Interested to know how much interest there would be if an exclusively wholefood vegan cafe / restaurant were to open in central Sheffield?

Example menus:

Melon with toasted seeds

Pacific Rim coconut curry

Moroccan spiced rice pudding


OR (sunday lunch idea)

Roasted apple, onion and potato soup
with parsley and garlic pitta toasts

vegan lasagne with poato chips and salad

Pecan and butternut squash tart or coconut ice dessert with chocolate ripple

OR (Romantic meal for 2 )

Baked asparagus with garlic crutons

vegan sushi with pickled ginger and soy

Orange and passion fruit sorbet or
fresh fruits in wine with fresh basil


I'd like the building to be fresh and stylish, with a beautiful water feature....Somewhere people would go for a different experience, to enjoy healthy food and try new flavours... I'd quite like to introduce a few raw dishes on the menu too....

Well? What do people think? Are the menu's a bit tame?

Penny for your thoughts....

Vegetarian might be a better proposition - milk / butter / cheese, even if you didn't use eggs, might make things easier for people who were 'social' vegetarians, so to say.

Sounds interesting - Good Luck.

Sounds nice but don't forget Blue Moon does similar stuff.

And seeing as vegetarians I go out eating with sometimes only moan as there is often only one vegetarian choice on the menu, return the favour by adding one option of Rare Steak with Chips, Onion Rings and Mushrooms for the meat eaters.

:thumbsup: Sounds lovely... it'd be good to have somewhere open on Sunday, or in the evening. Blue Moon is great, but it shuts too early (and is closed Sundays) :mad:

Sounds nice but don't forget Blue Moon does similar stuff.

Blue moon is great but this would be exclusively vegan and possibly a bit more experimental and upmarket...Plus Blue moon isnt open in the evenings remember... ;-)

And seeing as vegetarians I go out eating with sometimes only moan as there is often only one vegetarian choice on the menu, return the favour by adding one option of Rare Steak with Chips, Onion Rings and Mushrooms for the meat eaters.


Lol...I'd be encouraging you to try a vegan dish Puressence!! ;-)

Bring it on, I would give it a try as long as it sells cider.
:D

;-) Yeah, its a bit of a pipe dream but i'd love to start the next pogo cafe... ;-) Lol. I'm sure we could sell cider...not to mention a concoction of other delicious vegan alcoholic beverages...

Lol...I'd be encouraging you to try a vegan dish Puressence!! ;-)

I don't mind veggie food as I love cheese, but vegan would not be for me. I could order one, then sneakily open a tin of stewed steak under the table and dollop it liberally over the dish.

Sounds lovely.
I'm veggie but I'm fed up with veggie = has to be smothered in melted cheese. Lovely crisp fresh ingredients gets a thumbs up from me. :thumbsup:

The nicest place that's opened in ages is the Bohemian but it's not in town so a lovely place like this in town a bit bigger and slightly more upmarket would be great. (Not that I'm knocking the Bohemian - I love it there!)

I don't mind veggie food as I love cheese, but vegan would not be for me. I could order one, then sneakily open a tin of stewed steak under the table and dollop it liberally over the dish.

Lol...I understand... but i bet i could make you a dish you'd like....dont knock it till you've tried it...;-)

Lol...I understand... but i bet i could make you a dish you'd like....dont knock it till you've tried it...;-)

You're on! No sprouts, aubergines or celery though as they all make me gag.

I would love to see an exclusively vegan place opening in Sheffield. However, i think JoeP might have a point about including some vegetarian but non-vegan dishes on your menu too.

I am vegan and am happy knocking around in the kitchen, so i know that vegan food doesn't have to equal bland, but that seems to be the received wisdom out there (not helped by the generally rubbish vegan options on cafe/restaurant menus on the rare occasions they exist). To keep your business going and sucessful, you've got to compete against this perception of vegan food as well as against other cafes, so a limited number of lacto-ovo vegetarian options too might help to get a few more people through the doors in the first place - then you can wow them with some vegan specialities!

