The Railway Review!

September 22, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

The Railway Review

Over the past few weeks I have felt a little guilty. All I seem to waffle on about is how much I’m a carnivore, and how I love a good hunk of meat! Slow cooked, flash fried, roasted, grilled, or even raw, I love it all. Don't get me wrong though, I do like veg, but normally my two veg has to be accompanied by, well, meat! But, I thought the other day, I really need to get out and give some proper veggie food a go. To think of it, the last time I actually went out for a full veggie dinner was in India. I would say, if your gonna become veggie move to India, they have got it nailed! Its bloody lovely, the Indians do veggie food so well. Often it's difficult to find a restaurant that actually serves meat! Quite the opposite in good old blighty.

I think our veggie friends do have a bit of a hard time though. I actually feel quite sorry for them. Lets just turn the tables for moment; imagine if most restaurants in the area predominately served just vegetarian food? Your only option on the meat front was a bland poorly grilled chicken breast, or an over cooked tough steak! This just doesn’t bare thinking about. But that’s exactly how it is if you are vegetarian, let alone vegan! Most restaurants do include a veggie or vegan option, but often these just seem like an after thought. Vegetable stir fry anyone? Or, how does a nut cutlet, fresh out of the deep freeze take your fancy? Mmm well done chef, you really put your creative passion to work on that one. Sometimes I think you're better off just having a plate of chips! But a man cannot live on chips alone! So my veggie friends I thought it high time @foodierich got involved, to sniff out a good vegetarian restaurant.

But where do I go? I don’t think I had many places to choose from! There was only one place that sprung to mind, The Railway Hotel in Southend, located close to Southend Central train station. A quirky pub and renowned music venue, this has got to be the only pub in the area if not Essex with a 100% vegetarian menu. I stumbled across this place whilst researching my earlier craft beer article. I just love craft beer, and the Railway do serve up a good drop. It was then I noticed their menu.

The pubs menu is basically a blackboard on the wall. As its all vegetarian the herbivores amongst us need not worry, just order what the hell you want, fill ya’ boots my friends. Its easy for vegans too, any dish with a ‘V’ alongside, indicates its vegan friendly, and you are catered for well, very well! Out of the 9 main courses 7 are vegan, including all the side dishes. You can even enjoy a full vegan breakfast, it all sounds veggielicious! As I said earlier, I class myself as far from a vegetarian as you can get, so I was pretty apprehensive, but at the same time curious! Two types of burger, pizzas, curry, tagines, bruschetta’s, I was very impressed with the selection, and creativity of this menu. Not a nut cutlet in sight!

I ordered the ‘Crass’ burger. A burger made up of vegetables and beans served with chips. I’ve been a big fan of the gourmet burger revolution that has taken the food scene by storm, so I was intrigued to give this interesting vegan burger a try. In a word ‘WOW’. This was amazing; it was huge, and incredibly tasty, with a lovely homemade slaw on the side, and chunky homemade chips. We all know how much I love proper homemade chips, and that’s exactly what these were. Jeez, this burger couldn’t have been further from those awful frozen ‘McCartney’ efforts you find in the freezer aisle! Served in a tasty wholemeal bun it was delicious. This burger was in fact recommended by a good vegan friend of mine; Mr Withecombe I salute you sir. Lou opted for another great sounding dish, which I was also tempted to order myself; chickpea and cashew nut tagine with lemon and coriander cous cous. A rich and spicy Moroccan dish with tender chickpeas combined with cashews to give the whole dish texture and crunch, delicious! The cous cous was a lovely accompaniment, just enough lemon zest mixed through, it was fresh, and as you can imagine perfect with the tagine. This was simply a wonderful, tasty vegan lunch. Gosh, I never thought I would ever hear myself saying that! The bill? Now this is a bargain, most of the main dishes are £7 each and sides £3.50! Lunch for two, with change out of £20 not bad at all! We left the Railway incredibly satisfied, full up and planning our next visit.

I am not saying I am a veggie convert, because I’m not, I just couldn’t give up bacon. But, I don’t think I have eaten such good vegetarian fayre anywhere, it was fantastic. Lou and I haven’t stopped telling our friends about the Railway, its really does make for an exciting meat free lunch or dinner, and super healthy too, almost guilt free. I really now have a totally different view on good vegetarian food. Many restaurants just seem to mess up when it comes to the veggie options; you’ve just got to keep it simple in my opinion.

The more I ponder vegetarian food, the more I realize some of my favorite foodie pleasures are in fact vegetarian. For example, fresh English asparagus steamed with a poached egg, spaghetti with olive oil garlic and chili, fresh autumn mushrooms on toast… I could go on! A good vegetarian dish should be food that just naturally doesn’t include meat. Or, that doesn’t actually need meat. That’s exactly what you get at the Railway. So there you go, me, a full on carnivore enthusing about vegetarian food, if that’s not a compliment to the chef at the Railway I don’t know what is! I really enjoyed it, and did not miss meat at all! Just to add, Lou and I were so impressed with the Railway we have challenged ourselves this week; we are going full veggie from Monday to Friday, so far so good!!