Restaurant Review - The Meadow Inn, Ironbridge

Date: Friday 29th June at 7pm

I phoned ahead to explain that me and my partner were vegan and could they provide a meal for meal. I was told they would phone me back after talking to the chef and was told that they could provide ciabatta with roasted vegetables followed by penne pasta with a rich tomato sauce.

When we arrived they had knowledge of my booking but didn't remember that we were vegan and had to ask the chef again what they could provide. They came back saying we could have either the ciabatta or their vegetarian ministrone soup for a starter, and the pasta or a parsnip and celeric bake with lentils for a main course.

We asked for some olives to start, but they tasted like they they had anchovies in them. The waiter insisted that they didn't but neither of us liked the idea of eating them, they didn't taste like olives we were used to.

We both had the ciabatta with had plenty of vegetables but was still a bit dry. Some sun dried tomato paste or tomato sauce would really have helped.

I had the pasta which was with roasted vegetables again and the pasta was stuck together a bit. It was a little disappointing, but had plenty of flavour. The parsnip bake on the other hand looked lovely and is something I intend to try to make myself for the website sometimes. It had lots of lentils with it and was very filling.

I might sound overly critical, but really the food was of a high standard compared to what a lot of restaurants would be able to prepare for vegans at half a days notice. The price was reasonable too. With our drinks and the ciabatta and oil appetiser it came to under £30.

I would recommend it to other vegans, but would suggest that they give the restaurant more notice so they have a chance to prepare something more interesting, and also make it very clear from the outset what vegan actually means.