Saf (London)

A few Sundays ago we drove down to London for lunch at Saf, then a wander round some shops (which inevitably meant Heals). We'd booked for 1pm and arrived about 50 minutes early, which we spent in its entirety looking for on-road parking (eventually we found free parking on Leonard Street).

For some reason I thought it'd be packed, but I felt a little silly saying we'd booked when there was clearly only 2 other people there eating! Thankfully a few more turned up whilst we were there, but it was certainly a different vibe from last year when it was rammed.

The weather was beautiful, so we sat outside at the back. Either they need to level the ground or adjust the tables - one of the two. After trying several we eventually decided upon one (a benefit of having the place to yourself!).

We ordered starters (* means cooked):

Saf Cheese Trio £7.45
Smoked paprika, olive & pesto cheeses served with tomato jam & raw crackers

Mushroom Gyoza* £6.50
Shitake & Woodear mushrooms with organic tofu & caramelised onion wrapped in rice pastry served with black vinaigrette

My starter was very good indeed (I had a feeling it would be). Definitely the highlight of the day (it was all downhill from here!):

I was really pleased to see a sensible number of crackers this time. Even the tomato garnish tasted fabulous.

The filling in the mushroom gyoza was equally good, but pastry a bit of a let down. It was chewy and not quite right. For a moment I thought it must in fact be some clever raw pastry, but apparently it was just crap cooked stuff :)

We weren't taken enough by any of the mains to pay £15 for them, so ordered a sandwich each:

Tempeh Salad Sandwich* £7.50
Shoyo & ginger marinated tempeh salad with baby gem leaves, vegan mayonnaise served in kentish flute bread

Portabello Mushroom Burger* £6.50
Roasted Portabello with grilled red onion, gherkin, tomato & fig jam served in ciabattini

I'm not a great tempeh fan, so can't really comment on this one. The mushroom burger however was pretty disappointing. I'd have been disappointed by it anywhere, but it was especially disappointing at Saf!

It really was a mushroom, pretending to be a burger. The bread was stiff and I ended up eating it with a knife and fork. Overall, it sucked.

Desserts were thankfully a little better:

Sour Cherry Trifle £6.95
Layers of chocolate sponge, vanilla cashew cream, sour cherry coulis & chocolate cigars

Tiramisu £8.45
Layered Saf mascarpone & coffee-walnut savioardi

I hate to say this on my blog, but I really have to: the cashew cream looked like someone had just wanked on top!

Can you see any chocolate cigars? Shavings sure, but no cigar.

It was OK, but not special enough to cost over £4. See this post for info on making far, far better sundaes.

The Tiramisu tasted pretty good, but it wasn't tiramisu. It's probably the best attempt I've tasted (certainly better than Inspiral and Zilli), but I'm still waiting for the holy grail of vegan tiramisu that tastes remotely like dairy tiramisu.

In summary? I love Saf and am definitely going again, but next time not for Sunday lunch! It is a little expensive, but it is special and I'm really glad it exists.

Moaz (London)

I'll be honest: falafel doesn't excite me much. There is a place in my heart however for exceptionally good falafel served at a sensible price from a cafe in central London. Moaz however isn't it.

I've heard lots of good reports of Moaz over the years, but I've always been too tempted by other places in the area that I know to be good (such as Beetroot) to try it out. I'm glad I waited.

I'll start with what's good: the price. For its location, their pricing is pretty reasonable (£5.90 for a "Meal Deal").

That's about where it ends.

When we arrived we stood in front of the counter for a good few minutes before either of the people behind it acknowledged our presence. We then sat an an unclean table for around 10 minutes waiting for our "fast food" to appear.

I had a meal deal. The chips were the 2nd worst I've ever had (the worst were at a festival and undercooked). I had a few and left the rest (this doesn't normally happen with me). The falafel itself was OK (cauldron standard, possibly slightly nicer), but I didn't like the pitta itself (not fresh enough), humous or the "free salad bar" toppings.

Few things make my eyes light up more than a big bowl of olives. Few things make me die inside quite as much as finding they taste like they've been in brine for 20 years and still have their stones in.

I wouldn't go back.

(in case you're wondering what I do constitute as good falafal, I highly rate the stuff that Goodness Gracious sell at festivals).

Brighton 2011

Life is currently treating me very well indeed.

Lots of good things have been happening recently: @cherrivalentine moved in, I got a better job and have been off galavanting around the world!

Before this all happened, @cherrivalentine booked us a weekend in Brighton to celebrate my 30th. I started blogging about a few of the places we ate at a while ago, so this final post wraps up the rest.

