Viva la Vida: Life is Life
Pros Smart surroundings, quality food
Cons Occasional seasoning issues, portion size control
Pay
€€
Burger, shared dessert, bottle of Ribera among 4: €22
Booking essential, at least at weekends. Seating in main room recommended.
Find
Website
Access Doors to negotiate. Step free entrance.
In Short
Hopes? Something new in the burger dept.
Reality? Success.
First Impressions? Boho-posh
A USP? Vegan burgers for the Latina smart set
The food in three words? Well put together.
Can they get the staff? Plenty of them, pretty speedy.
Service with a smile? Seemed to be some minor communication problems at times.
Friend friendly? Anyone happy with an animal-free evening will be well-pleased.
Rating for dating? Got to have potential, although lighting a bit bright. Burgers don't make the easiest table manners, maybe.
Tip? Small one.
Change one thing? Minor flavouring points.
Going back? No reason why not.
Compare & Contrast
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Viva Burger is an animal-friendly burger restaurant with plenty to offer.
When you've been all over town and had burger after burger, what can you do but say Burger this! and see what variety is on offer. But plant-based? Is this a gamble? Are we talking Viva Las Vegas? We shall see. It's time for a smartly decorated, extremely popular vegan burger bar.
It's a decent first impression. A brightly lit, colourful and fairly spacious upstairs layout, with bench-seating on the walls. Starting out as a pay-per-weight place, Viva later moved to a frankly smart, posh-ish offering. It's very popular, with a queue for tables when we left.
So let's talk food. We're talking ginormous quantities here and gosh you're not going to leave hungry.
Let's get the constructive nagging in first: we had three different burgers, and seasoning was seriously needed for the spud wedges. But there are a load of very important positives. Those wedges came in a generous portion and felt much more homemade than some places we've tried, with a rich creamy veganaise (we know, it's a daft name, but whatchagonnado?) sauce. As well as more salt, we'd have welcomed a touch more spicing, given the chance.
The burgers themselves are colossal. Tip of the day: ask for them pre-cut by the kitchen. One detail difference from meat burgers is that as soon as you put a knife into them, these dishes will collapse. Finger food this isn't.
Flavour wise they're really good, and we'd say nothing like as heavy as meat equivalents would be. The arabe contained a thick falafel, helped out with an orange slice. That was unexpected but welcome. It lightened the pretty dense chickpea pattie. It's still a hefty and filling piece though. You'll be doing well to finish it without calling for a volunteer or two. The ahumado didn't feel as cheesy as it was billed to be, but had a creamyness going on. No complaints about it.
Desserts, as regular readers (hello both, please tell your friends) know, are a must try. It's the fourth rule. Here's a mango custard thing in a pretty, but slightly impractical serving mode.
Tasty, refreshing, it falls down a bit as that dish has an unfortunate bulge at the bottom (admittedly it can happen to the best of us), which, like the annoying groove in yoghurt pots, makes the last of your pudding frustratingly hard to spoon.
The apple pie was also ginormous, and, honestly, too big. It's fine to be generous, but after the mains, this is way too much for one and either needs shrinking or advertising as a share.
Otherwise, it risks food going to waste. Never a good thing, even less if your ethos is a menu conscious of its environmental impact. Anything else would be viva: la vida a bit loca. Spongy, it needed much more spice and acidity to make the contrast to the tasty non-cream icecream work.
Pros Smart surroundings, quality food
Cons Occasional seasoning issues, portion size control
Pay
€€
Burger, shared dessert, bottle of Ribera among 4: €22
Booking essential, at least at weekends. Seating in main room recommended.
Find
Website
Access Doors to negotiate. Step free entrance.
In Short
Hopes? Something new in the burger dept.
Reality? Success.
First Impressions? Boho-posh
A USP? Vegan burgers for the Latina smart set
The food in three words? Well put together.
Can they get the staff? Plenty of them, pretty speedy.
Service with a smile? Seemed to be some minor communication problems at times.
Friend friendly? Anyone happy with an animal-free evening will be well-pleased.
Rating for dating? Got to have potential, although lighting a bit bright. Burgers don't make the easiest table manners, maybe.
Tip? Small one.
Change one thing? Minor flavouring points.
Going back? No reason why not.
Compare & Contrast
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Viva Burger is an animal-friendly burger restaurant with plenty to offer.
When you've been all over town and had burger after burger, what can you do but say Burger this! and see what variety is on offer. But plant-based? Is this a gamble? Are we talking Viva Las Vegas? We shall see. It's time for a smartly decorated, extremely popular vegan burger bar.
It's a decent first impression. A brightly lit, colourful and fairly spacious upstairs layout, with bench-seating on the walls. Starting out as a pay-per-weight place, Viva later moved to a frankly smart, posh-ish offering. It's very popular, with a queue for tables when we left.
So let's talk food. We're talking ginormous quantities here and gosh you're not going to leave hungry.
Let's get the constructive nagging in first: we had three different burgers, and seasoning was seriously needed for the spud wedges. But there are a load of very important positives. Those wedges came in a generous portion and felt much more homemade than some places we've tried, with a rich creamy veganaise (we know, it's a daft name, but whatchagonnado?) sauce. As well as more salt, we'd have welcomed a touch more spicing, given the chance.
The burgers themselves are colossal. Tip of the day: ask for them pre-cut by the kitchen. One detail difference from meat burgers is that as soon as you put a knife into them, these dishes will collapse. Finger food this isn't.
Flavour wise they're really good, and we'd say nothing like as heavy as meat equivalents would be. The arabe contained a thick falafel, helped out with an orange slice. That was unexpected but welcome. It lightened the pretty dense chickpea pattie. It's still a hefty and filling piece though. You'll be doing well to finish it without calling for a volunteer or two. The ahumado didn't feel as cheesy as it was billed to be, but had a creamyness going on. No complaints about it.
Desserts, as regular readers (hello both, please tell your friends) know, are a must try. It's the fourth rule. Here's a mango custard thing in a pretty, but slightly impractical serving mode.
The apple pie was also ginormous, and, honestly, too big. It's fine to be generous, but after the mains, this is way too much for one and either needs shrinking or advertising as a share.
Busy, with a smartly dressed queue waiting for tables, service was mostly efficient and timely, although we met one server suffering selective incomprehension of some of the second language Spanish speakers at our table. A case of Viva la Diva? Not sure.
After a plentiful meal? Any advice or other comments?
Choose life.