A veggie food connoisseur in London

Mildreds, Lexington Street, W1

2011-01-15T22:09:00.006Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3.5/5; Service: 3.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

I've got to get into a wedding dress in 6 months time. So I've been trying to rein in my foodie passions and exercise a bit more... well at least a bit more than zero :-). My friend L, and I have therefore been pretty religious about our weekend 5 mile walk with an incentive at the end; the incentive being a small but lovely meal at a vegetarian restaurant in the vicinity of the walk.

This week's incentive was lunch at Mildred's which has been aptly described as a "Soho institution". When we arrived at about two pm on a Saturday, we had to queue; Mildred's was packed to the gills. There was a warm, happy buzz in the restaurant and a bunch of people standing at the bar waiting to be seated. It was great to see a vegetarian restaurant that is so popular. The waitress who welcomed us was friendly but the maitre'd appeared a teeny tiny bit stressed.

After a 15 minute wait (which I think was fair since we hadn't reserved), we were shown to our tables. If its your first visit, diners, please note - Mildred's doesn't accept reservations, so it's first-come-first-served.

Drinks orders were taken promptly. I had a juice - a mix of orange, apple and carrot - it was served quickly and the fact that it was organic and freshly squeezed was obvious from how lovely it was. My friend had the sparkling elderberry which was really refreshing after the long walk. I drained my drink in less than 2 minutes and had to order another; it was so nice.

We shared a starter of gyoza - steamed Japanese dumplings - served with a soya mirin sauce and a garnish of spring onions. The verdict - fresh, well-cooked, healthy and delicious. Our mains consisted of a smoked bean fajita and a mushroom and ale pie. The fajita was served with a dollop of sour cream, a smidgeon of guacamole and a tomato and lime salsa. The efficiency of service was demonstrated by the fact that the waitress had remembered to serve the salsa separately, just as I had requested, despite the fact that she didn't use a notepad or pen to take our order. L's main - a mushroom and ale pie came with a small helping of super-dooper chips. Having tried the basil mayo the last time around, I asked if we might have some and a cheerful passing waiter brought it over; it was strangely mustardy (despite being made with basil) and perfect with the chips. Portion sizes for both mains were generous but not overly large.

We were so full-up that we shared a pud. yes, yes, we could have avoided pudding but neither of us could resist sticky toffee pudding. The custard served alongside was a bit runny but the pud itself was absolutely yummmmmmy although I didn't care too much for the lashings of chopped sweetened ginger on top (L adored the ginger).

The total bill added up to just under £50 for 3 drinks each (drinks are reasonable at £3-£4), 1 starter (about £7), two mains (about £9 each) and a pudding.

The ambience was pleasant and functional, service was very efficient (although some of the waiting staff appeared a bit stressed), the toilets were impeccably clean and most importantly the food was well-cooked, excellent quality and promptly served. The only time we waited longer than expected was for the custard accompanying the pudding and even then it was only because we requested it a bit late.

I can really see why Mildred's is so popular and why it has survived for just under a quarter of a century now. The food's good, the restaurant's well-located and the service is pretty darn good; even fussy me couldn't find very much to criticise. We absolutely loved it !

CHEESY Facts - Info for veggies re: cheese

2010-09-09T22:36:00.004+01:00

Although many of you are likely to be aware of cheese facts, I found this useful piece of updated information on the Vegetarian Society's website. I hope those of you who need more information will find this link useful:

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cheese.html

Sabudana Wada

2010-06-03T19:57:00.008+01:00

Here's a recipe for Sabudana wadas (little Indian patties made from sago seeds) that I've recently adapted from what I remember of the recipe my grandma used when I was a child.

Ingredients:

Medium Sago seeds - 3 cups

Potatoes - 4 medium-sized (floury ones such as those used for mash)

Handful of fresh coriander

Small green chillies - 3 (or to taste)

Peanuts - 50 g (or more if you like it to taste more nutty)

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Vegetable / sunflower oil - for shallow frying

How to do it:

Take about 3 cups of medium sago seeds (smaller seeds tend to crumble quickly into a paste). Put them in a bowl and cover the sago with the minimum amount of water such that the water does not rise above the level of the seeds in the bowl.

Let them soak for about 6 hours or until the sago seeds are soft enough that if you squeezed one between two fingers, it would crumble / be mashed.

Boil 4 medium potatoes (plus a few extra) until the potatoes are fully cooked. Mash the potatoes with a small amount of salt and a few chopped green chillies (if you can't get Indian green chillies use Thai bird's eye chillies) and some chopped fresh coriander. Mix the potato mixture with the soaked sago seeds. The potatoes help bind the sago seeds together so we can form them into little patties later, so don't hesitate to add / remove a few potatoes depending on how floury your potatoes are. Add half a teaspoon of salt (or to taste) and mix.

Pound a good handful of peanuts in your pestle and mortar. Empty the crushed peanuts into the dish containing the sago seeds and mix. Make small flat-ish dumplings from the sago-potato-peanut mix. The dumplings should be of about 5 cms diameter and about 3 cms thickness.

Heat a wok with vegetable / sunflower oil; the oil should be about 4 cms in depth from the bottom of the pan. When the oil is hot (test by dropping a small portion of the sago-potato mix into the pan; if the oil is hot enough the sago will rise to the surface), place a few dumplings in the hot oil. Make sure that the dumplings are atleast 1 cm apart from each other

Turn the heat down to a medium flame and allow the dumplings to turn golden brown on either side by turning the dumplings over as you cook them.

Drain the dumplings on kitchen paper and serve hot.

Dont hesitate to vary the spices and salt to suit your palate.

Pizza Hut - INFO only

2010-05-10T22:38:00.008+01:00

May 2010, Paris

During a recent visit to Pizza Hut in Paris, we were informed by staff (after several lengthy enquiries) that the cheese used on their pizzas and pastas (which are incorrectly marked as suitable for vegetarians) include animal rennet and are therefore unsuitable for vegetarians. We understand that similar ingredients are used across the chain in France.

Please note that most serving staff will incorrectly inform you that the pizzas are suitable for vegetarians, as they seem unfamiliar with the actual underlying ingredients (and are rushed off their feet at busy times and cannot be bothered to check).

Further factual information on cheese and rennet use can be found at http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cheese.html

If you are concerned about the use of animal rennet in cheese, please confirm the ingredients before you use Pizza Hut in continental Europe.

Additionally please note the following information received from Pizza Hut in the UK,

Dear Miss (NAME REMOVED FOR ANONYMITY),

Thank you for your email regarding the type of rennet that is used within
our pizzas. I have looked into this matter and can confirm that a vegetable
rennet is used within Pizza Hut. This is used so that we can make sure all
of our vegetarian pizzas are definitely suitable for vegetarians.

Kind Regards

(NAME REMOVED FOR ANONYMITY)
Pizza Hut Customer Service Team

Zilli Green, Dean Street, Soho

2010-04-27T19:43:00.004+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 3.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 2.5/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

I've been away from London for a good six months now. So when I recently returned to London and heard that TV-chef Aldo Zilli has opened a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Soho, I was very intrigued (and rather pleased). Its good for veggies when mainstream chefs, realise the power of the green pound and I was keen to see what Zilli Green's head chef Enzo (a vegan himself) had in store for us.

We arrived at the restaurant, absolutely ravenous because I had convinced R, my partner, that we needed to work up an appetite by doing a brisk 3 mile walk beforehand. We were received by friendly waiting staff and were promptly seated at our table. For a Saturday at lunch time in the heart of the tourist district on a sunny day, the restaurant was not hugely busy. The bland decor consisted of pine-ish tables and some excruciatingly dull furnishings -- not particularly inviting for the average tourist I suspect. The (few) tables placed strategically in the sun on the porch were full up though. Our menus looked a bit greasy ; I could see a thumbprint . And I was beginning to wonder if I'd made the wrong choice in making the journey to Zilli Green, but I decided to stop being a snob and to judge this restaurant on the quality of the food, in the main !

So back to the food !! The items on the menu were much more exciting than the decor. The menu seemed like a whistlestop tour of veggie food from different continents and across different genres. Burgers, quesadillas, curries, spaghetti, orechiette, fusion food - you name it, it was there.

We ordered a starter of Mixed Vegetable Tempura. It arrived a good fifteen minutes later and had obviously been freshly cooked. The only problem was that the oil on the fritters had not been drained or dabbed off - a pretty basic problem in terms of cooking tempura and one that could have easily been avoided if a little care had been paid to the dish before setting it before the customer. Our waiter asked us whether we liked the dish and when we pointed out the oil to him, he even gently suggested to us that it should have been drained ! He didn't suggest replacing the dish though.

Our mains consisted of a
1)Mexican Platter with Black Bean Chilli, Cheese Quesadillas, Guacamole, Mixed Peppers, Crème Fraiche & Corn Tortillas and 2)a Cous Cous & Soya Burger with Lebanese Pickled Cucumber, Avocado, Mustard Dressed Mixed Leaves Homemade Mayo & Ketchup, Fat Chips ( Jalapeno Chilli and extra Mozzarella can be added at your request)

Both dishes were generously proportioned and of a fairly high standard. R loved the black bean chilli. To me, the combination on the Mexican platter as a whole was reasonably good except for the quesadillas which should certainly have been seasoned better and should have been filled with something that was less bland. Also the corn tortillas turned out to be corn crisps that were a good copy of fairly flavourless shop-bought nachos - certainly a "chef - please go back to the kitchen and try to make this again" variety. (Ok, I'm being a bit harsh -sorry)
I enjoyed the burger and was impressed by how the chef had put the couscous and soya combination together. The burger was filling, but would have had more oomph if it had a bit more texture - better quality burger buns perhaps and the inclusion of some salad / fresh tomatoes or sliced onions and mustard might have helped. The chips that accompanied the burger were fresh, properly cooked but again lacking in seasoning and depth of flavour (easily improved by changing the chipping potato to a better quality potato). The ketchup that accompanied the burger should, in my estimation be replaced by something a bit more ketchup-py. It was a weird shade of orange (personally I prefer Mrs Wilkins'). Same goes for the home-made mayo which tasted of nothing. Despite all the critical comments above, by the time we had finished our mains, I was very full up. To be perfectly honest the food is very reasonable; it just needs more oomph and sparkle.

