Saturday 10 November 2012

Playhouse (Pub)


4 Saint John's Street  Colchester, Essex CO2 7AA
01206 571 003

The Playhouse is operated by pub chain “Wetherspoon”.
Wetherspoon helpfully have a “plan your menu” section on their website, where you can choose to just view the vegan items. [take note other restaurants!!]

The items listed were:

Portion of chips

 Sides:
 Side salad without creamy dressing

Children's:
Happy Monkey strawberry & banana smoothie

Curry Club:
Sweet potato, chickpea & spinach curry with extra poppadums
An award-winning dish, in a coconut sauce, with yellow basmati rice, mango chutney and poppadums. This meal is suitable for vegans if ordered without Naan.

Large onion bhajis

Vegetable samosas

Extra poppadums & mango chutney

Bombay potatoes

Confusingly jacket potato and beans (without butter) doesn't show up on this list, but it does show up if you select "vegetarian"+ "egg free" + "dairy free"... as does"Organic Tomato and Basil Soup" and "Hummus and Roast Vegetable Flatbread".

Looking through their menu I noticed a lot of  vegetarian things that could easily be made vegan, if  Weatherspoon so chose-such as: Mexican bean burger, vegetable burger, vegetarian sausage with chips and beans, superfood salad/pasta, Vegetarian roast(Portobello Mushroom, Chickpea & Pumpkin Seed Roast served with roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables and gravy), Five-bean chilli (uses Quorn mince), Vegetarian breakfast (Two fried eggs, three vegetarian sausages, baked beans and chips).

I think some polite email suggestions are in order!


Tuesday 30 October 2012

Cafe at number 21

Cafe at number 21, Trinity street, Colchester


Cafe at number 21 (next to Timbers on Trinity Street) opened in June 2012 with the aim of catering for for vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and omnivorous diets.  

It is now under new ownership, and  after chatting with the current owner I learnt that their current vegan options are:

-Aubergine bake
-Roast vegetable salad
-Usually at least one vegan soup.

They are open to suggestions, so the menu may change.
Soya milk is available for teas and coffees.

Cafe at 21 has nice a bright interior and pleasant garden at the back.



This cafe previously sold vegan cupcakes by local  business "ps...it's vegan!" 
Vegan cakes can now instead be be brought from "Caffe Sala" or  "The Minories Garden Cafe", or privately ordered from "ps...it's vegan!" by visiting their website here.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Mirchi Rasoi-Indian Takeaway



71 North Station Road
CO1 1RQ Colchester

Delivery times:
Monday- closed
Tuesday 18:30 - 23:00
Wednesday 18:30 - 23:00
Thursday 18:30 - 23:00
Friday 18:30 - 23:00
Saturday 18:30 - 23:00
Sunday-closed
Read reviews here


A friend recently informed me of this Indian takeaway restaurant, which marks which items are vegan on the menu (yay! If only every  one would!)
Listed below are the things I found..

“Vegetarian Dishes”

MUMBAY ALOO £ 2.90
Medium, Vegan

GOBHI BHAJI £ 2.90
Mild, Vegan

CHANNA MASALA £ 2.90
Medium, Vegan

PINDI CHOLE £ 2.90
Hot, Vegan

TARKA DAL £ 2.90
Mild, Vegan

SABZI BHAJI £ 2.90
Vegan

BHINDI BHAJI £ 2.90
Mild, Vegan

SAAG ALOO £ 2.90
Medium, Vegan

"Rice and bread"

MUSHROOM RICE £ 2.90
Vegan

CHAPATI £ 1.30
Vegan

TANDOORI ROTI £ 1.70
Vegan

PURI £1.30
Vegan

(Plain rice isn’t marked vegan, but I assume it would be?)

Free delivery when spending £25 and over.
(although after reading the reviews it seems the delivery service is  bit hit and miss!)


Saturday 29 September 2012

Nandos


11-13 Head Street

Colchester

CO1 1NX


Ok..so you're thinking "Ugh! A chicken restaurant?! A chicken restaurant??!?! Why write a post about that!?"

 Well, I figured some people may end up in a Nando's with omni friends (as I have before...) and also practically  every other restaurant that I've written about on here serves chicken/meat too..(just not in such a glaringly obvious in-your-face way...).

