Vegan MoFo from afar - vegan meals in York, thanks to Goji Cafe

I decided to sign up to the 2012 Vegan Mofo despite still being in Europe. This might sound a little foolish, and I'm still not entirely sure that it isn't exactly that. However, I was so inspired by the posts I read last year that I really wanted to take part. Plus, sadly (oh, so very, very sadly) we will be home this Friday evening. I'm not sure I'm ready for that at all, but that isn't our focus for today.

Instead, today we zoom in on one of our lunches (and also one of my dinners!) in York. There will be a full post on Yorkshire eventually, which navigates the scenery and towns and attractions, but today is about a particular cafe and its rather wonderful food.

Goji Cafe is located in the historic centre of York and I noted it with interest on our first evening there. It serves organic and fair trade vegetarian and vegan food, mostly during the day, but also in the evenings on Friday and Saturday nights.

Goji Cafe by night

Their cafe menu includes dishes such as wraps, a rice bowl, a mushroom burger, and even a tofu hotdog. They also have an extensive dessert list, including vegan chocolate cake and vegan lemon and poppyseed cake - and that is before you even hit the specials, some of which are shown below.

We visited for lunch on our first full day in York, and I was delighted to discover tables tucked away at the back of the store in the sort of warmth that had a chance of defrosting my hands. We ordered drinks, a very gingery ginger beer for Mr Bite and a pot of tea for me, and set about the serious business of deciding what to eat.

I could have had any number of dishes, and the tomato and sweet potato soup (their soup of the day) was a serious contender. In the end, though, I ordered their vegan "roast vegetables with tomato and tofu" wrap . It came toasted, with a side of salad and tomato salsa, and was packed full of spinach, capsicum, onion, zucchini and tofu strips. The tomato flavouring was exquisite, smoky and deep and also (unexpectedly) carrying notes of lime. I loved it.

Mr Bite had intended to order their large vegetarian samosa with salad, but some confusion in the ordering process resulted in him receiving the Indian platter. It included the samosa (hidden in the above photo), along with an onion bhaji, lentil dhal soup, side salad, and yoghurt and mango chutney sides. He enjoyed the samosa and bhaji but found them too spicy to be optimal, and he was rather red faced after eating! The soup, hot in temperature as well as taste, defeated him.

This was good for me, because it meant I had a partner in dessert. I don't usually do dessert at lunch time, but given that we finished our main courses at 2.30pm and the menu featured vegan liquorice cake - well, I made an exception.

Vegan liquorice cake with soy ice cream, plus Mr Bite's ginger beer

I am glad I did, because the cake was amazing.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a liquorice cake, but I can only say that it was delightful. The taste and texture was reminiscent of a dark ginger cake, with underlying flavours of molasses or treacle, but instead of ginger there was subtle, subtle liquorice. The icing packed a slightly greater liquorice punch, but still not an over-powering one. The cake as a whole managed to be dense and light at the same time. We split it down the middle and both loved it.

The vanilla ice cream was so creamy that I was convinced it was almond-based. However, when I asked, I was told it was soy. I can only say that it was nothing like any soy ice cream I'd eaten previously, and the use of real vanilla bean seemed to make a world of difference to the flavour.

I was so enamored with this meal that it may come as no surprise that I managed a repeat visit. On our final night, when we didn't venture out to find dinner until 8.30pm, we decided to buy take-away instead of searching for, and then waiting at, a restaurant. As we were staying at a B&B, we weren't about to make things from scratch and I decided that Goji Cafe would be just the place to cater to my tastes. Mr Bite went for Wagamama, which was just down the road (yes, even in historic York!).

If you were to eat in at Goji Cafe for dinner, you could order dishes such as a vegan coconut curry, stuffed butternut squash, or a layered eggplant bake. Their mushroom burger also features in the evening. Their evening take-away options are a bit more limited, however, as they only serve cold dishes to take away. This led to me buying a repeat of my lunch wrap, which frankly I was quite happy to do.

Just as good cold

We also bought another cake to share, this time the vegan carrot cake. Like the liquorice one, it was beautifully done - fluffy, moist, and dense enough to satisfy without being excessively heavy. The cake was studded with raisins (no nuts, which I prefer in carrot cake) and the icing was a vegan cream cheese.

Goji cafe, thank you for two delicious meals. You are very worthy of kicking off my Vegan Mofo posts for 2012 and I hope I will be back to visit again one day.

What was the last surprise cafe discovery you made? I really didn't expect to find such a great place on the main street of York!

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