We looked at the pudding list and didn't really find anything that seemed to appeal to our now-desperate desire for something sweet and toothsome. However I must again admit that it did have a reasonably good selection on offer for those of you who prefer ice-cream or less sweet, lemony puds.

Our bill was under 50 pounds for two people including one cocktail and a bottle of still water. The two mains were under a tenner each and the starter was about 7 quid..So to me it seemed like they'd come up with perfectly reasonable prices for perfectly adequate food. When I had checked the prices on the bill I remembered thinking while ordering off the menu that the dishes were reasonably priced. So how did it all add up to 50 quid? The unexpected whopper was the service charge , which was included un-asked within the bill itself. I hate it when restaurants do that, don't you? When will restaurants just price their dishes properly and not expect me to top up their staff's' earnings with a supposedly optional tip? I'll put down a tip unasked if I like the service, but I hate it when they assume its their right to demand it.

I didn't complain though (its a veggie restaurant and I'm keen we should have more) and the meal came to a rather uneventful conclusion (as bland as some of the food).

As we were paying up, the chef very kindly came by to ask us what we thought about the food. That was a nice touch and the highlight of the meal (for me at least). It was obviously a genuine gesture since he had no clue I was about to review the place and he just popped by because he'd probably heard from his waiter that we didn't like the starter. As we spoke to Chef Enzo, I was impressed by his obvious passion for vegetarian and vegan food. Its fantastic to see someone so sincere about what he's doing and why he's vegan. He seemed very genuine and when he talked about local produce, it was obvious that he cares tremendously about the provenance of what he puts on the plate.

Its early days yet at Zilli Green and they can do a few things to quickly ramp up this place to a high standard. To my (perhaps over-critical) mind, what Zilli Green needs is an imaginative interior designer and more effort into translating the chef's passion for food into excellence on the plate. So to me, this restaurant is one to keep on the list and certainly one to visit for simple, honest ( if improve-able) food when you visit Soho. Readers, do let me know if you try this place and especially if you find its getting better over time. This would be a good little gem in a great location if it begins to hit the mark.

http://www.zillirestaurants.co.uk/green/
41 Dean Street, Soho
London W1D 4PY
Tel: 020 7734 3924

Comptoir Libanais, O2 Centre, Finchley Road

2009-12-25T10:54:00.011Z

Update May 2010 - The O2 Centre branch of this restaurant is now closed.

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Earlier this week, a new branch of the popular Middle Eastern chain Comptoir Libanais opened at the O2 centre in Finchley Road , thus injecting a small amount of diversity into a fairly bog-standard shopping centre in NW London.

We visited just 2 days after Comptoir had opened and I for one, was impressed by the warm yet unsimpering welcome accorded to us. The waiting staff are fresh-faced youngsters and this branch has an unusual laid-back yet upbeat buzz. The walls are decorated with artisan bags, Lebanese goods and glossy posters and the ambience is pretty vibrant.

There is a kebab shop-style rotating grill at the front display, but don't let that put you off ordering the dishes if you're strictly veggie. We have been assured that they are careful not to cross-contaminate and have separate fryers for chips too.

For our meal, we ordered the Baba Ghanuj (a smoked aubergine dip) served with warm pitta breads and an olive and halloumi wrap. We also had a side order of the spiced Levantine fries and sampled the non-alcoholic raspberry beer from Lebanon, which was tart, quite refreshing and a bit like continental fruit beers.

The pitta breads that accompanied the Baba Ghanuj were fresh and warm; the dip itself was okay-ish, not quite smokey aubergine-y enough for me, but nice enough. The wrap was served warm, stuffed with the halloumi cheese and olives and very tasty. I asked the manager if they check for slaughter-byproducts and rennet especially in cheese-based dishes. He looked perplexed and said he would ask the chef. The chef didn't know either, but when I offered to check the cheese packaging for ingredients, he willingly brought the wrapping to me. It contained non-animal rennet, so that was good. And the manager said (unprompted) that now he knew what to look for, he would. So that was quite reassuring.

The spiced Levantine chips were the highlight of our meal. Little golden morsels of potato coated in a mildly spicy selection of Middle Eastern spices and paprika. Very more-ish and certainly one on the re-order list. I would suggest that you order two portions if you do like your chips, because the portions served are quite tiny.

All in all, I was very impressed by Comptoir Libanais. Except for a few minor teething problems (they had billed the wrong items on our bill), this little restaurant certainly is of a high standard and well-deserving of the five star reviews it has received in the London press. Our bill totted up to under £15 for two including a drink and that, to me, is definitely value for money given the quality of the food. Comptoir Libanais has certainly brought some charm to the rather soulless O2 centre and spiced up the mix of restaurants, and I for one am going to visit again.

http://lecomptoir.co.uk/

FussyVeggie Heads to Brussels

2009-11-29T12:03:00.014Z

2009 has been a tough year career-wise. In July, I made a conscious choice to go after my dreams. I lead a dual work-life as a teacher and a risk professional; but deep down I am and will remain a bureaucrat at heart - I enjoy policy work. Like many other Londoners though, I haven't really earned my money doing a job I like. Instead I have spent several years of my life working in supposedly high-powered but soul-destroying jobs, aspiring to be someone I didn't really want to be. Often times I've worked for people I have neither liked nor respected just in order to pay the bills that I run up mainly on account of having to stay in this kind of unrewarding job in London.

So this year, when the opportunity presented itself to work in Brussels while continuing my teaching career alongside, in England, I grasped the nettle firmly and soon began packing my bags. It was a nerve-racking time but I'm awfully lucky - both the boyfriend and the two best friends were egging me on to take up the challenge. A new place where I don't speak the language, a small firm (when I'm used to working for monstrous giants), the boyfriend at university in England and only able to visit on some weekends - it all seemed scary at first, but bearable because of their support.

I joined a French language class; it made me feel better to see others struggling with the nuances of this beautiful but difficult language. I found the perfect flat, after visiting 38 and I even managed to get through to Belgacom (the phone provider who's notoriously hard to contact and make arrangements with).

I like Brussels ; its not a grand city like Paris or London with superbly stunning monuments. There are nice museums and venues and of course the touristy attractions but the best thing about Brussels is what you discover when you wander around the City. A friend told me about a local corner shop where the owner provides sit-down meals in the evenings on days when he fancies being a Thai chef again. I found superbly quaint and rustic pubs down cobbled alleyways. I began to fall in love with the city.

But it was not long before I realised how hard it really is to organise the simplest of things in a new setting (especially given that my French might as well be Martian-speak).

Food was the hardest of all. The Brusselois don't always 'get' vegetarians. I should have realised this on the day I went for my interviews (having pre-informed my prospective employer that I needed a veggie meal at the planned lunchtime meet-up). And yes, when they called me to double check my meal preference I even explained the parmesan-rennet-issue to the really nice lady making the arrangements. And guess what I got for lunch ??? A parmesan and tomato sandwich or a salad with seafood on top, which of course they thought I could always eat by sweeping the seafood to one side if I didn't fancy it.....

My heart sank and I hoped that eating out and day-to-day life wouldn't be quite as hard. After all, Brussels has some of the nicest little independent restaurants and the waiting staff often speak fairly fluent English.

Here is a new chapter to the fussyveggie blog, charting my adventures in this new terrain. I've tried to include the new phrases I've learned and the names of little shops where one can buy ingredients and so on. I hope that these listings help you when you next visit Brussels and that you enjoy (virtually) traipsing around the continent with me in 2010.

http://fussyveggieinbrussels.blogspot.com/

Mainland China, Church Street, Bangalore

2009-10-03T07:26:00.010+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 4/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 3.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Ph: + 91 80 25597722

Mainland China in Bangalore, which serves a somewhat Indian-ised take on Chinese food, has been a family favourite for over a decade, and yesterday we visited it to celebrate the birthday of my aunt's sister and two other family members. In typical Indian extended family style, there were 17 of us at the table, ranging in age from 6 to 60, including a couple of friends of the kids' who had been invited at the last minute.

We had pre-booked earlier in the evening to give the restaurant some time to think about how they would fit in the hungry horde that was about to descend upon them. However when we arrived, I noticed that the reservation said 7 rather than 17. When I flagged this, they rushed into action and we waited in the lobby while the staff scrambled around to get us a table. But soon enough it was arranged and we were all comfortably seated at a mammoth table.

The setting was quite posh - dark wood and marble floors. Guests were typically upper middle-class Indians tucking into their meals with uninhibited gusto.

After a short wait, we received our complimentary pickled cucumber and kimchi {hot (chilli-hot), fermented cabbage}. The cucumber was crunchy and the kimchi was fresh ( and therefore, not quite right as it had not been properly fermented).

Then the soups arrived - a gentle and mild sweetcorn vegetable soup with tiny flecks of carrot and pepper, and a hot and sour soup, which was a delectable blend of spicy and sour flavours.

Next up were the starters. First a crispy, golden sweetcorn - tiny, crispy droplets of battered deep-fried corn tossed with spring onions; then, portions of vegetarian spring rolls - yummy by themselves but could have done with a suitable dipping sauce; and finally, some steamed vegetarian dumplings filled with shredded cabbage and served with a mouth-watering green peppercorn sauce. Given the number of people around the table, these starters ran out rather quickly and we then ordered a couple of steaming baskets of the house vegetarian suimai - little cabbage wrappers shaped into purse-like portions and filled with minced vegetables - YUMMMMMMM Yum YUM

Our main courses included a mixed vegetable fried rice which was simple but unbearably plain and lacking in any flavour, although it was served hot, and looked delicious, and a Schezwan fried rice, which was rendered red by the spicy sauces it had been cooked in - spicy hot but not much else in terms of flavour. Both rice dishes were rescued by ladling on an outstanding accompaniment of vegetarian 'balls' in a chilli-garlic-soya sauce. For those of you familiar with Indo-Chinese food, this dish is very similar to the vegetable Manchurian (and even better, if that is ever possible). We also had a portion of pan-fried crispy noodles in a white sauce and here I could finally see some vegetables and I thoroughly enjoyed the blend of textures and flavours - the crispy noodles intermingled with the soft ones drenched in crunchy vegetables which had retained their flavour and texture in the mild yet more-ish sauce. We were all far too full to order puddings thereafter. So the meal began to draw to a close.