We stayed at Paskins Townhouse, just off the seafront. The room was very pleasant, complete with 4 poster bed and sea view (just about, if you stick your head out the window!).

We'd heard good things about their vegan breakfast, but we weren't impressed enough to bother going down on the second morning and opted for a lie in instead:

We'd planned to check out VBites on the way down, but were running short on time so ate some redwoods food straight from the packet in the car instead ;)

We revisited Terre-a-terre on the first evening, and I'm pleased to say that service was a lot better than last year. Unfortunately the menu selection not so good. We ended up having Tapas for main course, due to a complete lack of vegan mains we fancied eating.

The starters we ordered were:

Arepas Chilli Candy (v/gf) 8.95
Deep fried corn cakes rolled in spice dust served with chilly chelly jelly, avocado and lime mayonnaise, chilled pokey gazpacho hash and a candied chilli.

Good Thyme Trifle and Baby Beets (v/gf) 8.95
Warm carrot cream custard layered with macadamia lemon thyme crumble, sweet pickled baby beets and radishes, micro salad and herbs, served with linseed crackers. Delicious!

The corn cakes looked great, but seriously lacked flavour. Carefully rationing out the stingy amount of chilli jelly you get with them however improves the overall effect no end. The carrot custard was the highlight of the dishes - it was one of the best things I tried over the weekend.

Tapas was tapas - pretty much the same as last year's and unfortunately for us a rehash of starters!

The corn cakes came this time with chilli sauce, which worked a lot better. Again we got more custard, which was welcomed but it would have been good to try a few more things! Our favourite part was the noodles, which we'd certainly order again.

The desserts were pants. Seriously Terre-a-Terre, if you're reading this: go across the road to Aloka and try their raw vegan desserts - no competition! At the very least, keep your gorgeous frangipane on the menu at all times.

Everyone loves the churros, except me. I like a good donut as much as the next person, but these are no better than those you can get in co-op at 5 for 69p (often 10 for £1). Adding insult to injury they don't give you enough churros for the amount of chocolate sauce. Finally, what's with the cherries in vodka? We ate one each and left the rest. Am I missing something?

The other dessert we had was well presented, but essentially fruit salad & sorbet (grown).

Terre-a-Terre's still a great place to visit and I'll continue to rank it highly, but it really is a shame they don't ensure a good selection of vegan options at all times.

Going back I wouldn't feel confident I'd get 3 courses of fabulous food, please sort it out!

Wai Kika Moo Kau (Brighton)

Still stuffed from our cooked breakfast at Paskins and having turned our noses up at the limited vegan menu offered by Food For Friends, we gave Wai Kika Moo Kau a go for a light lunch.

Luckily, after waiting 35mins for our food to come I'd worked up an appetite! Service was pretty bad, considering there were 5 front of house staff. There didn't seem to be one person assigned to our table, so we had to flag them down as they walked past at each stage of the meal.

We skipped starters; I ordered a chilli burger and @cherrivalentine a thai sort of peanuty wrap thing with tofu:

Making up for the unattentive / slow service, the food itself was pretty good and reasonably well priced. Portion sizes are very generous, however in the case of the chilli burger - a little too much so. Really it was too meals (burger and a large spoon of bean chilli) in a bun, making it quite impossible to pick up and eat:

(even my mouth's not that big). Only complaint food wise is that their drinks are a little overpriced - our milkshakes were £4 each.

Later on, underwhelmed by Infinity's selection, we returned for cake. I'd spotted on our first visit that they have the same supplier, but a bigger selection.

Quality was up to scratch with when I last ate said cake - it's a real pitty that none of the 15 (or so) v*gan restaurants north of London that I've visited seem capable of producing cake so good.

I'd go back to Wai Kika Moo Kau again - pricing was reasonable, food relatively tasty and portion sizes good. Vegan choice is decent, but the overall range of food available puts it very much more in the cafe bracket, rather than something a bit special that you'd rush back for.

Aloka (Brighton)

Having had a very agreeable experience at Aloka's lunch buffet last year; I had high hopes for the restaurant. The fully raw menu looked stunning - what could possibly go wrong?

We booked a few days in advance for a Saturday night sitting. I was pleased to see that decor from downstairs continues up: same lighting, tulip tables and Vernor Panton S chairs (don't be put off by the plastic seating, as one reviewer said!)

It'd been a hot day, so we were pleased with our table by an open sash window. From my seat I could see along East Street towards Terre-a-Terre; which I tried to avoid looking at whilst we ate (I'll post about that meal shortly).