There's a cafe down in that London called Eat & Two Veg that i think does the veggie choices/veggie choices that can be made vegan/vegan choices menu pretty well. Their menu is on their website http://www.eatandtwoveg.com.

Good luck with it.

Oh, and maybe think about gluten-free options too!

It sounds like your menu is likely to be quite similar to Kumquat Mae- which is no bad thing. We've had unofficial meal meets at Kumquat Mae even though there are only a couple of veggies in the group- if you can be imaginative enough to share veggie and vegan food with meat eaters then you'll do well.

Try searching Greens restaurant in Manchester on the old tinternet, they have a great reputation for exciting vegie and vegan food, you may be able to compare ideas or something.

A friend of mine swears by it, however being a die hard meat eater, I have never been.

Sounds great, but keep it strictly vegan, the veggies can cope & the meat eaters can go to McDonald$ (gag). And vegan beer! Lots of it! I've had to nearly give up drinking since going vegan :-(

Personally I don't think the vegan diet gives enough scope to support an exclusively vegan cafe/restaurant.

For years I wanted to open a vegetarian place that didn't push it's message, by labelling a restaurant vegetarian you alienate a lot of people and even more so by making it obvioulsy vegan.

I do believe that a vegetarian place could get away with it and be a genuinely good place to go but I have tried really hard with vegan meals and just can't get it to taste good enough for people to go wow.

Good luck.

Personally I'd:

Not make it very wholefoody, people can eat healthily at home.

Keep it cheap and tasty, and maybe have weekly gourmet nights or theme nights.

Do some taste testing of hot drinks with different soya/rice milks because while vegan savoury meals and cakes can delight anyone people are often phased by a different flavour in their tea & coffee.


There are loads of vegans in Sheff and they’ll be right behind you.

:thumbsup:

i think it is a good idea as there are not many places at all that do vegan food just veggie. I think it will do well. Give it ago! Good Luck!

I agree that an exclusively vegan eatery would seriously struggle here in Sheffield. Maybe a majority of vegan food, with some vegetarian options would be better, but I do like the idea!

I know loads of vegans and veggies that would gladly welcome a vegan restaurant/cafe. I think it could work in Sheffield, there are other vegan eateries that opperate around the U.K, so I don't think it's impossible for it to work here as well.

But I wouldn't like to see it being too expensive because there's nothing wrong with cheap and wholesome food, and if it cost a lot, myself and the people I know would be a little put off going, due to budgetry constraints.

I hope you make it a reality though, the sample menu looks lovely!

:thumbsup:

seems like a good idea :) i'm happily go and as most of my friends are veggie/vegan we'd all like it :)

There's a place in York that is mainly vegan witha few veggie dishes thrown in for luck and a serious amount of stuff that is also gluten free :D

I'll try to find its webby.... it might be a place for you to look at as a reference... :)

http://www.elpiano.co.uk/

thats it :D

But I wouldn't like to see it being too expensive because there's nothing wrong with cheap and wholesome food, and if it cost a lot, myself and the people I know would be a little put off going, due to budgetry constraints.
:thumbsup:

How much would you want to pay, realistically, for starters, mains, puds etc?

How much would you want to pay, realistically, for starters, mains, puds etc?

If there was a place in town that did the following type of prices, I'd eat there regularly:

Coffee £1
Pot of Tea £1
Slice of Cake £1.20
Burger, chips and salad £2.50
A hot dish and salads, like Blue Moon £3.50

Yea, def sounds like a good idea to me! What about trying to include some sort of meat substitutes into the menu? Yes, veggies are all very nice, but sometimes a different texture is very welcome!
An upmarket healthy place to eat would do really well I reckon. Blue Moon is awesome, but salads in winter isnt exactly gonna warm you up!

Will there be a meat option, for non-vegetarians ?

(in a similar way that non-vegetarian places are expected to provide a vegetarian option)

Interested to know how much interest there would be if an exclusively wholefood vegan cafe / restaurant were to open in central Sheffield?

