The Veggie Cafe

Just felt like gushing about this cafe in the University, really.

It's located just outside the John Rylands University Library, for those who are studying here but do not yet know of its existence. There's a billboard outside advertising its opening hours - but I wonder how enticing the words "Veggie Cafe" can be to anyone entering the library. Or perhaps it's aimed more at the people who come out of the library after several exhausting brain-busting hours at work.

So it's a quaint little cafe. Once you enter the building and descend down a flight of stairs you'll notice how it's so different here - the lighting and heating is good, the tables are spread out in neat rows, and your phone loses its reception remarkably. Oh did I mention the serenity of it all, with some radio music in the background and a general quiet buzz emanating from the place? It just feels like you've been transported back 20 years or something, when people still returned their plates when they finished with their meals (not that the staff wouldn't clear them), the people running the place are there monday-friday, and they talk in that oh-so-beautiful english accent (just right, not that thick Northern accent where you can't decipher anything other than "yes" and "now"), replete with smiles and all. You genuinely feel they are nice people who are just running the cafe for the fun of it, not the profit-driven sort who'd smile only as they're tightly grasping the notes you've barely taken out of your wallet.

And did I mention the food? Yup I am a self-confessed carnivore who likes his meat fresh and bloody, but somehow, I can't help but enjoy the veggie soups they dish up, day after day (well at least the days I'm there). Carrot & coriander; peas and mint; lentil and some other bean; mushrooms; tomato and something that I can't discern but just tastes nice... It's just good natural food, I have to admit. I mean, this is probably one of the rare few places where I don't mind subjecting myself to the torture of not having meat for an entire meal.

And the prices are quite reasonable. A soup + bread and coffee costs just 3 pounds - compared to a subway meal of 4.80 or that spicy wings and coke. Oh and of course do compare it to the not-quite-curry at the refractory just a few steps away, that costs 30p more but tastes infinitely worse, and you get my drift.

So yep. Do pop by one day. But oh be warned. I brought two freshers there one lunchtime and one of them was like, "no meat! so ex somemore!" and seemed quite perturbed by what he was eating (an egg mayo baguette, which admittedly didn't look that nice). So yeah. Go into it with an open mind (you have been warned, it is a veggie cafe and makes no pretense about it) and you just might be rewarded.