Having personally thoroughly enjoyed Saf, @cherrivalentine was in for a treat - she'd not had a fully raw meal in a restaurant before (other than the plain salads that confused omni places give you).

The dinner started with an amuse-bouche; a(n IKEA) shot glass filled with overly vinegary gazpacho. It was more an endurance than a pleasurable start to the evening, which didn't set a good tone:

We ordered a mezze platter for starter (£15.75), which promised a selection of items from the menu:

OK, so, the entire meal wasn't raw: we got a small cup of the day's soup, some bread and lentil pancake things.

The carrot humus I thought was rather good. The guacamole a bit bland (needed garlic) and olives over salty (I couldn't eat more than a couple). The crackers weren't good at all (no-where near as good as those from Saf, or those in overpriced boxes from Waitrose), neither was the lentil pancake (bland). The bread was bread and the soup again, a little over vinegary.

The main thing that baffled the hell out of us was just what the brown stuff in the white pot was meant to be. It looked like caramelized onions but tasted like, well, nothing. It was like eating gelatinous water. Apparently they were jasmine tea pearls - I wouldn't have guessed.

The whole dish was a bit pants, but nothing could prepare us for the main.

Stupidly, drawn in by the description, we broke the golden rule of shared dining and ordered the same thing: Botanical Living Special (£13.75):

First impressions good, but if I had to sum this dish up in one word? Bad. Really, really bad.

There were four things on the plate which didn't seem to have a purpose for existing together. A little ball of horseradish on a slice of courgette (wtf?), some chopped beetroot with a couple of olives, a mound of mushrooms in some kind of sauce and la piece de la resistance: a stuffed tomato on a stuck-together-seed-thing, ontop of sliced courgette.

The whole thing just didn't work. Half way through we got giggling fits because it was so bad - it's a good job too, otherwise we may have cried.

I don't know where to start, so I'll start with the seed thing. At first it seemed like something you'd give to the birds, but then it reminded me of those chew things you give to hamsters. It was impossible to elegantly cut with a knife and just didn't seem to have a reason for being on the plate.

The courgette seemed unseasoned - that which I had in Saf had been salted to tenderize, but this just seemed to be sliced. A forkful of tomato stuff with a slice of courgette and a bit of birdseed did taste alright, but it was awkward to eat and only just alright - not £13.75 alright.

The similarly priced raw food from Saf seemed to actually be recognisable dishes (pasta, lasagne etc), so you knew how to eat them. This just seemed to be a collection of mediocre stuff on a plate.

As one of the worst things I've eaten in a v*gan restaurant this decade, it was a poor attempt and a really bad advert for raw food.

Our experience at Aloka was partially resuscitated by dessert, which was actually very good.

Confusingly they don't have a printed dessert menu - the waiter/waitress reads it out (minus prices). We ordered a raw chocolate cheesecake and a raw chocolate banana & macadamia torte:

Other than that the smaller one cost a pound more and tasted slightly of banana; it's difficult to tell them appart.

They were however very good indeed - both the best raw desserts I've eaten and for that matter, amongst the best I've had in any restaurant (either raw or unraw). According to the bill they were 5.50 and 6.50, which is most reasonable.

On balance; I wouldn't go back for an evening meal at Aloka. I thought their lunchtime buffet was excellent when I visited last year and I'd certainly return for that side of things. Their savoury raw food however is .... crap

What I would do though, is eat starter & main at Terre-a-Terre, then nip across the road for dessert.

Loving Hut (Brighton)

This lunchtime @cherrivalentine and I decided to visit Loving Hut - The Supreme Master's cafe in Brighton. Unfortunately she wasn't in when we arrived, but luckily her devoted followers were cooking in her absence.

Loving Hut is an international chain of vegan cafes endorsed by Ching Hai; a nice lady who believes all sorts of nonsense, like the inner detail of life on Mars:

(whizz forward to 1:50 for the uber strange shit).

In her defense, she does give all this useless made-up info away for free - she doesn't charge for it like those money grabbing scientology folk.

Whilst not suggesting that people give up food and water altogether, she does sell reasonably tasty vegan food at reasonably good prices. They've a branch in Camden that I've not tried, but am led to believe has roughly the same menu - 60% thai/chinese, 40% western.

As it was a nice day we chose to sit outside, rather than indoors to the sound of Supreme Master TV. There's about 5 tables inside and 5 out. It's by a busy junction, but was still fairly pleasant.

