CityLife

Top 5 for Vegetarians

INSTITUTION: Greens 1 / 2 images

WHEN not lamenting the fur trade, campaigning for otters’ rights or generally traipsing around looking a bit anaemic - us vegetarians like to go out for meals.

Fortunately, Manchester caters really rather well for its tofu-loving masses (something to do with Morrissey, assumedly).

These are CityLife’s five best herbivore-friendly eateries...

Greens, West Didsbury
There’s not a single Manchester-dwelling vegetarian that doesn’t hold Greens in a sort of revered esteem – the restaurant of choice for birthdays, dates and all manner of pomp and circumstance. The food is indescribably wonderful and the low lighting and fabric drapings allow customers the illusion of decadence and hedonism whilst nibbling on braised parsnips and guffawing over the rising levels of diabetes in meat eaters.

Earth, Northern Quarter
Not even vegetarian – Earth exclusively caters full-blown vegan fare serving up maximum levels of smug sanctimony (something that we vegetarians are all about). The menu changes seasonally and so hearty winter pies will soon become light vegetable jambalaya. Attached to the Manchester Buddhist Centre, the cafe encompasses a genuinely calming, woozy ambience leaving you almost too sleepy to sample one of their many delicious vegan cakes. Almost.

Fuel, Withington
Although not exactly trying to deviate from the students + indie + hummus formula composing 90 per cent of vegetarian establishments in the world - it is the only place to even consider going for a post-night out vegetarian breakfast. Generous portions complete with Linda McCartney sausages offer a hangover cure which is well nigh magical. Still - not as good as a nice bacon sandwich though, obviously.

Cafe Cilantro, Chorlton
An identity crisis of a cafe, which is sort of stuck between laid-back tearoom and smart, up-market bistro. Lofty illusions of grandeur found in the verbose menu, which feature flowery, overblown descriptions of what is basically a list of soups and sandwiches, render Cafe Cilantro a little bit confused. Once you do away with the pretention however, you can have a rather nice time. Well what do you expect? It is Chorlton.

8th Day, Oxford Road
A non-meat eating Mancunian institute open since 1970 and has been a little Oxford Road-based refuge for herbivorous evangelicals ever since. The food is a little bit vegetarian-y (you know, stews and bakes and anything borderline liquid, presented in a massive serving dish) and there is a palpable fear that at any moment someone might bark ‘do you realise red food colouring is made out of crushed beetles? Well, do you?!’ Still, it boasts almost as many vegetarian converts as ‘Meat is Murder’. Probably.

Any other favourites? Let us know.