The Vessel

Rating: 3

We ate dinner here in March 2024.

Vegetarian pizza
Vegetarian spring rolls

The Vessel describes itself as a gastropub. And while it’s not reaching any new culinary heights, it’s not phoning it in either. Vegetarian varieties of meals can often be afterthoughts, and especially at a pub, a pizza option they have to slap on to be inclusive. The Vessel had given both the pizza and the spring rolls some effort.

The pizza had a delightfully thin and crispy base with a quality, flavourful red sauce. The cheese amount wasn’t overbearing, but the pesto was. This over-rode any chance we had of tasting the feta, which was also a bit thin on the ground. We could have done with a bit less rocket too, but overall it was a well executed pizza.

Spring rolls are another frequent throwaway item. We hate it when we pay good money for spring rolls then what shows up is those pinky-finger-thin bulk catering pack spring rolls that shatter when you bite into them and contain just a couple of bits of dust and a huge piece of cabbage. These spring rolls were large and had tasty and identifiable vegetables inside. They were well fried, although Business Andy had one that was soggy down one side. And they came with a chipotle mayo, which while unconventional, paired well with the rolls.