Galway’s much loved falafel joint the Gourmet Offensive has been named the best Vegetarian Takeaway in Ireland at the inaugural Irish Takeaway Awards.
The Irish Takeaway Awards organised by YesChef magazine were held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone last weekend with over 250 guests from around the country.
The Gourmet Offensive started trading at the St Nicholas’ Market in 2005 with the falafel stall, and expanded to trade nationally at many of Ireland’s largest music festivals like Electric Picnic.
On 23rd November 2015 they moved to their fixed home at 11 Mary Street, of course still bringing their plant-based magic to the Galway market every Saturday.
Floris Wagemakers, known around town as Flo or Mr Falafel, founded his restaurant on the concept of quick and tasty vegetarian food made with locally sourced ingredients.
In the future he plans to take this sustainability and the locally sourced guarantee to the next level by reestablishing their farm to supply the restaurant and market stall with fresh, organic veggies.
Their latest voyage into homemade food has been to create their own tofu from scratch, as Flo felt that what was available to buy simply wasn’t up to scratch.
They now also make their own soya milk and excellent veganaise, as well as finding many interesting uses for okara, a by-product of soya milk production.
Awards like this are always a positive for our business, we see how people are eating now and our takeaway business is such an important part of what we do, this award really is a brilliant accolade for us all here and of course our customers,” said Floris about the Takeaway Awards victory.
Food sourcing is paramount at The Gourmet Offensive, with all of their chickpeas and pulses sourced organically to ensure the highest standards.
Salads are sourced locally from various small farms and they pride themselves in providing a healthy, plant-based meal that does not cost the earth in more ways than one.
Host Shane Smith said “Food to Go is the fastest growing sector in the food service industry, where, how and what we eat is changing at lightning speed.”
“The experiences that the Irish consumer and visitors to our wonderful island seek is that of high quality, well cooked food, delivered by friendly and knowledgeable staff.”
