The only problem with a holiday which is all about eating is that you end up rarely hungry enough to try loads of dishes. Dr HH and I loved the look of the brunch menu at Mallow, and we’re torn between the sweet and savoury options. Ideally we would have arrived hungry enough for both, but with a fully packed itinerary of restaurant reservations, we had to make some tough choices. We really enjoyed this for a fancy breakfast. In the end, we both chose sweet options.
I got the rhubarb French toast, which was an Easter special. It was a lovely thick, soft slice of bread, topped with Chantilly cream, poached rhubarb, and crumble. It was served with elderflower creme anglais. The Chantilly was so light and delicious. The rhubarb was tart, but not overpowering. The flavour of the creme anglais was really zingy and refreshing. The crumble was tasty and added some great texture. It was a really great breakfast.
Dr HH had the pistachio and cherry French toast. The cherries provided a nice sharpness, and the pistachios on top brought a good crunchy texture – though a bit more would have been nice. The pistachio custard was delicious. The whole thing was quite well balanced and not too sweet. As an observer, I thought this dish was very visually enticing with the lovely red and green colours.
Also, the chai latte was not too sweet, it was nice and spicy. It was a rare hit on the chai latte front for me!
It was nice and quiet on a Wednesday morning (but a reservation always makes sense to me), and service was very friendly and efficient.
Hopefully we’ll come back hungry and try more of the options one day!
After a few visits to vegan fine dining establishment Gauthier Soho, we were excited to try the (slightly) more affordable Studio Gauthier on our recent trip to London. Alongside their regular menu, they also currently have set menus from specific countries/cuisines available for two weeks at a time. We were there for their Italian menu, which consisted of five courses and a canapé.
The canapé was a small slice of deep fried courgette with cashew cream and mint crumble. It was flavoursome, light, and refreshing, and felt perfect for Spring.
Next came the wild garlic focaccia, which was our highlight of the evening. You always know you’re going to get some good bread from Gauthier! It was a really crispy, herby bread, oily and delicious. It was served with a fava bean purée (a bit like hummus) and wild garlic pesto and pickled red onions. The pesto was so flavoursome, I loved it. The onions were a perfect touch. We would have happily taken another round of this course – plus a tray of focaccia for the road.
Then we had a stuffed artichoke. The artichoke was deep fried for a nice crispy texture. It was stuffed with parsley and capers – the capers in particular provided great flavour. It came with a white bean purée and tomato purée. The tomato one was especially good, quite rich and tasty.
The tortellini came next. It was really thin pasta filled with chervil, lovage, and almond ricotta and served with peas and micro herbs. At the table, the server added a broth made of kombu, mushroom, lemongrass, and Kaffir lime. The broth had an incredibly deep savoury flavour, I could have drunk it up!
The main course was gnocchi. It was a semolina gnocchi, which just kind of dissolved on the plate, it was so soft (the server asked for feedback on the dish and when we mentioned this he said it was intentional, so maybe it’s just our personal preferences for firmer gnocchi). It came with a wild garlic sauce, which was really vivid and enticing and packed a great flavour. There was also aparagus, confit lemon rind, hazelnuts, rocket, and some kind of cheese. There was a bit too much rocket for my personal taste, but otherwise there was a nicely balanced flavour. I certainly found the flavours superior to the texture of this dish.
The dessert was a crostata. The shortcrust pastry case was just right, and the strawberry and blueberry filling was delicious. It was served with vanilla ice cream (the menu says lemon sorbet, but I could have sworn it was vanilla ice cream!), custard, and fruit purée. The rich, creamy custard beautifully complemented the fruity pie. It looked like a huge portion, but it was well judged.
It was not a rushed affair – we were there for over 2 hours for the whole meal. It was pretty quiet on a Tuesday evening, but I’d recommend booking anyway. It was £65 per person for the set menu. For us, it was worth the money for some creative and well-executed dishes. It was notably not on the same (extremely high) level as Gauthier Soho itself, and I’d prefer to splurge there again next time, but it’s still a fun visit and I’d certainly be tempted in for the right cuisine (we just missed out on Taiwan, more’s the pity).
