Vegan sushi is such a delight, and Roots & Rolls in Barcelona really hits the spot. This is another place that Mother HH and I visited on two separate occasions, in May and November 2022, because we just couldn’t resist a second go.
The popcorn is probably my favourite dish, and the only thing I’ve ordered on both visits. The cauliflower is so tender inside and so perfectly coated in togarashi spice, it’s absolutely sublime. It comes with aioli and sriracha, which are perfect accompaniments. Mother HH loves this too, it’s the key element that lured us back for a second visit.
These are some mushroom rolls which used to be on the menu but aren’t any more, unfortunately. They were good, but I appreciate they need to have some variety in the menu. All the other items were consistent over visits in May and November 2022.
These are the jumpin’ jacks, which contain chicken and jackfruit, with BBQ and aioli flavours as well. They were tasty and filling.
These are the geisha, which also have chicken along with avocado. You can see they’re coated in panko as well, which is always a real delight when you get that crispy, crunchy bite. They’re drizzled in chilli sauce, but it’s not overpowering.
And here are the hip caroots, which contain carrots, peanut sauce, avocado, and some other vegetables. I always prefer something with mock chicken in it, but these ones were tasty as well, and the peanut sauce was punchy.
On one of those visits I had room for a dessert and treated myself to the choc avo brownie. Oh, it was good! It’s hard to find a good brownie in Prague, so I’m always on the look out for one on holiday, and this was properly fudgy and dense, like a brownie should be.
I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this restaurant again on our next trip to Barcelona!
Vegan Junk Food Bar is one of my favourite spots in Barcelona because the service is really fast, making it perfect for when you’re ravenous from travelling, and the menu is exciting but essentially just fast food burgers and chips, so it’s familiar enough not to be overwhelming. Based on the aesthetics of their menu and social media, I was worried at first that it would be a bit too cool and noisy for me, but no – it’s a regular old restaurant, anyone can go, you don’t have to be young or hip. Phew! Mother HH and I visited in May and November 2022 and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves both times.
Mother HH has enjoyed the notorious burger (pictured up top) and the cheese burger (pictured here). They are both good burgers, and she’s been impressed with the patty. She’s especially keen on the chipsticks which are in and around the burger (a lot of them fall out, unsurprisingly) and give it a really fun crunch.
I had ribs in a burger, which is not on the menu at the moment, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am wild about vegan ribs, these had a really good texture and the BBQ sauce is delicious.
I had the ribs again on my second visit, this time in the form of the no bones loaded fries – smiley face potatoes, sticky ribs, and tasty sauces. I love a novelty potato shape, so this was somehow extra fun for me. And the ribs are still just as good as on my previous visit! I went back for a second helping of this before heading to the airport on my last day. Even though the rest of the menu is quite enticing, I just can’t tear myself away from the ribs!
Mother HH and I visited Barcelona twice in 2022, in both May and November, and we went to a lot of the same places on both visits. I don’t necessarily like to do that when I’m travelling, but some of the spots were so good (or so convenient) on our first visit, that we just couldn’t resist a second time. Rasoterra was probably our favourite spot on both trips.
We loved these tacos so much we ordered them on both our visits. They contained leek, shiitakes, pickled cabbage and mole sauce, and they were extremely flavoursome. I don’t often order tacos because I find them a bit too messy to eat, so I’m glad I made an exception.
This spring onion dish was one of the specials on our first visit – the menu changes a bit because they focus on local, seasonal ingredients. This was referred to as Catalan onion flowers (similar to spring onions for me), served with sundried tomato pesto and topped with a cream made from tofu and Kalamata olives. The flavours were all really savoury, and it was unlike any dish I’d had before – quite a treat.
The grilled cauliflower with walnut sauce was good – the cauliflower was cooked just as you’d hope, really tender and delicious. I’m not sure I’ll be looking out for walnut sauce again, but it was fun to try it.
This plate was so nice we had it both times as well: roasted roots with pulse hummus and basil oil. The first time we went it was a special, but the second time it had landed on the permanent menu. We had some roasted sweet potato, beetroot, onion, and leek, served on top of red lentil hummus, and scattered with some crispy red lentils. The vegetables were cooked perfectly. It’s rare that I get excited about a plate of vegetables, but this was so simple and so effective. You can always tell when you’re served vegetables by someone who loves them.
