Warehouse Cafe, Digbeth

Above: Birthday Meal at The Warehouse Cafe

I feel I am getting pretty good at this eating out vegetarian malarky. In fact, since I feel I needed the practice, I think I have been out for resturant meals about 5 times in the past 2 weeks of being vegetarian.

It was recently my boyfriend's birthday - so I suggested we go to a vegetarian restaurant in roder to avoid temptation and perhaps get our friends to understand that not all vege food is tofu and salad.


I booked a table at The Warehouse Cafe in Digbeth, Birmingham. I had previously visited when I was about 18 with the vegan boyfriend at the time I have previously mentioned. In the past decade, it has undergone a revamp and changed owners, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It's located on Allison Street, in part of a small corner complex that it shares with Friends of the Earth. Inside, it was simply decorated, but the nice wooden furniture, tealights and fairylights gave it a nice touch of ambiance that still retained its friendliness. There were a few other tables around us inhabited by couples who had clearly been before (one couple even made a repeat booking upon leaving) so it seems it has a loyal following in Birmingham.

Our servers were some of the friendliest I have ever met and attentive and polite without it seeming too annoying or overdone. They were very helpful and knowledgeable about the ingredients in the dishes.

My main gripe was that they aren't licensed to don't serve alcohol, but you are permitted to take your own, but this isn't made clear on their website so we missed out on a celebratory drink or two. Instead we ordered a huge amount of Fentiman's natural sodas between us. The Pink lemonade was a favourite.

I've included the menus below - I had the houmous and local bread with olive tepenade (lovely but far too much for a starter, I was full before the main came out!), the halloumi fish and chips (felt quite unhealthy eating this, it is battered cheese afterall!) but it was nice to have something "substantial". I topped it off with a vegan brownie, which frankly was overkill by this point, but I just couldn't leave without sampling a vegan dessert (I often miss out due to my egg allergy).

My party differed in their tastes - those a little sceptical stuck to vege burgers with various toppings, which seemed to be received quite well. However - I don't feel we have converted the masses just yet!