V Revolution (Manchester)

V Revolution is like what V Bites would be, if it were good.

Products you can buy from any healthfood store and cook yourself at home for a fraction of the price - why pay someone else to do something you can effortlessly do yourself?

It's a reasonable question, but if done right in a place with friendly staff and good atmosphere then I'm all for it. It's good to leave the house (from time to time), meet people etc. Not everyone who goes there will be vegan or for that matter inclined / able cook themselves (they could be at work or out shopping).

The problem I have with V Bites is that it isn't done right. So how's V Revolution any better?

V Revolution's a cafe to the north of Manchester City Centre. Parking's easy (although expensive) and the area not unpleasant. They've pitched it as a record store, deli and cafe, though in reality it's a cafe with some chillers, shelves and a few records at the back. They've concentrated their deli selection on hard to find, high ticket value items rather than replicate H&B. It's like Vx but less cramped and with more cheerful, friendly, northern speaking staff.

The menu's similar to Red Veg (what's with the whole revolution / red thing?), but without the fries, onion rings and full on fast food experience (burgers wrapped in paper, fries in cardboard, plastic tray etc). Unlike Red Veg however there's place to sit (without elbowing the person next to you), 50s diner inspired decor, sofas and decent lighting. It's also still trading, which is always good.

I think they could be missing a trick by not going for the full Red Veg menu / experience, but they were busy enough when I visited and perhaps this is planned in time.

The food I had was good - no complaints. I had a chocolate milkshake (rich and icecreamy) for £3.50 and a (Frys) burger for £4 (which I ordered with extra cheese (Violife?), bacon (Redwoods) & a 2nd patty (I'm greedy like that)).

I've eaten the same a million times before (we've a section of our freezer affectionately known as the Fry's drawer), but I don't think £4's unreasonable (I've eaten many crap burgers at other cafes costing way more).

The only slight disappointment was that they were out of their special of the day (double chicken burger), which is confusing considering that they had plenty of packs of Frys chicken burgers in the chiller. They also had 4 of their 6 milkshakes unavailable and even more tragically - no cake. Fellow bloggers & locals report this as being a regular occurrence, which is kind of sucky. I hope teething problems more than an underlying issue.

I Like V Revolution - I'd definitely go again and wholeheartedly it to others (especially as Bistro 1847 was so shonky). I hope they sort out their stock issues and sell more things with time (fries, rings, breaded mushrooms etc) - there's no reason why they couldn't become the chain that Red Veg intended (but sadly never managed) to be. Next branch in Birmingham please!

Dandelion & Burdock (Sowerby Bridge)

I travel a lot. In the past year I've visited the US twice (San Francisco & DC), Belgium twice, France, Holland and Estonia. Having also blogged 35 vegetarian cafes & restaurants across England in this period (and eaten at many more over the past decade); I can with great pleasure confirm that Dandelion & Burdock is amongst the best.

Inconveniently for us; it's neither nearby, near to the area I work or close to where we holiday. Having heard positive reviews from people in Manchester though we detoured on the way back south from The Lake District, adding about an hour extra onto the journey. I'm a great fan of breaking up otherwise long laborious journeys with meals out and National Trust properties (this time Lyme Park). Sowerby Bridge isn't the best looking town I've ever driven through, but it is well located for trade from Manchester, Bradford, Halifax, Leeds and Sheffield.

There are 2 key ingredients for a good cafe/restaurant: good food and good service. You can't have one or the other and expect repeat business (hence why despite regularly passing Mildreds I rarely go). Everything else is a bonus - my favourite restaurant has dreadful decor. Food doesn't have to be fancy or complicated, provided that it's flavoursome, well seasoned and priced accordingly (e.g. not fine dining price if it's not fine dining).

Dandelion & Burdoch scores well on all points. With the exception of the terrible music that was playing when we were there; decor is above average (well chosen furniture and a decent number of tables), service efficient, polite and friendly. I don't know the area well enough to comment on pricing, other than that it's at the lower end of the national scale for restaurant quality food. It isn't fine dining, but doesn't profess to be.

Not everyone's definition of the phrase "Pure Vegetarian" is the same; it's not obvious looking at the website, menu or restaurant frontage that everything is vegan. I guess that this is a tactical decision so as not to scare off non-vegans. I can genuinely believe that some people dine there without realizing it's vegan.

What it does mean is that there are no "Vegan Options" or compromises on the menu, where you're never sure quite how disappointed you'll be by what is served vs the vegetarian version that's advertised.

We were pleased to see Fentiman's Cherry Cola for the first time, which like their standard cola tastes a lot like sweets (I realise that my manliness is in jeopardy by shunning bitter drinks):

On the Sunday lunchtime that we visited the food menu wasn't extensive: 3 starters, 3 mains, 3 desserts. Still stuffed from a 3 course breakfast at the hotel (which in our restraint we only took 2 courses of) we shared a starter, then broke the golden rule of new restaurant visits by ordering the same thing (you'd think we'd have learnt from the £30 bird seed Aloka fail by now):

Mediterranean Tart £4.50
Spinach, sundried tomato, basil, green olives, mixed baby leaf salad, olive oil & balsamic syrup

Sausage & Mash £9.50
Sun dried tomato sausage roll, spinach mash, tender stem brocolli, mushroom sauce

