vegan / vegan-friendly cafes in Manchester UK

[spike]

So is there actually anywhere decent left in this city of ours? Earth has sadly gone downhill, dough sounds like it's no good any more. Greens is posh, out of the way and not even properly vegetarian -although i suppose they may have sorted that out now.
I still like Cornerhouse, been ere many times and only had the one bad experience. Tampopo's good too but aside from that????
Eighth Day is good in the day, but what about evenings?

[Rochellita]

Just heard that Manchester now has its first Veggie Bar and Bistro http://www.detoxretox.co.uk/ on Mosley Street. It's veggie with vegan options, so let's support it and encourage them to make it even more vegan. There's a launch evening on 3 February starting at 17:00 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157484297633855 if you are on there.

[Hiking Fox]

Aha, you beat me to it!

The chef is a good friend of mine, and has been vegan for many years, so the vegan options are bound to be good.

[spike]

Only just spotted your posts about this place. From the FB page it seems its omnivorous on weekday daytimes and veggie in the evenings and at the weekend. Is that right? Did either of you go there for the opening?

[Rochellita]

It was an omni place but they are now fully veggie. Very nice, fresh food and reasonably priced.

The sticky toffee pudding with thyme custard was gorgeous.

[spike]

It was an omni place but they are now fully veggie. Very nice, fresh food and reasonably priced.

The sticky toffee pudding with thyme custard was gorgeous.

Reasonably priced? You're joking? We were gonna go there this lunch time but their main courses were all at least a tenner! Planning to go back one evening, it looks nice, good for a posh evening meal I hope.

[Rochellita]

The food is really good quality and much of it made from scratch, even things like rosemary flatbread tasted freshly baked and I would expect these prices for a bistro/bar. Two of us shared 3 dishes and a pudding plus tea and coffee and it was £16, it was filling enough. Considering we spent 2 hours hanging out there it was a very good deal!

When I went there they weren't open during lunchtimes yet so you may want to feedback and suggest they offer a cheaper lunchtime option, the clientele and their expectations will be different at that time of day than for a slow dinner or drinks with tapas. Like all small businesses they are probably still finding their feet and I got the feeling that they are quite responsive

[Hiking Fox]

Two of us shared 3 dishes and a pudding plus tea and coffee and it was £16, it was filling enough.

I'd say that's good value for a city centre. Last time I bought two meals, two teas and a shared slice of cake at the Earth Cafe it cost nearly £20. The typical going rate for main meals these days is £7 for cheap shit in pubs from the likes of Brake Brothers to £15 for places like Greens, so £10 for a freshly-prepared meal sounds like a good buy.

[spike]

The food is really good quality and much of it made from scratch, even things like rosemary flatbread tasted freshly baked and I would expect these prices for a bistro/bar. Two of us shared 3 dishes and a pudding plus tea and coffee and it was £16, it was filling enough. Considering we spent 2 hours hanging out there it was a very good deal!

When I went there they weren't open during lunchtimes yet so you may want to feedback and suggest they offer a cheaper lunchtime option, the clientele and their expectations will be different at that time of day than for a slow dinner or drinks with tapas. Like all small businesses they are probably still finding their feet and I got the feeling that they are quite responsive

Hmm. I will investigate further.... I was expecting somewhere like Earth or Oklahoma so was surprised at how swanky it looked. We perused the menu on the door and decided we couldn't justify spending that much. Maybe they have a cheaper menu inside but honestly all you'd have got for £16 based on what was on display was ONE main and ONE pudding, no drinks.

I'd be happy to pay that for a special evening but not Saturday lunchtime. anyway, we are def going to go back there very soon.

I have given up on Earth, went to Oklahoma on sat. Anyone been in Earth lately? 8th day is generally good thought went there for Urbangardener's veganniversay and they'd run out of loads of stuff. Meh.

[Hiking Fox]

Anyone been in Earth lately?

No, the last time I went there they only had about 3 cakes and the one I ordered was very stodgy. The portion size for takeaways had gone down, too. I mainly went there for juices and cheesecake and gave up going cos they never seemed to have it any more. The other cakes just aren't as good.

[Rochellita]

The food quality at Earth is really inconsistent, I was there on Saturday and the food was pretty awful. It's really sad, the location is great and there's not much competition, they really should be doing better.

[Hiking Fox]

Hmm. I will investigate further.... I was expecting somewhere like Earth or Oklahoma so was surprised at how swanky it looked.

Last time I went in Oklahoma, I paid over £5 for a baked sweet potato that was the size of a starter; one of the lettuce leaves in the side salad actually covered it. Did I go on a bad day, or has it really gone downhill?

[Rochellita]

I've never been terribly impressed with Oklahoma and I always feel like some of the staff really think they are doing you a favour by serving you. That's another thing I liked about detoxretox (still think the name is silly), the service was great and they were genuinely interested in feedback and very excited about the food.

[Rach]

Am going to detoxretox next week, sounds like great food! Have never been to Oklahoma.

[spike]

Hmm. I will investigate further.... I was expecting somewhere like Earth or Oklahoma so was surprised at how swanky it looked.

Last time I went in Oklahoma, I paid over £5 for a baked sweet potato that was the size of a starter; one of the lettuce leaves in the side salad actually covered it. Did I go on a bad day, or has it really gone downhill?

I'd say the standard of baked potato you get in there can be variable TBH. Similar with the smoothies. Urbangardener and I both got smoothies on Saturday. Mine was lovely and cold, presumably because the forest fruits had been frozen, Urbangardener's was not quite chilled enough, maybe the soya milk hadn't been in the fridge.

I prefer to go to oklahoma over Earth simply because earth used to be so amazing and I am sick of getting sad by how disappointing it has been on recent visits. I haven't had a nice time in Earth in ages.

Also the atmosphere in Oklahoma is better. It might sound strange but when Earth stopped playing background music it really made a difference to the ambience of the place. I don't ke hearing people on the neighbouring table chewing their food or clattering their cutlery, or pontificating about yoga and silent meditation....