Example menus:

Melon with toasted seeds

Pacific Rim coconut curry

Moroccan spiced rice pudding


OR (sunday lunch idea)

Roasted apple, onion and potato soup
with parsley and garlic pitta toasts

vegan lasagne with poato chips and salad

Pecan and butternut squash tart or coconut ice dessert with chocolate ripple

OR (Romantic meal for 2 )

Baked asparagus with garlic crutons

vegan sushi with pickled ginger and soy

Orange and passion fruit sorbet or
fresh fruits in wine with fresh basil


I'd like the building to be fresh and stylish, with a beautiful water feature....Somewhere people would go for a different experience, to enjoy healthy food and try new flavours... I'd quite like to introduce a few raw dishes on the menu too....

Well? What do people think? Are the menu's a bit tame?

Penny for your thoughts....

Have you had a good look at your business plan?

You are quite right about there is nowhere in evenings (KM?) (but covering Veggies (there are trillians of them :P) might get you more exposure and a wider customer base.

It's hard to judge the menu being a dead flesh sort of person. The deserts look great, starters well please someone tell me otherwise soup and salads?

Would be nice to look at your menu rotation ideas to..... When you say central where? I think footfall and the demigraphic could be critical here?
Pricing?

I am not in the buisness but food is food?

A hot dish and salads, like Blue Moon £3.50

Blue moon charge £5:50 for their main hot meal & salads - so I'm sure you would eat anywhere it was only £3:50 - trouble is I reckon they'd soon go out of business if their prices were that cheap!

Although having said that - in Australia there is a Hare Krishna veggie cafe in most cities that charges $10 for a veggie buffet (about £4) and they do well just on the large turn over - but eating out is a lot cheaper in Oz

If there was a place in town that did the following type of prices, I'd eat there regularly:

Coffee £1
Pot of Tea £1
Slice of Cake £1.20
Burger, chips and salad £2.50
A hot dish and salads, like Blue Moon £3.50

Would you expect the staff to smile as well?

Would you expect the staff to smile as well?

Pile em high, sell em cheap I say. I might be asking a lot but the Alley Cafe in Nottingham, The Warehouse Cafe in Birmingham and Misty's Vegetarian Cafe in Manchester have a similar price tag, and they've lasted.

Pete_Jim, may I ask what kind of business you run?

Would you expect the staff to smile as well?

Its more than 3.50 for a hot dish and salad at the blue moon, its 5.95. ;-)

Blue moon charge £5:50 for their main hot meal & salads - so I'm sure you would eat anywhere it was only £3:50 - trouble is I reckon they'd soon go out of business if their prices were that cheap!

Although having said that - in Australia there is a Hare Krishna veggie cafe in most cities that charges $10 for a veggie buffet (about £4) and they do well just on the large turn over - but eating out is a lot cheaper in Oz

I will go back and visit Kings Cross .. the film.... Sydney i have to say one of the best Veggie experiences i've had ;) if all veggy food was that good i wouldnt eat meat :)

Its more than 3.50 for a hot dish and salad at the blue moon, its 5.95. ;-)
That's right Catt. Unfortunately, you don't seem to get as much as you used to either. :( Still gorgeous food though!

Am stunned by the response....Really is just a pipe dream but i would love to make it a reality one day. ;-)

Am stunned by the response....Really is just a pipe dream but i would love to make it a reality one day. ;-)

Whatever style and price of veggie food you might opt for I look forward to it too!

At present Sheffield has quite a few exclusivly veggie food places, but only one right in the city center, the Blue Moon.

Otherwise there are:
Kumquat Mae - Abbydale Road,
Bohemian - Chesterfield Rd
Green Edge - In Nether Edge (any connection with pete_jim?)
New Roots Cafe - Spital Hill
Airy Fairy- London Rd
Heeley City Farm Cafe

...and many more omnivorous places, too numerous to mention, that cater well for veggies.

http://www.veggieheaven.com/guide/hull.html

This was a brilliant restaurant in Hull called Hitchcocks that i went to.
It is unique in that you get to choose the menu theme if you are first to book. We weren't on the night we went and got Indian - a bit tame - but the night before they'd done Scandanavian.
It means that they have bookings months in advance so people can choose the theme for their birthdays...
I loved it - worth a look anyway and is a point of difference on top of the veggie thing!