Restaurant review: Guilt-free ‘joyous junk food’ at Dundee’s Underdog – Evening Telegraph
Think of the phrase “plant-based food” and you wouldn’t be the first to conclude it is a fancy way of saying “salad”.
But it turns out these days you can make just about anything out of produce pulled out the ground.
Nip into your nearest Tesco and they’ll do you pretendy sausages – as seen in the advert with the girl who says she doesn’t want to eat animals anymore. Even Aldi will sell you burgers made of beetroot and meatballs made of tomatoes.
In short, the idea that eating plants means chowing down on a miserable pile of leaves is dead, it seems – and those who choose not to eat animals can enjoy junk food as much as everyone else.
Underdog, on Old Hawkhill, appears to be on board with this idea, going by the menu of exclusively plant-based food as far removed from salad as you can imagine.
Mains range from soya hotdogs lathered in chilli or hoisin-coated mushrooms to “to-fush fingers” – tofu wrapped in seaweed for an authentically aquatic taste.
There are burgers made of chickpeas and the “cluck off”, a mock-chicken burger that, if you didn’t know any better, could have been running around a field that morning.
It’s vegan-friendly food for people who swear they’d never give up meat – and provides authentically trashy guilty pleasures for the already converted.
My brother – who will eat anything – and I visited last month with a mission to sample as much of the menu as possible.
We started with a portion of nachos (£7) that were coated in a savoury cheese-style sauce – think Kraft Cheesy Pasta – and homemade chunky salsa, guacamole and a vegan-friendly take on sour cream I had a hard time telling apart from dairy.
Alongside, we had a handful of Buffalo cauliflower wings (£6) dressed in a crispy, spicy batter and served with ranch sauce and celery sticks, before our burgers arrived.
Despite agonising over the tofu fingers and the half-dozen hot dog options we both settled on “the big dog” (£9) – a double beef-style burger with cheese, mayo, beetroot, chutney, onion rings, tomatoes, onion and pickles. We couldn’t help ourselves.
Where we did compromise was splitting two portions of loaded fries.
Bean chilli and cheese (£5) was an easy choice, but we were intrigued by the katsu-style chips (£5), which came topped with sesame seeds, spring onions and pink pickled ginger. So we had both, and a helping of fried pickles (£3.25) to boot.
The scene 40 minutes later was one of devastation – mostly finished burgers, a few bare chips, and an empty dish where the pickles had once been.
Obviously, we split a peanut butter and jelly sundae (£5.50) made with lightly whipped, ice cream, to cleanse the palette.
I like Underdog. I like the way it’s unpretentious and makes no secret of the fact it’s dishing up guilt-free, joyous junk food. I like the speckled bartop made from recycled bottles and the big neon sign on the wall that says “What’s up, dog?” for no particular reason.
I also liked the house lager, Man’s Best Friend (£3.95), which was crisp and light and perfect for washing down the meal.
It’s also extremely well-priced. Realistically, expect to spend between £15-20 a head. Kids are catered for too.
And there isn’t a salad in sight.
This content was originally published here.