I always see Tofu Vegan listed as a top vegan spot in London and have been trying to fit it into my itinerary on our last few trips. This Easter, we finally had our first visit at any of the numerous Tofu Vegan branches. I’ll definitely be back! The menu was really extensive and tempting. Dr HH and I shared two starters and two mains.
The wontons in a spicy sauce were delicious! They were nice little dumplings. The filling felt quite substantial and meaty, and the sauce packed a good punch. I was worried it would be too spicy for me, but it was just a pleasant kick, not overwhelming.
The salt and pepper mushrooms were really well-seasoned. The mushrooms had a nice bouncy texture and the batter was crispy. I love dishes like this, and it was a well executed version.
I almost never order dishes that will be sizzling and steaming as they are brought to the table – who wants that much attention? Happily, Dr HH convinced me to make an exception for the sizzling king mushroom in black pepper sauce. It had a really peppery sauce, building to a nice heat. The mushrooms were accompanied by tender onions and thinly sliced mushroom. Everything retained its bite.
Finally, we shared the gong bao tofu, which came in a sticky sauce. It was slightly sweet and fruity but also had a bit of chilli heat, plus lots of ginger and peanuts. The tofu had a nice soft, spongy texture.
Everything we tried was delicious! As much as I enjoyed these dishes, I’ll probably go for something completely different next time because there were so many interesting looking options. And I’m quite confident we’ll be back, because it seemed like everytime we opened Happy Cow, there was a branch of Tofu Vegan mere minutes away! They’re everywhere!
I used to find it pretty easy to find vegan cake in Manchester city centre, but at our Easter visit I was really struggling to find a spot for a hot drink and vegan cake after 4pm on a Saturday. Happy Cow pointed us towards the cafe in Waterstones in the Arndale, and it really exceeded our expectations – it was fantastic!
We ordered at the counter and found ourselves a table. They had a range of clearly labelled vegan baked goods at the counter (we didn’t look at the savoury sandwich options). Dr HH and I ordered two cakes to share: a sticky toffee biscoff slice, and a chocolate fudge cake.
The sticky toffee biscoff slice had a perfect gingery, biscoff, and toffee taste. It could have been stickier, but it was still a nice moist bake (much better than it looks in that regard). The topping was sweet and balanced it nicely. It was really delicious.
The chocolate fudge cake was a triple layer cake. The icing was really decadent. The edge was crusted in cacao nibs which gave a great bit of texture. The sponge was a tiny bit dry, presumably just because it was the last slice – it was a nice chocolatey rich sponge. When I picture a chocolate cake in my mind, this is what I see. This is a proper cake!
It was quite a busy spot with lots of book shoppers sitting and reading at the tables, so I suppose each table is occupied for quite a while. For me, it’s worth waiting a little while for a table if necessary if you’re in the mood for a cake. I’ll definitely be back for another visit – and not just because there aren’t so many alternatives these days!
Back when we lived in Manchester, we were regular visitors to this spot, or as it was known back then Lotus Vegetarian Kitchen (read more here and here). I lost track of it over the years, but was delighted to see that it is still going strong after all these years! The menu is quite extensive and exciting, with some dishes having multiple options for your protein/mock meat. We had trouble narrowing it down, but we did it!
For starters, we tried the salt and pepper calamari (the king oyster mushroom version – it was also available with shimeji). It consisted of thinly sliced battered mushrooms, which were very crispy and well seasoned. It wasn’t necessarily a convincing calamari, but it was a tasty fried mushroom.
We also shared the sesame toast, which had an excellent crispy texture but didn’t really taste of seafood. There was a real novelty factor (I don’t think I’ve seen a dish like this veganised anywhere else), but it didn’t totally deliver – it was more like a generic fried bread. I love a fried bread, so it was enjoyable.
For my main, I had crispy noodles with beef and black bean sauce. The beef was really tender and tasty with a lovely texture. The vegetables retained their bite. The sauce was a classic black bean, really tasty. I’m a huge fan of crispy noodles, so the overall texture of the dish was perfect for me.
Dr HH had the sweet and spicy Szechuan dish with crispy shredded beef. He really enjoyed it. The crispy beef was so crispy it felt like all batter at first. As the meal got a bit colder and soggier, the meat in the middle of the batter became more noticable. The sauce was spicy and sweet, with a lip-tingling amount of Szechuan pepper, as hoped.
