The Hearth of the Ram Peel Brow Ramsbottom - 20th June 2015

I rarely post negative reviews, but I'm afraid The Hearth of the Ram is one to avoid for vegan diners which is a real shame as the place itself is really nice.

Friends had asked if we would like to visit The Hearth of the Ram so I emailed a good month prior to visiting to ask about vegan options.  I had a long chat with Euan, who I presume is the owner, who sold me on the fact that everything was made to order, vegan options were no problem even if you walked in without notice.   I checked out their vegetarian menu the week before our visit and noticed that vegan options were now on the menu, but both starter and mains were mushroom based.   So I emailed to question whether other options would be available and I was assured they would be.

My expectations were high, especially as The Hearth of the Ram is one of the contenders as Restaurant of the Year, in the Manchester Food and Drink Awards 2015.   Sadly our visit, even for the meat eaters in our party, was not the dining experience we expected, with expensive food and drinks and dishes which were just okay and abysmal service.

Trying to get a bottle of white Rioja and glasses of water served (apparently they do not serve jugs) was a marathon.   It took four attempts to get the right wine and similarly the water which was an hour in coming to the table.

I presumed, as in most of the places we dine at,  that having given plenty of notice, that I would be offered a vegan menu not just something cobbled together on the night, how wrong was I.   A chap who I presume is one of the floor managers, came over with the vegetarian menu and offered me the two mushroom dishes one being risotto I had already queried and when I did so again he suggested alternative asparagus dishes, including another risotto.   Not much thought there then!   Do they think vegans do not know what good food is all about and dine out?    I decided to go for the asparagus salad thinking maybe chef had some tricks up his sleeve and salads can be a really good course if done well!!   I ordered the mushroom risotto and said to the Manager that I had high expectations, but he did not seem particularly bothered what I thought and when Euan came over,  I said that offering a salad was a cop out, but he did not seem bothered either.

So here is the salad they served and I have to ask what chef would be proud to send that out of the kitchen and charge £6.95 for my pleasure.

Mains was not much better, quite a sloppy small portion of mushroom risotto and the only exceptional thing about it was the price tag of £12.95.    

Dessert was an elderflower jelly with sorbet at £6.95.   I left the jelly for my husband to eat, because I was unsure whether the jelly was totally vegan or whether it was made with gelatine.

The Hearth of the Ram would be better saying they cannot cater for vegans, instead of offering unimaginative, uninspiring dishes, it really was quite poor.