Nando's do actually answer the question of vegan food on their website..http://www.nandos.co.uk/faq/there-anything-your-menu-suitable-vegans 

"If you’re vegan or vegetarian we offer a veggie pitta, but vegans need to specify “no mayonnaise” as mayo is a standard ingredient containing egg. You can have any baste as these are free of meat, egg and dairy products.
Please note that Nando’s are not vegetarian restaurants [really? I wouldn't have guessed..] and do not imply in any literature that we are. However we do take specific steps to segregate our vegetarian product from chicken products as follows: 
  • A separate area of the grill is defined for the exclusive cooking of vegetarian and bean burgers.
  • Separate utensils are always used with vegetable products.
  • Separate bottles of the Nando’s bastes are used exclusively for basting the vegetarian products.
Full ingredient listings are available in all of our restaurants if you wish to explore further! Ask to see the “Food & Menu Specifications” booklet."

Unfortunately the said "Food and menu specification" booklet doesn't seem to be available online, so it is just a matter of asking in the restaurant....!

Zizzi


Zizzi
12 Headgate
CO3 3BTT: 01206 576816


Zizzi have a helpful allergen menu here http://www.zizzi.co.uk/assets/pdf/special_diets.pdf and even better-they have a copy that you can read in the restaurant too!

Below is a list of items that are marked vegan on the PDF, and also those that can be veganised ...

“Before you start”

Mixed olives
Goddess Olives
Dough sticks with garlic aioli- contains milk and egg: to make vegan substitute garlic butter and garlic aioli for olive oil

“Antipasti”

Bruschetta al Pomodoro
Italian bread basket-Dough sticks contain milk- "to make vegan serve without dough sticks" (this is the advice of the allergy pdf.. I'm aware it seems a bit contradictory, as above it says that the dough sticks can be made vegan if using olive oil in place of garlic butter!)

“Pasta”

Zizzi'z use vegan pasta-except the gluten free pasta, which contains egg
Pasta with pomodoro sauce is vegan-ask for it without the buffalo mozzarella

“Risotto”-all contain milk and egg

“Calzone and Pizza"

-Pizza dough and pizza sauce are vegan, so ask for the cheese to be left off.  Possible veggie pizzas to veganise are-

Skinny Rustica-Primavera  :Slices of aubergine, artichoke, peppers, olives, tomato sauce, mozzarella and goats’ cheese.-Contains milk from mozzarella and goats cheese-ask for pizza without these cheeses

Calzone-Clarissa-Aubergine, peppers, olives, pine nuts and our tomato sauce, topped off with mozzarella and goats’ cheese.-Contains milk from mozzarella and goats cheese-ask for pizza without these cheeses

Funghi-Mushrooms, mozzarella and thyme.-contains milk from mozzarella-ask for no cheese.

“Salads and sides”

Tuscan potatoes
Fine Green beans
Mixed salad
Super food insalata-“Chunky slices of butternut squash and ribbons of courgette. Lentils, broad beans and mint. We muddle goats’ cheese through the mix, add salad leaves drizzled with white balsamic vinegar and put dough on the side.”-Contains milk from goats cheese, and from garlic butter on dough sticks. I assume it would be vegan without goats cheese and dough sticks…

“Dessert”
Sorbetti (strawberry, lemon and
blood orange)


Items that looked like they may be ok, but aren’t!
Courgette fries:contain milk and egg


As ever, all information on this site is intended as a guide. Menus and ingredients may change, so always mention that you are vegan at time of ordering.
If you spot any out of date information/broken links on this site, please email me to let me know!




Tuesday 14 August 2012

Albatta-Middle Eastern Restaurant



18A Sir Isaac's Walk  Town Centre, Colchester CO1 1JJ

01206 618 121
Read reviews on of Albatta here

I emailed Albatta the middle Eastern restaurant, (on Sir Isaac's walk) asking if these items on their menu were suitable for a vegan diet....(see photo below for details on individual items)

Lentil soup
Hommous and Pitta
Moutabal babaghanouj
Falafel
Foul Moudames pita
Spicy Potato
Stuffed vine leaves
Spinach Fatayer
Fries vegetables
Tabouleh
Fattoush salad
Hommous and tomato sandwich
Moutabal babahanoush sandwich
Falafel sandwich

 They said that they are ALL suitable for vegans! And they also added in their email...

"we can prepare okra with plain rice, rice with vegetables and we can make Moroccan couscous with vegetable only without chicken or meat broth...
But for these special orders,can you please inform me of how many of you intend to visit albatta and when ...
As the special chef is always there on Friday,Saturday,Sunday..."

Nice to see lots of options, suggestions of additional meals, and a helpful reply! :)



Tuesday 31 July 2012

Cafe Nero


6 Culver Street West Colchester, CO1 1JG and Caffe Nero at Williams and Griffin Colchester, CO1 1PN

Going by Cafe Nero's "Dietry Products Summary" their vegan options are:
 

Sea Salt crisps 
Fruit salad 
Porridge made with Soya milk
Red Pepper Penne Pasta 
Bear yo yo (for the kids..)
and..
popcorn.

