St Valentine's Day 2012
This year St Valentine's Day falls on Tuesday 14th February 2012. As with previous years it will be bookings only. For full details including menu and prices please click here.

EXCLUSIVELY VEGGIE DAYTIME EATERIES IN CENTRAL MANCHESTER
Following the café bar explosion of the mid 90's, here at The GREENHOUSE, we curtailed our daytime café operation and concentrated on being an evening opening restaurant. However, we do still continue to open during the day serving our à la carte menu whenever possible by prior arrangement (preferably with at least 24 hours notice so we can arrange for staff and during the winter months put the heating on in adequate time. Occasionally we are able to accept bookings at short notice, so it is always worth a phone call). We do have a great advantage in that our on street parking is FREE! It's all down to supply and demand, if the demand's there, we'll do the supplying AND we are very flexible!

In Manchester's Northern Quarter, Earth Café, located down a flight of steps in the basement below the Buddhist Centre at 16/20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ re-opened Summer 2010 with a revised format. There is a lift from the Buddhist Centre down to the basement but as there are still steps to negiotate from street level to ground floor, disabled access is difficult. Opening hours: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 11am - 4pm; Tuesdays and Fridays 11am - 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays 10am - 5pm. In addition to serving it's excellent range of vegan food the café will be used as a venue for a wide range of events. I've added Earth Café to my regular weekly visit list. Further details can be found on their website by clicking on the adjacent photograph.

Heading south along Oxford Road towards Rusholme is the well established (celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2010) Eighth Day Vegetarian Shop and basement café. In addition to the stairs there is also a lift for disabled access to the café. Opening Mondays to Fridays from 9am until 7pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am until 4.30pm. I usually manage to enjoy my lunch here at least once a week when I can combine my visit with some shopping. Manchester Vegetarian and Vegan Group meet here on an informal drop-in basis from 1pm until 4pm on the first Saturday of each month, new faces always welcome!

FACEBOOK
We have a growing business page on Facebook as "The Greenhouse Licensed Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant" which was started during the run up to the Festive Season 2009. This is considerably more interactive than our website and we are likely to develop it more and more as we get to grips with the technicalities and facilities. Following requests, we added a review section in February 2010, an application which Facebook have since discontinued presumably in favour of their "Recommendations" section to the right of the Wall..

As the pages on our website are updated a Facebook link will be added below the navigation buttons on the left hand side of each page. For further details please click on link below

GLAMORGAN SAUSAGES
We've taken a step back in time to the days when we made a soft fill glamorgan sausage but with a slight difference as this time we are char sealing and not using egg. The filling now contains more vegetables and less wheat. As with our original glamorgan sausages the overall flavour is very leek and cheesy with a hint of mustard. As from December 2011 we also offer a vegan option.

Best of Manchester Poets
'Best of Manchester Poets, Volume 1' joins Dominic Berry's, 'Tomorrow, I Will Go Dancing' in our small, growing library of books of poems available for sale at The GREENHOUSE. For further details of BoMP please click on the picture. Many of the contributors attend the monthly Animal Writes meeting, a friendly social group for animal lovers who want to share creative writing (not necessarily about animals - could be about anything!) in poetry or prose which is usually held at The GREENHOUSE on the last Sunday of each month from 3pm until 5pm. The last meet up for 2011 was held on Sunday 6th November. Watch here for 2012 details.

OPENING HOURS
We open daily at 6.30pm, last booking 9.30pm (9pm on Sundays) and being in a residential area work to an 11pm curfew, Mondays to Thursdays, 11.30pm, Fridays and Saturdays and 10.30pm on Sundays. From 9pm onwards once the restaurant is empty with no advance bookings we will close. We are often able to accept casual diners without a booking up to 9pm. Subject to advance notice, we often able to open up to an hour earlier in the evenings.

Except for the weekends our daytime trade died back in the late '90s but even that has died now. When possible, we plan to continue opening during the day for advance bookings. Preferably at least 24 hours notice but we are sometimes able to accomodate diners at short notice (always worth a phone call). Please click here for details.

BEER AND CIDER CHANGES
Our draught beer line up has been changed to the following 3: Hoegaarden (5.0%) a naturally cloudy white wheat beer from Belgium, Timmerman's Strawberry (4.0%) a Belgium esoteric specialty lambic fruit beer spontaneously fermented using the natural micro organisms in the air around Brussels, no yeast being added and Küppers Kölsch (4.8%) with its crisp, dry, distinctive taste from Cologne.

