As I’d tried Taste Tibet‘s vegan curry on a Wednesday lunchtime at the Gloucester Green market before, I’d been eyeing up this weekly Thursday night pop-up, hosted at Silvie, for some time. My friend Daisy just got back from a couple of weeks on holiday and we were arranging a much needed catch-up, so I suggested trying it out. This is the second pop-up event I’ve been to at Silvie now and it does remind me I really need to make the effort to go for a regular breakfast or brunch there at some point, because I know they have vegan options then too!
As usual I’d already pored over the menu online, but still took a long time deliberating between the chickpea and spinach curry and the tofu special, and eventually landed on the tofu, figuring curry is something I cook at home pretty often (probably not like this, but regardless I wanted to go for something a bit different). The dish was a stir fried tofu, pak choi, and seasonal greens. Initially I’d thought it would be a vegan version of the meat noodle dish, but it was recommended I ordered some rice to go with it as it didn’t come with any accompaniments. Having had a carb-heavy lunch, I’d been pretty set against ordering the rice initially, but it turned out I was glad I did. For £8, when the small silver bowl came out I felt the tofu dish wasn’t particularly great value, though as a whole it wasn’t a bad sized meal for £9.50 when you added in the cost of the rice. They definitely bulk out the meals with the latter because I had a huge pile of it in comparison to the main dish. The meal did taste nice, had a kick to it, and was warming and filling on a cold wintery evening. I think Daisy even had food envy as she felt her meat noodle soup was a bit lacking in substance.
We ordered a main plate of seven vegan momos to share alongside our mains. They didn’t really have that much flavour to them at all unfortunately, and although the plate looked pretty enticing, we left quite a lot on it (something you may know I’m loathe to do, as I hate food waste). The momos were just a bit too stodgy and lacking in seasoning to be thoroughly enjoyable.
We also ordered a side of Tibetan dal to share, which ended up being my favourite thing we ate. It was mild and creamy, but full of flavour, and next time to be honest I’d probably order two of these as my main instead! The bowl was the same size as the other main course dishes, but half of the price, and I enjoyed the flavours more too. This leads me to wonder whether if I had chosen the curry option initially as my main too, I might have gone away feeling much more satisfied.
I have to say, the pop-up let me with mixed feelings. I did have a great evening because of the company and the general atmosphere, and overall it wasn’t particularly pricey for a nice evening out, but from what I remembered of that curry I’d tried before… I was just a bit disappointed because I’ve had their food before and I know it can be great. Don’t get me wrong, the food wasn’t bad this time, but it definitely felt more like home-cooking, and perhaps their food just works better in a street food environment than a restaurant type meal.
The Taste Tibet pop-up is only running until March 22nd so if you want to give it a try you’ll need to head to Silvie quick. The menu changes weekly and I’d still be tempted to go again to see whether I had a less underwhelming experience. If any of you do go, I’d love to hear how it was for you in the comments. And regardless, I’d definitely recommend checking out their regular stall for a delicious lunch at Gloucester Green, where I feel you get much better value for money.
Vegan Eats Oxford 
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