Vegivores — Restaurant in Reading

Vegivores is a lovely versatile restaurant [and make great birthday cakes to order] - and not just for vegans. I've lived in the area for nearly 5 years and I've turned up my nose at vegivores for over 3 of them. The menu didn't look exiting to me as a happy meat eater. Love my steaks, burgers etc. Then, January 2024, we did Veganuary, so we tried them. And regret hit me. Why did we not try it sooner? Why did I think it wouldn't be good when every weekend it is packed?

This restaurant is fantastic. Every dish is nice. We know this, because we tried pretty much every dish on the menu since. And it's healthy. This is not vegan junk food full of processed nasties and fake meats. It's vegan wholefood plant based.

We all love it, including my children [10 & 15 now]. My 10 year old loves the 'boss' bowl'. My 15 year old loves the drunken tofu knots and the burrito. My favourite is the Hey Maccarito [+ jalapenos]! which is a burrito with their mac and cheese filling instead of rice. Their gnocchi are amazing and so are all their salads. You choose where you want to be on the scale of indulgent to A+ for health. There's affordable good vegetable sides [the broccoli or the medley] to mix it up.

After Veganuary, we stayed vegan and so we frequent this place fortnightly on average. Either by eating in, or by getting take out [Hey Maccarito for me...]. We go there with plenty of non-vegans who really rate the food, but given meat is not a distant memory to me and I used to really enjoy my meat, I think I'm a fairly good judge.

This year, we started ordering birthday cakes and once you start, everyone wants one for their birthday. The pic is a biscoff cake. It's a large cake so that served probably...12-18 It's my turn next and I can't wait to discuss my 'requirements' with them and see how they...

Seriously good!!!! We went (2 of us) for the first time to vegivores on a rainy stormy Saturday evening, no reservation and just dropped on in.

We were greeted with a big hello and welcome that instantly put us at ease. We were seated and the server explained the menu and drinks. I cannot fault the first impression and service. Down to earth, positive, calming and very welcoming like visiting an old friend.

We ordered our food and drink and made some decisions based on the servers recommendation. We ordered a selection of small plates and mains to try a bit of everything.

Drinks top notch a lovely selection of vegan wines, cocktails, cocktails and kombucha. Always a great way to start dinner. We opted for kombucha and a mocktail.

Food came and OMG!!! Beautiful presented and full of flavour. The food is nutritious but so tasty!!! We were blown away! The dhal is INSANELY gooood! We had the crispy gnocchi, smashed peas with butter beans, Mac and cheese and the dhal. An explosion of flavour and textures. Do not let the descriptions fool you these dishes and packed with loads of goodness, flavour and care!!!

We paid around £30 each for dinner which is the right price. We shall be back to try more and next time we shall withhold from driving.

The server was at the top of their game balancing other tables, the bar and orders for delivery. Seems the home delivery side has good traction here but we would recommend eating in.

Chef! You’re ace!!! Big credit to you for dinner. Thoroughly enjoyed and defo will be back.

Worth a...

Went here today with my daughter and her partner. I’m not veggie but they are and I had heard such good things. Firstly let me say when the food came up it looked and tasted amazing, well that was until I found a hair in my mouth from the mushrooms. I didn’t want to make a fuss especially as it’s a small new business, so went up discreetly to the waitress and showed her the hair. She looked at it and said oh it’s definitely not yours can I get you something else? By then I had lost my appetite, so she said she would take it off the bill and would come and remove my plate. I must admit I did expect then for a manager to come over and apologise. Instead absolutely nothing happened, my plate wasn’t removed, in fact 30 mins later all our plates were still there and no one even came over to ask if we wanted desserts. We decided to leave and in paying the bill I did ask to see a manager. Well that was an eye opener, no apology and said well you were offered an alternative dish and said you didn’t want to make a fuss. His attitude left so much to be desired! So much so in the end I said I’m leaving as I’m getting no where here. All I can say is if that is how the manager thinks his customers deserve to be treated I can’t see this restaurant lasting. It’s a shame as even given the hair had I received a proper apology I would have returned but being treated so badly by a manager over something that was the restaurant’s issue makes me never want to set foot in there again! Ps may I suggest that the chefs wear hair nets...