This post has been a long time coming and I feel super bad about not doing this review sooner. But I was waiting until they moved into their shiny new premises. Well, today was the day. Today V Rev Vegan Diner opened the doors at their new home on Edge Street.

I was so happy that opening day fell on my day off and I made sure I was there just a half hour after they opened. I couldn’t believe it when I saw how rammed the place was by the time I got there. We managed to get a table in the back of the restaurant and as we were waiting for a friend to join us, we had a good look at the new place.

Oh my gosh, it’s so pretty. Sadly, I couldn’t get tons of photos because it was sooo busy and I didn’t want to get in the way of the staff on such a stressful day, but the place is looking so cool. The decor is light and bright, the walls are covered in some really amazing artwork, the bar area is super smooth with it’s soft serve ice cream machine and bloody rotating glass cake cabinet! God, I wish it wasn’t so busy so I could take all the photos, but keep an eye on V Revs Twitter feed and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Now, before ordering there was something really important I had to do. I had to get my big, fat queer arse onto one of their toilet seats. Why? Not because I particularly needed to pee but because I’d heard all about their new gender neutral and accessible toilets. Of course I had to force a little bit of wee out of me to celebrate the occasion.

Oh yeah! Toilets I can pee in without having to worry about how safe or comfortable I am. Awesome. This is really important to me and I’m so happy to see V Rev getting on board with this. I have a list of safe places I know to pee at in Manchester City Centre, sadly I can count them on one hand, but yay for this cool vegan joint being one of those places. Also was happy to see that the accessible toilet was actually accessible. So thumbs up for that too!

And, can I just point out these vegan condom and tampon machines outside the toilets?

I want to live in these toilets, can I live here pls?

Anyway, back to what y’all care most about. THE FOOD.

Ok, so I could pretend that I ordered a shitload of food from the menu to take one for the team because I’m such a nice guy and I wanted to spread the word. But basically, I’m a greedy bastard and I love all the junk foods so I ordered a shitload from the menu BECAUSE I CAN AND I WILL. I don’t care who judges me. It was effing tasty and it being good blogging material was just a beautiful plus in the situation.

So, what did I have? Well, I started off light and got myself a Cookies n Cream Milkshake (£4.25)

Jesus Effing Christ. The old V Rev standard has been beat. This beauty must be twice the size of what I’m used to and it was uh-mazing. The main bulk of the milkshake was this rich, creamy, cookie delightfulness but I loved the soft serve ice cream it was topped with. It was super tasty and it made me a very happy human.

After I’d had half of that beast, I ordered the savoury. I ordered a lot and I don’t regret a single thing. Let’s tackle this one dish at a time

Let me introduce you to the Macaroni & Michele’s High School Reunion. Yeah, that’s right. It’s a burger with fricking mac n cheese in it, basically my dream burger. This was awesome, a homemade beef patty topped with mac n cheese, pickles and a chipotle cola bbq sauce in a pretzel bun. It’s one of the pricer burgers at £8.25 but it was huge, the photo doesn’t really show how much of a beast this burger was. I really enjoyed it and scoffed half the damn thing before remembering everything else on the table. I have the other half leftover for later and I can’t bloody wait to reunite with it.

V Rev has a bunch of Loaded Fries combinations on the menu and I couldn’t resist these Buffalo Ranch Fries. Oh yeah. These were frigging ace. Tasty fries! V Rev finally does fries! Topped with cheese, bacon, ranch dressing, buffalo sauce and chives. Get in my fat face. These were bloody great. I could eat these constantly and it was hard not to lick all the melted cheese and sauce off the paper at the end.

I was with my partner Jake and a friend, so I also got to try their loaded fries. The picture on the left is the Vietnamese style and the other is the Mexican variety. The loaded fries range from £3.25 – £4.25 and the portion is pretty big. The Buffalo were indulgent but I also loved the Vietnamese ones a lot.

