My vegan and vegetarian pals are always having to justify their food choices. ‘Why don’t you eat meat/cheese? Will you not have some chicken?’ It must be really tiresome. They also have to ask a lot of questions. ‘Do you use chicken stock in your vegetable soup?’ It must be a joyfully rare occasion to find a restaurant where it’s the omnivores who are asking the questions. ‘What’s tempeh?’ ‘How do you make a vegan béarnaise sauce?’
A 100% plant-based vegan restaurant, Sova Food: Vegan Butcher opened in May in the Mart Project, an art space on Lower Rathmines Road. At the moment, they’re open from Wednesday through to Sunday for brunch and dinner. Run by a smiling Polish guy named Barto Sova who has nearly 20 years of experience in the restaurant trade, The Vegan Butcher started as a regular Friday night pop-up in Paris Wine Bar in Dublin in September 2014. ‘We are dedicated to everyone who wants to enjoy good, tasty food with benefit for your body and soul.’
The menu reads really well; I feel spoiled for choice, so I can only imagine how elated a vegan must feel upon reading it. I start with a wheatgrass, spinach, cucumber, lime and matcha juice (€3) which is almost obnoxiously healthy. A mint, pineapple, kale and orange juice is more relaxed on the palate, but still as virtuous.
My gluten-free starter of herbs soy schnitzel (€5) turns out to be two dry soy fritters and a ball of thinly shredded beetroot. The plate is beautifully presented with edible flowers, lime, apple slices and a few swirls of a ‘creamy’ aioli, but it needs more sauce or dressing; the whole dish is too dry. I grab a spoonful of aioli from my dinner date’s chickpea and kale kofta plate (€5), which on the whole is a more successful dish.
I’m not sure about the texture of my sage and potato pancakes (€12.90) – I was expecting fluffy pancakes rather than the shredded potato cakes that appear – but I love the saffron and mushroom ragu that accompanies it. Smoked tofu doesn’t quite replace bacon but lardons of it add depth to this dish. A chia burger (€12.90) is the tastiest dish we try, and it’s big enough to share.
Desserts (€4.50 each), brought in from GF Bakery in Ranelagh, are entirely vegan. We linger over a lemon and poppy seed cake with sugary icing and a dark chocolate brownie, neither of which feel lacking due to the absence of dairy. Our bill comes to €50.80.
When I visit, it’s mostly Barto himself that makes the experience one worth revisiting. He’s like a gentle, vegan giant, with a bushy beard and smiling eyes. He looks after us really well, telling us about the juices and the edible plates. ‘They’re made from compressed wheat bran. You can eat them,’ he says with a twinkle in his eye. ‘They don’t taste very good but you can eat them.’ Overall, I leave the space feeling good; I feel nourished by the food and cared for by the host.
Sova Food: Vegan Butcher is on the look out for a permanent space. The Mart Project is a lovely temporary home but it doesn’t have sufficient cooking equipment to really take this project where it has the potential to go; they’re currently working off a four-hob electric domestic oven. I hope they find a space that allows them to keep experimenting with the food so they can realise the promise of their menu. And maybe even some edible plates that actually taste good.
Sova Food: Vegan Butcher
46 Rathmines Road Lower, Dublin 6
t: 085-7277509
w: www.sovafood.eu
Words: Aoife McElwain
Photos: Mark Duggan
