Review: Holi Vegan Kitchen

There’s a new vegan takeaway in town! Sister to Bombay Express, which I reviewed last year and loved, Holi Vegan Kitchen serves plant-based Indian food straight to your door. With the rain showing no particular sign of easing up here in Oxford despite summer fast approaching, we were delighted to be invited to tuck into a warming meal from this home delivery service.

Holi Vegan Kitchen sent us a selection of main dishes from the menu to try, which ended up being enough food for four people! The portion sizes were great and we were excited to tuck into our plates full of vibrant colours, and it all smelled amazing.

The village okra curry came with a rich tomato sauce, with a medium heat. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t eaten okra that many times in my life but this was easily the best dish I’ve tried it in. The curry sauce was particularly tasty paired with the perfectly seasoned, fluffy chana rice. The Malabar Dhaal was thick and creamy, delicious scooped up with a soft, warm roti. This mild coconut and lentil dish is possibly the ultimate comfort food.

The authentic Bengal aubergine dish was cooked beautifully, with soft potatoes and melt-in-the-mouth aubergine coated in mustard seeds which burst with flavour with every mouthful. The Jeera Aloo gobi, another potato dish, was one of my favourites. The cauliflower wasn’t overcooked or going mushy like from some places, retaining a firm bite, nicely flavoured with toasted cumin seeds.

The Aloo channa chaat was so interesting, and something completely different from my usual Indian takeaway order. Holi Vegan Kitchen describe it as a ‘true flavour bomb’ which I have to agree with. This is a classic street food dish made with potatoes and soy yoghurt mixed with chickpeas, spiced with chaat masala. It was somehow refreshing but rich at the same time, with tang from the yoghurt and sweetness from tamarind. If you’re intrigued I recommend giving it a try!

On the side we had a large samosa and a bag of sweetcorn fritters. The samosa was made with nicely crisp pastry and packed full of filling, but watch out because it was super spicy! Unexpectedly so. But delicious none the same. The corn pakodas were another simple but tasty snack on the side, again nicely fried on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. Throw some dip in there and I could happily get through a bag to myself in an evening.

Ultimately it’s going to come down to personal preference which veggies you like best, but I could happily recommend any of the dishes we tried and feel confident that you’d enjoy them. All of the food was well cooked and seasoned, with a great balance of spices and varying levels of heat, with something to suit most palettes. None of the dishes were floating in oil, as can often be the way with takeaway food, and it was just all really great quality.

Holi Vegan Kitchen is available to order via delivery apps Oxford Eats, Uber Eats and Just Eat. I did notice that the price of the dishes was more in line with what I’d expect to pay at a restaurant, rather than a takeaway, so if you’re planning on ordering a lot, you might want to save it for payday! That said, I think the food was actually on a par with restaurant quality, and compared to many of the disappointing takeaways I’ve experienced over lockdown, I think this one would be worth the spend for a treat.

This meal was complimentary for the purposes of the review; this post reflects my honest views of the experience.