Category: Cafe / Restaurant reviews

https://www.theflyingduck.org

142 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3AU

If you’re planning a trip to Cineworld in Glasgow city centre, and you feel a bit peckish before or after the film, head to The Flying Duck – it’s a stones throw away from the cinema. Go down the steps into their dark, softly lit basement bar and venture into the cave of the seitan masters. 

Now seitan is a difficult thing to get right, but if it’s done properly, boy is it tasty. Seitan is made from wheat gluten. In the wrong hands it can be like chewing on a piece of old rubber. Thankfully, The Flying Duck know what they’re doing with the stuff and their burgers are definitely the best (unless you have gluten intolerance). Don’t worry, they also have burgers made from jackfruit and beans etc. I would prefer if they offered homemade chips with the skins on, but this is a minor quibble when their burgers are this good. 

And after a satisfying burger frenzy, treat yourself to the chocolate brownies. We felt obliged to quickly wolf them down in order to prove how lovely they were. Nuff said.

665 Great Western Road

Glasgow G12 8RE

https://loopandscoop.com/ice-cream-menu/

https://www.facebook.com/loopandscoop

Ice cream parlours used to be as attractive to vegans as getting a pin in your eye. They were places we just had to walk on by. They were dead to us. Well, not anymore. Loop & Scoop have come to our frosty rescue.

They are the first ice cream and churro bar in the UK and their parlour is a bright, welcoming space with plenty of seats upstairs in a mezzanine area. More importantly, they always have SIX different vegan ice creams and/or sorbets on offer at any one time. These are kept in a separate freezer on their own (directly opposite the window) and away from the milky stuff. Just ask the staff and they’ll direct you to heaven. 

The churros (a fried dough pastry) are vegan anyway, but Loop & Scoop make them soft and doughy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I personally recommend the Vegan Choconut loop and scoop: a large hot churro covered in dark chocolate glaze with chopped nuts and two ice cream scoops of your choice. It’s your pot luck which flavours are available on the day but the Biscoff, Turkish Delight and Dark Chocolate are really top notch and they’re very generous with their scoop sizes too. What more can I say?

98 Bellgrove St, Glasgow, G31 1AA

https://www.rawnchy.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/rawnchydesserts/

Please Note: Rawnchy has now closed the cafe/shop at Georges Cross and moved to Dennistoun in the east end of Glasgow.

Just in case you miss the odd Twix, Bounty or Snickers bar have no fear. A little café called Rawnchy at Georges Cross makes the vegan equivalents and much, much more. They also create raw vegan cheesecakes and usually have a choice of at least three whenever we’ve been there. You can order some for special occasions too. All these treats are made with wholesome ingredients and the owner now sells her wares in Edinburgh and the west coast (see stockists on the website). Have a rose, lavender or turmeric latte to wash it all down with. See the photo if you don’t believe me.

This cute little café has soft glowing fairy lights with lush green plants hanging from numerous shelves, and on rainy afternoons in Glasgow, it feels dreamy and slightly otherworldly, or maybe that’s just the healthy sugar talking as it courses through my veins.

https://www.facebook.com/The-Cake-Fridge-Shetland-1930633410580496/

On a pleasant green hillside with wild flowers blooming all around, there resides The Cake Fridge & Tea Room on the west coast of the Shetland mainland. Newly opened, it’s an old croft house sympathetically converted into a beautiful tearoom that has VEGAN FOOD AND CAKES. Just thought I’d highlight that important point.

In the tearoom they offer freshly made vegan cheese sandwiches, a good selection of quality teas and their own ground coffee served in cafetieres so you get more than one cup’s worth – my kind of place. We opted to sample some of the vegan cakes made daily on the premises. Both chocolate and toffee cake looked so good we wanted a taste of each as demonstrated in the photo. These cakes satisfied my sweet tooth no end.

They also have a 24-hour cake fridge outside the tearoom. People passing by can stop and pick up some homemade cakes on their way home and leave the money in an honesty box – the beauty of island life. I guess you’re beginning to understand that Shetlanders love their fancies.

Nearby is the waterfall at the Burn of Lunklet (well worth a visit).

In a little field, just by the tearoom, are two bonny little goats so stop and say hello. But be warned, the sweetie pie below is the friendly one. The other goat is a grumpy so-and-so.

607 Pollokshaws Road, Queens Park, Glasgow G41 2QG

Tel: 0141 423 8222

https://www.instagram.com/ranjitskitchen/

Ranjit’s Kitchen is something of an institution in Glasgow’s south side. The head chef is Ranjit herself who creates the authentic taste of the Panjab and brings it to us in an informal and wholesome way. There is always a new daily sabji (curry) and daal to try, accompanied by two rotis (no rice), as this is the tradition for the region. We always choose one of each and Rooting Aboot suggests you order the special pakora because it’s the best in Glasgow. Tell me if I’m wrong.

You can’t book in advance, which is no bad thing. The restaurant has four long wooden tables and you just sit down when space becomes available. As a result, customers don’t hog them or linger too long when it gets really busy. Everyone just eats, enjoys the food and kindly vacates to let others do the same. They don’t sell alcohol, so this place is a bam-free zone.

They updated the menu to clearly show what’s vegan and vegetarian. Oh, and it’s cheap as chips too, which makes Ranjit’s such a winner in my book. 

494 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G11 6SL

Tel: 0141 339 9331

New kid on the vegetable chopping block is Asian fusion restaurant Suissi. Rooting Aboot was very excited upon reading their menu and headed to Partick to give it the once over. They use Facebook to advertise. Their menus can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/suissiveganasiankitchen/menu/

The main restaurant at the back of the premises is a smart, private and very traditional looking Chinese style restaurant. For starters we tried the crispy vegetable wonton, satay skewers and fried vegetable gyoza. We were blown away at the beautiful presentation. They tasted just as good as they looked, with a good combination of heat, sweet and salty to satisfy.

It’s also a great idea to let customers choose their preferred noodle and soup base combo. We had vermicelli spicy sour and ramen laksa. Both bowls contained green beans, tofu, spring onions and two crispy vegetable wontons. Very good value for money and incredibly tasty. It will take dedicated perseverance to get bored of Suissi’s soup based noodles.

Their banana pancakes rounded off a very enjoyable first trip to Suissi. We’ll be back. That’s a promise, by the way.