I really enjoyed the experience; the service was unobtrusive and fairly reasonable, the food was filling, good quality and on the right side of "reasonably good". One thing that bothered me a bit, though, was that all through the meal, the waiting staff were perfectly pleasant but did not seem particularly at-ease or self-confident and I, for one felt like an army of mice was scurrying around us rather than the bunch of cool, competent staff that I would expect at a posh restaurant. But to be honest, I'd rather have this than someone snooty who can't be bothered to make guests comfortable.

Oh and lest I forget, last but not least, we were sent off with an unexpected mouthful each of complimentary pudding - just as we were about to leave, the waiting staff arrived with a large bowl of darsaan - honey glazed thick crispy noodle clusters served with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. Having been told it was a birthday celebration they provided us with their customary complimentary pudding for birthday party tables - they had stuck little candles in the darsaan and ice-cream combo, and while one of the waiters strummed a guitar, the whole table sang happy birthday - mortifying for the birthday "girl" , but jolly good fun for everyone else !

Verdict - Mainland China has served as the setting for many pleasant family memories. It's a nice place and I'd happilly recommend it to a friend. I'll certainly be back at Mainland China next year when I next visit India and in the meanwhile, when I am at home in London, on rainy English evenings when I am yearning for a good portion of Indo-Chinese food, I will lust for their vegetarian suimai and the chewy yet crumbly garlic-infused vegetable "balls".

PS. Given the melee at the party yesterday, I didn't get a chance to double check the cross-contamination type questions that I generally plague the waiting staff with. UPDATE - Checked and no, they say they are very careful that they don't !

www.mainlandchinaindia.com

14, Church Street
Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India

Wahaca, Westfield, London

2009-09-02T23:31:00.015+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 2/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 5/5

Ph: 0208 749 4517

Wahaca is an atmospheric Mexican restaurant that sits nestled amongst a row of eateries outside the gigantic Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush. I've only ever eaten Tex-Mex food in this country, so I was keen to try Wahaca's take on authentic Mexican food. The restaurant's welcome board outside proudly proclaims that it's listed in the Observer's list of good cheap eats. So it certainly seemed worth a try, especially given the blustery weather that day.

The restaurant itself, sits on two levels, with a kitchen that's fairly open to view. Upstairs there are some cosy, couple-y-type seats along with what looked like a six-seater and downstairs there's an area that I suspect would seat about a hundred. It was a rainy evening and the restaurant was heaving. Yet, there was a fair queue outside still trying to get in. It didn't take us long though. We were soon seated and were even told the name of our waitress by the manager-types who showed us to our table (a very American-touch eh?). The restaurant was buzzing; it was a very jolly and happy crowd. At the table next to ours, the manager trotted along to announce a birthday and surprisingly, every stiff-upper lipped Brit in the restaurant joined in to sing "Happy Birthday". It was so relaxed and lovely, I was really taken aback.

Not long after, our super-efficient yet chattily pleasant waitress Victoria, showed up to take our order, which consisted of 2 smoked bean and cheese quesadillas, tortilla chips with fresh tomato salsa, guacamole, and sweetcorn with a "creama and lancashire cheese" topping.

The drinks (a fresh mint tea and some tap water) arrived remarkably promptly as did the tortilla chips and salsa. The salsa was unusual, fresh and delicious and the tortilla chips were fresh and not as brittle as store-bought ones. We were offered a complimentary plate of what they call market sauces which consisted of two bowls, one of a chipotle-type smoky tomato dip and the other a green tomatillo dip, both of which were ok-ish but nothing to write home about. Next up was the guacamole - yummy, fresh and I must say it again - it was oh-sooooo-yummy. The only gripe I had, was that the portion was a bit on the small side, but then so was the tiny price tag. The helpful waitress informed us that once you've ordered a portion of tortilla chips, subsequent refills are complimentary, which I thought was a generous and nice touch.

Our smoked bean and cheese quesadillas ( grilled tortilla wraps stuffed with beans and cheese), were small but well-formed; they were very filling and tasted even better with a tiny splash of the guacamole dip. The sweet corn dish consisted of two pieces of corn on the cob with a dab of cheese-y topping and my guest thought they were simple, healthy and delicious as a snack.

The fresh mint tea was lovely and refreshing . All in all, our bill added up to £16.50, which I thought was a real bargain, given the buzz of the place, the quality of the food and the service. Best of all, our waitress Victoria gave me a really clear and honest answer about cross-contamination; they take it very seriously and try to make sure there is none. Veggie food is apparently cooked separately and they make sure dishes are labelled with little flags when they are brought to the table, so waiters know which dishes are veggie / special meals and which ones aren't . So I thought - "Hurrah for an omnivore restaurant that takes veggies seriously".

As you might imagine, I was really pleased - delighted, in fact . Wahaca was cool , cheap and yummy - it was definitely a restaurant I thought I would visit again. That's not really the case anymore - the updates below explain why :

Update on 9th Sept Thanks to the efforts of another committed veggie, I am extremely disappointed to report that the team at Wahaca wrote to tell us that cheese-based products at Wahaca contain animal rennet and clearly the waiting staff and management aren't aware of this when they label dishes veggie which clearly aren't. I had labelled this restaurant as veggie-friendly and scored it a 5/5 for veggie-friendliness. Given their response I downgraded the score to 2/5, which I think is now a fair reflection of the current veggie-friendly status.

I then received another update from a different member of the WAHACA management team:

Thank you so much for writing in to ask about our vegetarian food. We do indeed use cheeses that are made from vegetable rennet so you are great on that score, and I can also assure you that we cook our vegetables on flat-top grills that are cleaned completely before and after use, and the same applies for our meat cooking (the meat and the vegetables are cooked at different times so whilst I cannot say that we use separate flat-tops for this cooking, I can assure you that no trace of meat will ever be found in our vegetables due to our very strict cleaning standards).

I am afraid with concern to the fryers if it is important to you to avoid any chance of cross-contamination, we cannot guarantee that some meat and fish dishes will not end up being cooked in the same oil that has seen vegetable dishes, although again, they will never be cooked side by side in the same fryer at the same time.

I do hope that answers your questions and that it doesn’t mean you won’t be visiting us soon.

Very best wishes,

Thomasina Miers

While FussyVeggie really appreciates the tone of the e-mail and the desire to get veggies like me to visit again, I'd quite like Wahaca to be more consistent and indeed more considerate about their veggie-friendliness (stop cross-contamination) if they want us to spend our veggie pounds in their restaurants.

www.wahaca.co.uk

Tibits, Heddon Street, London

2009-08-24T18:50:00.011+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Ph 0207 758 4110

Switzerland's contribution to London's vegetarian scene, Tibits, is tucked away in the corner in the unexpected food quarter of Heddon Street. Situated only a few minutes walk from the hubbub of London's shopping districts of Regent and Oxford Streets, this little nook is very handy for a spot of healthy, veggie eating after a serious bout of retail therapy.

The restaurant is part of a Swiss veggie chain and is associated with Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant Hiltl. It is open all-day-long and has the look and feel of a laid-back lounge bar at first glance. But as you walk into the cavernous restaurant area, it is soon transformed into a family-friendly room with pretty drapes, trendy wall-paper and matching, comfy, yet luxurious felt-topped seating.

It's a versatile venue - you can take the kids or your parents to lunch there in the afternoon (without it being too overwhelming) and you can also enjoy a lazy grown-up drink with your girlfriends or work colleagues late into a summer evening.

The bar area is separated from the main eating area by a "food boat" which hosts a myriad of hot and cold dishes ranging from salads to pasta to rice dishes, onion rings, yogurts and potato wedges. What's more interesting is that one can serve up as much hot and cold food as one likes onto a plate, weigh it at the till and pay for as little or as much as one chooses to eat.

The serve-up-weigh-up concept, to my mind, helps make it quite easy to put together a sharing platter of the things one really likes and helps cater to fussy eaters and children. Complimentary bread and tap water are both available and there is a really extensive list of both healthy juices and drinks to go with the meal.

As a dedicated restaurant reviewer, I felt obliged to try a number of the hot and cold items and a jasmine tea . I served myself a plateful of tiny portions of onion rings, spicy potato wedges, breaded jalapenos, samosas, basmati rice, wok-fried curry, kohlrabi, dried bean salad with coriander, chunks of pineapple, chopped strawberries and guacamole. No, I wasn't being greedy - I'm just a very thorough reviewer. Hmmm, looking at that list again, perhaps I was being a teeny-tiny bit greedy. But can you blame me - where else can you imagine being able to put together a single plate with such a wide choice of veggie options ???

And the verdict. Well, I thought the food was fresh and well-cooked. I loved the breaded cream cheese filled jalapenos, onion rings , samosas and potato wedges. They were all fairly yummy , were made with good ingredients and had been fried in good-quality, fresh oil. The samosas were delicious and authentically flavoursome. I'd have liked both the onion rings and the potato wedges to be crispier as they seemed to have gone a wee bit soggy from being left out on a open bar; that said I was glad that they weren't oily or greasy. I was personally very happy with the selection of snack-y items (not just because I like unhealthy, fried food but) because like other fussy veggies, I feel deprived of these crispy items at most omnivorous restaurants. Why? Well, inevitably I can't eat deep-fried dishes at mainstream restaurants because they are cooked in the same oil as the meat or seafood and consequently cross-contaminated. So when I come to a wholly vegetarian joint, like Tibits, I feel like a child who's been let loose in a sweetshop with an unlimited choice.