CHICK’N N GODDAMN WAFFLES! FINALLY! YESS! These crispy chick’n pieces are coated in buttermilk and fried and covered in blueberry syrup. The sweet, savoury combo is a little strange but I still loved them. It would be great to see these come with a nice American style sausage gravy in the future just because it’s a personal favourite of mine. These were really great. They are a little pricey at £8.95 but totally worth it, where the hell else can you get this? Nowhere.

I shared these with Jake and he out classed me and ate them with his bare hands.

These tasty little morsels were one of my favourite things. I recommend getting a side of these delicious fried pickles when you eat here. They’re £3.45 so not too pricey and they come with a generous amount of that delicious range dressing that covered my buffalo fries. I want fried pickles for breakfast every morning now. I would eat them like cereal, but drowned in ranch instead of soy milk.

All of the above was definitely more than enough savoury food….but there’s a Lobster Sarnie on the menu. I cannot say no to that. I only managed to eat a measly third of this, I have the rest packaged up for later, but it was pretty good. Not overly fishy but it reminded me of my chickpea tuna style sandwich I make at home. It is £6.95 which is quite expensive for a sandwich but it was stuffed with the filling, there was loads. I guess it’s also not a typical cheap sandwich filling either.

I didn’t eat these, but they got great reviews from Jake and my friend. The burger on the left is the Guac to the Future Chick’n Burger and then we have the Go Ahead Mac My Day Hotdog. I’m definitely coming back for these, they will see the inside of my belly for sure.

So for those of you who haven’t heard, V Rev Diner is also home to a new in house bakery Tender Vegan Bakery. There was lots on offer today; Cinnamon Sugar Donuts, Brownies, Cookie Sandwiches, Gluten Free Caramel Cake and Cherry Cheesecake. Well, I couldn’t just have one pud could I?

Of course I went for the cheesecake. I always have to have cheesecake. This was pretty good, I’ll be honest and say it’s not the best vegan cheesecake I’ve had but it is really tasty. I am spoilt when it comes to good cheesecake when I go to Berlin so often, so I do have ridiculous standards. I found the base a little bit too thick and hard, when I tried to break pieces off with my fork it crumbled everywhere and I like to have a bit of everything with each bite. The actually cheese part was pretty good and I loved the cherry topping and overall it was a top pud.

I couldn’t fit this doughnut in, so I took it home with me and just had my first bite. Oh godddd. It’s a proper good doughnut this. It’s deep fried which automatically makes it a winner. Beautifully fried and golden and the sugar cinnamon glaze is incredible. This beats Co-ops strawberry doughnuts for sure, sorry Co-op, you’ve been beat. I need more of these in my life.

So, that is everything that I ate. I’m now collapsed on my bed, a bloated but very happy and satisfied mess of a person. I like to think i left the place looking like one of their pieces of art…

I decided before visiting today that I would not be reviewing the service. It was their very first day, they have more than doubled their team of staff, it was the first time a lot of them had worked together while the place was open, there was a new till system, a new much more complex menu etc and it just didn’t feel right to judge service in these circumstances.

There were a few teething problems for them today which they have kept everyone up to date with on social media…they’re stars like that. I spent a good few hours stuffing myself there and I really felt for the team when they encountered some of these problems. BUT I just wanted to say how wonderful they all were. Today must have been super duper stressful and they still managed to be friendly, polite and helpful with everyone. I mean, I cry a lot at work and regularly have panic attacks, admittedly more than most…but they kept their shit together and I really admire that. If any of y’all are reading this, honestly, well done for today. You did good. More than good.

I loved my experience at V Rev Diner and I’m so excited that this is happening here in Manchester. This is the kind of place we really need around here.

V Rev Diner is open every day of the week 11am-11pm and one thing I haven’t mentioned here is alcohol. They have a vast selection of beers, wines and creamy vegan cocktails for you all to try. I’m hoping to get myself down there one evening soon to try out some of these drinks. It all sounds wonderful.

V Rev can be found at 20-26 Edge Street in the Northern Quarter in Manchester

Check out their Twitter, Facebook and Website for their menu, more info and some drool worthy photos. And for goodness sake just get yourselves down there to try this food. It’s amazing!