Portion sizes were generous, and service was fast and friendly. We were there on a Sunday evening without a reservation. The only real drawback is that the restaurant is in Withington, which is not easy to get to from every part of the city. It was definitely worth the effort for us though!
I thought the all-you-can-eat buffet brunch had gone out of fashion due to covid, but in some places it continues to thrive – including Tisch in Vienna. Their brunch includes one hot drink, one “egg” dish, and unlimited buffet access.
The egg options during our visit were: omelette a la Bear, eggs Benedict, ham and eggs (scramble), and a cheese plate. The omelette is a veganised version of the famous one Sydney makes in The Bear, and we both ordered this as it seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. And it was absolutely delicious! I would guess it was made with some kind of liquid egg replacer rather than tofu, because it was unlike any vegan omelette I’ve had before and it had a good eggy taste and texture. The last cheesy omelette I had was absolutely disgusting, so it was nice to bounce back in such style. The mushrooms were nicely fried and the cheeses (cream cheese and parmesan) were good. The vegetable crisps on top maintained a nice crunch and are convenient for the kitchen, but I’m sure regular potatoes would have been better! This is the smallest of quibbles for a properly sensational dish though.
The buffet had plenty to offer too. There were some breakfasty bits, including granola (nutty and seedy, with a choice of oat or soy milk) and bread and butter (margarine was also available, but I can’t resist a good vegan butter).
There were lots of exciting savoury dishes. The standout was a pumpkin lasagna (pictured above alongside a polenta cutlet), which fortunately was not one of those terrible ones that replaces the pasta with a vegetable: it had pasta, along with a pumpkin layer which added a nice bit of bite. There was also some mince and a cheesy top. We both loved it.
There were also oysters! Really they were just nicely dressed mushrooms. The dressing was a bit too sharp for me, but Dr HH loved it, and we were both excited to have the opportunity to shuck an oyster for the first time in our lives.
Other savoury dishes included a polenta cutlet, goulash, and carpaccio, all of which were tasty and enjoyable.
There was also a decent selection of sweets, including a milchrahm strudel, carrot cake, and apple crumble, alongside some custard.
Dishes were replenished quickly. We arrived at 11am and the staff were replacing platters of food as necessary. We certainly felt like we were getting our money’s worth.
Brunch is only served once a month, and we were just lucky that it coincided with our visit. Booking is definitely recommended, it was totally full when we were there. Honestly, I think it’s worth going purely for the omelette, and the rest of the spread is just a bonus!
Back in 2022, Dr HH and I had a fancy meal at Jola, a vegan fine dining restaurant. It was a fancy and delicious experience. We planned to revisit on our trip to Vienna last year but the timings didn’t work out for us. And on our trip earlier this year, we decided to instead try Lara, the new slightly less fancy (and accordingly cheaper) sister restaurant. We actually went twice – once for brunch and once for dinner. Bookings are highly recommended as it was a popular spot.
Brunch was a great experience with a small, tempting menu of sweet and savoury dishes. We ordered four dishes in total and shared them. We definitely had room for more food, but we wanted to visit a few more eateries that day, so we left it at that.
We had a brioche oyster mushroom sandwich, which was a bit underwhelming. The bread was nice and fluffy, but maybe needed a bit more toasting to hold up to the filling, the sandwich was lacking a little structural integrity. The mushrooms were nice, though there was one big clump that were too big to bite through. There was too much lettuce for my personal taste. The dressing provided a nice citrus flavour, but otherwise there was not a lot of flavour.
Fortunately, everything else was a hit, starting with the sensational glazed crispy fried mushrooms. They had a nice light coating which stayed really crispy despite the sticky sauce. The flavour was a good combination of sweet and spicy, and the accompanying chilli mayo was creamy and tasty. This dish was perfect in terms of both taste and texture, and was probably our favourite dish we had in Vienna.
On to the sweets. We rarely turn down an opportunity for something pandan flavoured, so of course we chose the coconut pandan brioche. The creams could have been a little sweeter, as there was a hint of bitterness to the bread at the crust, but otherwise it was fluffy and well balanced, with both flavours shining through.
