Plantarium Cafe — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

The food here is absolutely delicious - can't fault it. The burgers, shawarma, and toasties are all sublime.

One thing I was deeply saddened about was their decision to serve dairy milk. In the cafe there is an abundance of messaging surrounding the importance of veganism with respect to the rights of animals, including a notice that the establishment is 'vegan because we care'. This simply seems like lip-service as there is a dairy milk option. This seems to disregard the horrendous cruelty involved in the dairy industry. The issue here is the contradictory messaging - even the website says "Animals suffering in...dairy farming...is a fact and we do not want to be a part of that". Why on earth would you serve dairy milk if you are aware of the immorality of the practice? The door even has a 'post milk generation' sticker to signify society moving past the barbaric practices of the dairy industry and yet one of the first things you'll see when you enter is the proudly displayed cow milk option.

I have still given a good review because the food (which is all vegan) is delicious and overall this place is a good advert for vegan food. However, this messaging is a serious problem and undermines the vegan philosophy. I really hope this place can align its ethics and products to become a fully cruelty-free establishment, as it has...

An absolute gem of a find. Fantastic vegan food, lots of choices, quickly served, very reasonable price. We only stayed in Stratford for two days and having eaten here on the first day we came back on the second. If we lived nearer we would be eating here at least weekly.

It looks tiny from the outside and you might think they're full inside but there's more seating upstairs.

We had the shawarma crunch, trip to Mexico, tofu bbq burrito and I don't give a schnitzel. All delicious. And on both days we had the orange hot chocolate which was divine.

Other sites list Plantarium as vegetarian, but all the food is vegan. Maybe it's their offering dairy milk as an alternative to all the plant milks they have that got them the veggie label rather than vegan. It was nice to see the 30p surcharge on the dairy milk instead of the plant milks for a change :)

Highly recommended.

Edit: it's a good indication of how much we like this little restaurant that we decided to return to Stratford Upon Avon in Oct 2024 purely to eat there again. For us it's a 160 mile journey each way. We stayed for 3 days and ate lunch there every day, enjoying the same meals as before but also trying some equally delicious new ones, such as the "cheese omelette". I don't doubt we'll go...

I drove down from Nottingham to visit the Plantarium Café. After circling the town trying to find parking and putting £14 in the meter, I finally arrived — only to find a ‘closed’ sign on the door and a note saying they’re shut until 4th July for a summer break.

I’d checked HappyCow before setting off — it said they were open. I also checked their Facebook and Instagram accounts, both of which had recent posts and listed them as open today. No mention anywhere about a summer closure.

A quick update on social media would’ve saved a wasted trip. The lack of communication to me shows little regard for customers — especially those who’ve travelled to visit and support them.

Edit: thanks for the truly awful response. You post on social media on the 18th May that you’re opening a little later due to maintenance, but make no mention of closing for a week! Honestly it would have taken one minute to post across Facebook and Instagram, really not that big an ask and didn’t your four thousand followers deserve...