Starting life in a remodelled horsebox, vegan street food favourite Herbivorous has revealed it is now launching its first bricks and mortar site in Withington.
Founders Robyn Marsh and Damian Myles first fell in love with vegan cuisine during an epic, coast to coast road trip across the States, and returned home to England inspired to share what they’d found.
Their first stint at a food festival saw them sell out within two hours after working through the night to prepare dishes, which led to the purchase of an old horsebox which they proceeded to tour up and down the country.
The horsebox that Herbivorous toured up and down the country / Image: Herbivorous
Today, the brand has a well-established site at Hatch on Oxford road – and they’ve also just revealed plans to open a second in Withington.
Due to launch in September, it will serve up all of its popular vegan comfort food classics, such as their Big Kahuna Burger, as well as running a delivery service to those nearby.
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A large kitchen has got the team excited about testing new dishes for their menu and restarting their popular vegan cooking masterclasses – teaching new skills in making staples like seitan, vegan mayos and plant-based ‘bloody’ burgers.
A pot of vegan soft serve from Herbivorous / Image: Herbivorous
And that’s not all. The vegan foodies behind the brand are working with local distilleries, brewers and wine merchants to curate an entirely vegan drinks menu – something that’s actually a lot harder to achieve than it sounds.
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After all, many people don’t realise that a lot of alcohol is filtered using fish guts (yes, really – they call the subtance ‘isinglass’, confusingly).
They’ll also be stocking products from other local vegan producers like Manchester independents Drizzle City Bakes and Drinks of Tradition to showcase the very best plant-based food and drink in the region.
The Philly Cheesesteak sandwich at Herbivorous / Image: Herbivorous
The new Herbivorous restaurant will be open weekday evenings and all day from Friday to Sunday from its new home on Wilmslow Road and plans to launch a new brunch menu at the site, available on Saturdays and Sundays only.
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“We’re so excited to be opening our first bricks and mortar restaurant in this vibrant part of south Manchester,” said Robyn Marsh, founder of Herbivorous.
“The Withington restaurant will be the next evolution of Herbivorous, bringing together everything that has influenced us over the last four years, and the time we’ve spent building the brand.
A solid spread of guilt-free food, pictured at herbivorous / Image: Herbivorous
“Working with other local independents is something we are really looking forward to as there are so many wonderful and talented brands locally who we would love to collaborate with.
“Our team are so passionate about crafting our house-made products, dishes and meat alternatives, we can’t wait to open our doors in this fantastic neighbourhood and share our food with everyone”
For more updates on Herbivorous, follow them on their socials here.
Feature image – Herbivorous
Eats
Ancoats neighbourhood bar shames customers who ran off on unpaid rosé bill
Daisy Jackson
A waterside cocktail bar in Ancoats has slammed a group of customers who left the venue without paying their bill this weekend.
Finders Keepers on New Islington Marina has publicly shamed the trio, sharing CCTV images of them making off from the venue.
The local business has labelled the customers ‘Manchester’s newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners’.
They added that the group had enjoyed a few bottles of rosé wine but left before paying their £160 bill.
Finders Keepers also said that the incident occurred on a ‘record-breaking’ day last Saturday, when the city bathed in beautiful spring sunshine.
Since releasing the CCTV images this afternoon, the bar has been flooded with messages of support – including one very notable one from Sacha Lord.
Sacha has offered to pay off the girls’ tab so that the bar isn’t left out of pocket, AND has suggested providing a £500 reward to anyone who can name and shame them.
He commented: “Everyone knows how tough it is in Hospitality right now…how can anyone want to do this to a small independent business. I’ll settle that bill mate…plus give a £500 reward to name and shame them.”
Finders Keepers bar on New Islington MarinaFinders Keepers shared this CCTV of the customers who left the bar without paying
Another person commented: “foul behaviour! Sorry this happened to you guys.”
Someone else wrote: “Love a good photo shame when folk rip off a business… Hope they pay!!”
Posting earlier today, Finders Keepers said: “We’d like to thank Manchesters newest girl group, Rosé & The Runners. Who enjoyed a few bottles of Rosé wine with us on this record breaking Saturday, without paying.
“If you’d like to come back & pay your £160 bill then we’re back open on Wednesday, alternatively get in touch and we can send you a payment link.
“Next time you fancy a free bar tab perhaps join us for our quiz this Sunday from 7pm. £100 tab to be won!
Brilliant Salford Greek restaurant receives glowing national review
Daisy Jackson
A fabulous Greek restaurant in Salford has received a glowing review from a top food critic, who described its food as providing ‘its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Acclaimed restaurant critic Jay Rayner has heaped praise on Kallos in his Financial Times review.
The modest restaurant has been open for just over a year, but has already earned itself a place in the prestigious Michelin guide – and now a rave national review too.
Operated by couple Ioanna and Ivan, Kallos brings a taste of Santorini to their stripped-back, concrete-filled, light-flooded new space in Salford.
And while Jay Rayner admits in his review that Kallos’s interior hasn’t done much to lift this corner of Salford’s ‘badly organised grid of fast-rising apartment blocks’, the food itself ‘provides its own gorgeous kind of sunshine’.
Rayner heaped praise on Kallos’s phenomenal flatbreads, noting how it’s impossible to exercise restraint ‘in the face of bread this good’.
He also raved about their topped flatbreads (like one with ‘knots of sweet roasted lamb shoulder cooked until it has collapsed’), red prawns the length of a hand, and soft dolmades stuffed with rice and minced meat.
Topped flatbread with lambTinned fishPrawn SaganakiThree of the dishes Jay Rayner loved at Kallos. Credit: The Manc Group
Kallos is part-owned by sommelier Ivan, who is striving to have the largest collection of Greek wines in the UK at the restaurant.
Jay Rayner noted both the selection and the affordability of this carefully-curated wine list, saying that it’s nice to find that ‘outside London, drinking well need not require the sale of a spare kidney or child’.
And then he came to the section of the menu that’s dedicated to premium tinned fish.
“It feels like the UK has woken up only relatively recently to the possibilities of impressively fine foods from a can,” he wrote.
Kallos in Cortland at Colliers Yard, SalfordKallos in Salford has been added to the Michelin Guide
“It is genuinely exciting to see Kallos devote a whole section of the menu to these treasures, even if it is basically the same victory of shopping that results in a good cheese board.
“But it takes both serious knowledge and a brave evangelical enthusiasm to offer a list like this.”
Rayner’s review went on to praise the tinned mackerel, served with a ‘balloon of hot bread’, pickled chillies, and an ‘aioli made with so much garlic, consenting adults should make sure to eat it together’.
Signing off his review, Jay Rayner wrote: “As the plate lands on the table, the sun finally comes out over both Salford and Kallos. Finally, the grey is banished. At last, all the beauty is here.”
Georgina Pellant -
16th July 2021 
