Vegan India, Gloucester Road: ‘A flavoursome rollercoaster of plant-based cuisine’ – Restaurant review

Vegan India is the latest venture of Tikka Express, an Indian takeaway in Easton. The company’s original venue on Stapleton Road specialises in authentic Indian Bangladeshi curry.

The dishes at Vegan India promise to be completely plant-based, something traditional Indian cuisine is particularly good at, so we were excited to see what more a specialist Vegan Indian could offer.

The Gloucester Road restaurant is modest but charming, with rows of diners and a special table in the front window resembling an old cart over which hangs a plastic cascade of pink blossom.

It seemed this was our table for the evening, and we were pleasantly surprised to be offered the best seat in the house.

Our waiter rushed over to us to ask if we wanted drinks and poppadoms, to which we said yes to both. The restaurant is BYOB, but there is a selection of soft drinks to choose from.

We opted for a Mango lassi each, but soon brought a bottle of wine from the Tesco next door when we realised it might be best not to consume a stomach-filling desert before we had even ordered our food.

We held off on the overwhelmingly large glass of Mango Lassi to save space for our mains – photo: Mia Vines Booth

The menu is extensive, with a huge selection of classical items that can be remixed with different meat alternatives such as vegan chicken, lamb, beef and even shrimp.

We were keen to try a selection of different meat alternatives, so opted for the most outlandish we could find: vegan no beef steak chaat (£5.95), vegan shrimp puri (£5.99), vegan delights (£7.95) with vegan lamb (£2.99), vegan korai (£7.95) with vegan no chicken (£3) and vegan bhuna (5.95) with vegan no chicken (£3).

We also ordered a vegan garlic naan and some pilau rice, after being told by our waiter that we had probably ordered enough – we were clearly the hungriest customers he had served.

The beef chaat and shrimp puri came first. The vegan beef looked and tasted more like lamb, which was a welcome surprise as the minced texture worked well with the chaat flavours.

If Vegan India taught us anything, its that there are certain meats that don’t need to be made vegan – photo: Mia Vines Booth

The vegan shrimp was less inviting – a texture it’s safe to say may be the hardest in the animal kingdom to recreate. The rubbery, gelatinous texture was hard to ignore, despite the rich flavouring and fresh salad.

The vegan delights, vegan lamb and vegan korai came next, all of a similar colour variation.

The flavours were again rich, but intriguingly similar. In Vegan India’s defence, we had only ourselves to blame for ordering dishes that all contained the same basic ingredients. But to a layman’s eye, it would have been hard to tell the difference between the three dishes, apart from a decadently chiselled tomato sitting atop the bhuna.

A game of spot the difference – photo: Mia Vines Booth

We were uncomfortably full by the end, satiated by the glutenous protein-packed meat alternatives packed into every dish. We accepted our fate as we finished off our Mango Lassis, sensibly saved until after our mains.

As we sat back to take in our food, the landlord of the restaurant bumbled out of the restaurant with his family, slapping the waiters on the back and praising their hard work at the establishment.

The evening offered a rollercoaster of questionable meat alternatives, made up for by delicious flavours. Vegan India is perhaps an important reminder that not all meats should be made vegan.

Like the landlord, I’m sure I’ll return to Vegan India, in the same way I would return to my usual Indian takeaway or curry house, but perhaps without the vegan shrimp.

Vegan India, 189 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8BG
www.veganindia.co.uk

All photos: Mia Vines Booth

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