The Grapevine Great British where to eat vegetarian restaurant guide

The Grapevine Great British Where to Eat Vegetarian Restaurant Guide. Daryl Burton.  Grapevine Guides, 392pp, pbk, £9-95. (Available from all major bookshops or direct from www.grapevineguides.co.uk.)

A lengthy title befits this substantial guide to more than 500 eating places catering for vegetarians and vegans in mainland Britain. The layout is straightforward, with one or two entries per page, essential information (address and telephone number, opening times, etc) at the side of the page with a brief description of the establishment (usually including a guide to vegan dishes served) beneath its name.  Using black print on a yellow background works well, but the white-on-yellow characterisation of each establishment (e.g. omnivorous restaurant, vegetarian café) is hard to read, especially in artificial light.  The entries are arranged by English county, roughly south to north, followed by London, Scotland and Wales, with maps at the beginning of each section.  Unusually, the guide is completely free of advertisements, so there’s no padding here, entries being chosen or merit rather than buying power.  However, although “the help and goodwill of vegetarians the length and breadth of the UK” (including the reviewer) is acknowledged, the guide does not even list national vegetarian organisations, let alone local ones.  This is a disappointing omission as local vegetarian groups can often ‘fill in the gaps’ left by national guides such as this one.

Oxfordshire has ten entries in the guide, all except Tiffins Tandoori in Kidlington being in Oxford itself.  The county’s two vegetarian eating places – The Magic Café and The Garden Kitchen at the Gardeners Arms – are listed, along with Alpha Bar, Bar Meze, Chiang Mai Kitchen, Hajduczek, Hi-Lo Jamaican Eating House, The Nosebag and The Pink Giraffe.  Surprising omissions are Chutneys Indian Brasserie and any of Oxford’s Lebanese restaurants, but this is a reasonable selection for visitors to the city.  For vegetarians who do a lot of travelling and enjoy eating out the guide represents a good buy, but if you require vegetarian-friendly accommodation on your travels you will have to look elsewhere.  The next edition of Vegetarian Britain, currently being researched by Vegetarian Guides Ltd, should contain all the information that you need.

Paul Appleby, June 2004

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This page created 26 June 2004 by Paul Appleby.