The Prince George, Brighton

Me and Baz went to The Prince George pub in the North Laine (in Brighton) last night. We both hadn't been there in a long time.

They had a menu that was printed out just for Sunday 23rd December. They had four or five main dishes that were available all day, as well as some sides, and they also had a Pub Quiz menu, which had lots more dishes that were available from 7pm to 1am.

We decided on the nachos for one, with refried beans (you can choose between refried beans and chilli), and a chilli dog, and shared both. It came to £15 for the food and a round of drinks (one draught beer and a Kopparberg cider) was around £8.20.

Baz's feelings about the whole experience are nicely summed up in this picture:-

For me, I had gone into the George with fairly low expectations as, to be honest, as much as I always want to like the food here, and enjoy the experience, seeing as it's a vegetarian pub an' all, I have had one too many times of being disappointed with the food. So with my low expectations, I was fairly satisfied with the food, but it was far from being really tasty or original. The nachos (see below) were ok, they came with refried beans, which I thought were quite nice, salsa, which was ok, houmous, which we're pretty sure wasn't homemade but tasted ok, and guacamole, which was quite nice. The nachos they used to serve here a few years back always had vegan cheese and vegan sour cream if you had the vegan option, but they seemingly don't do that anymore. Both me and Baz agreed that having nachos without cheese was a bit strange and made the dish a bit boring.

(if you want to see a post about the nachos I made, see here!)

As for the chilli dog, this was Linda McCartney sausages in a wrap, with kidney beans and tomato sauce, with chips and salad. The chips were ok, but they tasted just like the ones we get from Iceland for £1. The salad was ok, but there was no dressing, so it tasted quite bland. The wrap was the nicest bit, but as we have LM sausages quite a lot, as they're the cheapest ones we can get, it was a bit disappointing, it would have been nicer to have homemade ones. Below is the chilli dog.

I decided to have a dessert, simply because I could; I was actually really full and don't normally go for pudding! There was just one vegan option out of three, which was 'homemade' ice cream, although I'm not sure if the vegan option was homemade, it seemed like Swedish Glace neopolitan to me. It was nice though and you got a decent amount for £3.50.

All in all though we weren't that happy with the food at The Prince George. Though as I have said, I thought it was ok, but this was mainly because I went in with low-ish expectations.

I don't think we will be going back in there for food any time soon, but we're happy to go in there for a drink. I feel that it is a real shame that a vegetarian pub has such average food on offer. According to this Guardian article, there are 16 veggie pubs in the UK. I have only ever been to the George, so I can't vouch for any of the others, but I would like to think that some of the others serve exciting, original, tasty dishes.

There are several pubs around Brighton and Hove which serve vegan roasts alongside their meat and veggie ones, I think at some point we will try some of them. There are two fairly near us on Farm Road, Cooper's Cask and The Farm Tavern, and others that I have seen mentioned on the Vegan Forum are the Eddy and the West Hill (both near Brighton station), the Royal Sovreign (Preston Street, Brighton), the Earth and Stars (North Laine, Brighton) and the Eagle (also in the North Laine). If we go to any of these to sample their roasts, I will post a review on here. To be honest both me and Baz can make a really nice roast, so I do find it hard to justify paying £8 or whatever for what might be a less tasty roast than one we can make ourselves. But I guess it is nice to have someone else cook it for you and you get to eat it whilst soaking up that Sunday afternoon pub atmosphere.

If you want to read others' reviews of eating out in Brighton and Hove, this is a pretty good thread on the Vegan Forum.

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