Review: Wagamama

On By ClareIn Chain Eating, london3 Comments

We’ve talked before about how we never get to try exciting new offerings from chains, so when we needed somewhere to eat on our last night in London I demanded we go get the vegatsu from Wagamama.

I’m going to say this up front: the atmosphere was awful. It was Friday night in a busy location and the music was loud and the wall to wall people were louder. But it’s pretty much what you expect in a busy location at a busy time.

The food was amazing though. The vegatsu is a vegan take on katsu curry. There is a large slab of katsu seitan served with white rice and coated in a delicious curry sauce. It’s so, so good. The seitan is crazy good! It’s meaty, genuinely meaty, with a great taste and texture. And then they put breadcrumbs on it. Then curry. It’s delicious.

I really want to get another one, but I might not go on a Friday night. That many people in one place scare me.

Review: HealthyWealthy (London)

On By ClareIn londonLeave a comment

The story of how we decided to go to HealthyWealthy is… not interesting. We were shopping across the road (at the fabulous Third Estate) and saw the word vegan on the window so we went in.

The food options are great. You pick your size of thali and then the friendly staff walk you through the choices. I went medium and Kate opted for a small. We loved everything! The chickpea curry I had was great, the french bean curry was a highlight. Kate found the soy chunk curry a little hot but the dhal was perfect.

As well at the thalis they also have a selection of fried foods, Indian sweets and vegan ice cream. We had a couple of scoops to go. A rosewater and a pistachio. These should come with a health warning because they are massively overwhelmingly sweet. If you’re used to the sweetness of traditional Indian sweets that’s what we’re talking about. The flavours are great though. Small portions is the key.

We recommend HealthyWealthy for a low cost, high quality meal. My advice would be to go all out on the curries and have small portions of the sweets.

Reveiw: Zizzi

On By ClareIn Chain Eating, londonLeave a comment

By the time I’d rejoined Kate in London it was late so we threw ourselves on the mercy of a chain pizza place near our hotel. We went to try the vegan options of Zizzi.

Zizzi use mozzarisella which is totally my favourite vegan pizza cheese. One of the specials was a pizza combining four of their flavours: original, smoked, blue, and cheddar. It was great and you probably think that’s useless information considering it was a special but not so. Now you know to go out and try the all the flavours on pizza. Especially the blue. I’ve tried it before and it doesn’t really work as an eating cheese but I didn’t think to cook with it. Melted it’s amazing.

Kate ordered pizza that contained actual vegetables. She had the vegan zucca with roasted butternut squash and spinach. This is on the regular menu so you’ll be happy to know that it’s a good pizza too.

For desert we ordered the vegan cheesecake. It was on the winter special menu but it’s back on the menu for spring. I hope it stays forever. It’s delicious. The server raved about it when they brought it to the table, a huge recommendation for a vegan dessert in a non-vegan restaurant.

We were expecting a decent meal and the pizzas were good, solid pizzas. The cheese cake though? Amazing.

Recipe: Baked Black-eyed Beans

On By ClareIn recipeLeave a comment

I work at the local vegan coffee shop, The Kind Grind, and for the past month we’ve been tinkering with our menu. We’re a coffee shop so we’re keeping it simple but bringing in more quality ingredients and home made touches.

These beans might just be my favourite part of the new menu. They appear in the ‘Big V’, our vegan cooked breakfast, or on a slice of sourdough for fancy beans on toast.

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 1 400g can of tomatoes
  • 2 teaspoons of cumin
  • 2 teaspoon of coriander
  • 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 400g can of black eyed beans

And to serve:

  • Four slices of sourdough toast
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • About a tablespoon of chopped parsley

Put the chopped tomatoes in a blender along with all of the spices, liquid smoke and salt. Add 200ml of water and blend.

Add the beans and the tomato mix into a saucepan and cook on a low-medium heat for 45 minutes. Taste to check the seasoning. You might need a bit more salt, or smoke.

To serve, drizzle the olive oil over the toast and spoon on the beans. Sprinkle over the parsley and enjoy.