Vegan on the Isle of Wight

This post, about being vegan on the Isle of Wight, is going to be very picture heavy. I am not talking only about food, but about the places we’ve enjoyed that food too.

Firstly, this wonderful pub. It was a nice sunny day, so most people were outside, meaning I could take pictures of most of the pub, despite it being relatively busy for lunch.

How cool is this? It is linked to a local crime from 1730s. In 1933 it was unearthed and people assumed it was the skull of Michel Morey. It is in fact a prehistoric skull of a young woman.

From wiki: “Michal Morey was a woodcutter who lived at Sullens, near Downend on the Isle of Wight. He was executed in Winchester and gibbeted on the Isle of Wight in 1737 for the murder of his orphaned grandson, James Dove, who was in the care of Morey and his wife Beth.”

This is what we had. For starters I ordered Houmous, Pesto & Bread – red pepper houmous and basil pesto, with toasted ciabatta. My husband had Vegan Plant-Based Meatballs – with a tomato and basil sauce, melting vegan slice, basil pesto and rocket, served with toasted bread.

As main I had Pea, Mint & Courgette Risotto, while my husband had soup. The food was really good and we loved the look of the place.

Next place we had lunch at was Osborn House. I will talk about it soon, but here I am sharing a couple of pictures from the restaurant.

Terrace Restaurant and Orangery is just gorgeous.

The could only have 1 dish in Queen Victoria’s house – Indian curry. Luckily the curry was vegan and it was really good. We don’t like curry, but we had to have that, of course.

The Man in the Moon – pub in a church. I love these. The building was constructed in 1848, by Francis Puget. It was built on land that was called, in the will in 1680 of a local tradesman, The Man in the Moon. The same name for the land was used in 1739 and 1818. I think it’s lovely that they picked this name for the pub.

The church was sold in 2002 and in 2014 has opened as a Wetherspoon, after being refurbished.

We’ve been there for dinner twice, as it was both lovely and convenient for where we were staying. First we had the plant burger and the second time I had the vegan sticky Korean fried nugget. I didn’t take a picture of my husband’s dish and I don’t remember what it was. We also tried two lovely local beers.

Another stop, this time for lunch, at the Plantation Room Café which is at the Ventnor Botanic Garden. It was raining on the day, so we didn’t visit the gardens, but I would love to go there again, if we are heading to the Isle of Wight once more.

They had a vegan dessert and we also had a lovely lunch.

I picked a dish called Tomatoes – toasted sourdough topped with Isle of Wight tomatoes, marinated in garlic and basil with a balsamic glaze. My husband picked the soup of the day, very tasty too.

Last place I am mentioning is the Donkey Sanctuary. It was raining, so we didn’t walk too much around, but stopped for some drinks and a bit of food.

We had the vegan sharing platter, with delicious bread, some olives, a bit of houmous, feta, salad, and sundried tomatoes. My husband also had a delicious brownie.