One of the most common things I’m asked about being vegan is what happens when it comes to eating out. It’s something that definitely takes more planning, you can’t just stop off anywhere and if we are going for days out we usually take a picnic as you can’t rely on a lot of cafes to have anything vegan at all. Generally the more traditional pubs and restaurants still just have things covered in cheese as their vegetarian option. With a bit more planning though you can find the most delicious food and anything meat eaters can eat, vegans can find a substitute for. There are vegan fish and chip bars opening, vegan pasty shops, vegan fried ‘chicken’ shops and vegan pizza restaurants. Big cities have the best variety with London leading the way with all kinds of amazing vegan eateries, the best way to find out about them all is to join your local vegan FB groups or use the Happy Cow app. My friend told me about this and it’s amazing, you can put in an area and it will bring up all the vegan places to eat as well as health food shops. It also lists places that cater for vegans even if not 100% vegan themselves.
I’ve found lots of places this way. If you are near Dorset, like me, then the Dorset Vegan website is great too. It has all the towns and lists the places you can eat in them. I also google a place with the word vegan to see what pops up, you will usually find some kind of post about places that are vegan friendly.
I find this kind of information so useful that I wanted to start writing my own posts, and at least I can call it ‘work’ now when I want to go and check out a new vegan menu 😉
So first up in my eating out when vegan series is Zizzi Italian, or Zizzi’s as I always call them, their vegan pizza is my absolute favourite and I’ve been there about once a month since I first tried it in the summer. Our nearest one is about half an hour away, luckily, because if we had one any closer I would be in there every night! If you ask for the vegan menu then you can check out everything they have to offer, they’ve recently added more to it including a lentil ragu and a dessert calzone with ice-cream. I think the fact they’ve added more to it shows how well the vegan dishes must have been doing, which is a good thing! The kids menu also lists all the dairy free options and my two absolutely love the vegan cheese on theirs.
They use a rice milk mozzarella which adds such an amazing creaminess to the pizza, it doesn’t have the same texture as the dairy version, more of a sauce consistency but it tastes amazing. This is the cheese they use, it’s called MozzaRisella, I’ve actually ordered some online and used it at home since as I love it so much. You can choose from lots of different toppings too.
To date it’s my favourite vegan pizza and the fact Zizzi Italian have put so much effort into creating a vegan menu makes them my favourite Italian restaurant.
