Planet Veggie

What better way to celebrate World Vegan Month than by enjoying your favourite vegan food at a discount by using a tastecard? 

I must admit, I’d forgotten all about tastecard. A friend in London had one for a while and we enjoyed plenty of discounted restaurant meals, so tastecard isn’t completely new to me.

Therefore, when tastecard asked me if I’d like to get some discounted vegan food to celebrate World Vegan Month, I said ‘hell yeah!’

As I no longer live in London, the range of places locally offering a tastecard discount were few. And when I say ‘few’, I mean I didn’t even know it was possible for Google to display a blank page. This is a slight exaggeration though, as Papa John’s are up for offering pizza delivery deals, so yay for Papa John’s.

I hesitated at first because I’d boycotted Papa John’s after a bad lockdown experience with them when they said on their website the driver will ring the doorbell then leave the pizza on the wall. What actually happened was, I opened the door to find the driver about 2 centimetres away from my face clearly oblivious to the social-distancing guidelines of the time. Still, I decided to let bygones be bygones and forgive them. After all, with forgiveness comes cheap pizza and everyone has their price, eh? 

Before I tell you about the food I ordered from Papa John’s, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about tastecard because there’s more to tastecard than cheap delivery pizza, oh yes. 

tastecard members can save money in restaurants with 2 for 1 offers, 50% off food or 25% off food and drink at thousands of restaurants in the UK. You can also use your tastecard in selected coffee shops, cinemas or on days out. 

tastecard isn’t free but with average savings of £19 per visit, the yearly fee of (at the time of writing) £29.99 (less than £2.50 a month) is a bit of a bargain. You can also pay monthly at £5.99 or take advantage of the 30 day free trial to see how much you use it and whether a subscription would be of value to you. 

You want to see my pizza now, don’t you? Okay then, here it is. 

Papa John’s have a HUGE range of vegan pizzas, sides and desserts. I went for the Vegan Works which comes topped with jackfruit “Pepperoni”, vegan sausage, chestnut mushrooms, green peppers, onions and black olives. I swapped the green peppers for jalapeños, and didn’t get charged any extra for the swap. 

My go-to side at Papa John’s used to be the cheesy jalapeño bites, which I LOVED and, although I’m not vegan, it would be a bit rubbish to buy dairy when I’m supposed to be buying food to celebrate World Vegan Day. 

Before browsing the menu, I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to vegan sides but, blimey, Papa John’s has a whole vegan side menu with eight offerings to choose from. Admittedly, they’re mostly cheese sticks and potato tots variations but at least there is a choice. 

I chose the vegan Marmite and cheese sticks because although I’m not a massive lover of Marmite, I’m not a massive hater of it either (and yes, I know you’re not supposed to be on that particular fence). I also have fond memories of some cheese and marmite garlic bread in a pizza place in Walthamstow a few years ago. It was so good, I recreated it at home a few days later. 

Unfortunately, Papa John’s Marmite and cheese bread was a bit too Marmitey for my liking, but if you’re a Marmite lover, I suggest you give it a go. 

I also got a 100ml tub of non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to bump up the bill to £30 (you need to spend £30 to get the 50% discount) but ice cream doesn’t count towards the discount unfortunately so I upgraded my initial medium pizza to an XXL one. I kept the ice cream though, obvs. 

After my tastecard discount, my bill for an XXL Vegan Works pizza, vegan cheese and Marmite sticks and a small tub of non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s came to about £23. Considering I’ve got eight slices of pizza and three-quarters of the cheese sticks left, all in the freezer to be eaten another time, it’s fab value for money. 

Thank you tastecard for the discount and thank you Papa John’s for the pizza. You have redeemed yourself and I’ll be back after I’ve finished the mountain of pizza I have left from last night. 

Visit the tastecard website

Browse the Papa John’s vegan menu