So far so good. Now for a few things I didn't really like on the hot food menu. The rice was freshly cooked but was paired with a wok-fried curry which tasted as if it had being doused in a unsavoury amount of tamarind-like paste. The pasta, I left untouched, because I couldn't bear the smell of the strange (Swiss?) cheese that they had put in it; however this could be a matter of personal preference rather than a verdict on the quality of the pasta dish.

And what about the cold foods? The pineapple chunks were fresh and crisp, unlike the slimy pieces of chopped fruit one finds in supermarkets and most salad bars. The strawberries were luscious, whole and juicy. The dried bean salad with coriander was unusual but quite decent. The guacamole however was overly slick and unnaturally creamy with no taste of avocado whatsoever; one to avoid.

My jasmine tea was the highlight of the meal. It was served in a simple white cup with a beautiful floating dried flower that infused the hot water with the aroma of fresh jasmine. I was informed that the cup could be refilled and the flower would be able to hold its flavour for another cuppa. It all felt very natural and simple. And I'd certainly recommend it as a must-have at Tibits.

Since it's a self-service bar, you only really experience the service at the payment counter when you are paying up or ordering your drinks. I found the staff to be polite, honest and helpful. When I asked for a few further details about the restaurant, sous-chef Dean helpfully provided me with more info as did Venezuelan (deputy manager?) Luis.

To sum it up, Tibits is certainly a very relaxing and charmingly laid-back place to eat at. Given that it's quite new, and the credit crunch is still very much in evidence, the restaurant isn't jam-packed. So there's more than enough space to loll about comfortably on the seats or grab a sunny table outside. I loved the grown-up yet family-friendly feel of the place ; youngsters are well-catered for in terms of menu options. Prices are neither too cheap nor unbearably expensive at roughly £1.80 per 100 gms (for a plate of hot food at lunch time). The restaurant still seems to be tightening up its act in terms of catering to a far more discerning veggie food audience in London, so I'm sure we'll see more seasonal produce and fresh food on the menu. I'd personally like to see less experimentation with odd flavours & textures put together solely on account of their health benefits and would like to see better mainstream yet healthy vegetarian options. All in all, this restaurant is certainly one to watch - I suspect that it will be developing a strong following and not just amongst health-conscious and veggie guests.

www.tibits.co.uk

12-14 Heddon Street

London W1B 4DA

Bangkok Thai, Finchley Road, NW3

2009-08-20T17:23:00.006+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 2/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Ph: 0207 722 9605

Walking down busy Finchley Road in North West London on Saturday, my flatmate and I chanced upon a sign that said £3.95 for two courses outside the popular Bangkok Thai restaurant. Having missed breakfast, we were both rather hungry; so it was too tempting to resist and we wandered inside.

The pleasant waitress informed us that the special menu deal is only available on week days. But given that the menu listed various other main course options for under a fiver, we didn't mind too much that we had to forego the planned starter. (A bit naughty that they'd left the board outside though, huh?)

The restaurant has a pleasant, relaxed feel. It's a wee bit run down but generally tidy. The wall paper is peeling away in places and even the name-board outside doesn't seem to have withstood the credit crunch as some letters have fallen away. But the cutlery was spotless.

With the help of our friendly waitress, we managed to request a vegetable green curry without the customary fish sauce or shrimp paste. She also honestly said to me that all the starters are cross-contaminated with meat / seafood as they are fried in the same oil. She advised me to stick with the main courses which are made to order dish by dish. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the cross-contamination takes place, but glad they were genuine and had told me about it. That way, I could avoid ordering a starter there.

The curry was clean-tasting, very flavoursome and topped with crunchy vegetables. My friend who is an omnivore was also happy with his meal. At a nearby table, we saw the waitress sit down with the owner to eat their own meal. It's very much a family business.

Our simple meal drew to a close. A soft drink , a pot of jasmine tea and two main courses added up to just about £11, which was very reasonable, given the depth of flavour and simplicity of the food and indeed the pleasant service. In fact, I must laud the excellent service - I requested the waitress to write out the name of the dish I had eaten in Thai for me (I was travelling to Belgium the next day and not particularly keen to explain no shrimp paste , no fish sauce in French to the Thai restaurant I planned to visit). She very helpfully did (and saved me a lot of trouble).

I'd certainly recommend Bangkok Thai to my less fastidiously veggie and meaty friends. If you're fussily veggie like me though, visiting at weekends is probably a good idea, because the owner's more-fluent-English-speaking waitress (called Gift , yes that's what she said her name was) works then, so she is more likely to make sure you get a properly veggie dish, given the potential for inadvertent cross-contamination / seafood inclusions otherwise.

Bangkok Thai

17, New College Parade

London NW3 5EP

Samsar, Rue des Bourdonnais

2009-07-20T15:14:00.009+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 4/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 2/5

Samsar is an Indian restaurant based a short walk down a quiet street not far from the hustle and bustle of Les Halles' concrete shopping megaplex. The menu includes both veggie and omnivorous items, so there could be some cross contamination; but the owner, who speaks English is veggie-friendly and more than willing to fry your food in non-meat-ified oil, if you request.

On our first visit, we tried the vegetarian biryani, which is traditionally a rice delicacy from Northern India and is a dish that was originally brought to India by Persian travellers. Ours was similar to a pilau rice, but stewed in more varied spices. It was accompanied by a curry sauce. The rice was a bit over-spiced for me and tasted to me like supermarket-quality takeaway food in London, which is not necessarily always a bad thing. My partner R enjoyed it tremendously, but I thought it was a bit heavy on a single spice (turmeric ) that really drowned out any other flavour. The curry sauce accompaniment - which was a tomato and fenugreek based puree - was quite tasty but rather plain.

On the second visit, I tried the set meal. When we placed our order, we asked the owner if they do chips (for the boyfriend who is a chip-fiend). Despite not having it on the menu, she willingly and very pleasantly offered to make up a plate for us. The chips were fresh and perfectly cooked and the boyfriend licked his plate clean. (And to our surprise, we found later that the kindly owner thought it was too small a dish to charge for, and had given it to us for free).

For my set meal starter I had a "pakora", which I should point out was actually a bhajiya . Pedantic of me, I know, considering that both pakoras and bhajiyas are fritters, but I was a bit surprised that the Indian owners had mislabelled the dish (it's akin to an Oriental restaurant mis-labelling a spring roll as a tempura). The bhajiyas were served piping hot and with a really delicious, green coriander dip. They really hit the spot. For my main course, I had plain basmati rice and a chana masala (chick peas in gravy). The chana masala was ok, but prepared in exactly the same sauce as the curry sauce from the previous day, which I suspect is their staple underlying gravy. It tasted fine, but wasn't particularly memorable this time around either.

For pudding I had gaajar halva which is a carrot-based traditional Indian dessert. It was flecked through with nuts and was spiced gently with cardamom - authentic and fairly decent taste-wise

On both the occasions that we visited, the restaurant was very quiet. However, it was July (when Parisians tend to head out of Paris) and was quite likely not a reflection on the food, which was fairly reasonable in terms of quality.

The service at Samsar is homely and very friendly without being intrusive. On weekdays you can get a 3-course formule (set) menu like the one I had, for 11 euros, which is very good value for central Paris.

So Samsar is a restaurant that I'd recommend for a quick curry-stop if you are looking for reasonably-priced, simple, very passable Indian food in a family-run restaurant whose key selling point is good service.

Samsar Restaurant,

Rue des Bourdonnais,

Paris

Maoz , Rue Xavier Privas

2009-07-17T08:49:00.010+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 1/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Maoz is a small falafel and chip joint, that lies in the warren of small lanes between the Quai St Michel and Boulevard St Michel, close to the much-photographed Notre Dame. The area itself is fairly touristy and boasts a huge number of restaurants - Greek, French, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, you name it. Some of these do offer veggie options, but cross-contamination is rife and due to the touristy nature of the area, even small places can be quite pricey.

Maoz is extremely basic in its set-up and fairly cheap price-wise. A full fledged Maoz menu costs just under 7 euros and consists of a falafel (chick-pea balls in a pitta bread), salad from the well-stocked salad bar , a portion of hot chips and a drink, covering the gamut of what this shop offers.

Note, I say shop, rather than restaurant, because it's quite unlikely given how busy the place is, that you will be able to squeeze your bottom onto one of the two-seater tables that has been crammed in beside the salad bar. So, you will need to buy your lunch at Maoz and find a nearby spot, perhaps along the Seine or near the Notre Dame, to perch and savour your food.

The decor at Maoz, as you may well imagine, is so basic it's virtually absent. But what Maoz lacks in style, it makes up in substance! The falafel balls are freshly fried to order and served in basic pitta pouches along with a free dollop of humous, some salad leaves and fried aubergine (for 50 cents extra). I wouldn't recommend asking for the extra aubergine even though it's cheap, unless you really love the vegetable, because fried aubergine soaks up huge amounts of oil spoiling the taste and texture of the falafel.

The chips come out of the frier, perfectly cooked and piping hot. They are crispy on the outside and melting-yet-with-some-texture-in-the-middle. And if you have them by themselves, it'll only cost you 2 euros for a superbly filling portion. Given the portion size and the quality, my partner R and I think Maoz' chips make for almost a whole, if not supremely healthy, meal.

There is a well-stocked salad bar, which also includes a few different types of chilli and coriander-based sauces, which work really well with the falafel. My personal favourite is the green one, but it's super-super hot, so take a small portion. The salad bar itself, serves up chopped tomatoes and onions, green and black pitted olives, sliced cucumber, radish salad, beetroot chunks and the list goes on. So there's loads of choice and the salad bar is regularly replenished, so you can help yourself to the vast variety of fresh veggies.

Drinks consist of cans of coke, orangina, water, juice and so on. So again, a good basic selection.

