The Peacock at the foot of Mansfield Road in Nottingham is a fantastic Victorian Pub serving a decent selection of Real Ales. Last year they made the decision to launch a Vegan menu which in my mind was quite a brave decision. This week we finally came in to try it out,  my partner in crime for the night was my companion Alison who is a confirmed Vegetarian and I figured she would have a better opinion on Vegan food efforts than I did.

I was pretty curious as I have seen plenty of people dining whenever I have been in here for a pint over the last few months. In all honesty I think I have seen more people eating here since it went Vegan that I used to see beforehand. I thought that was a good sign.

The Menu at the Peacock is a curious affair, there are a lot of dishes that read as though they are meat or fish, but we know that they are 100% Vegan so you wonder just what the dish is really made of. As a meat eater I would love a “Mac & Cheese Bacon Burger with Garlic & Herb” so I would be really intrigued to sample the vegan version to see if it has all the same flavours and feelings that I would recognise.

As far as I can tell they use tofu and seitan as a meat substitute for many of the dishes, I had already read that they use tofu in place of the fish and you can read that they had Seitan in place of the pork in the BBQ ribs.

While I like that they have kind of replicated a pub menu, I would like to see them show off with some dishes that celebrate the vegetable as well, I often wonder why vegetarians want to eat things that look like meat dishes. I mean vegetables are so awesome that they can make their own party on a plate without a disguise.

Vegan Fish and Chips

The Fish and Chips were surprisingly good, There were two ‘fillets’ on the plate which were essentially slices of tofu wrapped in seaweed, battered and then deep fried. They did look a little bit rustic, the batter was falling off in places so that you could see patches of the black seaweed in spots. I suppose that did not look all that attractive until I worked out what it was 🙂

As a substitute for a piece of battered fish, this was actually really well executed, the texture of the tofu was soft and a little silken, the seaweed wrap was like the skin of the fish and I suppose added that ‘taste’ of the seaside. The batter was pretty decent as well, light, perhaps a little greasy, but in a good way just like you sometimes get from the chip shop when you unwrap your ‘fish and chips’.

The big chunky chips were also pretty good, they are the sort that I would be happy with at any pub. If anything there were too many of them! I quite like the mushy peas, they were a bit thick perhaps and could have been a little bit saucier for my liking. The Tartar sauce was a little creamy but not too disimiliar to a non-vegan effort, it was really nice to dip my bits of ‘fish’ and chips into

I was not sure really what I had expected but I suppose as a non Vegan I was a little bit sceptical when I came here to dine. I was most pleasantly surprised at just how good their version of Fish and Chips was and I would most certainly recommend this dish to anyone who was thinking of coming here.

Alison had the ‘Seitan B.B.Q. Ribs with Cajun Chips, Salad,  and Corn on the Cob’, I tried to take a picture but it ended up very blurred, and to be honest that probably for the best as it did not look as attractive a dish. The Seitan Ribs had a nice BBQ sauce on them which I quite liked and enjoyed, I did however not really enjoy the texture of the Seitan. That was also the thought of my partner in crime too, it was a little bit weird, perhaps a bit too chewy and perhaps a little bit dense. I suppose that is the problem when you are trying to replace meat with something ‘meat-like 🙁

All in all I was really pleased with the Food at The Peacock and I the feedback that I got on the menu from my partner was that as a Vegetarian this was a really good selection and the food was good.

The overall verdict is that we would most certainly come back to try something else, and although I would probably have the Fish and Chips again?

I am quite keen to try that ‘Mac & Cheese Bacon Burger with Garlic & Herb’.

We shall see 🙂

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The Peacock is located at 11 Mansfield Road, NG1 3FB Nottingham, United Kingdom

Check them out on their Facebook page and on their Twitter Feed to see what they are up to and to see Menu updates