Come on cafes.....Give us some interesting food!

Saturday 28 July 2012

Naka Thai


35East Hill
Colchester
Essex CO1 2QX
Tel: 01206 864086, 01206 866489
restaurant@nakathai.com 

http://www.nakathai.com

 Please note that unfortunately we cannot verify the accuracy of any findings provided by the eateries surveyed.

As ever, all information on this site is intended as a guide. Menus and ingredients may change, so always mention that you are vegan at time of ordering.
If you spot any out of date information/broken links on this site, please email me to let me know!

Last Mon (23rd July 2012) I went to "Naka Thai" on East Hill, with vegan friends.
I emailed a couple of thai places to ask if they could provide a suitable vegan meal (no meat, fish, eggs, milk,cream etc etc!)
Naka Thai was the only one to reply (hence they got our custom!) Here was their response:

"We would like to confirm that most of our vegetable dishes have no animal products. And we can also prepare many other dishes free from animal products as well, usually the meat will be substituted with beancurd. Just let our staff know, and we will prepare the food to suit your diet".

So I phoned to book (again mentioning we were vegan-just to make sure they were aware!)
I printed off the menu, and marked dishes that looked suitable, and took it along with me. When we ordered we asked the waitress to double check with the chef that the dishes we had chosen definitely contained no animal products (milk, egg,cream etc).She didn't come back to say any of it wasn't suitable, so fingers crossed that it was!

Here's what we had:

For starters:

Vegetable Tempuras with dipping sauce
Thai style sweetcorn cakes with dipping sauce

Then we ordered 4 mains to share, which were:

Thai Green curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk
Thai red curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk
Sweet and sour tofu
Spicy basil tofu

And a couple of sides of rice.
I then ordered mango sorbet for dessert :)

Overall the food was very nice; personally I wasn’t keen on the texture of the basil tofu, but other people I was with did like it.
The service was friendly, and it was nice to try some different cuisine, and to be able to order three courses.



Update:
Went to Naka Thai again on Monday 13th May 2013.
Ordered the same courses as before, but also added a side of Vegetable "khao pad Naka"-which is fried rice with grilled pineapple and veg (and cashews).
However when the rice dish came it had egg in it! (despite us mentioning we were vegan many times, and the chef confirming that all of our choices were vegan). The waitress apologised and our rice dish was replaced with a non eggy one!
Be aware to check if you order this dish!

Update 2:I was also told by another local vegan that they ordered the fried rice for take away, and requested no egg using the online order form, but it still contained egg when it was delivered.


Update 3:
Local vegan Bethany wrote on our accompanying facebook page:
"Went to Naka Thai tonight and was really surprised at how lovely it was there. Delicious food, extremely nice staff who were really accommodating. The menu says to mention if you are vegan and they can adapt pretty much anything. I had a coconut based soup which was amazing, and then coconut rice and mixed very stir fry with cashews and peanut sauce. Make sure you tell them you are vegan and no fish sauce and they are more than happy to make or adapt anything for you. Very impressed. Also taste card registered at 50% off so a real bargain. Will definitely be going back."


The eggy rice!



Our bill. (50% off food with Taste Card)

Sunday 22 July 2012

The Slug And Lettuce

 The Slug and Lettuce
The Slug and Lettuce – Colchester
111 High Street
ColchesterCO1 1TB
Tel: 01206 367320

Tuesday 26 June 2012

La Tasca, Spanish Tapas Bar and Kitchen

COLCHESTER LA TASCA HAS NOW CLOSED DOWN!
(Will keep this up though for reference when visiting other towns)
La Tasca
Colchester
La Tasca Kitchen
14-15 North Hill
Colchester, CO1 1DZ Tel: 01206 768060
 http://www.latascakitchen.co.uk/


The allergy info for La Tasca can be viewed here-

Visited La Tasca this week with vegan friends. This is what we ordered:
  • Berenjenas Gratinadas, (ordered without cheese) which was basically aubergine baked in a tomato  sauce.
  • Superfood salad, made up of  wheat, red quinoa and lentils, with avocado and rustica tomatoes, marinated in infused lemon oil. 
  • Three bean and mint salad, which was kidney, borlotti and cannellini beans, with chickpeas, in a mint dressing.
  •  Almonds- Lightly salted Marcona almonds
We also chose to order a big Paella to share for our "main".
The veggie one was marked as vegan on the online form (yay) .....but being the un-trusting vegans we are we insisted on questioning the waiter on the vegan-ness of the white wine used (it was marked vegan on the ingredients list, but you know you can never be sure!)  The waiter kindly offered to retrieve the bottle from the kitchen for our perusal.  Upon his return he said that the chef doesn't actually use the wine in the veggie Paella, just veg bouillon, so with our minds at ease we ordered.

