The Allotment Vegan & Vegetarian Eatery — Restaurant in Manchester

Decided to book here for my partner’s birthday as he is vegan so naturally we were excited. I read some mixed reviews so maybe wasn’t expecting…the most amazing vegan food ever but at least expecting the bare minimum of a pleasant dining experience.

We arrived and there were 3 staff in a smallish restaurants who could clear see us and we could see our table but it took AGES for us to be seated despite our reservation. They clearly saw us and we we were waiting for a while even the customers were looking up at us. Eventually they took our name. Even after this it still took a while to be seated. We could even see our table was clearly empty and we might as well have seated ourselves. Eventually we were seated with not even an apology for waiting. But nonetheless we were still trying to remain positive.

The manager gave us our menus and said he’d give us a few minutes before asking about drinks It took at least 10-15 minutes to be asked for our order, eventually the waitress came to ask for our food order to which I replied “please can we at least order some drinks first? “ she clearly looked embarrassed and it wasn’t her fault. Just bad management.

The wine took a while to land on our table and our water was forgotten. The wine glasses were also so dirty but we didn’t want to be those people and I feel like the waitress already felt bad for us. Thank god the wine was delicious though! I would recommend the primitivo! And That was probably the only good thing about this place.

The starters were average and overpriced. You have better vegan food options at establishments that aren’t even catering to them. But the worst bit was the main. The jackfruit tacos was mainly bean and little bit of jackfruit and the taco shell tasted stale and exactly like they were from old El Paso.

But this didn’t compare to the tofu ham that my poor partner was served. We’ve never sent food back even when having below average food in the past but this was basically a disgrace and should never have left the kitchen.

The winter vegetables that were described were literally just sad Brussels sprouts. I’m not kidding. Not even carrots, or any other veg. If it’s gonna be Brussels sprouts then don’t say “winter vegetables” so we know not to order this. The caramelised onion mash had no caramelised onion in it or softness to it and was the worst mash we’d ever seen. And the tofu ham was basically a big block of tofu with no marinade or maple taste that was described on the menu. Not to mention we were convinced the roast potatoes were frozen aunt Bessie’s. I had to give my partner my tacos because at least they were edible and enjoyable. We tried to give the tofu ham a go, bless him my partner kept trying but my partner was so shocked and amazed we just unfortunately had to send it back as it was not edible.

Please note we didn’t enjoy any bit of making the staff feel bad or the awkwardness of this whole experience. Even if the main wasn’t amazing but edible that would have been fine. This dish shouldn’t be on the menu and the description shouldn’t be a lie of what it actually is. I really think the chef needs to rethink his dishes and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t even vegan.

Also to top it off, we were seated right near the toilet. Literally about a metre away was the door to the individual toilet. If you can hear people flushing and doing their business in a restaurant that's not okay.

Thankfully the manager and staff were nice despite the slow service and lack of urgency. The manager did adjust our bill and apologised and the staff all seemed lovely but overall I wouldn’t ever recommend this place to anyone and it’s just a shame as it’s supposed to be representation of vegan food and ambassador...

After hearing so many good things about this place my wait to visit felt like the longest wait in history. Finally I was able to visit, I was so excited to taste what all the hype was about!

Upon entering the place is beautifully decorated and I received a warm welcome on entrance. It's Sunday afternoon so I did expect a little more diners than just the 6 or so that filled the place. I ordered the Sunday tofu steak dinner and I literally couldn't wait to finally dig my knife and fork in to what was anticipated to be some of the best vegan food in Manchester.

The meal arrived and my first initial reaction was how shocked I was at the small portion size given the hefty £15 price tag. It comprised of a small thick skinned gloopy luke warm side of gravy, which you could tip upsidedown over your head and be confident it would remain in the pot. One hot stuffing ball, a few cold roast potatoes that felt as if you were chewing a car tyre, they looked and tasted as if they had been left hours on a plate by a previous diner, a few cold parsnips and thankfully, a very nice tofu steak. Me and my guest were shocked at just how bad the food was. With embarrassement I explained to the staff just how bad the food was and how dissatisfied we were, given we had heard so many great things, and, not to mention the £15 price tag.

Hoping dessert would reclaim some of the allotments credibility, I ordered sticky toffee pudding and my guest a hazelnut slice. My first reaction to dessert meant having to consider using a knife and fork to cut up my cake, I new this was going to be another disaster. I started to chew, and chew and chew and chew, wondering if this was ever going to end. The cake had been over microwaved and resembled that of old stale chewing gum. Once again, completely embarrassed, I had to return the food I explained the issue and was told they would take it off the bill as that was the last sticky toffee pudding, no mention of replacing with an alternative dessert. I felt completely disregarded and shrugged off. My guests dessert was beautiful.

So considering my first (and last) visit was a complete disaster, you would of assumed that a % of the bill from my main would of reduced, or at the very least, an apology. Well, I received neither. They took off the price of my friends dessert, why? I don't know, because we payed seperately so this had no reconciliación toward my experience whatsoever. I left feeling ripped off and completely disregarded as a guest in their restaurant

I do hope the customer service and food quality I received is not regular practice as I wouldn't expect it to be open for much longer if...

My partner and I are both vegan, and we love to see a fully vegan place so we were excited to come here. Whilst I appreciate what they are trying to do here, sadly I don’t think it does anything for veganism or vegans, because it is neither interesting enough to convert non-vegans to trying something new, nor tasty enough to please anyone who actually is vegan. I got the impression it was vegan food made by someone who has never eaten plant-based in their life. We should’ve been warned by the drink really… I ordered the Sparkling Chia Kombucha, and to be fair it was exactly what it said on the menu… but not in the good way. I received a glass of watered down kombucha, with blueberries and raw chia seeds floating in the top. The blueberries imparted zero flavour because they hadn’t been muddled at all and the chia seeds were, well, crunchy still. I cannot describe how underwhelming and disappointing I found this, as someone who has been a bartender, and it wasn’t cheap at £6.50! I wish we’d have upped sticks at this point, but we’d ordered food so we were locked in. I ordered the Buddha Bowl and my partner had Jackfruit Tacos. Both were tiny portions priced royally at £16 each. Mine consisted of a small amount of unseasoned quinoa, 4-5 tiny chunks of overly salty tofu (which were meant to be satay but resembled nothing of the sort), some rocket and what seemed like pickled onion and pickled cabbage from jars. There was some kind of creamy looking sauce drizzled on, but it didn’t have enough flavour to compete with the pickled veg which had the most flavour of the whole dish, meaning vinegar worked harder than the chef on this dish. My partner’s tacos were bland, stale and meagre. The whole meal had neither quality, nor quantity and we left having to go to the shops for a snack… I will say that, although for most of the meal we felt the service was inattentive (there were 2 servers for only around 6 tables seated in a tiny restaurant and half the time we didn’t even know where they were), our server was very friendly and sweet and did ask for honest feedback, which we appreciated, although it had no impact on the hefty price tag of our final bill. I’m sad to say, I found no redeeming features in this restaurant, from the fake foliage, to the, frankly, odd drinks, to the underwhelming food. You’re on the right lines, but there’s a lot of work to do here. I hope you can build on the foundations, but as it stands I wouldn’t recommend it as we felt it was a complete...