. Although not exclusively vegan, their vegan options are numerous enough to give you plenty of choice. I booked our afternoon tea the day before.

As we were shown through to the rear, the decor only became more quirky and charming. Painted on the wall were attractive slogans and, perhaps appropriately for a vegan, an image of birds escaping their cages.

A little plaque on the fireplace explained that Casa Angelina is a tribute to the owner’s Italian grandmother, who was always baking and often invited the locals in for tea. The place certainly has that homely feel, being not only quite small (there were about six or seven tables) but also using deliberately mismatched crockery and cutlery to very pleasing effect. I could imagine a rather grown up birthday party taking place in here, as they do hire the venue out for exclusive use.

We ordered tea, with me choosing the simple, but very lovely Scottish Breakfast Pot, while my partner was a bit more adventurous, going for the Bollywood Dreams Chai Pot, which smelled deliciously of cinnamon. They were both very nice and we sipped them as we waited excitedly for our treats to arrive. When they did we were not disappointed.

Obviously lovingly put together, we had yummy samosas and gorgeous avocado wraps, mushroom toast with a tangy twist, scones still warm from the oven served with two types of jam and a beautifully sweet vegan cream, dense fruit cakes and indulgent chocolate ones. I must admit that I can’t recall all the wonderful flavour combinations that were described to us as we were served but suffice it to say that they were numerous, unusual and all worked well together.

We took our time munching through it all, ordering another pot of tea each in the process. I’d gone in hungry having missed lunch deliberately. By the end I was absolutely stuffed, but pleasantly so!

As a vegan one is always so used to being slightly sidelined by restaurants, especially on the desserts front, so I really appreciate it when places like this put indulgence for vegans front and centre. The staff were lovely and seemed to know when to pop in to see if we needed anything. Largely we were left alone to chat, admire the surroundings and enjoy our beautiful food. Casa Angeline is a delight for the senses.

Vegan Afternoon Tea is currently priced at £21 per person, but everything is of the highest quality and they certainly won’t palm you off with limp sandwiches!

Crussh – Kensington Olympia, London

July 22, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Well, there I was, sweating away at the London Film and Comic Con (you weren’t expecting that were you?) when I realised I needed nourishment. I’d had Pizza Express on the previous day, which is fine and has at least one fully vegan pizza (it is so refreshing not to have to say ‘Can I have this, but without that, and maybe replaced by this other thing instead, blah, blah, blah…’) so I was resigning myself to having another filling, if not overly healthy lunch at the Kensington Olympia. Then, as I emerged from a crush between a life-sized Lego Batman and a sweaty Wonder Woman (don’t ask) an oasis of health greeted my eyes.

Before me lay a health food-style takeaway called Crussh. Their salads looked healthy from afar, but would they be filling? Their sandwiches looked tempting, but would they all have chicken and fish in them? They also had snacks, but would the crisps contain the dreaded milk? Well, I needn’t have worried, because although there was a bit of tuna around and some cheesy crisps, most of their offerings were at least vegetarian and there was a good choice for the hungry vegan.

They called their salads ‘healthpots’ as well they might. There was a red kale, quinoa and french lentil one, a butterbean, cherry tomato and parsley one and a char-grilled cauliflower, pomegranate with tahini dressing one, as well as other healthful options like the superfoods healthpot or the detox healthpot.

vegan sandwich - hurray! — vegan sandwich – hurray!

All very tempting, but I wanted a sandwich. It is so incredibly rare to encounter a vegan sandwich in one of these fast food places that I simply had to experience the novelty. I went for the Veggie 5-a-day sandwich, which had houmous, avocado, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, beansprouts and spinach. I must say it was really tasty. I added some Kettle chips, of which there was a good vegan choice and finished things off with a Nakd bar, yum. But what to drink? I try to avoid cola and such things, but wanted something more exciting than water which I’d been chugging down all day (it really was crowded and hot in there.)