And finally, the caramelized French toast was delicious! The bread was so soft and fluffy, and nicely sweetened (though we thought it could have stood a bit more caramelization and colouring). The vanilla cream was so light, it was a dream.
A quick note on the drinks front – we were happy with our cafe latte and matcha latte, but it was a shame there was no chai latte or hot chocolate on the menu. More options for people who hate coffee, please! There are dozens of us!
We enjoyed our brunch more than our dinner. At dinner we were recommended to order 3-4 plates per person, which sounded like too many but seemed accurate. The menu is divided into mini, small, and big dishes, and the big plates are really not big. On the one hand, it means you get to try lots of dishes. On the other, the cost adds up quickly! We shared all the dishes we ordered.
The glazed focaccia and white bean dip (from the ‘mini’ section of the menu) was the highlight. The bread was a really tall and airy bake with a good crust. It had a sticky, slightly sweet glaze and was served with a white bean dip that was the perfect accompaniment.
Also from the ‘mini’ section, we tried the smoked croquettes yuzukoshō. They were filled with smoked potato and tiny chunks of smoked tofu. The coating was wonderfully crisp. There was a small amount of yuzu paste on top, which was tasty, but we felt it was a bit misleading for the menu to suggest that yuzu was the main flavour (if that’s how the menu is to be interpreted). This was really good.
From the ‘small’ section of the menu, we got the brioche and faux gras. Once again, the bread was pillowy soft. The paté was thick and you could tell it was made of mushrooms, but the flavour was a bit too mild. Maybe it’s accurate for fois gras though? I can understand that they are going for a faux gras and not a mushroom paté, but we were still a bit underwhelmed. It was served with kumquats which Dr HH really enjoyed.
We shared a potato rösti cucumber dill (also ‘small’). It was already halved, convenient for sharing between two. The texture was spot on, crispy on the outside with fluffy potato inside. The cucumber and yoghurt added some nice flavours and textures, and the salad was fine too (that’s the best I can say about a salad).
Moving on to the ‘big’ plates, we got the ravioles de dauphiné smoked potato, and were disappointed to see that it was very small. The ravioli were all attached to each other in a grid formation. The pasta was a bit too thick, considering the daintiness of the overall dish. The smoky potato filling was the same as in the croquettes, so it was tasty, but the pasta parcels were so small that there just wasn’t much of it in there. The dish was covered in horseradish foam – this seems like too big a flavour not to mention on the menu. The dish was just ok for me because of that (I’m not a fan), but horseradish fans like Dr HH will enjoy it.
Our final dish was the tortilla mushroom shawarma salsa verde. This was really tasty. The bread was soft and lovely. The salad and salsa verde had lots of fresh herbs that brought some lovely flavour and freshness. The mushrooms were really soft, juicy, and flavoursome, with a meaty texture. This felt much more substantial than the ravioli. It was also easy to share between two, with the bread already halved.
Another thing which impacted my enjoyment of the evening is that tables at the back were so close together I couldn’t actually get out to go to the bathroom without struggling to move our very heavy table first. I’m an average sized person and I felt very uncomfortable with the situation. I understand they want to get as many people in as possible, but it’s not pleasant to feel so trapped in. If we go back for another brunch, I would try to request a different seating area when making my reservation.
I’m always happy to see vegan spots with creativity and ambition like this. Despite a few quibbles, I feel it is worth a visit, if you’ve got the money for a slightly higher end experience – especially for brunch. In the meantime, I’ll be saving for a return trip to Jola!
It’s a four and a half hour train journey from Vienna back to Prague, so we always make sure we are well stocked with snacks for the journey. On our last trip to Vienna, we’d hoped to pick up cookies from this spot close to the main station, and were devastated to learn they were closed on Sundays. So on our most recent trip, we made sure to stock up on Saturday, and it was a smart move. They are really good cookies!
It’s not all vegan but there five clearly labelled vegan options when we stopped by. There were tables for eating in, but we got a box to go. We tried three kinds.
The chocolate chip cookies were tasty, really sweet and chocolatey. Unfortunately they were soft all the way through, lacking a crust that would give it a nice bit of texture. This may be because we didn’t eat them till the next day.