The tart was exceptionally good. It was closer to quiche than any dish claiming to be quiche that I've had. It tasted like Taifun Olive Tofu (which @cherrivalentine has taken to eating straight out of the pack), but creamier; with good pastry, whole olives and sundried tomatoes:

Main course was confusing, but very good. Confusing because what is normally served as sausages without pastry or some kind of fancy looking roulade was in fact a sausage roll! Probably the best vegan sausage roll I've eaten though, with well above average mash and a creamy mushroom sauce. The whole dish worked really well:

For dessert we ordered a couple of cheesecakes:

Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake £4.50
Vanilla Ice Cream

Strawberry Cheesecake £4.50
Vanilla Ice Cream

I didn't get a chance to photograph mine - I was too busy salivating over (and trying to pinch spoonfuls of) @cherrivalentine's:

I considered ordering a 2nd but was too full. If it wasn't so warm I'd have requested some for take away.

It was by far and away the best vegan cheesecake I've eaten in a restaurant. It reminded us both of Turtle Mountain ice cream in the states. Consistency was perfect, height perfect and visually stunning.

If the restaurant owners ever read this review: if you ever have difficulty trading in Yorkshire then please do consider re-opening in West London. Now that Saf has closed there really is only Manna V to get a decent vegan meal, and your dessert is better!

Now to find reasons to return....

Vegan MoBo!

I would use this (mostly meaningless post) to wish you all a happy "World Vegan Day", however as I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is (or who decided the date as being 1st Nov); I'm instead going to use it to introduce Vegan Mobo.

In case you missed it, 1st November is also the start of Vegan Month of Food, where bloggers are encouraged to post more than normal about vegan food.

Admirable though this is and as open minded as I am; I'm just not sure that "MoFo" - the adopted abbreviation for "month of food" is a word one should be using. A search on urbandictionary will enlighten those not familiar with the word's normal use.

Therefore, I suggest Vegan MoBo instead, Vegan Month of Booze.

I'll use that as an excuse instead to post about tasty drinks, and as an excuse to make more of them :D

UK Vegan Food Blogs

So, it would seem that online blog directories tend to suck at letting you see UK only blogs. Thus I've decided to share my list compiled from forums, twitter, google searching etc of blogs with posts in the past 6 months. They are divided by country and ordered by last post date.

England

Brighton: Vegan in Brighton
London: Artichoke Zine
London: Wednesday Food Blogging
Midlands: Cooking the Vegan Books
Midlands: Increasing Veganicity
London: To Happy Vegans
London: The Gluttonous Vegan Loves YOU
Buckinghamshire: Ready, Veggie, Cook
Southeast: The Messy Vegetarian Cook
Essex: Maple Spice
London: Laminated Cat
Surrey: Alien on Toast
London: Intellectual Blackout
London: Sipping On the Sweet Water
Brighton: Vanilla Sugar
London: Student Vegan from the UK
London: The Great Vegan Conspiracy
Midlands: Vegan Foody
London: Ankes Cocktails

Scotland

Bathgate: Skint Vegan
Edinburgh: Thistle and Yellow Rose
Glasgow: Glasvegan

Wales

Gluten-free tries Vegan

If you know of more then please comment and at some point I'll update this list.

Seasons Greetings

The obligatory Christmas post. I wasn't going to do one, but it would seem that most people do, so what the hell.

This has been the first Christmas since leaving home where people have come to us, rather than visiting others. It's also been one of the most relaxing Christmas' that I remember, with no major arguments, things going wrong or lunch at 4pm. Everything was of course vegan.

Having completed most of our xmas shopping in Oct/Nov we instead took a train to Birmingham and had a meal at The Warehouse on xmas eve. It's something that we'd been looking forward to as we somewhat like the place, however their xmas menu was a bit disappointing. The nut roast tasted identical to their standard sunday offering with the addition of 3 brussel sprouts and 2 chesnuts. Not enough potatoes nor well enough cooked (at a guess not parboiled). Still, it was a pleasant excursion and I'll know just to stick to something off their standard menu next time.

The day went pretty much to plan, with time to spare. For our starter we had porcini mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce on toast. For main:

• 2x Seiten type things ('Turkey' & 'Beef')
• Fakon Wrapped Sausages
• Cranberry & Orange Stuffing
• Maple Glazed Roasted Carrot and Parsnip
• Roast Onion, Pepper, Courgette
• Brussel Sprouts (yuck)
• Awesomely Crispy Roast Potatoes
• Bread Sauce
• Red Wine & Cranberry Gravy

We didn't actually get onto the dessert (sticky toffee pudding) until Boxing Day as we were far too stuffed. Instead of xmas cake we iced and decorated a Stollen.

I got plenty of great presents, including a year's supply of lush products (inc 12 bath bombs), clothes, kitchen things and the world's most awesome glass cake stand.

The sales this year were largely rubbish, as most shops have had identical sales on for weeks prior. We visited family 'up norf' on the 27th-29th, which included a very pleasant late afternoon walk, pictures follow:

For 2010 I've decided to start dieting again. My body seems to naturally stabilize out at 10kg more than I'd like it to be unless I'm actively dieting and going to the gym twice a week. When I stop and try to eat sensibly it just all piles back on. Don't fret, dieting doesn't mean no cocktails or cake, just in even less quantity than I consume already. I'm going to attempt this time round to find some sports I enjoy and get exercise that way, as however much I try to stay motivated I find gym equipment mind numbingly boring.