A Vegan Obsession

The Prince George, Brighton

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Pre cinema dinner at The George in Brighton.  High expectations for some tasty VEGAN pub grub.  They’ve been all veggie for yonks of years so it’s going to be a wham bam taste party right?!……WRONG!  The atmosphere was the dressing that lifted the dinner a tad.  The food was ok.  But I wanted a full on…wrap me in Sunday, comfort feast.  Noooo…GIVE ME FLAVOUR!

My friend ordered the falafel burger and chunky chips and I opted to put the ‘Sunday Roast’…Butternut squash and cranberry roast with red cabbage, roasties and gravy..on a high pedestal from where it fell.  The potatoes had a nice flavour and were of generous proportions and the cabbage was cooked well in a fruity sauce, but the ROAST was a bit like eating a packet of sage and onion stuffing.  I played ‘hunt the BN squash’ whilst my companion sipped water to appease the salty falafel and hummous and left me to nick his chips to see if I could find some satisfaction for my expectant taste buds….Nope!

It was ok.  Pub grub.  The atmosphere was nice.  If I wanted to indulge in food to make my taste buds dance a conga I’d go elsewhere.  But… for a pub being all veggie though….I take my hat off to them.

Just as well I had a contingency plan and had scoffed a HUGE slab of vegan tiffin earlier in the day! Phew!

Falafel burger, hummous and fat chips

Under the trio of humongous spuds lurks a vegan roast

Leon’s London

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Leon’s London is a bright ‘fast food’ eatery with a South American style interior.  It is not vegan but has a few tasty options.  I nipped in after a visit uptown to the dentist (oh the heady thrills of it…..actually it was.  My lovely dentist was the bearer of some good news).  He hadn’t stabbed my mouth with needles so eating was top of my agenda, post dental appointment.

I’d been to Leon’s London before.  Visited a couple of times before I flew to the US at the end of 2010.  It’s a happy place. Family pictures (mostly dripping in 70’s wallpaper and flares) hang on the walls.  

It is not a vegan joint but their menu is dutifully stamped with Vegan, heart healthy, gluten free dishes. All the non-v’s I’ve taken along have given it the thumbs up.   Until 5 or 6 pm meals are served in boxes at their 8 (to date) London locations.  After that plates and silverware are placed beside flickering candles and dishes are served on wooden 

I batted in the safe zone and went to the sweet potato falafels (minus the aioli..not vegan), brown rice and crunchy vegan slaw.  It was a nice combo of textures.  The falafel’s sweetness was balanced by the slightly acidic slaw.  The rice needed seasoning but had a nice chew. 

Leon’s has a cook book or three.  Though they do have meat dishes they clearly are up on nutrition and offer good value ‘fast food’.

Nothing to blow my socks off but good, filling and quick.  The Leon gobi looked good and I sampled the soup (cauliflower) which was lovely but a little under seasoned (for me).  They have quite a few locations in London Leon’s and a fun Facebook page.   Leon’s Facebook 

 

Brighton…Infinity Cafe

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Back in Brighton.  A Victorian seaside town, dubbed ‘London by the Sea’.  It is a fun place and absolutely chock with Veggie Vegan restaurants.  A pub, one owned my Sir Paul McCartney’s ex-wife, weird named ones… “Why kick a moo-cow”!  Brighton has been a love of mine for a while so I’ve eaten in 99% of the veggie restaurants but not reviewed them before.  There are tons so probably will take a while to get around to them all but I happily take on the task!

My first stop was a ‘no brainer’. INFINITY FOODS CAFE,  I grabbed the last of the soup and a spot by the window up stairs.  It is situated in the hip North Lanes and people watching here is addictive and fruitful.

The gluten free bread was all gawn so I chose to ‘sample’ a rather large VEGAN scone.  Suffering from a miserable cold I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to taste a thing.  The bright colour of the carrot, orange juice and coriander soup was lovely to peer down the bowl into.  It did the trick and my taste buds were doing a little dance of joy.  Though the flavour came in waves (down to the cold and not the fault of the lunch).  The scone was quite good. 
Infinity has a store a few doors up,  and later on I had a slab of VEGAN tiffin.  Not the Indian fayre but a thick wad of chocolate and biscuits.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffin_(confectionery) .  It has been years since I had tiffin and I did not know they did a vegan version.  It was bloody mighty good.  Thick chocolate, crunchy biscuit and pecan with just the right amount of raisins.  Yummy! 


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