March 2015 - VegBurge

March 25, 2015June 3, 2015

Recipe: Mexican Veggie Burger

I wanted to try a homemade Mexican veggie burger recipe, so I took a look around online and found my way to a post by Delicious. It looked good enough and seemed easy to make, so I decided to go for it. I did make a few tweaks to the recipe based on what I had in the cupboard and personal taste, so I will list my version of the recipe below. read more

March 18, 2015January 3, 2016

TGI Fridays – Veggie Sandwich

I’ve been to TGI Fridays a couple of times, although the last time was a while ago. I don’t know whether they have changed their menu recently, but I certainly remember having a much better meal the first time I went. Whether the food has changed, or whether it was the fault of the particular chefs, I’m not sure – but I expected a bit more from this burger, or “sandwich” as they call it, than I got. To start with, it was brought out first with the wrong fries, and out of a table of eight there were four mistakes when they brought the food out, with another plate arriving very late. Three out of eight is not a good start. read more

March 11, 2015January 3, 2016

Nandos Beanie Burger

When I go to Nandos, I always have the Portobello mushroom and halloumi option. Well, almost always. It’s actually been a while since I was there, and there are a few more vegetarian options available now, so I decided to try out the beanie burger and see what it was like. On this occasion I ordered it to come with two sides – chips and garlic bread. I also went for the medium sauce, although I would normally have the mushroom burger plain. Unfortunately, once the plate came, I began to wish that I had ordered the mushroom like normal: the burger is quite thin, without much substance to it at all. It is also soft and chewy with what I would almost describe as a stringy cheesy texture, though this is not so much carried over to the taste. With a bland flavour, it was up to the appearance of the burger itself to tell me exactly what was in it. Looking closely I could see sunflower seeds, sweetcorn, some kind of leaf, and not much else. The rest was just a brown, vague mush. The bread was easy to chew but with a hard crust – I actually quite like the Nandos bread, although I do sometimes find that the rough edges can be a bit sore on the inside of your mouth. Inside the bun you do however find a nice large lettuce leaf, as well as the medium sauce dressing. Even though it is rated only at medium, it is still spicy, and can overpower the taste of the rest of the meal. This is why I usually have mine plain, just so I can taste the flavours of what I actually ordered instead of only being able to taste the sauce. The bread in the burger bun is the same as the garlic bread, which is actually probably the nicest part of the meal. Any tougher and it would be hard to eat, so the consistency is good. It is not overpoweringly strong garlic, however, which is a great thing for those who do not like it too strong. Personally, I could probably go for a little more garlic on there. The chips are your average restaurant chips, fine to eat but certainly nothing special. All in all, though the meal was filling and the sides were tasty, I would say that I was disappointed with this burger. Next time, I’ll stick with what I know.

On the VegBurge scale, I give this…

Taste – 5/10

Price – 4/10

Rest of experience – 5/10

March 4, 2015June 3, 2015

Smith and Western – Rodeo Ranch

A while ago I went to the Smith and Western in Tunbridge Wells and tried their Prairie Meat Free Burger, and recently I went there again to discover that their menu had changed. They now offer you the chance to swap the meat version of any of their burgers for a vegetarian one, which means a lot more options are now available to you. However, the price does not go down for any of the swaps, so in essence you still have to pay meat prices whether you’re eating it or not, which is frustrating. The prairie burger that I reviewed before is no longer available, however, the burgers do still come with coleslaw and a choice of normal fries, curly fries, or wedges as before. read more