The waiter told us the  Paella was going to take 20 mins to cook, so in the meantime he brought us out our other tapas, which were all very nice. There was just enough in each little dish for us all to have a taster.  I particularly liked the superfood salad and the Berenjenas Gratinadas.


Then the main event came out-the huge Paella! A huge steaming dish of rice with char-grilled aubergine and peppers, and mushrooms.

It was very delicious!  It was bit pricier than we expected (our big Paella cost £35! -although it was to feed four..!) but I'd definitely still go again.

A quick breakdown of the items marked vegan on the allergy list:
  • Paella Verduras
  • Superfood Salad
  • Three bean salad
  • Mixed olives
  • Almonds

Items that could be veganised with some alterations:

  • Baby leaf salad, if ordered without dressing
  • Berenjenas Gratinadas, if ordered without cheese
  • Note: The Patatas Bravas (deep fried potatoes) look like they'd be ok if ordered without cheese, but closer inspection of the chart reveals they aren't even classed as veggie because they are deep fried in the same fryer as the meat. (although this might not bother some people...)



Wednesday 23 May 2012

Alishan Tandoori

Questionnaire results for

Alishan Tandoori, 19 Osborne Street, Colchester, CO2 7DP

http://www.alishantandoori.com/index.htm

Please note that unfortunately we cannot verify the accuracy of any findings provided by the eateries surveyed.
RESULTS: Provided 14/05/12
 
I gave one of my questionnaires to the staff at Alishan to fill in regarding vegan options.

The results were:

- Bombay potatoes
-garlic mushrooms
- tarka dall
-aloo Gobi


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Supermarket lunch options and vegan lists

Possible supermarket  lunch grabs...[Updated Nov 2012]

 These are a few things that I found on the vegan lists of Tesco, Sainsburys and M&S, that could be grabbed for lunch on the go.  (obviously most places also sell lots of fruit/salad and other snacks like nuts/crisps etc too!)

Links to the vegan lists of Tesco, Co-op, M&S, and Sainsburys are at the bottom of this page.

Tesco: 
-Houmous & Carrot Chutney Sandwich
 

Sainsburys: 


Snack salads:
1.    Taste the difference Tabbouleh 250gram
2
SALAD POTS:
1.    Tomato & basil pasta 550gram
2.    by sainsburys chargrilled vegetable pasta 280gram
3.    by Sainsburys tomato and jalapeño pepper pasta 400gram
4.    by sainsburys chargrilled vegetable pasta 400gram
5.    by Sainsburys tomato & basil pasta (C) 400gram
6.    by Sainsburys tomato and jalapeño pepper pasta (C) 400gram

COLESLAW AND
SALADS:
1.    bgty less than 3% fat Beetroot salad 250gram
2.    Tomato & basil pasta 300gram
3.    3 Bean salad 270gram



Marks and Spencer



“Food on the move”:

1.      Asian Slaw & Mango Rice Salad
With Edamame Bean Dip
2.      Count on us Orzo Pasta Dual Tray Size
3.      Count on us Orzo Pasta With Slow Roasted
4.      Count on us Roasted Butternut Squash,
Red Pepper Houmas Wrap
5.      Count on us Sweet Chilli Veg Sushi Wrap
6.      Food on the move - Vietnamese Style Vegetable Noodle Soup
7.      Super WholefoodWith
Blueberries & Mango

From the Salad section:

1.      Superwholefood Shaker Salad
2.      Fresh Superfood Salad Meal
3.      Large Deli Side - Roasted Veg Cous
4.      Rice, Lentil & Roast Aubergine
With A Garlic Dressing

From the Delicatessen:

1.      Vegetable Spring Roll
2.      Vegetable Spring Roll Selection

 


Co-op List January 2012


Tesco September 2012

Sainsburys November 2012

Sainsburys 'Non-Food' Vegan Product List

Marks and spencer,  5 November 2012

Waitrose 'Wine List' JANUARY 2012
Food List - Waitrose will post out their vegan list if you contact them:
email: customersupport@waitrose.co.uk
phone: 0800 188884
(apparently you can ask in store for one too))

Morrisons - do not provide a vegan list