CLOSED: Foffano's

I'll be very impressed if anyone can work out my title. Progress is progress, whereby vegan labelling on menus is becoming more and more prevalent. Vegetarian labelling is nothing new, it's all about veganism now if you want to compete and attract a wider range of diners. We all love Italian food. I certainly do. Vegan items are labelled with a blue 'vn'. Foffano's offers good Italian food set in the pretty and spacious central market square of Darlington. On a Friday night you will find the restaurant packed, therefore booking ahead is advised. They have an online booking form which is easy to use. The only main course option for vegans is a pretty standard penne arrabbiata. This was preceeded by a more than acceptable tomato and basil bruschetta. They could also prepare a pizza without cheese if requested although this is not really much of a revelation. We didn't have desert but there was a vegan lemon and polenta cake available. It's always good to see an independent place doing well and trying to do its bit for veganism.

My partner and I (both vegan) and my parents (both omnivores) ate dinner here a couple of nights ago. Having read the previous review on this restaurant we were exited to go. We looked at the menu online and saw good pasta options (not just your standard tomato sauce pastas) and the option to have pizzas with vegan cheese. When we got there unfortunately there was no extra vegetarian/vegan menu as there was on the website, only dishes marked v or vn on the regular menu. So we looked and were confused by the lack of choice (no pizzas marked vn and only your bog standard pastas marked vn and a couple of risottos marked vn). The waiter explained that they had changed the menu a couple of weeks ago, that they had just been seeing what people went for most and kept those dishes on. So it seems lack of vegan customers meant no more vegan cheese and no more vegan pesto. Our starter went well, with it being vegan (as far as we could tell) - garlic bread. Then for mains I had a pasta dish and my partner had the asparagus risotto. They both arrived with parmesan cheese grated all over them. So we sent them back. They came back suspiciously quickly (i.e. a scraping job, rather than a re-cooking job). My partner reckons (and he is a chef) that there was cheese mixed through his, and I could certainly still see bits of parmesan in mine. Anyway it would have been difficult to prove and so as not to spoil the night with my parents we ate them. My partner then ordered dessert. I joked that it would have cream, ice-cream or custard on it. I really was joking, however it did indeed come with regular non-vegan Snickers ice-cream! My partner didn't ask for it to be taken back, but when I said to the waitress that we were vegan she just said 'oh' and the member of staff behind the bar said 'You're vegan? And they gave you ice-cream?' and just laughed, but didn't sort it out. I would have asked for a new one, but my partner ate the cake/tart thing that may or may not have been vegan for all we knew at this point and my Dad ate the ice-cream. I could perhaps understand the lack of understanding of the meaning of 'vegan' if it hadn't been for the fact they are the ones who put a vegetarian/vegan menu on their website and marked items vn! Never again.

For the size of Darlington, I can't believe there is a restaurant with an entire vegan menu, including vegan cheese pizzas, and with two options for dessert - real cake, not just fruit salad! I've tried both pasta and vegan pizza, incredibly impressed with both; I had to double check they'd used the right cheese as it was so realistic! Would recommend, especially in the happy hour.