• 3
• Completely vegan

The Brook has been open for a few years and is now completely vegan. It's no longer open during the day on weekdays. The owners take an innovative approach, offering a range of different events (live music, quizzes, cocktail nights, etc) in addition to standard eating. The restaurant is up a narrow flight of stairs, is small and feels cramped. Each time I go, I have to ask for the music to be turned down. The space is so small that there is already quite a bit of noise just with people talking and kitchen noises. When I visited today, the music downstairs was so loud that I couldn't hear what the barman said when he greeted me. Food is cooked to order and the kitchen is very small, so there tends to be a long wait – it was a good 30 minutes before my order arrived (it had been sitting unattended on the counter for 5 minutes). I had The English brunch – sausage, tomatoes, baked beans, scrambled tofu, toast. It was nice, though the tofu lacked flavour and the dish was expensive for what it was. My partner's Mexican brunch was less successful and he thought he could probably have cooked something better himself. It's great to have a vegan place to eat locally and I think The Brook is trying hard, but needs to make sure that its standards are always high (and the music low).