1847 Vegetarian Bistro - Review

Yesterday, I went to Manchester with my Italian friend. The only reason we went to Manchester was to facilitate the Italian’s life-affirming crusade to finally visit the Nespresso shrine, sorry, shop, in the Trafford Centre. Being Italian, the Italian is obsessed with coffee and, although you can order espresso capsules online, when you have obsessions with things, you make pilgrimages.

Shopping is one of my most hated “pastimes” and calling it a pastime is offensive to real pastimes like painting and crosswords because shopping doesn’t pass time for me; it makes time ground to a halt and causes me to slowly retreat into a parallel universe where Forever 21 is where you stay 21 forever and people queuing outside Starbucks only ever associate the brand with Kelly Oxford’s abortion joke: if men could get pregnant, every Starbucks would have an abortion clinic in the back. Sadly though, this remarkable universe either doesn’t exist or will not admit me and so back on Earth, I will only do shopping on the condition that I have been fully fuelled beforehand.

Luckily, the Italian (who is a fellow vegetarian) was willing to go wild and have a three-course meal for lunch, in order to prepare for our road trip to hell.

We decided to go to a vegetarian place in the centre of town called 1847. It only serves veggie stuff but also caters for vegans. It’s the kind of place that causes vegetarians to mistakenly believe “even a meat eater would enjoy it here!” and there is no reason why they wouldn’t. However, most meat eaters I know would not consider a purely vegetarian restaurant because they really like meat.

If you’re a veggie though, this is heaven! You can actually consider what you would like to eat, as opposed to automatically plumping for the only suitable dish on the menu. You don’t have to ask any awkward questions: Gelatine? Parmesan? No worries here!

The restaurant is a bit hidden. You walk down Mosley Street and arrive at 58, with no clues as to where the restaurant is. The Italian said that this had happened to her somewhere in Brussels – she had turned up to a restaurant, only to find that it had closed - and I thought what a ridiculous website, letting us book when there was no restaurant any more. We were a bit sad and I reflected on the situation: “Woody Allen was right; life IS made up of the horrible and the miserable! Shopping is horrible and no restaurant is miserable!” But Woody hasn’t been to Manchester because this was merely a test designed to test, well, I’m not sure! The test didn’t matter because the restaurant existed, just off Mosley Street!

The bistro itself is fairly small, in a nice boxy, modern sort of way. The tables all look very ethical, with a variation of ethical seats including benches with cushions on, which is very ethical.

We shamelessly ate the evening deal for lunch, which comprised of 3 courses for £15. The deal isn’t usually valid at lunchtime because who the hell would want to eat three courses at lunch? Yeah, who would?! For more adjusted people, there is a lunchtime deal which includes any main course and a glass of wine for £10 – very palatable.

If you are a massive pig like me, you can enjoy the evening meal at lunchtime by typing in this exclusive code that the lovely guys at 1847 have kindly provided to Mean Muncher readers, which is HA HA, who am I kidding? Just book it on the website – anyone can! There is no secret!

So, the foooood. Oh wow, the food. I know it’s such a dickhead thing to do – to take pictures of your food but I never said I wasn’t a dickhead.

The starters: I had the carpaccio of beetroot with red stem radish, feta salad and harissa dressing, which is gluten free as standard and also has the option to go vegan (presumably without the feta). It was a delight – everything a starter should be – light, tasty and perfect.

Carpaccio of beetroot with red stem radish, feta salad and harissa dressing

 The Italian had jalapeno cheddar cakes with soured cream dip and chive oil, which is not gluten free and not suitable for vegans. The Italian seemed to enjoy her starter.

 Jalapeno cheddar cakes with soured cream dip and chive oil

 Then I had possibly the most badass veggie meal that has been invented: battered halloumi or tofu (I had halloumi, obviously) with hand cut chips, homemade tartar sauce, pea puree, shoots and lemon vinaigrette. This has a vegan option (the tofu, presumably) and a gluten free option.

Battered halloumi or tofu (I had halloumi, obviously) with hand cut chips, homemade tartar sauce, pea puree, shoots and lemon vinaigrette

 It’s essentially veggie fish and chips, replacing the fish with cheese. The only saving grace health-wise with fish and chips is that there is a bit of fish, which is fairly good for you. My mind explodes when I think that regular fish and chips is the healthy version of this meal. It’s the kind of meal that would enable you to become the first vegetarian contestant on Britain’s Biggest Loser.

They’re not shy with portions either; I’m pretty sure I have a block of battered halloumi enjoying life as a stomach tenant right now, and lying in bed last night I mulled over the idea of calling 999 to request an urgent non-alcoholic stomach pump. Whilst recovering from the procedure, I would set up an Amazon store selling a never-ending supply of salty, stomach-decanted cooking oil. It was worth it though. So, so worth it.

Look! It looks like fish and chips!

 The Italian was much more sensible and had a rich and creamy asparagus, pine nut and spinach farfalle topped off with a freshly poached egg (not vegan and not gluten free). The waiter informed us that the farfelle would be replaced with different pasta and as an Italian, she could probably tell some sort of difference. 

Asparagus, pine nut and spinach non-farfalle topped off with a freshly poached egg

 And finally, we ordered two different desserts to share between us: vegan chocolate tart with pouring soya cream and warm hemp and apple muffins, green apple sorbet. Both were delicious and astoundingly, both were vegan! Chocolate, pastry, sorbet! VEGAN? The tart was beyond good and the sorbet was almost of a marshmallow consistency, strange but wonderful.

Apple and hemp muffins with apple sorbet

Vegan chocolate tart with soya cream

If you’re a vegetarian, go here and if you are not a vegetarian but you know a vegetarian, go and make their life and take them here. It’s the best veggie restaurant I have ever been to.

The full menu, various deals and more information all available on the website.

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