Maoz' simple menu allows you to choose a combination of the items described above, in a manner that suits your appetite and your pocket. So, it's fantastically good value, especially for a quick meal on the trot.

Highly recommended by FussyVeggie for cheap and cheerful fare!!

Maoz Falafel,

8, Rue Xavier Privas

Paris

Tien Hiang, Rue du Chemin Vert

2009-07-16T08:47:00.012+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.75/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

ph: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 83 88

Ever since I started researching veggie restaurants ahead of my Paris trip, one restaurant has constantly popped up as being really popular in the reviews - Tien Hiang, serving veggie Chinese / Asian food.

About a third of the way up Rue Chemin Vert if you enter from the Pere La Chaise end, and travel towards Voltaire metro, the restaurant is not the easiest to spot on this long street. To be honest, I had expected something a bit bigger, given that so many people had written reviews about it. But it's actually a tiny little shop squeezing in an incredible number of tables into a very small space.

When we arrived, we received a really warm and smiley welcome. We were directed to a tiny table in a tinier nook that had 3 sets of tables squeezed in. The menus were delivered promptly. But deciphering what I would like from a list consisting of over 60-70 Chinese (and Viet and Thai) dishes, especially given my amateur French, was getting to be really hard work. They finally handed us an English menu and we ordered some spring rolls, a papaya salad and fried dumplings for starters.

The spring rolls were nice; fresh, piping hot but perhaps not as flavoursome as I would have liked. They came with a sweet chilli sauce which seemed like it was a bit watered down and was therefore weird. The fried dumplings were really good, stuffed with soya mince and accompanied by a plum sauce. The papaya salad consisting of grated young papaya, cucumber (I suspect), grated carrots, peanuts, chillis and lime juice, had a great texture. But there was some strange flavour about the dish that I honestly still can't place. We ate just a little bit of that but given how spicy hot it was, and also given that strange indescribable flavour, we didn't really go through much of it. (Others may enjoy that flavour, but somehow it was too alien for me to relish.)

Next up were the mains - a vegetable fried rice, mixed vegetable thai rice noodles and a side dish of tofu mock-chicken in a cashewnutty sauce.

The fried rice was absolutely superb. Fresh, flavoursome, with small diced vegetables and tiny chunks of tofu, it reminded me of the Chinese food we get in India that is referred to as "Indian Chinese" and is based upon the food of immigrants from mainland China who head over the border to India and offer really fabulous veggie variations of their cuisine to an eager Indian populace. I almost ordered a second plate of the rice to take back to the hotel to savour later but R, my partner, stared me down and I decided against being a piggy !!

The rice noodles were fresh, hot and delicious in a chilli-soya sauce. R struggled to get them onto his fork, but wouldn't give up - given he always eats small quantities, I was amazed to see how much he was packing away.

Our side dish arrived a bit late, but it was worth the wait. Yummy chunks of fresh, lightly fried tofu in a cashewnut-topped soya (and basil?) sauce. The soya protein ensured that now our meal had become incredibly filling. I was delighted by the quality of the food, especially given that I hadn't really been sure what to expect in such a tiny place with such a long menu. (Gordon Ramsay would have told them it was a recipe for disaster and he would have been proved wrong.)

Our pudding consisting of banana fritters and chocolate ice-cream wouldn't have been everyone's cuppa. But I gorged on it. Banana fritters are an acquired taste and I have grown to love them. The chunky chocolate ice-cream was a mainstream delight and worked really well both by itself and with the banana.

We were sooooo full, it was almost unbearable. All around us, people were tucking into their meals with gusto and the speed of the table service was really surprising given how little room the waiting staff had to manoeuvre in. Excited chatter was interrupted only by people stopping to wolf down their meals.

Despite ordering 2 starters, a salad, 2 mains, a side dish, a pudding and 2 drinks, I was happy that our total bill only added up to 40 euros and so know that those on a budget can easily order a nice meal for under a tenner.

Tien Hiang is a real tardis, given its tiny physical proportions. Somehow the kitchen magically delivers a veritable treasure chest of yummy Chinese dishes of a surprisingly high quality. It's a restaurant I would recommend to anyone who's not too fussed about appearances and wants to eat high-quality Asian vegetarian food in the French capital.

Highly Recommended!!

http://www.tien-hiang.fr/

92, Rue du Chemin Vert

Paris

Le Grenier de Notre-Dame, Rue de la Bucherie

2009-07-14T20:30:00.014+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 1/5, Quality of cooking : 1/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 2/5 ;Atmosphere: 1/5

Le Grenier de Notre-Dame is a vegetarian restaurant located a stone's throw away from the Notre Dame in Paris. It's tucked away in a little side street but isn't particularly hard to find, given that it's so centrally located.

When we arrived, we were led to our tiny table fairly promptly, but then the waiter and waitress totally ignored us for a little while. When they finally took our order, which consisted of one 3-course set meal and a couple of drinks, we were firmly told we had to order a 2nd starter or pudding if there were 2 guests. So we ordered another starter. Another twenty minutes later, the starter from the set meal arrived. It was a mixed vegetable soup of the day and was really insipid, gloopy and dull. It was served in a fair-sized portion without any of the customary 'pain' or bread. When we requested some bread, we received a little basket with a couple of tasteless slices and when we requested vinegar / olive oil were firmly told that the kitchen didn't have either.

What felt like a good ten minutes after the first starter was cleared, we got the second starter - a plate of what was supposed to be falafel with salad. Though it wasn't dire, it wasn't falafel either (I expected fried chick-pea balls in pitta / other bread); they did get somewhat close though, we had received what tasted like cakes of grilled humous (chick pea pate) - interesting, but certainly not falafel.

Finally the main course arrived - an "asiette zen" consisting of over-boiled brown rice sludged with some unidentifiable red sauce (that surprisingly didn't even taste of tomatoes). Alongside were what looked like baked beans (but these again tasted over-boiled and under-flavoured), a slurry of mutated vegetables which had their flavours boiled out of them and some thankfully un-tampered-with salad leaves. Oh and let me not forget what I have made an effort to blank out of my memory - some dreary, rubberised wedges of tasteless, un-cooked tofu. What unmitigated joy!! This restaurant is probably the reason why French meat-eaters trying veggie food are so put off.

Our pudding was an apple tart whose pastry case had dissolved and fused into the apple-insides without doing much for either, and a scoop of strawberry sorbet. The sorbet was delicious and as I was trying to think of something nice to say about the meal (other than pointing out that it was entirely vegetarian), I asked if they made the ice-cream on the premises. Alas no !! So the one item that tasted of anything, was good because it hadn't been touched by the chefs at La Grenier.

The whole meal had the texture, flavour and consistency of poor-quality baby food and it was delivered by waiting staff who seemed to have no idea of table service other than to smile at appropriate intervals but otherwise mutely slide away with untouched dishes.

My overall verdict on Le Grenier de Notre-Dame - HORRIBLE . And yes, I needed to say that in capital letters given the 30-odd euro price tag for that mess!!

What else can I say; other than - DONT VISIT unless you are desperate or perhaps have a tummy upset and are craving boiled, tasteless mush to calm your insides!

Le Grenier du Notre-Dame

18, Rue de la Bucherie

Saveurs Veget'Halles, Rue Des Bourdonnais

2009-07-14T09:16:00.006+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Ph: +33 (0) 1 40 41 93 95

Saveur Veget'Halles is a little gem that's a short walk from Place Marguerite le Navarre, near the Chatelet tube station and the Les Halles shopping complex in Central Paris. In a city where it's comparatively hard to find veggie options, the restaurant serves vegetarian and vegan food, loosely based around soya and seitan as ingredients.

We visited on a Monday evening, and the restaurant was pretty full. In typical Parisian style, us tourists were offered the lousy table by the door, but when we looked askance, were directed to a quieter nook behind a gauzy curtain. There were only two waiting staff on duty for about 25 guests, but they were fairly efficient , if a bit swamped with orders.

We decided to try one fixed-price menu and an a-la-carte main. For his starter, R had a dish of 'beignets de legumes, sauce chutney' --- fried, battered vegetable slices with a fruit chutney. This dish was a cross between an Indian bhajiya and a Japanese tempura. The batter was flavoursome and the vegetables inside well-cooked. The oil used was certainly of a good quality, as the dish felt light and simple and definitely not greasy. The fruit chutney, with tiny bits of aniseed in it, worked surprisingly well and really lifted the dish to a higher level, despite its simplicity.

For our mains, R had the 'poulet vegetal avec sa sauce echalote' - mock-chicken with rice. Besides the rice, the dish consisted of tiny, seared chunks of soya served with a smattering of salad leaves, a couple of slices of cucumber and tomato, a small bowl of shallot sauce, lightly fried, tiny chunks of turnip and carrot, and a dollop of mashed potatoes. The soya chunks had a nice texture and really worked, as did the shallot sauce with the rice. R thought it was all incredibly filling and quite tasty too.

My main consisted of an 'aubergine basilic au lait de coco et poulet vegetal' - the equivalent of a thai curry with aubergines and soya chunks. This came with brown rice, lightly fried, vegetable chunks, another dollop of mashed potato, and salad. The sauce for the curry was absolutely delicious, but it needed a bit more seasoning for my palate. I couldn't get enough of it and couldn't help stuffing myself even though I was quite full.

Despite our best intentions, we had no room whatsoever for dessert; so I'm going to have to go back to try the puddings. Our bill added up to 37.6 euros. The set menu was about 15 euros for two courses and my main was another fifteen. We also had a soft drink each, of which R's raspberry sparkling drink was fantastically refreshing. I'm not sure I intended to spend 40 euros for dinner for two at this tiny place and in hindsight given the conversion rates, it does seem a bit expensive especially given it's not a particularly fancy place and the service although pleasant wasn't particularly memorable. That said, I didn't feel particularly miffed when I left after paying, as I was really stuffed and the food was of a high standard. Both R and I really enjoyed our dinners. Saveur Veget'Halles is therefore a restaurant I would recommend if you aren't on a very tight budget and if you are looking to have a very hearty, really tasty and properly veggie meal in central Paris.

http://saveursvegethalles.fr

41, Rue Des Bourdonnais 75001, Paris

Sagar, Covent Garden

2009-07-13T08:55:00.015+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 2.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 2/5

(Please see the main review at http://fussyveggie.blogspot.com/2009/01/sagar-udipi-south-indian-restaurant-in.html )

As those of you who've read my main review of Sagar will know, I thoroughly enjoy the South Indian Udipi-style food that this group of restaurants serves. To me, this is pure comfort food and it transports me to the warmth and sunshine of my childhood in India.