We ordered a veggie platter (£4.80) that has a selection of things from the starter / light bite menu:

Service was quick and friendly. The balls were pretty tasteless, but wantons very good indeed. The rest was meh. I'd order wantons on their own next time.

My main was satay with noodles:

Which was fairly tasty. The fake meat wasn't very nice; I wasn't sure if it was tofu or wheat based. The sauce was good thou and it was decent value at less than five pounds.

Still a little disturbed by last night's meal at Aloka; Cherry opted for a good old faishoned burger.

which despite coming with feet cheese (tofutti slices) seemed pretty good. It wasn't frys, which is always a good sign (if you're happy paying someone to heat something up from a packet for you you should try VBites). Cherry concluded that as far as cults go, she definitely prefers this one.

Compared to the cake available in other Brighton eating establishments, Loving Hut's selection was a bit pants:

The first was a basic sponge topped with what I expect is Soyatoo whipping cream. The latter a lemon sponge with half a bottle of yellow colouring. They were OK for the price (about £2 a slice), but could have been better.

Summary? I'd certainly go again if I was in the area and fancied something quick and easy. I suggest that if you get a chance that you try it too. It's sensibly priced for what it is - just don't expect Veggie World quality. For once the Midlands may actually be better than the South vegan food wise!

Tibits (London)

Having had a good whinge about a nearby v*gan restaurant recently, I've nothing but good things to say about Tibits.

Though I know Soho well; the other side of Regents Street is unknown territory. Therefore, whilst I've known of Tibits existence for a number of years, I've never randomly walked past and eaten there before.

I'd planned to visit October Cafe, but it was 9am and I didn't fancy waiting around for it to open at 10. I wanted to try somewhere else new, so found Tibits' location via google.

The format is similar to Aloka in Brighton - fill a plate then get charged by weight. Everything is vegetarian and the majority marked as vegan.

I'd been up for several hours by this point, so had an early brunch, costing a reasonable £6.40:

I've a feeling that they've more hot things available at lunchtime, but I was pretty happy with what I got.

I can't remember what everything was; I had a spoonful of each thing that looked vaguely good. There was definitely a black quinoa thing, some dhal, a fig and tofu salad, cucumber and tofu, a bean thing and some pasta. It tasted pretty decent and was all very fresh.

They've put a bit more effort into decor than most places, but whilst flock damask is totally my thing, I'm not 100% sure that the overall effect is to my taste:

I didn't have room for dessert, so got an apple turnover to take away - again reasonably priced at £1.70.

I took a photo, but I was on a train by this point and the dodgy lighting makes it look a lot less appetizing than it was!

The pastry was as close to perfect as I've ever had. They could have been slightly more generous with the filling and for absolute perfection; included some custard too, but now I'm really picking!

So, Tibits hasn't wowed me enough to be in my top 10, but I'll certainly return and would suggest it to others.

The food is above average value for money - you just won't find yourself laying awake at night longing to eat there again, that's all.

Mildred's & Mrs Marengo's

When I first went to Mildred's in 2004 I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the experience. The food was so-so and service truely absymal.

I had a better experience in 2008 (including a mushroom pie which inspired me to make my own, much better version), but it's not been on my list of places to rush back too.

In all honesty, it's not a bad restaurant. The food's alright and if it were the only choice in the town I lived then I'd probably go a few times a year. London's got too much choice though, including far better value for money options.

I decided to give it another try recently, simply for dessert after visiting Beatroot for mains.

Service this time round was quite friendly. I sat at the front by the bar and despite the uncomfortable metal seating the experience was quite pleasant.

As my eyes are bigger than my tummy I ordered myself a couple of things and a soya latte.

The raspberry truffle torte was pretty good. It'd got the right balance of creamy / chocolatey / sweet:

As a big wedge on a plate with no accompaniment though the overall effect was lacking something - at £6.40 I'd expect a bit more in the way of specialness - homemade iceream, a biscuit etc.

The banana tofu cheesecake really did taste like it contained tofu (e.g. not in a good way). It was like I'd been transported back to the 80s (infact I'm pretty sure it's an adapted cheesecake recipe from Baskerville's 1986 "The Vegan Cookbook"):

The sliced banana tasted good though and appart from that unmistakable taste of silken tofu; the overall dessert was alright.

On their website they have listed "banana tofu cheesecake with coconut brittle and pina colada icecream". If it'd included the brittle and icecream it'd have been a pretty decent dessert, worth the money. Without it though it just lacked.

The bill came to £16.95 including their "optional" 12.5% service charge (which the first time I refused to pay as the service was so appalling).

