Monday 2 May 2011

VBites

I last visited VBites in April last year and said that I thought it would be a great place to hang out in the summer months. Last year I was too busy in summer to find the time to head back there & by the time I really wanted to go back in September I realised that they had closed for winter. They finally re-opened a few weeks ago & I headed down there on a lovely sunny day last week.

VBites have re-invented themselves over the winter months & are now more of a takeaway with seats inside & out rather than a restaurant-style cafe. I think this change works for the style of food they're serving & I liked the new even more casual atmosphere.

I was very excited to see a Tuna Style Sandwich with Sweetcorn on the new menu. Tuna & sweetcorn was a pre-vegan favourite of mine so of course I had to order it.

Redwood Foods used to make a vegan tuna which I loved & I was pretty upset when it was taken off the shelves a couple of years ago with no explanation. It seems like this is it but changed up a bit to make it even more realistic. It seems more fishy now & it has chunks in it to replicate real tuna. The sandwich comes on delicious wholewheat granary bread & was filled with slices of cucumber & lots of mayo alongside the tuna. It was a really great sandwich, I'll definitely be going back to order it again & I'l probably buy some of the tuna from the Redwood Foods website.

I followed my sandwich with some Chicken Style Nuggets.

I wasn't overly impressed with these, they're the Redwood Foods chicken style pieces breaded & oven baked but as I'm a huge lover of the Fry's chicken nuggets nothing's ever going to live up to those, they're the best. I also had an ice cream which I wasn't in love with, I wasn't planning on having any dessert but as soon as the lady behind the counter informed me that they had my very favourite ice cream flavour, pistachio, I knew I had to try it.

Now the main problem with the ice cream was that it had been in much too cold a freezer meaning that it broke the cone when it was being scooped in there and that it was full of ice crystals; it also seemed quite watery. I'll give their chocolate ice cream a try next time I'm there though because I'm a big ice cream fan & the cone was very good.

Now VBites isn't exactly located IN Brighton, more on the outskirts of Hove just before you get to Portslade so if you're coming down to Brighton for the day maybe bring your bike or consider hopping on a bus if you're starving as it's quite a long walk from the centre of town.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Jojo

    I love reading your blog and wonder if I could ask you a favour? We're coming to Brighton for a couple of days and wonder if you could recommend places to eat - I think we'll spoilt for choice!! We live in the North East and have very, in fact no, choice for vegan places to eat. I am going to read back through the blog and jot some places down so don't worry if you don't have chance but it would be much appreciated. Take care and thanks.

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  2. Gauri Radha गौरी राधा7 May 2011 at 10:32

    It all looks good to me!

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  3. Hi Anonymous! I'd love to help!

    I would definitely suggest that you try to fit in at least two cooked breakfasts whilst you're here, one at the Infinity Cafe & one at WaiKikaMooKau. Lunch options here are great too , I love the buffet at Aloka & if you like curry Iydea are a good bet. If you're lucky they might have their vegan lasagne, it's amazing! WaikikaMooKau are great too, they do an amazing soya and sweet potato burger. If you want to eat somewhere fancy Terre a Terre is fantastic & afternoon tea at the Infinty Cafe's a must. Oooh & desserts at Aloka!

    Writing all that's made me hungry & I hope it was helpful. Feel free to e-mail me using the contact button in my profile if you have any more questions.

    Jojo x

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  4. Hi Jojo

    Many thanks for your help - will certainly go to the places you suggested - can't wait and with a bit of luck the sun will be shining!
    Thanks again.

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  5. I remember the first time I went to Vbites, we walked and walked then walked right past it. It seemed to take forever!
    Can't wait to go back and try the new format.

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  6. Hello!

    Just to inform you, V-bites has more ice cream selections now! They also fixed the problem with the ice cream so it's much, much softer and yummier! I think it's a different brand. You should try the raspberry. it's delish!!

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  7. i'm so so disappointed with v-bites. i went there expecting to find lots of veg-based, inspiring, vegan food, and instead all I found were meat and dairy imitations and hardly a vegetable in sight.

    vegan food should be more pro veg, rather than anti-meat in my opinion, and emphasising how delicious a plant-based diet is surely the best way to promote a vegan diet.

    'chicken-style' nuggets are an embarrassment.

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