Deaf Institute has been pretty vegan friendly for a while – they did a vegan club sandwich special a few months ago that I still have dreams about. But recently, they started up the vegan hangover club with a weekly changing menu of vegan specials. I couldn’t bloody wait.

Originally built in 1878 as a deaf institute (surprisingly enough), the stonework outside is pretty epic. Inside, it’s a classic mix of antlers and kitchy wallpaper, but they get away with it without it feeling painfully hipster or too on trend. Anyway, I digress – check out their gigs and general listings, they have so much going on and it’s a great venue.

Back to brunch

I’d heard rumours of pancakes but we got a very savoury menu. If you’re vegan or veggie yourself you’ll know the ‘pain’ of suddenly having to actually choose something instead of just scanning for the V that tells you the 1 thing you’re allowed. It was an intense and desperate 5 minutes choosing from these bad boys:

We chose the seitan burger with cashew cheese, cashew cheese quesadillas (something I’ve really missed as a vegan) with pimped fries to share on the side. Yes the burger already came with fries so it looks a bit carb heavy but this is HANGOVER BRUNCH so get on board. Or go and look at these salad ideas.

The quesadillas were amazing, thin and crispy with a little bean chili inside, and guac and sweet corn salsa on the side. £6.50 well spent. The cashew cheese is the drizzle on top rather than melty inside like a traditional quesadilla – as amazing as that would be, I am picky with vegan cheese (violife sucks) so I’m not disappointed by this – would order again in a heartbeat.

Next, seitan burger. This was probably the ‘worst’ plate. The burger itself was pale and quite bland – if you’re used to the very meaty-style seitan burgers at Brewdog, this is nothing like that, more like an old school Quorn chicken burger. But it was fine, and the toppings made up for it, with the cashew cheese again, aubergine, salad, sweetcorn and generous fries on the side.

Finally, the pimped fries:

Good god. Smothered in bbq sauce, cashew cheese, jalapeños, smoky aubergine, tomato and fresh coriander they were perfect. 10/10. I’ll remember them forever. I had wondered if we were being greedy with the whole double fries thing but WOW no regrets.

Brunch opens at 3 on a Sunday and runs until late. There will be flyer littered around with celebs faces on – if you can tell the bar staff which of the celebs are vegan, you get free popcorn. SPOILER ALERT – they are all vegan, or were at some point in their lives.

Always been a fan of Deaf Institute, and now I love them ever more. If you’ve been on a different day let me know what the menu was!