It’s unusual to find a pub chain where you don’t have to ask for their allergens information before ordering vegan food. Much to our surprise recently we heard that Marston’s Pubs had unveiled a wholly vegan menu. The pessimistic side to me assumed that it would be your a-typical garlic bread for starter, salad option for main and a sorbet for dessert. A vegan’s staple diet (sarcasm).
Low and behold my disbelief when we searched for the menu to find multiple options in each category which all sounded interesting! Further reading led us to find out that Marston’s have partnered with Moving Mountains to supply its B12 Burger, which seems to have been the instigator for the vegan menu.
We found a local venue which served the vegan menu and headed over.
It quickly became apparent that Marston’s weren’t messing around and were making a strong play with their menu. With numerous options for each category and all very different to what you’d usually see from a brand trying to engage with the market for the first time.
We chose the Buffalo Cauliflower Wings to start, I had the Moving Mountains B12 Burger and my friend went for the Button Mushroom Bourguignon Pie for main course.
There was enough for us to share and were as tasty as any good starter. With them being fairly light it enabled us to keep some room for our main meals which we went on to need!
The pie arrived and it was large with chunky chips, peas and carrots. It definitely needed some gravy to stop it from being dry.
Let’s spend a little time talking about this Moving Mountains B12 Burger. Vegan burgers, we’ve all had them. I wasn’t expecting much. I’m not even that big a fan of the jackfruit which topped it. I took a bite out of the burger, lifted my head, looked at my friend square in the eye and uttered something along the lines of “OH MY WORD, YOU HAVE TO TASTE THIS!”. Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s the tastiest vegan burger I’ve eaten and we’ve tried a lot. They’ve literally knocked it out of the park. Congrats to them!
We followed up our main meals with a Raspberry Jam Doughnut Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream. I’m glad we only took one to share, we were both very full by this point. It was a bit of a disappointment, but we’ll leave that there.
We have to congratulate Marston’s on introducing a vegan menu that is different to most that we come across. Not only that, but their partnership with Moving Mountains is an incredibly strong move. I only wish we could buy those burgers in our supermarkets because it was wow in a bun.
What I will say is the menu is slightly confusing. They have placed vegan marks for some of the meals but all are suitable for vegans. I think there might be a graphic designer somewhere who went a bit icon happy.
Please let us know about any new vegan menus you’ve found while out and about and share photos with the community!
I have tried the pie- lovely. The burger I thought was nothing special then in tiny writing read that they might not have a dedicated vegan fryer etc. Yet to find one that has so I personally avoid the food that is likely to be contaminated.
The vegan pizza is disgusting. No idea what the vegan cheese topping was, but it was rank! Cauliflower wings were fab though.