Unfortunately I never made it to the Acorn Vegan Deli in Leigh-on-sea part of The Oak Tree family. It has now transformed into a vegan pie and mash shop so I suggested to my Mum that we should go for Mother’s Day.

There is little parking nearby so Mum dropped me off at the restaurant and then had to drive around for about 15 minutes to find a parking space.

I enjoyed this locally brewed red ale while I waited for her to arrive!

There are a number of different pies you can choose from including chilli, cheesy, chick’n and mushroom, steak and ale as well as a daily special which on this day was Thai curry.

We both chose the steak and ale which came with homemade seitan pieces, peas, Mum had gravy and I went for the traditional liquor (parsley sauce) and added lots of vinegar!

I was disappointed the meals came on bamboo container. This is a sit down restaurant/cafe so I expected a proper plate. It made it difficult eat as you kind of had to work your way right to left to have enough room to cut up your pie. I also usually like lashings of liquor but I was limited to a dainty drizzle in order to eat this without getting it all over me! I found the peas were a little underdone (how do you undercook peas?!) and the seitan pieces were far too huge in the pie.

I am being very critical and overall I would say this was alright/a bit meh. When you are only serving basically one meal this should be your speciality and done very well. I have had great vegan pie and mash from non-vegan places so I would expect an exclusively vegan place to have it on top form.

There was an extensive dessert menu but I have given up treats for Lent so we skipped them and the milkshake options looked good too.

Leigh-on-sea is about a 45 minute drive from where I live so I don’t think I would go out of my way to go here again but if I was in Leigh for other reasons I might pop in for a bite.

Have you been to The Acorn? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x