We’d thought that a tomato and pasta dish on our first trip would be the real highlight, but we were so dazzled by the roasted vegetables that this one became a bit of an afterthought.
This plate was homemade tempeh with pumpkin cream and orange mayo. I am a huge tempeh fan, so I really enjoyed that element along with the mayo and oil. However, the pumpkin cream was a touch too sweet for me. It was still a fun, fresh dish.
Mother HH ordered her dessert from the special menu the first time – it was a roasted apple with a cacao cream that tasted like white chocolate, almond crumble, and some earl grey caramel. She loved it! Again, it was unlike anything either of us had seen on a menu before, so it was really fun to try something completely new and different.
I got the millionaire’s shortbread the first time, which was disappointingly lacking in caramel. It’s rare that I complain that a dish is too dry, but this one really was. It was tasty, but just too much – a dollop of cream would certainly have helped.
On our second visit, this flan was not quite what I expected from the miso caramel pudding with parsnip cream. I tend to think of a pudding as a big, possibly dense cake, whereas this is more like the European idea of a pudding, so I should really have thought about it more. I liked the flavour of the miso caramel, but the texture wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for, unfortunately.
And this is also not really what we expected from the mandarin sponge cake with pistachio sorbet! This one was more of a hit though – a nicely balanced dessert with some fun flavours and textures.
Even though there have been a few misses, this is the kind of place that really excites me to visit. You never quite know what you’re going to get, but it’s almost guaranteed to be something you haven’t tried before. And when it’s a hit, it’s a real hit!
I am such a fan of dosas. When I heard there as a new all-vegan restaurant in Prague called Dosa Dosa, I was absolutely giddy. Happily, it has met all of my expectations. The menu is not actually exclusively dosas, but for me it’s a shame to go and try anything else. There are several places in Prague where I can get good vegan pancakes or curries, which are also on the menu. Where else can I get a tasty dosa without worrying about any non-vegan elements on the plate?
Starting, as we always must, with breakfast, here is the breakfast dosa – the usual thin, crispy pancake, here stuffed with tasty tofu scramble and served with coconut chutney. Some of my favourite things about this place are that the dosas are really well stuffed (I’ve had some slightly pathetic ones) and they are served with vegan coconut chutney, which is a rare find for me. There are few things more disappointing than an under seasoned tofu scramble, but I only have praise for this one, it’s a real winner.
The aloo masala dosa is my usual choice from the main menu (and in general, whenever I have a dosa this is my preference), and again it’s really well stuffed and not oily or slimy like they have occasionally been in other eateries. The filling is substantial and tasty. The main dosas are served with a very spicy soup and a couple of chutneys, including the beloved coconut one. There are two size options, but it’s large all the way for me. This is a really delightful dish.
Dr HH, meanwhile, is a big fan of the soy keema dosa. It’s a bit different from the options you get in non-vegan restaurants, as it’s essentially vegan soy meat. He’s tried it twice, and once it was minced and once chunks. He preferred the chunks for texture, but it’s tasty either way.
We’ve also branched out once and tried the uttapam, which is a couple of small, quite crisp pancakes topped with chopped red and yellow peppers, served with the usual accompaniments. I found the peppers a bit too sweet and off putting, but Dr HH liked the balance of the dish and said it reminded him a bit of cheese on toast. Worth a try anyway, I’d say.
Dosa Dosa also has a really enviable cake counter. There are a two places that have a bit of a monopoly on vegan sweet treats in Prague. Two places have the same ownership and share all the desserts across both locations (Palo Verde and Share Sweet Bar). Krafin provide delicious sweet pastries to Chutnej and an array of non-vegan cafes. So it’s nice to visit somewhere with some different options every now and then. We’ve had brownies there, which were not great brownies but were great chocolate cake, a peanut butter cake which was decadent, and banana bread which is highly recommended and is a regular fixture – the chocolate chunks are fantastic.
And, along with the coconut chutney, there’s one more speciality that I rarely find veganised here – mango lassi! In summer this was a really welcome refreshing drink.
