I don’t mind confessing to it but Ruth and I have always had a love for and indeed at one point minor obsession with Pushkar. When we first met we spent so much time eating there that it became our regular place to visit for that time when you needed a bit of affordable class in your life. Of course there were others who tempted our purse strings to loosen and our desire for a Lasan curry got in the way sometimes of the monogamy completely.

Recently due to an arrival of young Hare, it’s well documented in this blog we don’t get out much into the big smoke of the city. In fact we don’t get out that much at all unless I’m reviewing the park or which route is the best to take to take him to school. So Pushkar has been a distant stranger over recent times of our lives. Call it a separation rather than divorce, but that far away feeling felt more distant than a European holiday or a Michelin starred lunch.

So the arrival of a Vegan festival that runs until February 28th, pricked up my ears as a superlative idea, and a blog post came out immediately. Quick work considering my blog absence recently.

Pushkar in my personal opinion is the dining out jewel on Broad Street. It has a welcoming bar, friendly informed staff and has a quality menu of well cooked and tasty high end food. It’s popular for those reasons. The right reasons. The Vegan festival menu though surprised me for its dazzlement and detail. So many dishes that would all fit on Pushkar’s main menu and show a sensitive touch of thought for the plant based way. It demonstrated on paper at least that this could be done. The question though could it deliver?

Things are done elegantly here. An opening course of Chukander Ki Galouti is a lovely beetroot cake with beetroot chutney. Crisp on the outside, soft inside, it melts in the mouth and has a delicate spicing. Made perfectly.

Ruth’s Corn Palak Ki Tiki, chopped spinach filled with spice corn, a lovely tiki, with good flavour and beautifully presented.

Corn Palak Ki Tiki

Chukander Ki Galouti.

A brilliant kesari Puktan Subz, main course shows true skill to balance flavour and spicing without one overwhelming the other. A Butternut squash gravy has depth and immerses the vegetables, green beans, carrot and mushroom to provide a filling main with the heat of the cumin seeds giving a punch. Perfect with the roti and Naan.

Another main the Jeera Aloo Sharkandi is the star of the show tonight. Boiled potato, and sweet potato tempered with cumin seeds, green chilli and coriander leaves is outstanding and finds a true friend in the Kesari main alongside it. A delicious bowl of Loud singing and lip smacking ensures.

We also tried Moong Ki Daal, another lovely dish of yellow lentils tempered with garlic, ginger, and green chilli. A top Daal and full of gentle warmth on a cold night.

Accompaniments included a Corn rice, basmati infused with saffron and Corn which was nice, a Koda Ki Roti, Rag flour bread. A ‘Super Cereal’ which was quite heavy I found but not bad as an alternative to Naan bread.

An Aloo Paratha was more to my liking. A superb dunking in bread, superb with the Kesari Puktan Subz.

Our Dessert of Carrot, coconut Pudding was a triumph of harmonious flavours, gentle and sweet. I loved the flavours. Delicious in every way.

We also enjoyed a vegan friendly Merlot with our food.

Service is informed, attentive and enthusiastic for the menu. A relaxed feel that’s top notch in standard.

So the Vegan festival menu didn’t disappoint.

Dishes are varied, and full of good spicy flavour. The menu shows a thoughtfulness and a lot of technical skill to balance the ingredients, I’m impressed by the restaurants keenness to adapt and present the food in a sophisticated and tempting way. All of the dishes tried were winners and demonstrated that Indian food which is not known necessarily known to be vegan friendly can be developed with some consideration. A beautiful menu that hits the right notes. Pushkar style.

Thanks for reading,

Andy 😊

Our food and drink was complimentary for review purposes to promote the Pushkar Vegan Festivals. All thoughts and words are my own.

Vegan friendly popodoms and sauces are available too. Please ask for them as we had the non vegan variety which were lovely. Hence no photo.

Also there are vegan friendly cocktails available.

Click to access vegan-menu-3354.pdf

Pushkar can be found at 245 Broad Street, Birmingham.