I first heard about the Cosy Club a few months ago and was really looking forward to its opening this fall. I liked the look of the other branches, with their open spaces, mis-matched furniture and interesting art hanging from every wall; but mostly I was excited because they have a dedicated vegan menu. I really, really wanted to like this place but unfortunately it fell short in several ways.
Andrew and I arrived early on a Saturday around 5:30 so we could catch a movie after. The restaurant is beautiful – the lighting was warm and inviting, and the exposed ceilings that are so popular these days gave it a contemporary feel. After being shown straight to a table along the wall, we were then promptly forgotten about, which is strange as there must have been 6-7 servers walking around, wiping down tables and doing cutlery at the server stand near us. After around 10-15 min a server finally came by and took our drink and food orders (but not after he had to check what the guest ale and vegan main course were). After that we were forgotten about again until I finally grabbed a different server and enquired about our drinks. By the time they arrived we had already been sitting for 25 minutes.
For our starter we ordered the bread with oil and balsamic with a side of olives. The dishes were nice – the olives had a smoky, Mexican flavor, and the bread was warm, soft and served with a sticky, sweet balsamic dressing. It was nice, but nothing exciting.
For the mains you are given a choice of a couple breakfast options, sandwiches and a main, which apparently changes daily so you have to ask the chef what the dish is. On this day it was vegetable and bean stew. Stew is – in my opinion – not a suitable main course for a nice meal out, so I passed on that option. Instead I chose the vegan panini which comes with hummus, sun blushed tomato, red pepper chutney and spinach, served with skin-on fries and house salad.
The panini consisted of bread that was so crunchy it practically hurt my teeth, with really thin smears of hummus and chutney and only a few spinach leaves. Luckily the house salad had rocket and some roasted peppers that I was able to add to it. It still didn’t make it great though and was really unexciting. The only redeeming part of the dish was the skin-on fries that were quite tasty. By the end of the meal I felt like I had essentially just eaten a load of bread and nothing else for dinner. I’d much rather have a sandwich from World Peace Cafe where at least they stuff their sandwiches full of creative flavor combinations.
Andrew’s main was not much better. He ordered the vegetable and bean burger which had a nice flavor but was really dry. Again, the skin on fries were the best part of the dish.
I left Cosy Club feeling really let down. As I said, I really wanted to like this place but the food and service don’t do it justice. I like that they have a dedicated vegan menu, but the dishes we had still felt like an afterthought. They could have at least done one actual vegan main course for dinner, rather than just a few measly, same-y sandwich options.
The Cosy Club certainly has potential; but for now, the next time I want a quick vegan dinner before the movies I’ll just stick to somewhere like Yo! Sushi or The Orange Tree.
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