The downsides of Dosa Dosa are that it’s very small, very popular (it’s in a touristy area), and diners tend to spread out and stay for a while. I’ve managed to book a table via email before (though you may also try on the phone if you are not averse to phone calls like I am), and it’s definitely worth a try if you’re determined to get in. I believe they have a garden area open in the summer, so maybe that’s the best time to visit, when there’s a bit more seating.
Overall I consider Dosa Dosa to be one of the best all vegan spots in Prague these days, and probably the most well-rounded – it serves breakfast as well as other meals, and has great baked goods as well as savouries, and the food is routinely well seasoned. Definitely add it to your list if you’re in Prague!
Since my mum moved to Spain during the pandemic, I have spent a fair bit of time at Alicante airport, but, until recently, no time in Alicante itself. We finally put that right last September, when we headed in for a day trip and enjoyed some fun art museums, a very pleasantly situated castle, and some enticing vegan options. I’ve mentioned before that the small towns around my mum’s location do not exactly have a thriving vegan scene, so this was very welcome.
At BodhiGreen Vegetariano, Mother HH and I opted for the daily menu. The soup was listed as artichoke, but was actually more of a general vegetable soup. I quite enjoy a soup with big chunks of vegetables, so this was fine for me, and tasted nice and fresh. Mine was tepid, but my mum’s was the right temperature.
And the main was a Thai green curry. Doesn’t it look inviting?! Again, there were lots of fresh vegetables, which were very welcome, and the sauce was well-seasoned without being too fiery. The rice was excellent, really nicely seasoned too and with nice vegetables and peanuts running through. On the right hand side of the photo above you can see a couple of sweetcorn fritters, which I was very excited about. Sadly, they were a bit soft and didn’t have the nice crispy texture I was hoping for, but they still tasted good.
This was a nice restaurant that I’d happily return to – service was friendly, the location was quite convenient, and there were quite a few vegan options on the menu. We really enjoyed having a leisurely lunch there.
There are a few spots in Alicante where you can pick up some vegan ice cream or sorbet – I significantly prefer ice cream to sorbet, so at Laneu Helados Frescos I shunned the fruit sorbets in favour of a scoop each of chocolate and coconut, which is one of my favourite flavour combinations. It was lovely and refreshing for a hot September day by the sea.
These are both great choices for when you’re in Alicante, but they’re by no means the only options, so I’ll be hoping for an opportunity to branch out soon!
Finishing off my Berlin posts (until my next visit!), here’s a delightful vegan Asian tapas spot called 1990 Vegan Living. They don’t only serve tapas, but that’s the only section of the menu I’ve ever looked at because it’s such a treat to order lots of different dishes and try them all. This place does not take reservations, which always stresses me out a bit because I like to meticulously plan my eating itinerary, but the good news is that it’s in an extremely vegan-friendly area (you’ll see vegan options listed almost everywhere nearby) and on both of my visits I’ve got the lovely outdoor table I wanted.
It’s one of those places where you get a piece of paper and pencil and have to mark how many of each item you want. I like that kind of ordering system a lot! Service was fast and friendly on both of our visits, and I liked that all the food came at once – perfect for photographing the entire feast and strategically leaving the best dish for last, rather than potentially finishing on a dud because it’s the slowest to cook.
Let’s dive into the dishes I’ve tried!
This one is the Rausch der Sinne, which is beautifully tender aubergines with shiitakes and tofu in a lovely chilli, ginger, garlic, basil sauce. This dish is all about how well cooked the aubergines are, and we were extremely satisfied with how they just melted away. This is a good time to note though that the dishes you get are not actually filled with what you ordered, there’s always a large bed of salad in there. So this wasn’t a bowl full of aubergine, rather a bowl full of salad and topped with the aubergine. I’m not complaining about it, but I think it’s always important to manage your expectations about how much food you’re going to get!
This was the bun bao taco – a steamed bun with a meaty patty, mango, fried onion, hoisin chilli sauce. It’s not the easiest dish to share, but we did our best. It has a good texture from the crunchy vegetables against the fluffy bun, and the sauce brought a lot of flavour.
Thit Bung is listed in the menu as crispy soy stripes covered in sesame and garlic, and this was not quite what I was picturing. They were quite pleasant, but not exactly what we’d been hoping for.