I was therefore very keen to try Sagar's new Covent Garden outpost, which is conveniently located for public transport at Charing Cross and the Aldwych. So that's where we went yesterday afternoon. For a lazy Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, I was surprised to find quite a few patrons inside.

We ordered a plate of idlis (steamed, lentil and rice dumplings), 2 set meals and a couple of soft drinks. We were served a complimentary portion of poppadoms with a super-hot tomato chutney and another yogurt dip. Very nice and fresh.

The idlis arrived steaming hot, with an absolutely, mouth-watering sambar (lentil and tamarind dipping sauce) and a very ordinary chutney (coconut dip) to go with them . The idlis were perfectly coooked; I was transported to the cafes in Madras by the seaside. I could almost hear the waves lapping against the sandy shore and my favourite aunt cooking us a family meal while ticking off the naughty kids... And the sambar... oh the sambar... so fantastic that we requested an extra portion, which was kindly provided free of charge....

The set meal that arrived next, consisted of 2 starters, 2 sets of curried vegetables, rice, a dosa (lentil crepe), yogurt and pudding each. All served in fairly large and generous helpings !

Our starters provided the only area of weakness in an otherwise unbelievably impressive meal. So, don't get too put off by the comments I make in this paragraph. For the starters, we received upma (savoury spicy semolina) and bhajiyas. Well, you can't go wrong with something as simple as that, or so those of you who are very familiar with South Indian food may have thought. Hmm....The upma was mediocre and bland, but I hate upma anyway. So I turned my attention to the savoury delight that is a bhajiya. Imagine my surprise and disgust, when I bit into one and found it sweet inside; it was apparently an apple bhajiya. I guess it's the culinary equivalent of finding yourself eating a sweet sausage with even sweeter mash. An unmitigated disaster and a capital crime against the bhajiya and the apple. Our surly waiter informed us that this was meant to cater to the British palate. All I could think was that Sagar, Covent Garden, have done a great disservice to a grand culinary tradition if even one, unknowing guest goes away thinking that this is what South Indian food tastes like. Yuck, yuck and triple yuck. Our plates remained fairly untouched except the empty space where the treacherous boyfriend had tucked into a lone bhajiya (and mumbled that he liked it ) - well, there's no accounting for taste, is there?

Finally our mains arrived, and put me out of my misery. A perfectly-made, yummy dosa (lentil and rice crepe) crowned our plate. Alongside, they had served us some more of the superb sambar (spicy, lentil dip), a mild and fairly tasty masala aloo (curried potatoes), an outstanding chana masala (chick-pea curry), which formed a delectable alliance with the biryani-style rice which had flecks of caramelised onion and slivers of potato running through it. We were also provided the ubiquitous raita or yogurt sauce, which is meant to take the edge off spicy-hot dishes. All I could do was savour and enjoy this feast. Every delicate and strong flavour, every subtle nuance and at so reasonable a price - a humble £5.75 for this wonderful plate of food. I was in food heaven. Even the boring paruppu payasam (a liquidised lentil and milk pudding) couldn't bring me back to earth.

To sum up this review, we had a fantastic meal albeit with a couple of absolute "low"lights such as the bhajiya, the upma and the pudding. Sagar, Covent Garden, like its Hammersmith equivalent, is really good value and gives old hands such as Woodlands nearby a really good run for their money. I'd certainly recommend Sagar to anyone who fancies eating great, totally vegetarian, South Indian food, of a very high quality, in central London at really low prices.

http://www.gosagar.com/menu.html

31, Catherine St

London WC2B 5JS

Gilgamesh, Stables Market, Camden, NW1

2009-07-10T09:14:00.013+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 1/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 2/5, Quality of cooking : 2.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 2/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Ph: 0207 428 4922

On my regular wanderings around The Stables Market in Camden, I've often noticed and indeed photographed the sumptuous and exquisitely hand-carved entrance to Gilgamesh. I've never bothered to go past the red carpet (which has a muscly bouncer guarding it).

Last week though, my partner R & I celebrated our 2nd year together and a very generous family friend took us for a meal at Gilgamesh to celebrate. It was a really kind and thoughtful treat, particularly because I've been quite upset and fretting a lot recently - work has been horrid.

The entrance stairway leading into Gilgamesh was as impressive as ever with its Sumerian carvings easing upwards into a lounge area with an Eastern wooden swing outside. We had to wait a while in the lounge, as although they had taken our booking for 6 pm, the restaurant area was still being readied when we arrived. A bit disorganised on their part, but not too annoying, as some of our friends were running late too.

I had called in advance to make sure our menu options were vegetarian and to pre-advise them that we would be using their two-for-one set meal offer. The restaurant serves a broadly pan-Oriental menu and insists on a minimum food spend of at least £20 per head if you choose a-la-carte dishes, which means that a two for one set meal at a whopping £40 per meal, is pretty much the same price. Very pricey!! I had also specifically asked for a vegetarian pudding option having heard that the dessert contained marshmallows (which, as you know, contain gelatine) and our booking was taken as such.

When we finally were seated at our tables, we spent a fair bit of time admiring the ambience. What must have once been the area under railway arches (and what used to be a horse hospital a long time ago) had been turned into a magical paradise fit for the fantasies of the mythical prince Gilgamesh. I felt a real sense of changing dimensions because the train line outside runs at first floor eye-level with the occasional goods train trundling past. Very surreal and weird.

The chairs we were seated in had hand carvings of various mystical, medieval scenes on them and the pillars and decorations were really exotic. The restaurant also boasted quite tall palm fronds that gave the place an indoors-yet-outdoors feel.

A little later, and with some difficulty we turned our attention to the food. I was really annoyed to find out that although Gilgamesh say they have a vegetarian menu, one of the listed vegetarian main course options isn't suitable for vegetarians (something they didn't bother pointing out, until I specifically asked our head waiter, who then checked with the kitchen) - it contained fish sauce and shrimp paste. So veggies, beware - the reservation staff don't really know about veggie options and often neither do the waiters.

Our starter consisted of vegetarian sushi (reasonably good and freshly made, although eschewing the traditional seaweed wrapper) and dimsum, stuffed with mushrooms and little else (very mono-flavoured and boring).

For mains, I had them change their seafood-based supposedly-veggie dish to a delicious, thai red vegetable curry which could have been a bit hotter , chilli-wise. The others at the table had noodles in a soya sauce with tempura topping (avocado and sweet potato tempura, it turned out). I cannot think of a good reason why avocados (or Mars bars) would need to be dipped in batter and fried, and this tempura dish has only strengthened my opinion on that count. The tempura outer was soggy and the inside was weird and vile. The noodles were a sludgy green but edible. They also served us a side dish of some greens in a light sauce, which went surprisingly well with the rice that came alongside.

When our puddings arrived, (and despite our repeated requests at the start of the meal), the cheesecake was topped with a marshmallow. So I asked yet again, if I could have a pudding that was suitable for vegetarians and finally I was given an exotic fruit salad which was fresh, sweet and absolutely fantastically put together in terms of combining natural flavours.

Our bill for four including one cocktail (£8.50, if I remember correctly) and some water was just under £100. Service was erratic, the food was so-so but had a few highlights such as the red curry and fruit salad. If you're a wee bit cooler and trendier than I am, then the one redeeming factor was that the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing with the 'young and the restless' and those wanting to be spotted by other trendy types . (Last but not least, the restaurant's management audaciously pre-include an optional service charge of 12.5% -- something I absolutely abhor. I do include a 10% tip usually, but I'd like to be given the option if indeed the service charge is deemed optional.)

All in all, Gilgamesh was not particularly good . It's not somewhere I would go to again, but it was just about worth one visit, if only for the ambience.

http://www.gilgameshbar.com/index.htm

Gilgamesh Bar and Lounge

Stables Market,

Chalk Farm Road,

London NW1 8AH

Caffe Nero, House of Fraser, Oxford St

2009-07-09T21:50:00.011+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 4/5; Vegan-options available: Limited; Value for money: 3.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 3.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 2/5

Caffe Nero's good-sized outlet, set right at the back, on the ground floor of department-store House of Fraser, provides a welcome respite from the hubbub of Oxford St. The cafe resembles any in-store cafe in terms of ambience with a mixture of comfy sofas and minimalist chairs. However, unlike most in-store cafes which are light on veggie options, Caffe Nero offers a broad selection of soups, sandwiches, paninis and puddings which are clearly labelled as suitable for veggies. Hurrah! Finally, I've found a mainstream cafe that caters properly to veggies.

During our latest visit, we sampled the organic sun-dried tomato and basil soup - a large portion of deliciously tomato-ey, smooth yet thick soup that could be mopped up really nicely with the chunky pieces of bread they serve alongside. We also tried the yummy tomato, mozzarella and basil panini (apparently the top-selling one in their range) and the folded pizza-like tomato and mozzarella calzone wrap. The panini was studded inside with tiny slices of black olive which gave the sandwich additional depth and flavour. Both the panini and the calzone, were delicious and very filling, and really hit the spot, especially as they were served piping hot. The only slight draw-back I noticed at the end of our meal, was that the grill-toasters they used don't seem to be well-segregated and there is a small risk of cross-contamination from spills from the hot-sandwiches.

