Vegan Vox Reviews...RAW at La Suite West, London

Recently, I went on a short break to London, and whilst there I booked me and Mr Vox in for a vegan afternoon tea at RAW at La Suite West. The restaurant is an all vegan, mainly raw restaurant in a boutique hotel near Hyde Park. The standard of food and presentation was excellent. The attention to detail and service was great too. We booked ahead online and paid £15 each for our afternoon tea.

Here is the menu, we had three food courses and a selection of teas, coffees or sparkling water to drink.

The first course was a selection of gourmet finger sandwiches:

Then the waiter asked us which was our favourite sandwich and brought us an extra individual sandwich in that variety. My favourite was the mushroom and pesto.

Next we had warm scones with strawberries, jam and freshly whipped coconut cream. I do not have the words to describe these delights. Just go and try them!

Our final course was a trio of mini desserts. A chocolate and coconut raw cake, a sesame halva and a lemon chocolate raw cheesecake. These desserts were very rich, I couldn't finish them all but each one was so delicious.

The restaurant itself was very secluded at lunchtime and peaceful, well decorated with a great ambiance. The waiter service was second to none. We would definitely return, maybe for an evening meal next time.

Do you know anywhere else serving an all vegan afternoon tea? Give me your recommendations in the comments below. Have you been to RAW? What did you think?

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...222 Veggie Vegan Restaurant - London

I visited this restaurant in Kensington, London last year before I started this blog and therefore do not have any photos of my food for you. However, I had such a great meal and experience that I wanted to review it for you anyway.

222 Veggie Vegan was my first ever visit to an all vegetarian restaurant. We visited at lunchtime for the buffet and I'm so glad I did. Everything on the lunchtime buffet was vegan with half of the dishes raw and gluten-free too.

The lunch buffet is great value for money, with an all you can eat sit in meal for £7.50 or a take out box for £5.50. I tried some of every option on the buffet - there was stir fry, noodles, salads, curry and rice.

I washed it down with a glass of organic agave-sweetened cola. All of the food is low fat, low salt, non-GMO, contains no artificial ingredients and is organic. They had clear labels on gluten-free and wheat-free options. They will make up allergy free specials on request and they had a hot soup and fresh bread option at lunch as well.

222 is a small restaurant but it wasn't overly busy when we visited. I have heard that it can get very busy in the evenings when they offer the full menu which is available to look at here.

The chef, Ben has been a vegan for a long time and is committed to great, healthy, vegan freshly cooked food - no frying or microwaves allowed!

The buffet is served 12-15:30 and dinner 17:30-22:30.

You can find 222 Veggie Vegan at:

222 Veggie Vegan Restaurant

222 North End Road

West Kensington

London W14 9NU

It is a few minutes walk from West Kensington and West Brompton underground stations. I can't wait to go back in the evening and try the a la carte menu, I've heard on the vegan grapevine that the burger is amazing! Lunch Buffet 5/5.

What are your recommendations for great value tasty vegan lunch restaurants? Comment below and let me know.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - Nakd Bars - raw vegan snack bars

This week on TOV, I'm talking all about Nakd Bars. These bars have really taken off recently and you can find them for sale almost everywhere, which is great news for vegans and raw vegans alike! I have seen them for sale at supermarkets, newsagents, department stores, health food stores, online retailers, direct online and at discount stores.

They are at all of the vegan expos and shows, and have fab taster counters where they have literally thousands of bars cut up for you to try in all of their flavours. My favourite flavour of the moment is Ginger Bread, but they have lots of different flavours including mint, mocha, banana, berry and many more.

They are made by Natural Balance Foods, which also make Nakd Protein Bars, Oatie Bars, Infused Raisins, Trek Protein Bars and Trek Protein Flapjacks.

Here's what their website has to say about Nakd Raw Bars...