Our first draught cider, a 'Limited Edition', Westons Cider Twist Raspberry, English, still, medium dry, 4% (2.4 units per pint) was introduced in May 2010. This was quickly followed in June with Westons Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy, English, still, medium dry, 7.3%. Both tick most boxes being suitable for vegans and coeliacs and are available now! This has resulted in the birth of our very tasty, lightly carbonated GREENHOUSE Snakebite, a 50/50 blend of Westons Cider Twist Raspberry and Timmermans Strawberry Beer (4%, vegan). Our latest, the new 'Limited Edition' Westons Cider Twist Winter Spice which we are serving hot as Mulled Cider, ideal during the winter months.

To help you keep track of our changing line up, we have mounted the dispense head badges for the beers and ciders currently available on draught, on the wall dividing the front and back of the restaurant.

Tragically, no longer available from our supplier, the Chinese Lucky Buddha Lager has been replaced with Beerlao a premium authentic rice beer brewed in Laos with hand picked indigenous rice varieties, spring water originating from the foothills of the Himalayas, Hallertau hops, German yeast and French malted barley which we stock in 330ml bottles (5.0%).

The much loved Bateman's Hop Bine Organic Bitter has unfortunately gone AWOL yet again and failed to re-appear last autumn. Tragically, we have no option other than to remove it from our menu BUT .the good news, we have replaced it with Bateman's XB Best Bitter (4.1%, Vegan).

ST VALENTINE'S DAY 2011
Falling on a Monday this year, St Valentine's Day was a tad quieter but spead into an extremely busy 4 day event. When I get time I'll check our statistics but I'm confident that we've just experienced our busiest 4 day (Friday - Monday) period for many years. Apart from one cancellation due to sickness we had 100% turnup. In future years we will continue with the booking deposit. The option to pay this direct through BACS via the Internet which we introduced for the Festive Period, proved to be very popular, accounting for 72% of the total deposits collected.

STARLIGHTZ LAMPSHADES
Many diners have expressed interest in our Starlightz lampshades. Not only do they add to the restaurant atmosphere they work well with the mini spiral low energy light bulbs helping to reduce our carbon footprint. The first shade was a Christmas present in 2006. An immediate love relationship developed but it took over 12 months to locate a source of similar shades. As our existing fireglow bulbs fail we are replacing the fittings with alternating 'Mia Orange' and 'Festival Pink' shades. Please click on picture for full details.

DISOS WINES DISCONTINUED
Disos, the much loved, vegan, additive free range of French Wines was discontinued a few years ago. Tony Boffey, the driving force behind Disos commented that the escalating bonded warehouse and other costs meant that Disos was no longer cost effective in the UK retail market place. Whilst they could probably still be sold through restaurants, that accounted for a very small section of their market. Tragically our stocks were exhausted shortly after St Valentine's Day 2010. We plan on introducing a range of organic wines from Vintage Roots a limited number of which are already available although not on our printed menu as yet. Just ask about organic vegan wines!

RECIPES IN VERSE
The first four, of hopefully, many recipes in verse have been finished. These are:

Broccoli and Leek Soup
Chunky Vegetable Soup
Hummous
Spanish Chick Peas

PICTURE GALLERY OF MAINCOURSE DISHES
For some time we have been considering a picture gallery of a selection of the dishes from our menu. The initial page contains a selection of our maincourse dishes. For picture clarity we have generally omitted gravies and sauces. The selection will be increased as more pictures become available. For further details please click here. The early version of this didn't work properly in Internet Explorer but this has now been rectified and should be working in all browsers. Anyone experiencing problems, feedback would be appreciated. Pictures of starters and desserts will hopefully follow shortly.

PRICE INCREASES
Each year beers and wines are usually subjected to a double price increase, the annual price increase around February/March and the 'Exchequer' increase around March/April. In 2009 we were also hit with a substantial exchange rate increase due to the falling Pound against the Dollar and Euro. This latter has had quite an effect on other prices notably fruit and vegetables from Spain and Holland.

Our wine list is going through some major changes with a revised selection of wines from Australia, Chile and South Africa with an improved range of both red and white wines. A lot of our beers are Euro based mainly from Belgium and Germany. Their popularity is such that we shall continue with them.

GREENHOUSE GIFT VOUCHERS
Our gift vouchers, which have been available on request since 1998, have been redesigned and are now readily available in denominations of £5 up to £100 in £5 increments. For further details please (click here).