For pudding we had slices of chocolate fudge cake layered with chunky pieces of chocolate and melty-fudge... Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate... delicious and devilish and very, very more-ish. We also had a take-away caramel slice (which resembles millionaire's shortbread); to me it was a bit over-crumbly from being chilled too long, but was quite ok taste-wise. The white and dark chocolate truffle cheesecake was also in our take-away bag (I wonder who ordered it ??) - it was nice but not nearly as good as the chocolate cake. But, by then I had had enough chocolate to last me a month. I was sated. So I shouldn't really have tried any more!! Ah, the sacrifices I make in order to get pieces together for this blog eh?

To summarise, I'd certainly recommend Caffe Nero as a simple and easy pit-stop for those wanting a hearty, quick , reasonably healthy, veggie snack while on the move . Our visit to Caffe Nero's Oxford St branch was a very pleasant and sinful experience and one that I hardly expected in the cafe of a department store.

www.caffenero.com

Inspiral Lounge, Camden, NW1

2009-07-06T15:25:00.024+01:00

*** RE-REVIEW ALERT**** :This restaurant was re-reviewed on 14/05/2010

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes, almost everything is vegan; Value for money: 4.5/5, Quality of cooking : 4/5; Ambience : 3.5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 4.5/5

Nestled rather jauntily on the edge of Regent's Canal right opposite Camden Lock market, Inspiral Lounge is a (predominantly) vegan eatery and internet lounge.

This is the second time that FussyVeggie has reviewed Inspiral. The first-time we reviewed this place, FussyVeggie liked everything except the food.

Second-time around, we quickly noticed that Inspiral had lost none of the charm that made it so attractive first time around - friendly waiting staff, a very earthly and laid-back feel, chill-out music and a fantastically healthy-looking menu of drinks and eats. The place was just buzzing and really busy for a Friday afternoon. The music was fantastic and we found our feet tapping away unselfconsciously to the rhythm.

I was a little intimidated by the very healthy-looking vegan food on display in the glass shelves. I wondered if it would all taste really strange and over-healthy.. (sorry folks - i was being really narrow-minded) but finally decided that it must be far more intimidating for a meat-eater to go veggie than it is for me to go vegan especially when I clearly recognise and respect the ethical choice being made by vegans every day. So, by the time we're gotten past the friendly jostling queue and paid for our meal before seating ourselves by a nice window overlooking Camden Lock, we were all definitely in a faux-Glastonbury mood. The only things missing were the wellies.

We tried the cream cheese and tomato bagel and a small salad bowl, as well as a Banana Karma smoothie with a pudding order of vegan tiramisu. Now it was time to check if the food had improved at all and to be honest, I was dreading it, given how poor it had been first time around.

Fortunately we were in for a really pleasant surprise. The bagel had been toasted and the filling tasted of chunkily sliced tomatoes and avocado - really fresh and flavoursome with fresh basil leaves giving the dish a nice edge. The rough texture of the seeded bagel worked really well with the softer filling.

In our small salad pot, we had been given a very generous helping of roasted potatoes (smoked through with paprika), a helping of mixed beans (fantastically flavoursome and the highlight of our meal), roasted parsnips (perfectly yummy) and freshly steamed broccoli. It was the first time in years that I have had a "small" salad that is so rustic and thrown together yet so much more filling and delicious than even a main course.

(Readers - I haven't described the menu in much detail because it changes ever day. If the rest of the food is as good as what we ate, you're in for a wholesome treat)

The banana drink was laced with date puree and was incredibly glug-able. And last but not least, the dessert was a real winner. The tiramisu base was a tiny bit too textured for my liking but the flavours were sweet, coffee-ish and spot-on.

I was so glad we had bothered to re-review this place. In a very short space of time Inspiral has achieved a 180 degree turn in terms of food quality and best of all , all the other stuff they do so well is still around. The place still has a kinda hippy, chaotic yet chic feel. It certainly doesn't feel like some of the more commercial chain joints nearby that serve re-hashed, oily junk. Plus, Inspiral has got oodles of personality and celebrates veggie-ness.

Inspiral is a real testament to London's veggie-friendliness. The food is very reasonably-priced. It isn't so cheap that it makes you wonder what rubbish the ingredients are made of, but it isn't expensive in a way that would make you think twice about visiting it. It's spot on.

So FussyVeggie now strongly recommends Inspiral on all counts - flavour, ambience and service. Do hurry up and visit before it gets even more crowded !!

http://www.inspiralled.net/

250, Camden High St,

Camden Lock

London NW1 8QS

ORIGINAL REVIEW 2009

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes, plenty; Value for money: 2.5/5, Quality of cooking : 2/5; Ambience : 3.5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Set alongside Regent's Canal on the edge of Camden Lock, Inspiral Lounge is a cafe-style restaurant and internet lounge.

First up, the good bits (and there are quite a few) - Inspiral mainly serves vegan food, including a very attractive-looking, vegan ice-cream range and vegan cakes and truffles. A couple of non-vegan but vegetarian options are also on the menu (such as a bagel with mozzarella). The lounge is dotted with straight-back chairs and comfy sofas including a couple of window seats that overlook the canal and a patio-terrace-y space. At Inspiral, there is also a counter selling tickets for Regent's Canal cruises. The place has a very organic, eco-friendly feel to it with hemp smoothies, washable stainless steel ice-cream tasting spoons (rather than throwaway plastic dippers) and a very healthy-list of menu options. All the food is wholesome and tastes fresh, the place feels really sunny and relaxed and the staff are friendly and extremely pleasant.

On the day we visited, we tried the large plate at £7.45. We thought it would be a good way to sample a large chunk of the menu on offer, as this large plate consisted of all the mains and sides on the buffet counter and salad too. The very helpful member of staff who served us, piled our plate full. Very generous, indeed !!

Now the areas for improvement. Or should I say area - because all I really want improved is the taste of the food. And given the rave reviews I've heard about this place, this certainly could just be my personal opinion and that of my dining companion's. First, we tried the pasta in white sauce - the pasta pieces were well-cooked, but the sauce they were coated in, tasted pretty sour and unpalatable. Also on the plate was plain rice, cooked with barley - this was simple and nice, but by its very nature exceedingly plain. Next up was something I would describe as a smokey black-eyed bean mock-chilli; the beans were perfectly cooked-through but the sauce was "all smoke and no fire" - absolutely un-spectacular and boring. Alongside these we had roasted butternut squash/ sweet potato cubes, which I disliked, possibly because I don't like sweet flavours in a main meal; tender roast potatoes which could have done with a bit of browning and crispiness on the outside and some more seasoning rather than just the overpowering taste of rosemary; and lastly humous, which was ok but a bit on the sour side. We also got a serving of nice, fresh cucumber and tomato salad, which was the nicest item on the plate along with the humous. The cooking was akin to the quality of cooking one gets the first time a bunch of university students, who haven't really cooked much before, try to prepare a vegetarian or vegan meal. Inspiral's chefs' hearts seem to be in the right place and the place certainly has good intentions but the food is just about edible (and better in some cases, as a consequence of them not interfering with good produce, rather than because of their cooking). Unfortunately, even between the two of us, we didn't manage to get through even half the plate of food. My dining companion felt a bit let down, because she was on a budget and she felt she could cook a better-quality meal at home.

There's no doubting that Inspiral Lounge serves fresh, wholesome food in a pleasant and friendly environment. All they now need to do, is get the flavours up to scratch. Vegetarian and vegan food can be flavoursome as well as healthy . Inspiral has certainly got the healthy part of that equation right; the ingredients are great and already there; all Inspiral needs now, in my humble opinion (and that of my guest) is better execution and slightly less amateur cooking. If that's sorted, this could be a great place to visit again. One to watch !!

http://www.inspiralled.net/

250, Camden High St,

Camden Lock

London NW1 8QS

Sofra, St Johns Wood NW8 and other locations

2009-07-04T07:26:00.025+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 2/5; Vegan-options available: To confirm; Value for money: 2.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 1/5 ;Atmosphere: 1/5

Ph: 0207 586 9889

On Tuesday, I visited the St Johns Wood outpost of the Turkish chain Sofra. Conveniently located, not very far from the tube station, Lord's cricket ground and St John's Wood High Street, the restaurant is frequented by an upper middle-class clientele.

Ambience-wise, it's crammed with closely-spaced tables, but the starched, white linen tablecloths and shiny cutlery wrapped in napkins with pretty red ribbons, make the tables look much nicer. The rest of the decor is fairly forgettable and the atmosphere is very low-key. Most visitors are middle-aged men, who've popped in for a meal after a trip to Lord's or groups of 40-something ladies-who-lunch. In the summer, there is a ground-level patio terrace, which although nice, is a bit noisy and dusty as it is set against a fairly busy road

The restaurant offers set-menu and a-la-carte options in the form of hot and cold mezze (in tapas-sized portions) as well as stand-alone dishes . Guests usually opt for a set-platter or choose a combination of their favourite mezze. There are a number of interesting vegetarian options on the list and the meal usually begins with a complementary portion of delicious humous and (not-always) fresh, warm, crusty bread.

I've asked in the past if they are conscious about cross-contamination on their grilled or griddled, hot, vegetarian dishes. The answer has not been remotely satisfactory; one waiter candidly admitted that he knows that there is no separate cooking oil, utensil or surface used ie. dishes like the falafel balls or the fried aubergine with peppers are fried or cooked on the same surfaces and in the same oil as the meat, without any attention to the re-use of oils / surfaces. That's why I no longer order the vegetarian platter, which although varied and delicious-looking, contains a number of such items. Cold mezze and things like rice, are probably your safest choices, if you are strictly vegetarian; it's also worth noting that the staff are not at all aware of whether the cheeses served are suitable for vegetarians (there are ingredients such as animal rennet in some of their cheese products). The Halloumi cheese is possibly the only suitable one of the lot.

