Tell Your friends Review - Vegan Restaurant Fulham

Tell Your Friends is still ( what I consider) a fairly new vegan restaurant in Fulham. Having opened their doors in May this year they boast a menu filled with seasonal ingredients and healthy eats. All 100% Vegan and as ethically sourced as possible.

This actually isn’t the first time I’ve tried to go there though, funnily enough. A Little over a week ago I’d dragged Rhys out of bed to make the trip there just to find that there was some filming for channel four going on. We ended up quickly shuffling off to a nearby café instead. Just my luck!

However with World Vegan Day yesterday ( Nov 1st!), I noticed that they were offering an amazing 50% off for all customers up until 4 pm ( and a goodie bag for anyone who visited in the evening which looked to be filled will all sorts of vegan goodies, food and non-food items…So I am SUPER DUPER jealous that we missed out on that!). I decided 50% off is just what I needed on my student budget though!

If you’re a local to the area then you’ll know that the weather was absolutely miserable yesterday. We arrived at TYF absolutely soaked from the rain! Luckily our table was beneath the heater in the lovely conservatory bit and In no time at all I was toasty warm.

The decoration inside is warm and inviting, neon signs adorn the walls in that chic ‘ Instagrammable’ way, but there’s also comfy looking booths and tables. Plus look at this corner in the conservatory (below) . It might just be me but it looks really inviting to sit in for a few drinks and a piece of cake.

With it being 50% off we decided to get a bit of a feast ( Isn’t that always the way to do it?). We started off with a portion of Arancini and Mac N’ Cheese, alongside a yummy berry smoothie and oat milk cappuccino- that Rhys was very impressed with. ( For any non-vegans. Go for the oat milk!)

The Arancini ( basically large breaded and fried balls of risotto) came served over a tomato and fig jam with a sprinkling of rocket leaves and were absolutely amazing! They have a rich creamy middle and crisp outer shell and the tomato and fig jam has a lovely sweetness to it that compliments the dish well. Plus the portion size is huge – definitely not stingy with portions here!

The mac n’ cheese was also spectacularly creamy. Now I’m no expert on vegan mac n’ cheese at all – I grew up on my mums ( non-vegan) mac n’ cheese with peas ( one of her favourite meals to make. repeatedly. ALOT). After years and years of having it I think I must have gotten burnt out! But this was delicious! There were small chunks of vegan cheese sitting atop the dish that created lovely little bites of salted goodness. Which along with the nutritional yeast and sprinkling of dried herbs was lovely. Once again the portion size was huge ( definitely not a bad thing!) so we were full before even receiving our mains. I think our empty plates say it all!

For our mains we ordered the Tamari Miso smoked mushrooms, served with a garlic truffle mash and tender stem broccoli. Plus ‘The new buddha’ bowl – a mix of quinoa/amaranth plus tofu, sweet potato, avocado, kimchi, kale and more…

I think both dishes were beautifully presented and lovely portion sizes. I have to admit though- I think I made the wrong choice for myself. There were two ‘bowl’ options on the menu with the other one a ‘Japanese Raw Bowl’ coming with cauliflower rice, carrot, daikon and cucumber ribbons, nori, smoked almonds, avocado and sugar snap with a tamari dressing. I literally love every single item I just listed… I could eat those little pack of nori seaweed you can get in the supermarket for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Plus smoked almonds = delicious! For some reason though the Quinoa/Amaranth was calling out to me instead of cauliflower rice. So I seemed to forged that I don’t actually like pickled/vinegar style veg, which is what half my bowl was made up. My mistake!

Don’t get me wrong – There was nothing wrong with the buddha bowl. Every element I ate was delicious, I just don’t have the taste buds for pickled veg so wasn’t able to finish the whole dish. I loved that with so many elements though, you could mix and match your fork-full.

Even now though, I’m wishing I had that Japanese bowl because I’m dreaming of that nori, almond, cucumber blend. Another time!

Rhys and I gave the Tamari Miso mushroom dish mixed reviews . I LOVED the texture of the mushrooms and thought the taste was a delicious blend of sweet and savoury. Rhys however really struggled with the texture. It’s quite hard to describe really but the texture has a bit of chew to it rather than the fairly wet juiciness of a whole-baked mushroom – if that makes sense? I suppose it all comes down to personal taste. I’d DEFINITELY have those mushrooms again though ( in fact, if it were me I’d have wanted more on the plate!)

I only tried a bite of his mash and found it wonderfully creamy although I didn’t get much truffle or garlic flavour – but as I just said, It was only a bite so that’s not to say it wasn’t there. Plus I’m known for going overboard with garlic ALOT. I love it!

It’s important to note…

I’d looked at the menu’s online and was fairly sure that Rhys wouldn’t be too keen on the mains. Although he has a majority plant-based diet at home , he is still quite particular about food when going out and prefers meaty options. So taking him to a vegan restaurant in Fulham isn’t a choice he’d make alone 😛 ).

I know he would have loved some of the breakfast options though. Having contacted the social media team, they let me know that the brunch menu is only available all day over the weekend though. Otherwise it ends at Midday and we’d arrived just after Midday.

Typically, just after we’d ordered a table beside us got two plates of the full English delivered to them. We should have cheekily asked if Rhys could grab one too, because I know that would have been the best option for him, as a vegan-sceptic eater.

I suppose that is an issue with having quite a compact menu when encouraging non-vegans to give a vegan restaurant a go ( especially picky eaters!).

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I found the entire experience great. Both Rhys and I probably could have gone home after just the starters ad drinks happy and full. So anything after that was a bonus!

We couldn’t possibly have stuffed in any dessert. Although I did notice them putting out a display of Vegan Doughnut Time donuts while we were there. Those donuts are to die for!

In terms of price, we were very lucky to be there when it was 50% off because otherwise it could be quite pricey if you’re feeling really hungry but on a low budget. Our meal would have come close to £50, had we not had the discount! Although Fulham in general is quite an expensive area for a foodie so I suppose it’s what to expect so I’d say it’s a mid-budget restaurant. However if you were wanting to give it a go and don’t have much cash to spare – I’d suggest just choosing a few of the starters to share at your table.

Personally, I think it’s quite a good time to be a Vegan restaurant in Fulham. With North End Rd, Pickywops and various other vegan ventures popping up, it seems like Fulham has become a bit of a spot for vegan foodies ( Blog post coming soon!).