There was a staggering array of fresh made juices, so I decided to splash out on a ‘love juice’ which, despite the dodgy name, was pretty lovely. It was basically just blended fruit although I think their menu on this occasion was an ‘events’ menu and not their run of the mill one. Beware smoothies as it seems milk is in all of them. Beware also their add-ons such as boosters and wheatgrass, as strangely some appear not to be vegan, but there is a fine selection of vegan-friendly juices.

I was very happy with my choice of lunch and even went back later on for a snack as they had plenty of muesli bars, crisps, popcorn and so on to keep me going when I was flagging. It wasn’t cheap, but what sandwich bar is? It was simply nice to encounter somewhere that knows what a vegan is. Everything of their own production was clearly labelled with a ‘Ve’ symbol for ease of choosing and their processed offerings were labelled as you would expect in a shop. All in all a tasty, hassle-free experience. Who could ask for more?

looks healthy, doesn't it? — looks healthy, doesn’t it?

Crussh stores are all over London, so if you’re a local check them out.

For anyone visiting the capital, they will provide an oasis of veganness (is that a word?) and a welcome break from whatever boring meeting, crowded visitor attraction or um, massive space full of Boba Fett impersonators that you might be attending.

V Deep, Leith, Edinburgh (Now closed.)

June 10, 2015 by Tofu Temptress 3 Comments

I only discovered V Deep a few months back as we were meeting up with a couple of mates who were living in Leith. Just around the corner from the institution that is The Plumed Horse, VDeep is an Indian restaurant with a tapas-style menu.

On our first visit, there were three of us ordering vegan dishes and so the owner, (comedian, TV presenter and panellist Hardeep Singh Kohli) wandered over to our table to make a few inquiries. Moments later, as we were tucking into our yummy lunch, he came back to announce that he’d decided to host a vegan evening. We were thrilled to hear that, as he’d just put it up on twitter, he was receiving bookings already as we sat munching.

And so it was, that on 1st June we attended V Deep’s inaugural vegan night. The restaurant has an understated entrance, so when you swing open the door the colourful interior and buzz hits you rather unexpectedly. The walls are adorned with spray painted art and the bar, which is filled with beers from many independent breweries, is central to proceedings. This is generally a good thing for vegans as small concerns tend not to filter beer with isinglass and other nasties as much as the big boys.

V Deep prides itself on providing beer for connoisseurs, so there’s always plenty of choice and probably a few you haven’t tried before. Above the bar there is a depiction of Mr. Singh Kohli himself, complete with trademark beard and brightly coloured turban.

The drinks menu on this particular evening was all vegan friendly, so as always on this type of occasion, the stress was taken out of ordering. I was driving but my other half went for Williams’ alcoholic ginger beer with was very pleasant.

The food had been so great last time off the main menu my hopes were high this time. I wasn’t disappointed.

We had the Chilli Tofu Fry (which was probably my favourite) the Chickpea Masala (which my companion favoured over the rest) Bharli Wangi (stuffed aubergine, lovely, as recommended by the waitress) Haggis Samosa, Coconut rice and the biggest Naan I’ve ever seen (specially veganised for the evening.)

Both being vegan we dipped and shared and piled the food high on our plates, a vegan luxury.

Spicy and satisfying, we were both stuffed by the end of the meal, but somehow, after a pause in proceedings, managed to make room for dessert. There was only one offering, Jalebi, a wheat based dessert which was sugar coated, deep fried and served on top of a little pot of rhubarb. The rhubarb was a little tart for me, but then I have a legendary sweet tooth. It looked attractive and was a nice finish to a meal as I always like to try something new.

The loo signs could get confusing when you've had to many craft beers... — The loo signs could get confusing when you’ve had to many craft beers…

I’ll definitely be going back as the food is fantastic, the atmosphere light and welcoming and like us, you might get to chat to Hardeep himself (he was busy in the kitchen on the vegan night) or some of his lovely staff.

Being a relatively new restaurant, VDeep is always looking for new ideas for its vegan menu, so tweet them here if you have any sudden inspiration. They are to be found in Henderson Street in the Leith area of Edinburgh and there’s on street parking around and about.

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