My Food Place of the Week: Eat

I struggle at times to find good dairy-free options for lunch, as most sandwiches and other options have cheese or a dairy-based products within them, so I wanted to see how Eat fares in this regard and whether they make me want to leave my own lunch at home or stick with my pasta leftovers.

As you know from a previous post, I am slowly discovering all that Eat has to offer and have already tried the Mango and Passionfruit Super Bircher and loved it. So the expectations were now high. I tried an array of the vegetarian/dairy-free options, such as the Houmous and Falafel Mezze (pictured above), Vegetarian Gyoza Dumpling and Egg Noodles, as well as the Slow Cooked Moroccan Vegetable Hot Pot.

First up, the Houmous and Falafel Mezze, which contains Tabouleh, Falafel, Houmous, Mixed Leaf Salad, Red Cabbage, Cucumber, Fresh Parsley, Chickpeas, Pickled Green Chilli, Tomato, Fresh Mint, Rose Harissa and Honey Dressing. There is alot with this mezze, which is the whole concept of a mezze I know, but it still had something lacking. The falafel was nice, the tabouleh had a lovely lemony aftertaste and cooling aspect with the parsley, the houmous was also pleasant but it all felt like a vital ingredient is missing, like the main part of this dish. Such as a mini pastry or a little pasta; however this could just be me craving carbs. The portion was good and you could tell it was all fresh but I don't know about you but as much as I love houmous and falafel, it is slightly boring now how it is used for nearly all vegetarian/dairy-free options.

This is why I was very happy to see something slightly different in the next two dishes. The Vegetable Gyoza Dumplings and Egg Noodles was tasty and was made into a hot dish by hot broth added at the counter. The gyoza was tasty and melted in the mouth but I am not a fan of ramen and this reminded me of that. The gyoza kept breaking, the noodles were hard to get to and the overall taste was quite bland. However, I liked the idea of this dish but the execution could be alot better. For a non-ramen lover, this was not a good fit.

Lastly is the Slow Cooked Vegetable Pot, which I loved! It is served hot with quinoa in a pot. The aroma from this took me back to the souk in Marrakech, which is high praise I can tell you, but it was the taste and texture that won me over. It was thick, it was fresh and it was well made and frankly when I finished it, I was a little upset. The pot looks a tad small but it is the ideal amount, if not a little food coma inducing. This is the outright winner for me out of the three and I will be waiting for this to be put back onto the Hot Pot Specials menu.

Food - 4/5
I love the ingredients that are added to the food at Eat, it is trendy but healthy. With a little more innovativeness, I reckon there sandwiches range could be just as good as the hot food menu.

Dairy-free options? - 4/5
I can see that they are aware of the demand for vegan or dairy-free food and have started to cater to this. The options are increasing, which I intend to keep my beady eyes on.

Allergen Menu? No
No particular menu but everything is clearly labelled.

Service - 5/5
Friendly, talkative and quick, my kind of service.

Cleanliness - 5/5
I am yet to see the tables dirty and rubbish stacked up here.

Location - 5/5
One in the Bullring, another in Brindley Place and another on New Street.
All easy to get to but my favourite has to be the Brindley Place one, it has more choices and more places to sit.

Value for Money - 4/5
Everything is around the £5 mark but it is well worth the place for the portion and quality that is given.

Worth trying? Yes

Instagram worthy? Yes

Overall score - 4/5

Eat has opened up a whole world of possibility to me and I saw on the menu, for this week, that there will be two vegan options, on Monday and Tuesday; which will be Chilli Non Carne and Thai Butternut Squash Soup. Make sure to check out my Instagram (@NutellaTasha), Snapchat (@NutellaTasha) or Twitter (@Nutella_Tasha) to see if I tried them out and what I thought.