Somewhere pretty special has opened in Manchester City Centre. Finally we have an authentic Italian restaurant that makes fresh pasta on site and there are vegan options to choose from.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a good friend visiting from London recently who wanted to try out all the vegan offerings in Manchester. I suggested booking a table at The Pasta Factory as it was one of the only places I haven’t tried yet. As we had arrived a little early for our booking, we got a chance to see what was on offer at their deli. I was amazed to see many fresh pastas labelled vegan, but also home made vegan cheeses too! It all looked great.

It didn’t take long for us to get to our table, I was surprised how small the restaurant is inside as it looks much bigger from the outside. Although it was really busy (you definitely need to book), it had a lovely atmosphere and the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. As we asked for the vegan menu, I think we got a bit of special attention. A member of staff ran through everything on the vegan menu, highlighting a few ingredient changes as well as running through what was available from the deli and what could be veganised from the general menu. We were also told that all of the wines were suitable for vegans, I don’t drink but this is good news for those who do!

As we’d spotted the home made cheese on the counter, we asked if it was possible to have a main dish that used it. Due to the cheese not suiting the pastas we were ordering they were unable to do this, but they were really kind and offered to let us try some free of charge. They also promised to bring us some of their home made parmesan to sprinkle on our dishes.

Our samples of their home made cheese arrived before our mains. We even got some of their crackers to try with it.

Oh my gosh, this cheese was so tasty. It had a nice delicate salty flavour and crumbled in my mouth. I was really impressed that a non vegan restaurant had gone to this much effort. I’m definitely planning on popping in again just to buy some of this!

Not long after our mains arrived. I had a spelt pasta with sunblushed tomatoes and olives.

This was really, really good. It was refreshing to have a pasta dish that wasn’t just a basic tomato sauce and now I finally realise how much nicer fresh pasta is to dry. It’s like a completely different experience. I sprinkled on the parmesan pretty liberally, it was so good.

Jake got a stuffed ravioli

And my friend ordered a spelt pasta with thinly sliced vegetables. I had a bite of this, I can’t remember what the dish was but I remember thinking it was really really delicious.

I was pretty full after the main course but I was desperate to try out the desserts. I’d heard about the chocolate ravioli and the panna cotta. My friend and I decided to have a choc ravioli each and share a panna cotta.

Oh lordy.

The Panna Cotta was my favourite. It was coconut based with with a berry coulis on top. It was firmer than any Panna Cotta’s I’ve tried but it was really tasty. It has a very coconutty taste but I think this worked well with the fruit.

The Chocolate Ravioli was really interesting. It was a cocoa pasta, filled with figs and then served with coconut cream and topped with extra coconut. I did really enjoy this but it was a bit too much coconut for my liking. I enjoyed the cream sauce with it though, so maybe a soya or cashew cream would work well instead? The fig was nice but the coconut overpowered it a lot…and of course I’d always be up for a little extra chocolate sauce drizzled on top…I’m a chocolate fiend. We did feed this back to our server as he was asking at each course what we thought and he suggested ditching the coconut, so maybe this dish will be slightly different when I next visit?

Overall I was really impressed with the desserts, they were super imaginative and different to anything I’ve had before.

The whole meal was really, really delicious. I had a lovely time at The Pasta Factory. The dishes aren’t cheap (around £12 for a pasta dish, desserts were £6 each iirc) but the quality and care put into each dish makes it worth every penny. Plus the service was great.

The best thing is how open they are to feedback from the vegan community. I’ve seen them regularly engaging with Manchester vegans on social groups and I feel like they’re working really hard to not just to accommodate us, but to put really good vegan food on the menu. I’m hoping that as they’re experimenting with making their own cheeses that we might see some creamy based pasta dishes appear on their vegan menu. That would be perfect.

If you’re in Manchester and after some authentic Italian food then definitely check out The Pasta Factory. It’s open Tuesday – Sunday from 12pm and is just around the corner from Shudehill bus station.