Grilled field mushroom bruschetta with onion marmalade
Christmas time and Christmas food - as you might have guessed - isn't every vegetarian's dream holiday. Turkey and other various birds plus gravy aren't my dietary staples and restaurants usually add on a typical veggie dish to their festive menu such as a mushroom risotto (tah, but I've eaten loads of those) or completely exclude anything not meat-based. Red Onion - as I've blogged about before - offer a vegan three course menu alongside their various other menus so the Glasgow veggie meet-up group I am a member of chose it for our festive shindig.
The first time I visited back in the spring I spoke quite highly of my experience and was looking forward to eating there again. Their vegan menu had also expanded to now include meat and cheese substitutes so there was a now good selection of creative dishes (no mushroom risottos). However this time I was left a tad disappointed as I didn't think it lived up to much on this occasion
Vegetable tagine with apricots, almonds and bejewelled cous cous
The food was delicious and the dishes were creative and not the usual vegan creations. However, as I mentioned in my Instagram post, I felt like I had room for more which is not what you want after a three course meal you paid £16 for. The restaurant wasn't exceedingly busy and I do appreciate that there was a big table of us however the former waitress in me who is usually sympathetic towards kitchen and waiting staff, did feel put out. The portions really were too small (and I remember them being bigger last time).
Winter berries and custard crumble.
I've been here twice now, and both times have left with different opinions. From listening to other people I'm aware that Red Onion on the whole gets quite mixed feedback (even though they state they are award-winning on their website). There's also a woman in the meet-up group who refuses to go to Red Onion as the one time she went she was informed something was gluten-free but when she got home her body was behaving as if she had gluten in her system.
Have you ever been to Red Onion? Are there any restaurants you've been to twice and held a different opinion each time?
Morag x