Dining out appears to be a lot easier these days but we still run into problems when ordering takeaways. A casual glance of Just Eat and anyone with dietary requirements will run screaming for the hills. We tend to stick to what we know and thankfully there are a few city centre establishments who cross the Tyne for us on lazy nights when I don’t feel like cooking.
Local to us, however, is usually a struggle. We heard that a place in Rowlands Gill had recently added a vegan section to their menu and decided to give it a go. The Orient is a restaurant but also has a takeaway option available. You can order online and pay by card or via Paypal, which we did. I wasn’t in the mood to go ‘out out’ on this particular night and fancied vegging in front of the TV with Chinese food.
There is no explanation or description to say what is used for the ‘fake meat’ but I’m suspecting it may be tinned seitan based on how it appears in the dishes. With a choice of Beancurd, Vegetables, vegan Duck, Fish or Chicken, I opted for the chicken. Gavin chose the duck.
The Teen, who isn’t vegan, ordered his usual Sweet & Sour Chicken. It was good we could all be accommodated here and no-one felt like it was a compromise.
The meals were decent and we felt the ratio of fake meat to veg was good. I’d have probably liked a little more understanding in terms of why other options on the menu like Spring Rolls weren’t suitable when we know that they are SFV in other places. Having a takeaway meant we couldn’t quiz in the way we normally would.
For the price and convenience I would definitely use The Orient again for a lazy Friday night supper. I can only hope more local takeaways follow suit on adding clearly labelled vegan options to their menus. You can find out more about The Orient here.
Thanks for reading,
Pip x
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