Dar Papillon, Berkhamsted

Vegan and Vegetarian Cafe Restaurant

I really wanted to love this place. I really want to love it. It's good natured and rather sweet. 
It's heart's in the right place.  Everything else however, is just a bit out of sync. 

The food is really quite basic. The ingredients include some more exotic than I might use at 
home but nothing stands out. Some, I'm afraid, stand out for exactly the opposite reasons.I ordered a 

jewelled salad  in here one Summer evening to find this consisted of boiled rice with sweetcorn in it. 
With not a lot else to it.

The staff are so keen to be good and helpful that you almost feel it would be churlish to note
that they've twice mixed up the drink order or brought one dinner guest entirely the wrong thing. We 

think. Other main courses bear  limited relation to what we had been expecting so we can't be sure.

The cakes were nice and varied on one visit but stale on another two optimistic visits. 

Great fresh juices, good coffee but the pleasant teas are expensive. For that price, I don't 

want to be sitting on a plastic chair. This isn't quirky, it's just tatty. Shabby chic without the 

chic. The decor looks amateur but done so earnestly I feel bad karma for just having written that. 

I am so sorry to write anything negative as I can't help but feel that the place is someone's
very personal project. Someone without a lot of restaurant experience I'd guess.

Fairtrade and Organic where it can, oh that must count for something mustn't it? Should it 
have to?

Oh, but I do want to love this place and that perhaps explains my satisfaction of seeing that 
it's still open when I pass by.  It doesn't explain my surprise though.

Go and experience Dar Papillon. It will be good for the soul if less edifying to the palate.

http://www.darpapillon.com/ourfoods.html

Where have I been? - Busy!

I've been busy! Back to it...

http://www.nhveg.org.uk/articles/1426.html

http://www.nhveg.org.uk/articles/1426.html

This is a little far North of me but a useful resource for North Herts. Vegans. There are more vegans out there than you can shake a carrot stick at.

The Attic Cafe, Home & Colonial, Berkhamsted

Heavenly cafe on the third floor

My idea of heaven. The Attic is not a vegan cafe, it's not even a vegetarian cafe. It is however, the kind of place you can take anyone and they'll be happy. I can't praise it enough.

It's three floors up so sorry, it's not suitable for less able vegans. But if you make it up the creaking staircases without stopping in fascination at a shop that can confidently be described as 'quirky' (you don't often see a sales display cabinet of salvaged door knockers, next to local art work and a collection of 1950s clocks), you'll find The Attic.


Decorated in a kind of Women's Institute revival style; yes, that is handmade union jack bunting strung across the rafters, the wooden tables are covered in pastel polka dot table clothes with local art work on the walls.


I first visited with Little Cherub and Vegan Sceptical Mother. We had tea in mismatching floral china cups and a variety of teapots and strainers. There are seventeen types of organic fairtrade tea on offer with black teas in loose form (hence the strainers). The coffee is both organic and fair trade to;, all five different types. I asked for Soya Milk and they filled a pretty little jug up for me, so no small measures here. Little Cherub and Vegan Sceptical Mother shared a cream tea, with VSM casting me suspicious looks when Little Cherub announced she didn't eat cream. I asked if the cakes which were prettily on display on cake stands under glass cloches and the waitress and cook came out and gave them all serious consideration. They said 'not today no' and apologised. It was sincere.

I snuck back a second time to have a 'Full Vegetarian Breakfast'. Happily, the veggie sausage (more of a home made and delicious patty) is vegan and I asked if I could swap the egg for a little extra of something else. The waitress was easy-going and helpful and the plate came out heaving in extra mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, the sausage and a round of granary toast. The waitress pre-empted me and said the mushrooms were cooked in oil and the (lashings) of margarine provided was vegan.

The Sunday morning clientele was as eclectic as the shop. Lovestruck young couples, Sunday shoppers,  families from Grandmas to a newborn, friends getting over the night before and solo diners reading a book or the paper.

It's the kind of place that Carnivorous Dad could get a satisfying Full English whilst I could take comfort that the meat as well as the eggs are, at least, free range.

Vegan menu options include Avacado and Mushrooms in a Jacket Potato; the doctored Full Vegetarian Breakfast; Houmous, Avacado and Alfafa sandwich, Garlic Mushrooms on Toast and a Spinach, Sweet Potato, Broccoli and Pepper Burger.

