I’m neither vegan, nor tipsy, most of the time, so I was not sure whether The Tipsy Vegan was for me.
It very much is, if they will have me.
It’s enough to turn you vegan – plates of beautifully cooked and curated food served in a friendly, relaxed, slightly arty atmosphere.
Dishes range from sharing boards through tapas to whole plates. There are even delicious-sounding Sunday roasts.
Keen to get a good range of flavours for a weekday lunch we chose four small dishes and a side dish to share.
The coconut crusted tofu bao were bursting with tofu, cucumber, pickled radish and carrot and chilli mayo, and with two steamed buns per plate were ideal to share. It was hard to believe the splendid arancini cacio e pepe (again two balls so ideal for two sharing) was created without actual dairy cheese, and the shroom pancakes, served with oyster mushrooms, cucumber, spring onion and a clear and stickly sweet plum sauce were no pale imitation of the famous duck dish but a really good alternative. Patatas bravas came with a rich sauce and was, as with everything else, prettily presented.
It looked as if as much thought had gone into the presentation of the food as into all the flavours. As a non-vegan I had wondered whether I would miss the well, creaminess of cream and cheesiness of cheese but I really didn’t. In fact, if I could eat here every day I would have no hesitation in adopting a vegan diet.
My absolute favourite was the spinach and artichoke dip served with pitta chips. Both dip and pitta were warm, and the rich puree of spinach and artichoke was wonderful. My daughter’s top picks were the bao buns, with the arancini a close second. But I think we could have chosen a completely different range of dishes and loved those too.
The desserts are just as imaginative and just as attractive. A coconut panna cotta came adorned with shards and flourishes of chocolate. Canadian butter tart turned out to be a sweetly satisfying concoction of maple syrup, pecan nut and delicate pastry.
I definitely am a Tipsy Vegan type of person. A tiny niggle was the number of words I had to look up including – cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper in Italian) mooli (white radish) baja (cuisine from Mexico and California I think) but I shouldn’t complain at the chance to expand my limited horizons, especially when a delight of plant-based food which is good for me, good for the planet and tastes so good too, is on that horizon.
68-70 St Benedicts Street Norwich, NR2 4AR
