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