Restaurant Food Review - Willow Vegetarian Restaurant, Totnes, Devon

Those of you who've read my review of The Jack in the Green Inn, Rockbeare may remember that I started my perfect day with a visit to Totnes and lunch at 'Willow'.

Just because my vegan fine dining experience in the evening was so incredible, doesn't mean that my visit to Willow was none-the-less worthy of a review and so here it is:

Willow was recommended to me by a Twitter friend and having wafted the length and breadth of the high street in Totnes I'm glad that I had the recommendation - because shockingly it would seem that there aren't actually that many vegetarian eateries in the town! In fact Willow seems to be the main one! [If you've ever been to Totnes or know of it - you'll understand my surprise...]

Anyway - its tucked at the top of the high street so if you fancy working up an appetite park at the bottom of the town and walk up.

doesn't quite look like this now

I never used to know quite what to expect of vegetarian restaurants, but I'm getting the sense now that many of them are similar in style. Willow is no exception, eclectic in design (rustic some might say) with a mix of wooden benches and chairs and a mixed clientele as well. Posters, paintings, plants and paraphernalia adorn the walls in a random fashion and the restaurant is clearly signed as a mobile-free zone (I didn't dare disobey).

The first thing that hit me was the delicious food smell though! And so, space at a communal table well and truly nabbed, I went up to the serving counter to make my choices.

Willow serves a hot buffet style selection of freshly prepared dishes for lunch every day - which include several vegan main options and three salad sides suitable for vegans too. There are also a number of desserts and cakes - well labelled and easy to chose veggie, GF and Vegan. This makes life so much easier.

The food is served to you in rustic crockery and the team there are warm and friendly and were happy to advise on the vegan dishes of the day.

We both opted for the same thing - a mixed vegetable curry, which came on a mound of wholegrain rice and huge scoops of three different mixed salads all around the side.

The food: 

oops bit blurry but you get the jist...

Absolutely packed full of flavour this food really did live up to expectation. It was truly delicious. I would hazzard a guess that there must have been 20+ different types of veg and salad on my plate and its such a pleasure to eat this way - carnivores - you should try it. The sheer variety and flavour is wonderful. With that home-cooked feel and portions that would definitely be at home in my home [ ;) ] it felt like having lunch with good friends.

They don't do fancy coffees (kind of a relief because I truly think the cafe culture has gone a step too far sometimes) but cafetieres of mild, medium or strong roasts and steamy hot soya milk on the side. We opted for the medium blend and it was perfect.

I would love to have had some cake or pudding - but even I couldn't manage any on this occasion - I was so full and very relaxed - content.

I have two gripes with Willow however - one was the state of the toilet facilities - frankly not clean enough and the other (which is possibly more subjective) the fact that this resembles some other vegetarian eateries in its style. Regular readers will know I prefer contemporary as opposed to hippy (and yes I also know some of you find this offensive - but it's the word that will best conjure up an image in peoples' minds because it meets that stereotype!) and I can't help but think that it will never attract non-vegetarians/vegans because of this.

I personally think this is a massive shame when the food is so good!

Attracting new people to the ways of plant-based living could be so easy to do - good for them, and good for business too and I wish someone, somewhere would create a modern cafe / restaurant that doesn't even advertise its vegetarian-ness - it is just about the fabulous food that happens to be meat free, egg free, dairy free.

For these reasons I fear Willow may be missed by many people who would / could actually love it - and that's a shame.

But for now I'll go back whenever I need a perfect day out - even if I can't totally blend in the food is yummy.

Soups, sandwiches filled jacket potatoes (£4–£5.90). Three mains (£5, £9.50 with mixed salads), one or two vegan, often gluten-free, such as blackeye bean bake, curry, or savoury tofu flan. Thalis £9.90, £11.50. Evening starters (£3.20–£5.80) feature dips, soup, garlic bread.

Lots of cakes (£2.20–£2.40) include oaty fruit slice, sticky tofu date cake, and chocolate beetroot cake. Evenings there are also desserts (£5–£5.50), such as sundaes and you can add (vegan) ice cream and sorbets too.

My tip: Have an early lunch because the restaurant clearly is patronised by regulars who know that getting there early means they have the pick of the daily menu - cos once a dish is gone its gone. We went in at 12.30pm and already things were being crossed off the board.

87 High Street
Totnes
Devon
TQ9 5PB

Tel: 01803 862605
Open: Mon–Sat 10.00–17.00 (Fri from 9.00); also Wed, Fri–Sat 18.30–21.00; Sun closed