This again is the secret garden – a wonton filled with tofu and mushrooms, though “filled” is a bit of a generous term, they’re quite sparse. It’s served with guacamole, though most of the bowl pictured here is full of salad and just topped with guacamole. This one falls a bit flat for me, the flavours aren’t amazing though the texture is good.
Here you can see La Lot, which is betel leaves wrapped around tofu and mushrooms. These ones were very tasty and, crucially, very easy to share!
Here’s a similar spread from a previous visit when we did not make note of which dishes we ordered (though some were definitely the same as on our second trip). Everything looks so fresh and inviting! Even though it isn’t overall the tastiest food I’ve had, looking at this picture makes we want to go again, it’s so much fun trying lots of little dishes!
Prague has a lot of vegan options, but one area where it does not thrive is Korean food. So when I’m in other cities I’m always looking for vegan Korean eateries to try, and Feel Seoul Good has become a must-visit in Berlin. While the food itself is excellent, my positive associations with it are helped by the fact that on both of my visits we’ve sat outdoors eating at sunset, enjoying watching life pass us by. But make no mistake: the food is good too!
This pancake is listed as a snack on the menu, so ordering it as a starter is a bit ambitious, though nevertheless I have done it twice. It’s quite a thick pancake but maintains a nice crispness at the edges, and the peanut sauce is really flavoursome. Do bear in mind that this is more of a light meal than a starter.
Dr HH tried the ketchup crunch, which is a very unappetising name to me. The crunch part is the coating of these soy chunks, and they’re sitting a nice spicy sauce. Despite the name, this is a dish that is very much up my street, I love a good mock meat.
On our second visit, Dr HH ordered mandu kimchi for his starter and raved about them. He convinced me to try one, even though I’m not crazy about kimchi. They were indeed fantastic! The flavour wasn’t too fiery, so they were perfect for me. We both ultimately preferred this dish to his previous crunchy starter.
This is certainly one of the wok tossed dishes of noodles, vegetables, soy chunks, and kimchi, though we didn’t make a note of which one of the four. The freshness of the vegetables balances out any oiliness in the dish, and we really enjoyed it.
On our last visit, we ordered the BBQ menu for two, and it was quite the experience! Neither of us had ever had a dish like this before, so we were a bit worried about our ability to cook our own meal at the table – fortunately, the instructions from the waiter were perfect and he came back to check we’d switched everything off properly at the end. We got a plate of noodles, saucy soy meat, and raw veg, and cooked it up at our table.
It took a while, of course, but it was really tasty! And it was a very generous portion, I really didn’t need that pancake beforehand. The meat was the highlight, really saucy and flavoursome.
It was served with pickles and rice, making the meal even heartier. We were absolutely stuffed by the end, but very happy as well. It’s always fun to try a dish that you can’t get locally, and I’m already perusing the menu to see what new dishes we can try next time!
I haven’t had a proper fish and chips for literal decades, so I was thrilled to find a really good vegan version in Manchester. I was also quite shocked to find out how large a serving is! I’ve had vegan fish and chips in restaurants, but it’s usually pretty small pieces and a light smattering of chips. ButOff the Hook in Sale is a proper chippie, doing proper size portions. The vegan option didn’t look notably smaller than the fish one. Rejoice!
Off the Hook is a regular chippie, but with a clearly labelled and separately fried vegan option. The chips are fantastic, as you can see in the picture. The fish is banana blossom with a really good crispy batter without being too oily. In terms of texture, it’s a really good approximation of real fish and chips…to someone who hasn’t had it for almost thirty years. The seasoning is really good and savoury, but it’s not actually particularly fishy. That wasn’t a big problem for me in the end, because the texture was so enjoyable, but it’s worth noting if you are really craving a proper fish substitute. The dish is extremely filling, you might not need an evening meal if you have this at midday.
Dr HH and I frequently reminisce about this place and lament that we haven’t really found anywhere else with such a good option. It’s not a super convenient spot for us to get to now when we’re visiting Manchester (Sale is about 20 minutes from the city centre on a direct tram, for anyone unfamiliar with the area), but it’s worth the effort when the food is this good! As well as the vegan fish and chips, they also have a vegan kebab and vegan burger, but as you can probably tell, I only have eyes for the fish!