Our simplest and most beloved bars. Just raw fruits and nuts smooshed together. Containing 100% natural ingredients with no added sugars or syrups,  these bars are also wheat, dairy and gluten free, and bursting with yummy goodness. With a soft, chewy texture they fill you up till your next meal and most count towards 1 of your 5 a day too. Ideal for lunchboxes, grabbing on the go and refuelling between meals!

So if you haven't tried these bars yet, go grab a couple. They are filling, tasty, healthy, vegan, gluten and wheat free, raw, made of fruit and fab! They retail for between 75-99p.

Come back tomorrow for my next Vegan Recipe of the Week!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Travels..to Manchester, UK.

Last week I reviewed the fabulous V Revolution in Manchester and promised to highlight some of the other vegan friendly places I visited whilst in the city. So this week 'Vegan Vox Reviews...' becomes 'Vegan Vox Travels...' as I will give you a guide to vegan goodies I purchased and where I purchased them from in Manchester.

We started off our day in Manchester in and around the Arndale Centre. Whilst a very typical large city centre shopping mall, there was a couple of places which piqued my interest. The first was an old fashioned sweet shop called A Quarter of Sweets selling jars of sweets, retro sweets and international sweet brands. Now, sweets are something that can be difficult for us vegans as there are lots of animal by-products used in sweets for colouring and gelling. This sweet shop has catered for us though by sticking V stickers on all jars which are vegetarian and having ingredient list labels on all jars too. This made it really easy to check which sweets were suitable and not have to walk away because I can't be sure which sweets are vegan. Success! I bought some super sour cherry sweets and super sour apple sweets.

Next, me and Mr Vox walked along the main high street and into a newly refurbished branch of Holland and Barrett. This was a super-sized branch with its own pick and mix seeds and nuts, a jelly bean bar full of vegan friendly varieties - no gelatine in sight - and an oil and vinegar counter where you can decant your own. There were lots of fridges and freezers stocking the usual vegan 'meats' and 'cheeses' and ready meals too. I bought some Vegideli Mince from here for my Vegan Vox Lasagne recipe.

Our next port of call was the Northern Quarter - full of quirky stores selling fashion, music, art, accessories and a host of coffee shops and cafes. We stopped off for a quick drink at Home Sweet Home, a cool retro coffee shop which sells veggie full English breakfasts, and browsed around all of the lovely independent stores including the wonderful Afflecks. The cafe on the top floor of Afflecks also has a veggie breakfast option.

After stopping for our lunch at V Revolution, which I reviewed last week (click here) we wandered down towards the Metropolitan University Campus and to Eighth Day Co-Op, which is an all-vegetarian health food store, cafe and take away.

There were lots of gorgeous treats in here for me to purchase and eat. Unfortunately, as we had not long had lunch, we didn't try the cafe but me and Mr Vox went on a snack mission and bought some yummy treats instead which we could take back with us.

As you can see from these photos, we had a huge choice and they stocked a wide range of whole foods, canned goods, fresh food, pastries, dairy replacements, ready meals and snacks. This is what I ended up purchasing.

We sat on the grass in the park opposite the shop and shared the Booja-Booja Chocolate Vegan Ice-Cream which was so good, I wish I could have took some home with me. I also took home some Cofresh lentil chips, Mini-Moos rice milk mint chocolate bar, a Nakd Ginger Bread raw bar and some Whole Earth organic lemonade. A good shopping experience but as the store was vegetarian and not vegan, I still had to check labels and make sure what I was buying was suitable.

This led us onto our final stop for the day which was a few miles out of the city centre into Chorlton and to the wonderfully named Unicorn Grocery - an all vegan wholefood co-op! I loved Unicorn so much  am going to dedicate an entire post to it next week, but here are a sample of the treats which I purchased there:

Overall, I had a great day out in Manchester visiting some of the vegan shops and restaurants. I wish I could have stayed longer as there were many more places I wanted to try out. I guess I'll have to save those until next time. I love you Manchester!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx