Coach and Horses, Newport,Essex

A proper English pub, with a big garden, hanging baskets in summer, and open fires in winter.

We've eaten here many times. With prior notice they are always happy to cook something delicious.

However, sometimes, you just want to pop in for a bite to eat on the spur of the moment. Previously when we've done this, we've ordered the Veggie Meze and they've veganized it for us.
Last night we decided to go for the Nachos to share. Usually this has dairy products on, but they were happy to veganize it for us.

When it came out it looked amazing. A huge pile of tortillas with cooked cherry tomatoes, red onions, etc layered throughout, and a huge blob of guacamole on top. It kept the two of us quiet for a good half hour as we munched our way through the stack.  Highly recommended! (Especially with some vegan Leffe!)

Coach and Horses website

Dublin

We had a weekend in Dublin to see Black Star Riders play, and so had a couple of days to sample some Irish delights.

On the Friday, it was a bit late by the time we got to our hotel, so we asked reception to recommend somewhere to eat. They said that Murrays was a good place for food, drink, and music, so we decided to go with their recommendation. It was good to see that on Murrays website they actually state that they can cater for vegan diets, and we were very happy to see a superfood salad and sweet potato fries on the menu. Although very busy, services was still friendly and efficient, and the food good. If you wasn't a break from the live Irish music, venture out the back after your meal and discover some live rock and punk at Fibbers bar!

Murrays

If you are in Dublin, you really must visit Cornucopia!
Cornucopia
We visited for breakfast. You queue up and can choose from a menu, or go for the breakfast deal where you select 5 hot items, plus toast and a hot drink for around 9 Euros. I selected vegan sausages, scrambled tofu, chilli mushrooms and  roasted tomatoes, and my plate was already full enough for me, so I passed on a fifth item!
It was delicious!

We visted again the next day for brunch. You can select a meal item with two salads. The potato salad with garlic and cashew nuts is amazing, but very very filling.

We were going to call in for an evening meal, but the queue was massive so we gave it a miss. We had a wander around and stumbled upon a Mexican retaurant where we sampled their veggie fajitos without cream and cheese, always a good fall back option. Unfortunately as by this time it was late, I can't for the life of me remember the name of the retaurant!!!

San Francisco

We had high hopes for food in San Francisco and weren't dissapointed!

We were lucky to have prebooked a table at Millenium restaurant at the Hotel California.
The menu was amazing, with a huge choice of vegan food. We really were spoilt for choice!
Even my boyfriend's omni brother really enjoyed his meal, despite being somewhat confused by the menu! Unfortunately  we've heard on the grapevine that the restaurant might be closing due to new management taking over the hotel. However they are looking to relocate, as it would be a tragedy to lose such a gem!


Millenium

The Plant Cafe was a lucky find one morning while we were strolling along the piers of San Fransisco. Although not a 100% veggie place, the choice for vegans was brilliant. They also did some amazing juices.
We enjoyed our scrambled pest tofu breakfast so much that we returned the next day for a vegan wasabi burger for lunch.

Plant

Unfortunately we didn't get chance to try Gracias Madre, a vegan mexican restaurant, as we ran out of days, but it's on our list for next time!!!

gracias-madre

Maui - Hawaii

I really should remember to update this page more often!

We had a fantastic holiday in Maui, followed by a weekend in Sanfrancisco, and managed to find some great places to eat!

Whilst in Maui, we visited Lahaina.We were actually looking for Maui Tacos as we'd heard that it had good vegan options. However when we eventually found it, we dscovered that it was more of a fast food type place, and not somewhere we'd choose to eat an evening meal.

We decided to have a look in Mick Fleetwoods, where a very helpful server took us through the menu and explained what was already vegan and what could be veganised.
We settled for the butternut squash with Quinoa, which was very tasty. There was also a vegan curry on option.
This is a lovely restaurant with great service and a lovely ambience. You can even order a Harley with your food!!!

Fleetwoods

Our next find on Maui was Choice. This is a health bar with plenty of fresh juices and raw foods. More of a daytime cafe than an evening restaurant, and a bit off the beaten track, but well worth a visit.
Our raw vegan pizza was delicious!

Choice

If you visit Whalers Village, then Leilanis is well worth a visit. It's a beachside grill with very friendly waiters.
We really enjoyed our Superfood vegan burger and salad, washed down with a few Mai Tais!!!
Leilanis

Bishop's Stortford -The Prickly Pear

Last night we decided to go out for a late Birthday meal. We've been talking about trying the Prickly Pear, an American and Mexican restaurant for a while, so this seemed like a good opportunity.

http://www.pricklypearrestaurant.co.uk/Site/Welcome.html

We booked a table online which all went smoothly.

On arrival we perused the menu, and spotted a tasty sounding starter - fried potato skins with avocado, tomatoes, and cheese, with a side of sour cream. We explained that we did not eat dairy products, so they kindly offered to add extra salsa instead of the cheese and cream.

There was plenty to share and it was very tasty.

For mains we plumped for the vegetable fajitas, again without cheese or cream, and they offered to give us extra guacomole and salsa, which was appreciated.

The fajitas were tasty, but some more adventurous vegetables and a bit of chilli and spice would have been nice. We were also disappointed that there were no refried beans on offer as a side dish.
But the servings wer generous, with plenty of tortilla wraps provided.

We passed on the dessert menu and plumped for cocktails instead :-)

The restaurant has a nice ambience, the staff are friendly and helpful, and it's a bit more upmarket looking that many other Mexican restaurants.

Sunny Brighton

Well, a Dirty DC concert at Concorde 2 in Brighton made for a good excuse to spend the bank holiday in Brighton.

Brighton is always a hot spot for vegan food, so we visited some old favourites and found a couple of new places.

First stop was The Prince George Pub for a late lunch before the concert. This is an old favourite, a vegetarian pub that never fails to impress.
Prince George
We went for the Falafel Bites for two. This was a very tasty platter of falafel, olives, pitta bredd topped with pesto and chilli, fruit, salad, and flavoured seeds. Very tasty!
Please note that the website seems to be a bit out of date as it was still showing the winter menu today.

On Sunday we headed out to Wai Kika Moo Kau for a full vegan breakfast. No trip to Brighton is complete without this.
With vegan sausages, potato rosti with black pepper, mushrooms, pesto topped tomatoes, tofu, beans, and toast, this certainly set us up for the day!

Wai Kika Moo Kau

We skipped lunch due to lack of space in our stomachs, and decided to sample a different restaurant in the evening. As fans of nexican food, we were impressed to find that the menu at La Choza stated that they catered for vegans and coeliacs! The menu was well labelled so we decided to give it a try.

La Choza

Although it was very busy when we turned up, they took our number and said that they would give us a ring in about half an hour when a table became available. We visited the Basketmakers Arms for a quick beverage, and got the call just under half an hour later.

The food was very very tasty, and the staff very friendly and efficient. We mentioned on ordering that we were vegan, just to avoid any slip ups, and our waitress smiled and wrote "Vegan" with a smiley face on her pad!

We both plumped for soft corn tacos, stuffed with roasted spicy squash, sweet potato and guacomole, with a hot salsa and a side order of refried beans. Delicious!
We'll certainly return there on our next visit.

Today we decided to try V Bites for breakfast. Previously situated in Hove, they have now moved into central Brighton into the old premises of Aloka (sadly missed).

V Bites


Although much of their menu is centred around "fake meat", which is not to our taste, they had afew tasty looking items on the menu.

We decided to try the tarragon and black pepper mushrooms with humous and spinach on toast.  It was full of flavour, although the portions were a bit on the small side.
We were also dissapointed that the juice was bottled, rather than the fresh juice we are used to at Wai Kika Moo Kau.

Good to have another vegan rstaurant in Brighton though.

Monsal Head Hotel

I've been a little remiss this year, and not kept this blog as up to date as I should.

This weekend's fine dining really does need a mention though!

We travelled up to Monsal Head, near Bakewell in the Peak District, for a long weekend.

We had rung ahead and asked the Monsal Head Hotel if they could cater for vegans. No problem, we were told.

http://www.monsalhead.com/


Well, they really did cater well for us!

At breakfast, out came the soya milk and vitalite vegan margarine. A cooked breakfast was on offer, complete with vegan sausages, but we both plumped for the fresh fruit platter, followed by what tasted like home baked seedy bread toasted. The fresh fruit varied each morning, and was always tasty and fresh.

In the evening, we were presented with our own 100% vegan menu, with a choice of around 5 options for each of the 3 courses. Everything that we selected was well cooked, well thought out, and very tasty.
From interesting salads (no cucumber, tomato, and limp leaves in sight, but plenty of wild mushrooms, fennel, fenugreek etc...), to tasty and spicy pasta dishes (forget the usual pasta in tomato sauce, how about pasta in a butternut squash sauce with plenty of veggies and spice).
And the puddings, well, forget the usual offerings of fruit and sorbet, these were "proper" puddings, and included plum pudding and soya custard, and crumble with soya cream.

We needed our long walks over the hills to walk off the food that we consumed!!!