V-REV VEGAN DINER

Read our Manchester restaurant review

I@naylor_tony

n the UK, the vegan bandwagon (electric-powered with leather-free interiors) is picking up speed. You can see it everywhere – soaring vegan sales in supermarkets, Pret A Manger’s focus on meat-free food, US vegan café By Chloe opening in London. Suddenly, food free of animal products feels cool. Rafts of celebs are now either vegan or flirting with it, while – controversially for ethical vegans – so-called clean eating has co-opted (note the rebranding) plantbased cookery. If vegans were once lazily perceived as militant eco-warriors and angry anarchists, Instagram is now full of serene, glowing evangelists and a new generation of pumped-up dudes pushing a (literally) muscular version of veganism via feeds of their ripped bodies, such as US pin-ups the Vegan Bros. Manchester’s quietly radical V-rev has no truck with such macho BS, but its journey reflects that cultural shift. V-rev started as V-revolution, a fringe punk record shop and vegan grocer. Five years on, it’s a large, colourful, brightly lit diner serving trashy fast food – one of the hottest vegan sub-trends.

I find it fascinating, partly because I admire vegans (I eat meat, but can make no rational philosophical case for factory farming), but mainly because whenever I go past, V-rev is packed. And it’s not just tattooed kids in Black Flag t-shirts, but also families, 30-something professionals and, yes, glossy, gym-honed, manicured couples. Clearly, V-rev is reaching out.

To help decode this mysterious world of umamipacked nutritional yeast flakes, which allow V-rev to create a ‘cheez’ akin to processed, plasticky cinema cheese, I invite my token vegan friend (TVF) along. ‘Be careful, it expands inside you,’ she lies about seitan, the wheat gluten from which V-rev forms its burgers. Who says vegans don’t have a sense of humour? V-rev’s super cool and friendly staff happily explain everything while keeping me supplied with craft beer from their impressive menu. Two pints into Alphabet Brewing’s session IPA, Charlie Don’t Surf, toes tapping to the hip-hop soundtrack, I am ready to be wowed. But then the food arrives. True, the Viet fries loaded with Sriracha ‘mayo’, plummy hoisin sauce and peanuts are brilliant. Their take on ‘ribs’ is interesting too – made of jackfruit, they have a remarkably meaty consistency and, dressed in a tangy, fruity, overly sweet sauce (presumably the chipotle cola BBQ sauce, which recurs across the menu and is the meal’s dominant flavour), they are pleasant enough. A side of mac ‘n’ cheez is adequate, the cabbage slaw serviceable, the ’80s-style garlic baguette less so. The BBQ Without U burger is disappointing for, perhaps, unexpected reasons. Although the seitan and soy patty is well seasoned and mimics the consistency of a cheap, spongy meat burger, the onion rings are stringy, the ‘brisket’ topping like a pencil rubber. Overall, the burger lacks savoury depth (that sugary BBQ sauce is foremost) and firm textural variation. It is dull and mushy.

The hot dog is also poor. TVF loves the frankfurterlike sausage, but its spicy seasoning is lost amid an XXL pretzel bun, a mound of dried-out mac ‘n’ cheez and strips of fake bacon, whose smoked flavour is fine, but whose foam, play-food texture is not. A claggy dessert brownie is a similar clunker. The accompanying sorbet has a decent chocolatey flavour, but the ersatz whipped cream is, well… What does TVF think it is, I wonder. ‘Air,’ she replies, drily. Unsurprisingly, TVF likes V-rev more than I did. She’d go back; it’s fun. But we agree that, in its complexity, vegan junk-food is miles behind, say, Gujarati or Jamaican Ital cooking. To eat exceptional vegan food in Manchester, you need to look beyond burgers.

Tony Naylor, who lives in Manchester, writes regularly for Restaurant magazine and The Guardian.

WHERE

20-26 Edge St Manchester M4 1HN 0161 839 3883 vrevmcr.co.uk

COST

Dinner for two around £45

BEST DISH

Half-rack of ‘ribs’ with mac ‘n’ cheez and rainbow slaw

VERDICT

An interesting evening, but no V-revelation Turn to page 72 for Tony’s views on Dry January