The Orange Tree’s “Veeg-Inn” night

It’s no secret that the Orange Tree is one of my favourite pubs in Leicester. It’s cute, quirky and always has great music playing in the background. But most importantly, they’ve upped their vegan game significantly in the past couple of years. On their menu they regularly feature several different vegan starters, sandwiches, mains and desserts. And just this year they started a vegan only night called the “Veeg-Inn.”

I went to the very first Veeg-Inn earlier this year and loved it. I even took two meat eating friends who were truly blown away by it (and one who said it got him thinking of going vegan). Since that first night, there have been a couple other vegan nights, each with a special theme. Last week I was delighted to have the chance to go again and sample their burger themed vegan night, which turned out to be a sell-out event packed with hungry vegans and the vegan-curious.

For starters we had a couple drinks (vegan French red wine for me, Stella for him) and had onion rings and “frickles” (fried pickles) which were deliciously crispy. For my main I had the tofu panko-crusted burger with kimchi mayo, Asian slaw and chips. I LOVED this burger. Yes it is very beige, but sometimes you gotta do beige food. It was delicious.

Andrew went for the tandoori seitan burger, but on a bun instead of naan. It was a big, juicy slice of seitan that was smothered in a really tasty, zingy vegan raita with coleslaw and chips on the side. This was a truly “meaty” and filling burger.

I was so full after all this food, but after hearing they had bread and butter pudding I just couldn’t resist. It was a peanut butter chocolate bread and butter pudding with custard. So good. I ate the chocolate first, then the top of the bread and left the custard. Sorry, but I just will never understand custard’s appeal. Bleck.

I love the vegan nights at Orange Tree. It’s so great to see so many other vegans too – it gives me hope that veganism is going mainstream. I imagine these nights are here to stay, so make sure you check out the Orange Tree’s social media pages to stay up to date. You’ll want to book the next one well in advance as they tend to sell out quickly!