As a firm fan of FREA Bakery in Berlin, I was keen to visit their sister establishment, a fine dining restaurant simply called FREA. It is recognised for its sustainable approach, making it somewhere I’m happy to support. There are quite a few all-vegan fine dining places in Berlin these days, but this is the only one I’ve visited so far. Overall, it was a bit of a mixed bag.
Full marks for serving a bread basket though! That is very much the way to my heart. As you’d expect from an establishment connected to a bakery, the bread was fantastic.
Dr HH got the mushroom ceviche for his starter, which listed the promising ingredients fennel, king oyster mushroom, seaweed, and beurre blanc. He loved it, particularly the contrast of the rubbery texture of the mushrooms with the crunch of the fennel. It tasted strongly of the sea, with plenty of dill and seaweed running through it.
This beautiful dish was the panzanella, which I chose for my starter. It continued our tradition of getting really spectacular tomato dishes whenever we go fine dining. It was really tasty, with delicious zingy tomatoes and crunchy croutons.
Dr HH ordered the raviolone for his main, which was an underwhelming pasta and cauliflower dish. He found it both too sweet and too sharp (there was a lemon sauce), just not quite balanced properly. He wasn’t a fan of this one.
My main, simply called eggplant, fared much better. It was bursting with delicious flavours of aubergine, tomato, and basil, and felt quite light but still nice and filling. It looked really attractive and smelled delicious, which also didn’t hurt.
To finish, we both ordered the same dessert, cherries and berries. It didn’t live up to the promise of its name for either of us, unfortunately. The big ball of almond ricotta had quite a dense texture and was not light or creamy as we expected – a bit like marzipan in its texture. The cherry flavour may not actually have been artificial, but it tasted like it, and that is never very enticing to me. It was sitting atop some aubergine cream, which did not taste of aubergine at all and was perfectly unassuming. The fresh fruity flavours were fine, but it was an underwhelming end to the meal for us.
I admire what FREA are aiming for, but they’re not quite at the very top level yet for me. The dishes were a bit hit and miss, and I didn’t love the service – one of the staff asked if I was out of breath on arrival (I was not) and asked later on if I was tired (I was not), which seemed a bit unflattering and unnecessary to me. Nevertheless, we liked their approach to sustainability and seasonal ingredients, and would be willing to give it another go.
The Berlin pastry dream continues! As well as its plethora of vegan doughnuts, Berlin now has enough vegan pastry shops that we couldn’t reasonably visit them all on a quick weekend visit. It’s a tough old life! The Sanctuary is an Italian bakery which is all vegan, and it was really good. The pastries were big and delicious. We were there for opening time on a Sunday morning, and people were queuing out the door within ten minutes – it’s popular, and justifiably so.
Here’s the full counter at opening time – or at least, the sweet side. It seemed like the savoury offerings were a little slower to be brought out, because who wouldn’t want a nice sweet treat to start the day. As you can see, there were lots of tempting bakes to choose from. This is precisely how I like to start my days!
I tried the cannoncino pistachio – a crispy pastry roll filled with pistachio cream, and the girella nocciola, a bigger pastry filled with hazelnut and chocolate cream. Dr HH tried the girella pistachio (as above, but with the pistachio cream inside) and a Danese (blueberry Danish) – he enjoyed the fresh fruit on that one. The creams were all light and flavoursome, and the pastry was very good but not quite the crispest and flakiest we’ve had (even in Berlin). It’s nice to be able to be so discerning about vegan pastries these days! I’ve been vegan for more than ten years now, and agonising over how to rank vegan bakeries is a problem I’m very pleased to have.
We also got some savoury snacks to take away for the bus ride back to Prague. Neither of us could resist the cacio e pepe focaccia, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it kept the flavours of cheese and pepper – I was expecting it to be much milder than it really was. It was a good bake as well. There were quite a few savoury pastries to try, but we were a bit cautious about how they would travel, so this was a safe and convenient option, but I’d like to explore a bit more what they’ve got.
Overall, I found the pastries not quite as good as at FREA Bakery, but still very good indeed. A drawback of The Sanctuary is that there is not a lot of seating, just a couple of tables and seats at a bar, which is quite cramped. Also, in true Italian style, the drinks menu was quite coffee heavy with no chai latte on offer, which is a disappointment for me personally. So you may need to plan to get your goods to go, but you certainly won’t regret a visit.
Herbivores' Heaven 