Sunday 20 February 2011

Out and About

Well, Valentines day meal went well, even though I put too much soy sauce in the burgers and the mushroom paté was too runny, he enjoyed it (or said he did convincingly), and I thought it was pretty yummy myself, although I made way too much salad.

I had an idea for another topic on here: Eating out in and around Glasgow.

A lot of people assume that if you're vegan, you can't eat out. In France, I think that was true- I didn't eat out once in France after I went vegan (except when we went to Disneyland, see my post below). In Glasgow, I'd estimate I've eaten out around 30 times since last June. Usually about once a week. I go to the same places quite often though, but I thought I could do some reviews on vegan eating options in Glasgow, based on my experiences.

There are some all-vegan eateries, namely, Mono, Stereo and the Thirteenth Note. These are all great, but I wasn't going to do them first. Where I eat out more often are non-vegan restaurants, and I was going to list some options available at a few of the chains first.


Pizza Hut - I eat at pizza hut now and then with my bf- maybe not classy but it's cheerful, easy and close to the cinema, and I can usually get a buy-one-get-one free voucher. They have a pretty thorough allergen guide here which states the vegan status of all menu items: http://www.pizzahut.co.uk/media/77460/dietary_requirements-0910.pdf

Here's the vegan options summary:

Side salad
Nachos (hold the cheese and sour cream)
Potato Wedges with ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or BBQ dip
Pasta with Arrabiatta Sauce
House salad (Happy Hour)
Pizza Base and Tomato sauce (Pan or Italian)
Vegetable Toppings (Olives, peppers, mushrooms, onions, sweetcorn, tomato, chillis, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, pineapple, peas, asparagus, rocket)

Some things I haven't seen that apparently you can get: Couscous, crispy onions, diced beetroot, fruit salad, humous, orange ice lolly.

Aside from the fruit salad and ice lolly which I've never seen, there's no desert options here, but since we usually go just before the cinema, this leaves me room for popcorn and chocolate (I bring ruffle bars or rice milk chocolate, I've found one that tastes like galaxy :) )

At pizza hut I usually have potato wedges with BBQ dip and a pan pizza with mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers.



QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ***
QUALITY OF FOOD: ***
ATMOSPHERE: **
PRICE: ***





Pizza Express- I've heard they are considering putting an actual, listed as vegan pizza on the menu. Til then, the base and sauce are vegan so it's a similar to pizza hut choose-some-toppings. Here's the allergen info http://www.pizzaexpress.com/pdfs/files/PE%20Recipe%20Data%20April%202010%20-%20Customer%20Copy_20100427-162130.pdf

Veg toppings: capers, olives, onions, pine kernels, sultanas, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, walnut halves, sundried tomatoes, rocket, green peppers, red peppers, fresh tomatoes, leeks, petite pois & artichokes.

Dough Balls (Ask for garlic oil instead of butter)
Mixed Salad (no dressing)
Caffe Reale Desert (without the mascarpone)


I never mind going there and getting dough balls and pizza. I haven't tried the caffe reale, but it's "Baby figs, cinnamon & white wine spiced syrup" and comes with a coffee.


QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: **
QUALITY OF FOOD: ***
ATMOSPHERE: ***
PRICE: ***



Wagamama- There's quite a lot of choice at wagamama, and all servers are trained to know what's vegan (I know because I asked once and she spent 20 minutes talking to me about it!), here's the site info: http://www.wagamama.com/food/dietary/vegans

That link is pretty comprehensive. I've tried the yasai gyoza, edamame, and the yasai cha han.

I can't find much info on desert. The kids menu offers natural fruit ice lollies.


QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ****
QUALITY OF FOOD: ****
ATMOSPHERE: ***
PRICE: **



Bella Italia - I can't find any allergen info, but I know from asking what is available.

The usual pizza- base plus sauce plus toppings
Fusilli Pomodorini — roasted red peppers and onions in a cherry tomato sauce (ask for without mozarella)
Chips

Desert: Lemon and blood orange sorbet.


QUANTITY OF VEGAN OPTIONS: ***
QUALITY OF FOOD: ***
ATMOSPHERE: ***
PRICE: ***



Here's an info page with more on vegan chain restaurants: http://www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/eatingout/chainrestaurantinfo.html


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