The pistachio and orange was a great combination. There was some lovely orange zest running through the biscuit, and it was topped with a small amount of delicious chocolate cream, and good pistachio chunks. The texture of this one was much better.
The highlight was the brownie almond. It was delicious! It was really thick, but a nice even bake. It was crisp outside and soft inside, with good chocolate chunks. This is one of the all-time great cookies.
The other vegan options when we visited included brownie raspberry (I think that would be delicious, with the fruit to cut through the richness) and lotus apple cinnamon.
The cookies aren’t cheap, but they are absolutely massive and worth the money for me.
It’s always exciting to be able to try local dishes when you travel, but there are no guarantees of that opportunity when you’re vegan. We were delighted to find a vegan restaurant serving classic Austrian dishes last year. There was a bit of overlap with some traditional Czech dishes which we can get easily at home (like goulash), so we avoided those ones.
Both of us ordered the schnitzel. I just love a meal this size! It was massive and we both enjoyed the flavour and texture. Dr HH got a bit bored of it because every bite was the same, but I didn’t mind that.
It came with a potato salad. I appreciate that this is the local speciality, but personally I would have preferred it with a warm potato side. It was not slathered in mayo, so that was a positive, but the dressing was just too sharp for me. This is just personal taste, and I knew when I ordered it that I probably wouldn’t love the side. It was worth it to get the schnitzel. Dr HH enjoyed this potato salad more than I did, so it was very much personal preference rather than a bad dish.
For dessert, Dr HH got the nougat dumplings, which he found enjoyable but not mind-blowing. The dumplings contain a kind of chocolate cream, which he liked.
I had the kaiserschmarrn, which came in quite a large portion so it’s best for one hungry person or shared between two less hungry people. It’s a big pancake which is broken into pieces and crisped up a bit. I don’t think I’ve had this since going vegan, so it was a good treat. The little bites of pancake were good, I liked the crunchy exterior with the fluffy insides. The stewed damsons complemented the sweet pancakes nicely.
It was a really nice restaurant, quite busy on a Saturday evening so you might want to book. Service was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves. If you want to try veganised Austrian food, this seems to be the place to go!
Dr HH’s trip to Paris may be over, but that doesn’t mean no more patisserie to talk about! We’ve made a couple of trips to Vienna over the last few months, just for a weekend city break – there’s a direct train and it’s only a little longer than the journey to Berlin. The vegan scene seems to be ever improving in Vienna, to the extent that it now has this lovely all-vegan patisserie spot.
Chez Fritz is quite a small spot, with just a few tables (though we didn’t struggle for seats on a Saturday afternoon). They have an exciting, all-vegan array of desserts, and from Thursday to Saturday they also have pastries. We tried two desserts in the cafe: the fruity pistachio and the tart au citron.
I loved my tart au citron. It had a lovely short pastry case, and the lemon curd was beautiful – really sharp, but not quite face-hurtingly so. The meringue was soft and sweet. I still haven’t had a lot of vegan meringue, so it was a real treat.
Dr HH enjoyed his fruity pistachio, though I think he agreed that the lemon tart just edged it. Again, the pastry case was excellent. It contained a smooth, thick, and decadent pistachio cream, a fruity jam in the base, and a fruity dome in the middle that he hoped would add a bit more sharpness. It was very nice, but a bit of sharpness would have made it better.
We also got some pastries to take away for breakfast the next day. They kept well overnight. As za’atar fans, we both got the za’atar roll. It was packed with flavour, and had a soft, flaky bake. It was very good! It made us wish we made (or tried) more za’atar based foods.
I got a slice of banana bread, which sounds like a boring choice but it was elevated banana bread! For one thing, it’s gigantic. The loaf is topped with a rich ganache and then the top and sides are coated in a chocolate layer. There are also some chocolate chunks in the loaf, which adds up to a lot of chocolate overall – I really didn’t need a full slice of this, but I couldn’t resist!
Dr HH had a pain au chocolat as his sweet pastry, and he thought it was great. Just look at that lamination! The pastry was light and crisp (we had actually heard someone else biting into one at the cafe and were impressed by the crisp sounds) and the chocolate was tasty.
I highly recommend this place to sweet-toothed vegans in Vienna – I’m already hoping for an excuse to visit again soon!
Herbivores' Heaven 