£17 for 2 desserts and a coffee is understandable in a premium restaurant like Terre-a-Terre, but Mildred's isn't in the same league as far as I'm concerned. Whilst it's above average, it's still very much in the average camp.

In short: their food isn't worth the prices they charge.

As I walked back to the tube I noticed Mrs Merango's on the same street, which I'd heard about but not visited (nor realised it was located so close). I decided to get a couple of cakes to take home for @cherrivalentine.

I immediately realised that it was the same stuff as Mildreds, but at less than half the price!

I got another slice of the raspberry truffle thing and a carrot cake, both of which made it the 100 mile journey home in more or less one piece:

(at first I thought it was a slice of tomato, but was pleased when it turned out to be orange).

I really enjoyed the carrot cake and would buy it again. Both tasted better with a scoop of icecream.

My advice? Skip Mildred's and go to Mrs Marengo's for dessert. It's the same stuff, at much more realistic prices.

Beatroot (London)

I've been going to Beatroot for more than 10 years. In this time the format's remained the same....I'm not even convinced they've changed their menu.

I like it though - it works for me: wide choice of things to eat, all piled together in the same box. By the time you're half way through they're all mashed in with one another, but that's part of the fun.

Value's good, currently about £6.50 for a large box (I didn't bother looking at price of smaller options!). They don't mark the vegan items but if you ask they'll point out those that are unsuitable. There's limited seating, but several parks near by.

I probably wouldn't go there too regularly if I spent more time in London, as I expect it'd get a bit boring after a while. It's good for occassional lunch if you're in a hurry though (or shitfaced on rum, wearing a santa suit - don't ask).

Top tip: If you want more than a couple of sausage rolls; ask for some first, then again at the end. They seem to scrimp on them otherwise.

I always go with some shepherds pie and a bit of pasta, then try other things each time.

I've had cake from there in the past, but it wasn't amazing. I'd recommend visiting Mrs Marengos for dessert after.

Madeira Guide

There's not a lot of info online about availability of vegan food in Madeira, so I'm posting here in the hope it'll find its way into Google and be useful to someone in the future.

@cherrivalentine and I visited last week and had a fabulous time.

Having spoken to various people who've been before & following a trip to portugal a couple of years ago; I felt it prudent to pack some essentials with me. The general consensus seems to be that there's nowhere to eat out. We went self catering so this didn't overly bother us.

I took non-liquid/paste/jel things to eat on the plane (such as nakd bars), then tofu, cheezly/scheese, fake meat and other things in my hold luggage that I assumed I wouldn't find when I arrived. In hindsight I'd also have taken some packets of ready made sauce/curry paste (indian, chinese etc), just to make meals easier. I'm lazy like that!

I'd recommend also taking pepper/salt/herbs/oil/ketchup etc in suitable portioned containers. Not because you won't find them on the island but because you'll end up buying full jars and not be able to take it home with you at the end.

In terms of things you can buy, I suggest you visit Funchal on the first day and stock up at Bio Locos. You'll probably want to go to Funchal at some point anyway for the cable car/toboggan (both worth doing). It's not a big town - you can walk from one side of the shopping district to the other in 10-15min.

Here's the hawl we got, costing about €85:

It included a couple of loaves of sourdough bread (the sesame seed was nicer than the plain) and this rather bizarre turd shaped thing:

(which thankfully tasted better than it looked). We ate it on bread, but you can probably cook it somehow.

They had fresh ravioli too, which was nicer than the stuff sold in the UK. We got a few things which I wouldn't recommend, like a big bag of chocolate biscuits that tasted like bourbons without the cream.

They've a mix of UK / Portuguese / other origin products, including quite a few I've not seen before. The person working there (owner?) spoke fluent english and was happy to translate ingredients lists.

Pricing is reasonable. There's obviously a premium (reflecting the fact it's been imported), but it's not outrageously so.

You can expect to find egg free dried pasta, rice, jars of tomato sauce, long life soya milk, soya desserts etc in larger supermarkets. There's a pretty big Continente half way along the on the south coast. I wasn't at all impressed by the quality of their fruit and veg though - you may be better off with markets. Also, there was a complete lack of asian foods - no indian, thai, chinese ingredients etc (other than soya sauce and rice!). I'm still not sure what 100% vegetal means, so don't assume it's 100% vegan.

There's an English supermarket in Funchal called Goodies with a reasonable amount of "accidently vegan" products (like Blue Dragon sauces), but expect to pay UK prices x3. If you're desperate for a tin of heinz spaggetti then give it a go! Otherwise I'd try to avoid.