Chesters (Worcester)

I'd not been back to Chesters since the first time in 2007, so jumped at the chance to return when invited out by a group of vegan friends.

As a general rule: I don't voluntarily do non vegetarian restaurants. I've been vegan long enough now to have had enough crap restaurant experiences to last a life time.

There are however a few hand picked exceptions to this rule, who whilst serving non vegetarian food; do completely understand the concept of veganism and have a choice of items on their standard menu.

Chesters is a Mexican restaurant in Worcester with an impressive selection of vegan offerings. They use vegan sour cream, cheese, tofu etc and seem to have really thought it through.

I've eaten a lot of nachos over the years (when you meet me you'll realise I'm telling the truth) and Chesters have gotten it just right. The chips aren't over salty and they don't scrimp on toppings.

Being the adovcate of deep drying you know I am; for mains I had a 6 bean chimichanga. Due to them messing up my order and serving salad not chips I ended up with both! Their chips are very good and salad (from a salad hater) pretty good too.

The chimichanga itself wasn't so great, but they do a variety of fillings so next time I'll try a different one. Their standard menu is for 2 chimichangas (£12), but at lunchtime they've the option of one (£6). I could probably eat 2, but it would be sheer gluttony if I did :p

Uncommon for non vegetarian restaurants: Chesters have a choice of vegan desserts. There did however seem to be some kind of availability cofuffle (I think in the end they decided they could do it), but with minutes to spare on my parking ticket I had to make a run for it and miss out on pudding.

In hindsight running is probably better for me than cake, but it's OK - I got the deep fat fryer out when I got home. More on that in another post.

The picture that follows is of their carrot cake, from the last time I visited:

It's large, warm, moist, slightly odd and served with vanilla swedish glace. Slightly odd in a good and tasty way though.

I'd certainly return (probably a few times) when back in that direction. I should probably start going walking in the Malverns - they're less than an hour from me and there's some very pretty countryside in the area.