Wagamama's new vegan hardboiled egg: An honest taste test

You know when you see a vegan version of something that you didn't used to like when it wasn't vegan, and yet you still go and buy it? You know that whole thing about the triumph of hope over experience? Welcome, my friends, to my recent experience with a vegan hard boiled egg. (Spoilers: it's not pretty. I'm sorry for having to make you relive it with me.)

One cold and rainy London afternoon, Mr Flicking the Vs suggested a walk around St James Park and then dinner at Wagamama's Noodle Lab. The Noodle Lab is where Wagamama tests out its new recipes before rolling them out (or not) to the rest of the restaurants in the chain. It always seems to have a few vegan dishes on its testing menu, and on the day we stopped by, it was pulling out all the vegan stops.

The big news on the menu was the Avant Gard'n, a collaboration between Wagamama and Gaz Oakley, a blogger and YouTuber better known as the Avant Garde Vegan. In typical Wagamama style, it's a bowl of a dish, a base of rice topped with some veggies and protein. It's the Avant Gard'n's protein that people have apparently been getting excited about: along with slices of seitan, there's a genuine fake hard boiled egg.

As I learnt by listening to the pair of new vegans who sat down at the bench next to us, that vegan boiled egg is big news for plant-based eaters, and the reason both of them had come to the Noodle Lab.

I never used to like hard boiled eggs as a pregan, but show me a vegan one, and I'm suddenly elbowing my way to the front of the queue to try one.

You know how this story ends: I remember I don't like it, vegan or not. Sadly, the vegan egg was no exception.

So, I hated hard boiled eggs now and then, what about those of you that are jonesing for something in the region of an egg but without the usual animal cruelty? Well, erm, you might be a bit disappointed. It's got the texture of a hard boiled egg (as I remember them from my thankfully dim and distant pregan days) but the overwhelming taste is of coconut. Wagamama describes it as a "coconut and sriracha 'egg'" but all I could taste was the former, and none of the latter. The 'yolk' was quite tasty, but the coconut-flavoured white? Erm, no. Just no. I'd go so far as to say it was just actively unpleasant.

All your eggy dreams are not coming true here vegans. Wagamama's vegan egg tastes more like a gimmick than a serious attempt to make something good to eat. It looks like it was designed to go on Insta, and not to go in your stomach.

And the rest? I'm not a seitan lover, but the BBQ wheat meat was fine. The really good bit was the oyster mushrooms - thick sliced and meaty, they were the highlight for me. The rest was edamame, grated carrot, and some spring onions, with a goodly chunk of sticky white rice. It was fine. There was supposed to be some sauce involved. It tasted precisely of nothing (or someone had forgot to put it on there, could be either!)

So, if you're dreaming of vegan egg, I'd say go make yourself some scrambled tofu or chickpea egg-less salad and enjoy. Don't go for Wagamama's new vegan version - your tastebuds will hold it against you forever.