I thanked a different waitress at the till for being so sanguine about my requested breakfast change and she said she herself was vegan and directed me to the comments book to add anything I thought they should do more of.

Just the same, just do more of the same, thank you.

Vegan Food: Vegan options available
Ambience: Lovely. Gives a little warm English glow inside and a faint urge to sing Jerusalem.
Staff: Really sincere, friendly and eager to help.

Chain Gangs 2: Ask : Berkhamsted

 As before: Chain Restaurants are not all bad, particularly for a vegan and particularly if you're going out with a group. Their main claim to fame is that food is consistent in whichever branch you go to. For many this is also what makes them charmless but they have their place. For a vegan, they offer a chance to know exactly what's on the menu as the companies helpfully publish them on their websites and it's possible to order something without having to cross-examine the chef. That can be a bonus if you're out with a lot of different people.

Because they are so similar, I'll only look at one of each on this page...

ASK, Berkhamsted

Owned, by the same company as Pizza Express, Ask are pretty much the same idea with more of a focus on the pasta.

The pasta, pizza bases and ciabatta are all vegan.

I went here with my Carnivorous Dad and Vegan Sceptical Mother as well as Little Cherub.

I had Panzanella; a salad of bread, tomato, capers, cucumber and balsamic vinegar which was good enough to have great big bowls of.

For my main course, I had Fettuccine con Verdure, pasta with vegetables and an olive tapenade which the waiter advised to have with a tomato sauce. Very pleasant if not entirely memorable.

Little Cherub had dough sticks, with chopped cucumber and carrots which was dipped in non vegan sauce. Her spaghetti al pomodoro was vegan. Basic but she enjoyed it.

Carnivorous Dad and Vegan Sceptical Mother were surprised that I ordered from the main menu without having to write a note for the kitchen. In itself, worth going for.

Vegan Food: Pizza Bases and dough all vegan. A few vegan mains too.
Ambiance: Pleasant enough family dining
Customer Service: Staff very helpful and happy to discuss dishes.

Chain Gangs : Pizza Express, Hemel Hempstead

Chain Restaurants are not all bad, particularly for a vegan and particularly if you're going out with a group. Their main claim to fame is that food is consistent in whichever branch you go to. For many this is also what makes them charmless but they have their place. For a vegan, they offer a chance to know exactly what's on the menu as the companies helpfully publish them on their websites and it's possible to order something without having to cross-examine the chef. That can be a bonus if you're out with a lot of different people.

Because they are so similar, I'll only look at one of each on this page...

Pizza Express: Hemel Hempstead 

Pizza Express dough is vegan. So any pizza can easily be made  vegan.

For starters, the Bruschetta is vegan, as are the dough balls, olives, tomatoes and almonds.

The Giardiniera without pesto and Veneziana Pizzas, as with others, are vegan if made without cheese. The Giardinera is full of vegetables; artichoke and asparagus and is really surprisingly pleasant. I prefer this over the Veneziana as it's bulky and filling and doesn't have that empty feel that some pizzas can have without cheese.

For desert, 'Caffe Reale' or baby figs in syrup without mascarpone is pleasant enough.

All in all, a surprisingly edible meal and made easy by the staff who seem completely unfazed by tailoring an order to individual needs. They even have a 'NO CHEESE' button on the till and the chefs make a particular point of making that pizza separately to the others, presumably in case of allergies.

Hemel Hempstead isn't a particularly notable branch or interesting building but then it wouldn't be, as it's built in the modern shopping precinct. It's clean and the staff are attentive. Classic Pizza Express.

Vegan Food: Pizza Bases and dough all vegan. A little customisation means there will be plenty to eat.
Ambiance: Not especially elegant but perfect when you are yourself not feeling especially elegant.
Customer Service: Staff not all sure what is or isn't vegan but went to find out.

Honourable Mention : Shop : Clare James, Kings Langley

Clare James Health food Shop


Health food and vegan emporium in an unassuming village shop parade. It's crammed, and I do mean crammed, full of everything. Want to buy Booja Booja Truffles, Seitan, Vegan Cosmetics and that obscure brand of seaweed cracker you like so much in one shop? It's all in here. Just be prepared to be overwhelmed at the     choice on offer.

The staff are friendly and knowledgeable even let us charge through the stock room to the staff loo when Little Cherub had a one of those sudden and urgent needs to answer the call of nature so beloved of the three year old assistant shopper.

They use Faith in Nature products in their bathroom, in case you're wondering. I like a store that practises what it preaches.