Other Vege Belfast news- R.I.P. Oodles and World Peace Cafe

Several months ago I wrote about 2 of my favourite veggie-friendly places in Belfast - Oodles Noodles and World Peace Cafe. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say that both of these lovely cafes have since closed down. Oodles was always a very small and relatively quiet noodle bar because of its size and location. Despite how lovely the food was it was only ever busy at lunchtimes and weekend evenings and even then it was quieter than other local restaurants. Of course, this was part of its charm as it meant the staff were always much friendlier and took the time to chat with their clientele. Since Xmas 2010 it has been closed with a 'To Let' sign outside and it has recently been taken over by the sandwich chain, Doorsteps.

World Peace Cafe was a voluntary-ran cafe below the Buddhist centre in Donegall Pass, Belfast but since June last year it has remained on hiatus and then eventually it permanently closed down.

I have removed these cafes from our veggie-friendly list on the blogspot homepage. But do not despair, as we have found that actually many restaurants in Belfast, even those without explicitly veggie/vegan items on their menus, can be very accommodating and are willing to make substitutions if need be to satisfy our requirements. In addition, bigger chains like Pizza Express and Wagamama have great veggie options and are open around Belfast. I have also added to the list some more places which are very popular with fellow Belfast vege people, like Boojum, and if you have any recommendations for good veggie-friendly food places do please let us know.

In the meantime, we will miss you Oodles and World Peace Cafe, and we hope you may be reincarnated elsewhere in the city soon. R.I.P.

Petrina.

Latest Veg-Head update

Hi there, lovely people. This is just a quick post to update any of our non-facebook followers. Since our last post in November we have had two more successful potlucks. The first of these was hosted by Adrienne in November and the latest one was hosted by Daniel in February. We also had our annual veg-heads Xmas night out in December at the Limelight, Belfast where much alcohol and drunken antics were partaken of.

We are hoping to have another potluck in April and we will be organising other events like veggie picnics and so on once the warmer summer weather returns. In addition, we are trying to organise a charity event for August called 'Bike 4 Bears', which aims to raise money for the WSPA's work to help rescue bears from cruel practices like bear-baiting.

The number of members in the group is still growing all the time and it's great to get the opportunity to meet so many new people. As Belfast is such a small city, and nowhere near as veggie-friendly as (the relatively) nearby cities like Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester, it can sometimes feel like you are a complete outcast and a weirdo living here, especially when you hear ignorant comments to that effect from other people. But rest-assured that you can be a very happy and healthy vegetarian or vegan living in Northern Ireland, and the Belfast veg-heads are here to make life that little bit easier for you.  Our main source of news and information is still facebook so please request to join us there if  you have not already done so. 

That's all for now.

Vege Hugs.
Petrina.