I’ve walked passed Absurd Bird in Queen’s Street, Exeter, a few times. I popped in once when it first opened for a cocktail, but haven’t ventured back since due to the fear of no vegan options and being surrounded by chicken. So I was surprised to see that they now have a few great vegan options on the menu, and I’m not talking salads or a plain bean burger. I mean PROPER awesome vegan alternatives to their usual meaty options!
So to begin with, we decided to try a couple of cocktails between us. We chose the ‘Hooch’ which is vodka, elderflower, soda water and fresh lemon juice. I love the lemon juice in this, it was strong and tasted homemade, I couldn’t taste the vodka at all which is good because I don’t really like vodka, but also can be bad because I’d have too many of them.. hahah! The other cocktail was the Kentucky Barn Dance which was apple and cinnamon moonshine, fresh lemon juice and apple cider – I LOVED this one too bits, and will be going back for that soon. The cinnamon taste was strong by not overpowering, it was like drinking cinnamony apple juice!
Now to the important part – the food! For a starter to share, we got the Cajun vegan bites which came with a firey hot sauce. I really enjoyed the crunchy battered coating on the cauliflower and broccoli, this were perfect little bite size pieces which are great to share! For the main courses, we HAD to try the Vaffles. Vegan waffles with chckn and maple syrup, the waffles themselves were amazing… fluffy on the inside with a good crunchy and golden colour on the outside. The chckn itself fulfilled any of my junk food cravings – a crispy flavoursome batter coating a soya based protein which had a remarkable texture. I could’ve easily eaten more of these! I also opted to try the chickpea and sweet potato burger (it was hard to choose between this and the buffalo chckn burger, so I’ve saved that for my next visit). The burger patty itself was very tasty and went well with the sirracha sauce, I also really liked the bun which I know sounds a little silly, but sometimes I think a good bun can make or break a burger. In this case, it made it! Now for the mac n cheese side, non-vegan would double take at the look of this. It has a very cheesey crispy topping which made my mouth water just by looking at it! The cheese sauce was based with cashews, giving it a beautifully creamy texture without being too heavy. The only regret I have was having to share the mac n cheese, I could’ve eaten the whole thing easily on my own as it was delicious!
Overall, I have to say I’m amazed by the new vegan options at Absurd Bird and would easily recommend to vegan (and nonvegans) who are looking for a ‘naughty’ and tasty meal! To add, they also have 25% off until the end of January. On Tuesday’s they do 50% off Burgers. Aaaannndd for the students out there, UNIdays do 50% off on Sunday’s and Mondays, and 25% off Tuesday to Thursday!
plantbasedhmj 