Ayubowan - Contemporary Sri Lankan Cuisine

We were celebrating at the weekend. I've sold my flat at last and we've had an offer accepted on a house so I'm going to be leaving Manchester and moving to Glossop. I'll still work in the Northern Quarter in Manchester but I won't be deprived of vegan food at home as Glossop is pretty good for vegans too. The Globe pub serves an exclusively vegan menu, the Hare and Hounds has a vegetarian and vegan menu, The Oakwood pub and The Soup Seller do some vegan stews and curries and several cafes have soy milk. The Peak of Health is a great healthfood shop, Sowerbutts is an amazing greengrocers and there's an M and S Food. Not bad for a small town with just a few shopping streets. There's also 2 new more recently opened businesses with vegan offers. We've yet to check out Pico Lounge but last Saturday we made it to Ayubowan.


We'd heard nothing but great reviews of this place that serves contemporary Sri Lankan cuisine. We found that all the staff we spoke to were clued up on veganism, indeed one of the waitresses is vegan and she explained what we could order from the menu. Of the starters there are two dishes that are suitable for vegans so we ordered them both. Above is Matt's Pariphpu Vardi which was spicy fritters of red lentils and curry leaves and below is my Kanda Bhaji. For deep fried food these both tasted delightfully fresh and light and we loved the little dishes of chutney that accompanied them.


There are five vegetarian main course curries and we were delighted to hear that they are all vegan. I was also delighted to hear that they are all mild which was great news for me with my chilli intolerance although the restaurant are also happy to make things spicier on request. There's a choice of Cashew and Green Pea, Jackfruit and Chickpea, White Potato, Spinach and Parripa and Banana Flower. We went for the first two alongside a Roti bread and Kaju Bhath which was an amazing rice dishes flavoured with cashews, cinnamon, cardommon, cloves, raisins and crispy fried onions.


We had hoped that the traditional dessert of Wattalappam might be vegan from reading the menu but it turned out that it contained egg. Our waitress told us that they had featured a vegan brownie for a while but no vegan desserts were currently available. To be honest I was too full to want dessert anyway by this point! We were really impressed by both the food and the service. There was a wait for the food. We arrived at 7.30 and didn't get our mains until 9 but the food was so beautifully fresh and well presented that I don't mind a bit of a wait when it's this good a standard. It was also Saturday night and the restaurant was full. I'm already looking forward to another visit and trying the rest of the curries!

Comments

  1. All Consuming13 February 2014 at 18:02

    Congratulations!! So pleased for you hon, for both of you for that matter, hurrah! Though we're sorry to see you go of course xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tea and Sympatico14 February 2014 at 12:26

    Thanks Michelle, you will have to come to visi xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. All Consuming14 February 2014 at 15:42

    Absolutely, when you're settled, just say when! xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matt15 February 2014 at 18:36

    The jackfruit was amazing. I'd never had it before and was so impressed with how substantial and meaty it was. Like having pork!

    ReplyDelete
  5. All Consuming16 February 2014 at 18:54

    Spatz had the jack fruit option at the Tea Time Collective, and I tried it. It was interesting, I'd certainly try it as part of a main meal for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joey18 February 2014 at 22:12

    it's so good when you hear of places like this that have vegan food and don't view vegans as some inconvenience to be dealt with. Even better when the food's great too of course! Especially bread, I love a good roti!

    ReplyDelete
  7. vegan.in.brighton23 February 2014 at 16:28

    Oh yay, I'm so happy to hear that the flat sale's gone through and now you can move. That's awesome! Ayubowan looks great, I'll have to come visit some day and eat there - it's great to hear that they make some mild things for people like us!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tea and Sympatico3 March 2014 at 13:19

    Cheers Jojo and yes come and visit. Lots of great walks in the area too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sally Kitten12 March 2014 at 22:45

    I love curry! It's one of my favourite foods. This looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joey3 April 2014 at 22:08

    I just wanted to say thanks for the comment you left about the oven on my blog and wasn't sure how else to do it - so thank you! I don't know why I didn't just Google it before - what a dunce! - but I'm so glad you did, because I feel rather relieved! Now, off to get a new element!

    ReplyDelete

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