If you’d told me a year ago that The Ship Inn, the staple old man pub of the Ouseburn would go fully vegan and be the new hot spot of the valley I would have laughed at you, but here we are sitting in a very smartly done out pub looking at the fully vegan menu and the sign definitely says ‘The Ship Inn’ above the door.

This is our second visit since it has gone under new management and I have to say that it certainly won’t be our last. The atmosphere is friendly and laid back and the clientele is a combination of dog owners, vegans and regulars from the old management. On our first visit we sat outside in the beer garden which is a sun trap and ate outside but on this visit the rain has meant we have retreated inside for a game of connect four (provided in a pile of board games in the corner) while we wait for our food. 

On both visits we have gone for the Sunday dinner option and what a dinner it is. Often when you get a vegan Sunday Dinner you are basically given a Sunday Dinner without all the good bits but The Ship Inn has successfully managed to make stars of what are usually the supporting cast. The braised cabbage is incredible, like cabbage has spent its entire life on the sidelines learning the lines of the starring role waiting for its turn in the spotlight and its time to shine, and shine it does, it’s lightly pickled and exactly the right level of crunch.

 The first time we came we got a tomato sauce instead of a gravy and it was utterly delicious, now I love my gravy so to say that I don’t mind getting a replacement is quite the testament to how good the replacement must be. 

On this visit we got a red wine gravy which was thick, tastey and full bodied, not falling into any of the usual traps that vegan gravy can sometimes succumb to. 

I got the nut roast both visits but Andy went for the Red Onion Wellington this time and we shared. The pastry on the Wellington was light and crumbly and it filled the gap that is left by the lack of Yorkshire Pudding on a vegan Sunday Dinner (not the Ship Inns fault I’ve yet to encounter vegan yorkshires).  

If I had to nit pick I’d say the Wellington was on the small side but that’s because I’m greedy and it was so delicious I could has easily eaten two in a row without stopping for breath. 

For pudding on our first visit we had a cheesecake and a chocolate brownie sundae but we were too full on our second visit to indulge. (So maybe the Wellington is the right size after all).

I am very impressed with the food here and it’s so exciting to have a vegan pub on our doorstep, I throughly recommend that you go down and try it out. I really hope that it is as successful as it deserves to be and even non vegans give it a go to see how easy and delicious cruelty free eating can be!