SPECIALITY HOT DRINKS
Over the years we have played around with many different hot drink systems. Customer demand fluctuates wildly. Our requirements call for a machine with a small footprint which requires minimal maintenance which will tolerate infrequent use and still produce a consistent high quality drink. We think we've found the answer and our menu offers espresso, carte noire, spiced chai tea, cappuccino and latte as additions to our range of hot beverages. However this only scratches the surface of the range of hot drinks which are now available, we could fill a menu with them. If you don't see what you're looking for please ask, you may get a pleasant surprise!

SERVICE CHARGE
When the National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 we were faced with a financial shortfall. Our solution was to introduce a flexible shift finishing time. In order to recompense staff for what became a feast and famine scenario we introduced a 10% service charge across the board to be divided weekly between our casual staff pro rata to the number of hours worked. Tips on the other hand are divided by casual staff at the end of each shift. For further details and history please click here.

FREE WI-FI
During early May 2008 we installed a Wi-Fi network which is available free of charge to customers. Anyone wishing to use the system should ask a member of staff for the current network identity and password. For security purposes these are changed daily.

SMOKING POLICY
The Greenhouse policy on smoking has varied slightly over the years. We have always had a smoke free section BUT since 1997 we have been non smoking throughout the restaurant. However, since 1st July 2007 with the change in law we are totally non smoking under any circumstances. Smoking will still be permitted under the veranda at the front of the restaurant BUT no longer in the porch which is classed as an enclosed area.

DISCOUNTS & SPECIAL PROMOTIONS
Students and members of the Vegetarian or Vegan Societies are entitled to a 10% discount on all meals and drinks purchased except after 5pm on Saturdays and certain booking only days (typically 24th December - 1st January, Valentine's Day, Mothers Day etc). The discount must be claimed prior to the issue of the bill and on production of a valid student ID card, Greenhouse Student Card or membership card per diner. The bill will be reduced pro rata to the number of qualifying diners.

Booking 24 hours or more in advance (1 - 4 people) opens the door to our special promotion designed to save diners up to 50% off our à la carte menu using the "2 for 1" voucher available from this web site (currently at the foot of this page). This replaces and is far superior to our previous early doors promotion (PEDS).

DAIRY FREE ICE CREAM
We added Swedish Glace's 'Wild Blueberry' to our range of dairy free ice creams at the beginning of May 2008, which with the 'Smooth Vanilla', 'Rich Chocolate' and 'Juicy Raspberry' gives us a line up of 4 again.

3D JAZZ MUSICIANS
Many diners have taken an interest in our 3 3D illuminated pictures of Jazz Musicians playing piano, saxophone and trumpet. They have a white LED spot light mounted on the top of the frame powered by a built in 4.5 volt battery pack which also incorporates a socket to take a mains adaptor. The effect is still excellent with the light off. We're in the process of having a single lead made to connect the 3 together in parallel using a mains adaptor. Ours were puchased locally in Rusholme but are no longer available from our source. However, I've since found them on the Internet for some 20% less than we paid. Please click on picture for full details.

PRINTER FRIENDLY PAGES
Over the coming months we will work through this web site producing printer friendly options for many of the pages and features on the site. An example is the 2 for 1 voucher at the bottom of this page or the Starters, Main Courses, Desserts or Sundries pages from the Food Menu section of this site.

CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS
Except for American Express and Diners Club, we accept most major credit and debit cards.

Since the end of January 2005 most credit and debit card transactions have been confirmed using a PIN number rather than a signature. Our new terminal was installed on the 19th December 2003. This is a small hand held unit which is taken to the table. If the card presented by a diner is configured for PIN authorisation, the terminal will ask for the diner to enter their PIN number (like at a cash machine - we cannot see the number nor is it recorded on our system).

This is all part of a major step to cut down on card fraud. This system has been in use on the continent and many other countries for some years with considerable success.

STREETSMART
We commenced supporting StreetSmart in November 2003. StreetSmart funds a range of homeless charities - some provide shelter and food, while others focus on long term needs, such as job training and counselling. There were two main aspects which appealed to us, all money raised in Manchester stays in Manchester and as all production and administration costs are covered, currently by Deutsche Bank, Manchester Drink & Food festival, Manchester Evening News and Forward, so that every penny raised is spent on the homeless. A voluntary £1 is added to each bill which to date only two people in seven years have declined to pay. In fact, many diners have made very favourable comments about the campaign sometimes offering additional contributions.