• 3
• Poor cafe. Good but expensive shop.

I'd been eating at 'Eighth Day' for over 15 years before it dawned on me that I'd never really enjoyed a meal there! That might sound a little daft but I was always so relieved to have somewhere that I knew provided Vegan options that I'd never stopped to think about the food itself. Let's put the positive(s) first: the desserts are generally very good with a variety of Vegan choices. There are also good, tasty smoothie options. As for the rest of the food: personally I tend to find it quite dry and boring. They really do appear to embrace the "wholefood" philosophy which unfortunately can mean lots of bland pulses etc. A non-Vegan friend of mine ate here with me fairly recently as he was genuinely keen to try Vegan food and had an open mind to doing so in the future. The experience has completely turned him off such cuisine and he now refuses point blank to try anything Vegan! Such a shame because whilst what he tried at Eighth Day was pretty representative of their food it was not typical of the tasty Vegan food we all know and love. A little like 'The Egg' in Liverpool, Eighth Day Cafe is a very dated interpretation of a vegetarian and Vegan eaterie. Certainly not fun or uplifting. The shop upstairs is however very good and stocks a lot of Vegan foodstuffs as well as alcoholic produce. They also have a deli counter with a good choice of pasties, wraps, desserts and so on. The shop is quite expensive but I guess most places of this type are. My 3 Star (Cow) rating is an average for both the cafe and shop. I would rate the Cafe itself as 2 stars and the Shop as 4. Updated from previous review on Friday April 22, 2016