On this visit, my friend, (who is a carnivore) ordered the vegetarian platter. It was presented beautifully on a lovely, frosted glass plate with 9-odd, different tapas dotted on it, making it look like an edible-version of noughts-and-crosses. She found it a good way of trying different types of mezze; however the yogurty mezze on her plate had gone completely off (she had to spit it out) and despite her mentioning the matter to the manager, he didn't bother to replace it and bizarrely waffled that yogurt could get rather sharp and he didn't think it was off yet, although it was very sharp. I thought this was a poor answer because I had ordered an aubergine salad (babaganoush) as a starter; this also contained the yogurt as an ingredient and I had to send it back because the yogurt was terribly off and he was aware of that. Although yogurt can occasionally and understandably over-curdle due to the hot, summer weather, I was surprised that the kitchen and management continued to serve the spoiled yogurt to other customers and not do anything about it, despite being informed.

The basmati rice side dish I ordered, was overcooked and the rice tasted like it wasn't freshly cooked. However I've eaten the same rice dish previously at Sofra's branch in Tavistock Street near Covent Garden and it used to be a favourite because it was delicious and was a real treat because there, it included crunchy nuts and strands of vermicelli that really enhanced the flavour of the rice.

The other things that disappointed me about this visit were the standard of service and the money-minded approach. Despite pointing out to the waiting staff that my foot was broken and in a brace and having crutches leaning against the table to highlight this, they managed to ram into it twice and didn't even bother apologising immediately. Lastly, the bill included an optional service charge, which was not actually optional because it is pre-included in the total. Personally I prefer to leave a 10-odd percent tip for reasonable service and I particularly like to be given this option when the restaurant prices are not particularly cheap and the service is sub-standard.

Mezze dishes at Sofra are roughly around the £5 mark. So its not the cheapest of places as the prices tot up once you order a few mezze.

Sofra disappointed me; it used to be a really good place to eat at. I've recently visited the branch in St Christopher's Place (handy for Oxford St ) for a quick snack and like its St Johns wood cousin, found it a bit over-priced for what it was. I wish Sofra would take its vegetarian options seriously and the management would take more pride in the quality of the food they serve. A place that clearly needs sorting out !

http://www.sofra.co.uk/

11, Circus Road, NW8 6NX

La Porte des Indes, London W1

2009-06-29T20:27:00.021+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes (please book beforehand); Value for money: 3.5/5, Quality of cooking : 4.5/5; Ambience : 4.5/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 4/5

Ph: 0207 224 0055

It was a scorchingly hot, Monday afternoon when we made our way to La Porte Des Indes, near London's Marble Arch and bustling Oxford St.

Stuck in a little side street opposite a parking lot, the restaurant's simple yet classy facade, doesn't really prepare first-time visitors for the opulence that lies within. It's a fantasy escape from the buzz of a dusty, busy city centre to the French colonies of India (Pondicherry et al) and as you step in, beautiful carved wooden objets d'art, elegantly-swaying tall plants, a lavish dining space that could seat well over 200 people, a water-wall, exquisite Asian art-pieces and exotic flower arrangements set the tone for the wealth of flavours that follow.

When we arrived, we were promptly shown to our table. After the boiling hot sun outside, they certainly got a tick in the box for a pleasant and friendly welcome.

Next , the drinks. I've been here several times over the past ten-odd years and the drinks menu still surprises me with its audacity - ridiculously over-priced and with utter disregard for the term value-for-money, this is chiefly a list meant for its rich, expense-account clientele.

A word of advice - stick with the jugs of tap water and save your pennies for the food. Those unfamiliar with their likes/ dislikes on an extensive Indian menu may find that the a-la-carte menu , particularly at dinner time isn't a good idea. {It could be a real gamble for those who don't know their Naintara Do Pyaaz from their Shingora, because if you don't know what it is, you can't really be sure before you've even ordered and tasted any particular dish that it will even be to your taste and therefore worth forking out the wads of dosh required.}

However, don't let this put you off - even on a fairly tight budget you can have an excellent meal at this restaurant (with some planning, of course). The restaurant currently has several set menu type offers, http://www.laportedesindes.com/london/lunch.html; the credit crunch menu for example is a very reasonable £9.95. Really good value considering the luxurious ambience and food quality. But the option I really recommend is the jazz brunch on a Sunday, (which is really good value for money for foodies) despite a hefty £25 price-tag, http://www.laportedesindes.com/london/sunday_brunch.html. The jazz buffet is extensive, and in addition you can try a few, unusual, authentic Indian dishes (like the South Indian pancake a.k.a. utappam or the Bombay street food a.k.a chaat) which are cooked up on the spot by chefs, right before your very eyes. And while you do this, you can people-watch as all the exquisitely-dressed guest sashay past.

Most importantly, La Porte is serious about vegetarian options. Across the board, what you get certainly aren't the dregs of the menu!! There's a delectable choice of beautifully flavoured and seasoned dishes and in that sense, La Porte des Indes is worth every penny spent. They understand the need to avoid cross-contamination and I have been reliably informed that they take it seriously.

On the day we visited, I tried their version of a vegetarian platter (steeply priced at £30). Before the platter got to us, we received an amuse-bouche (literally translated from French to mean amuse the mouth). I was rather hoping they would serve us their trademark pumpkin soup - which is stupendously good and definitely in a class of its own. Instead we got a cute, thimble-sized portion of the soup of the day , made with cooling yogurt and coconut. My companion gladly guzzled my share, given that I don't particularly fancy cold soup especially if it has yogurt in it.

Next up were the starters: grilled, spiced paneer (an Indian cottage cheese) with good texture that would have been too mild by itself but was redeemed by a date and tamarind dip that accompanied it; a yummy samosa stuffed with curried potatoes and peas; and a crumbly, fresh, dhokla ( a steamed, lentil pancake from the West coast of India). I was absolutely stuffed and I hadn't even tried the mains.

There was a very helpful, brief pause between courses and then, the main meal arrived, looking all majestic in a fancy brass platter. The rather warm, raised platter was decorated with a beautifully hand-carved piece of salad (Gosh, I get annoyed slicing onions; how do some people have the patience and skill to turn a radish into a beautifully carved white rose?).

And despite my protestations about being full, I was soon tucking into a portion of perfectly-cooked saffron rice, okra in a tangy tomato and onion gravy, saag paneer (cottage cheese in a seasoned, spinach sauce), mouth-wateringly-homely and scrumptious, slowly-simmered daal (yellow Toor lentils), a chard pakora (crisp fritter), aloo dum (stuffed potatoes in a creamy tomato sauce) and teardrop-shaped naan breads.

There was so much food on the plate that I had to swallow my pride and ask for a doggy bag (and a yummy evening meal I had too!! ) so that I had a wee bit of room for pudding. Luckily the waiter wasn't snooty about it at all (although he did seem a bit amused that I had asked !)

A delicious, not-cloying, perfectly formed chocolate mousse set in a dried,hand-woven leaf bowl; melting 'semia paayasam' (roasted vermicelli in a creamy milk-based pudding) and a very beautiful looking (but not to my palate at all) saffron yogurt finally delivered the knock-out punch. [Veggies can tuck into the mousse with gusto - I checked if the mousse is suitable for vegetarians and surprisingly it doesn't contain gelatine and it is veggie-friendly.]

We were absolutely stuffed and needed a few minutes before we could even find the strength to waddle out.

My dining companion, who hasn't been to the restaurant before, resolved to bring her best friend for a meal, as a special birthday treat. And that's exactly what La Porte should be! Despite the credit crunch menus, which are a nice touch, it should not be mistaken for an everyday lunch-time restaurant (unless you own a gold mine). It's best visited at periodic intervals as a special treat, so that when you do visit, you really savour the sumptuous experience without feeling too bad about money spent et al. Every guest I have taken there over the years has come away feeling really satisfied by the quality of the food and every single one has wanted to go back there again, for a special occasion. And that's really a ringing and fitting endorsement!!

The meal was certainly one to remember and La Porte Des Indes is certainly a restaurant to remember!

PS. Most of you know my stance on service charges especially at expensive restaurants. Given that it's optional, I'd like to be given the option to make my own judgement on what I want to tip; so, Mr Restaurateur please don't pre-include it on the bill as if it's a fixed cost. La Porte is one of the restaurants that pre-includes the 12.5% supposedly-optional service charge on the bill even on the set menus and self-service buffet. To my mind, this is poor practice and I'd like to see it changed.

www.laportedesindes.com/london/index.html

32, Bryanston St, London W1H 7EG

SK Chaat House, Harrow

2009-06-22T19:11:00.017+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 1/5; Service: 2/5 ;Atmosphere: 2/5

Harrow's Station Road is home to a new family-run "chaat" (Indian , street fast food ) restaurant, SK Chaat House. We visited at lunchtime on a weekday and the restaurant was fairly busy. The look and feel of the restaurant is fairly minimalist and non-chic - it's basically an arrangement of closely placed Ikea-style tables and chairs with a typical-shop-type glass frontage that looks over the busy main road. There's a small cashier's counter at the back with a door leading to what looked like a very busy kitchen . So, pretty much in the vein of a local cafe rather than that of a "proper" restaurant.

Not long after we were seated, our drinks order was taken by a fairly frazzled young man. I had to resist the urge to chuckle as he paced up and down trying to figure out which table he'd brought out the drink for. (Aren't I evil ?). A couple of minutes later, yet another member of staff came along to take our food order; when we ordered an eat-as-much-as-you like set meal and a sandwich, we were rather sternly warned by the young owner-waitress that we would not be allowed to share the set meal. [ Ooooo!! I'm so scared!!!]

On that day, the set meal consisted of poori (special puffed Indian breads), chole (chick peas in a spicy tomato-ey gravy), plain rice, salad, daal (tempered Indian yellow lentils), potato curry and sweet boondi (sugary-sweet droplets made with lentil flour). The dishes on this buffet change daily and don't tally with what's listed on the menu. So you may want to take a quick peek at the buffet table, to make sure you like what's on offer.

The daal we ate, had been gently simmered; it was perfectly spiced and not too oily - very home-style cooking. I helped myself to more than one serving.

The chole and the potato curry were both really nicely cooked, but were a bit too hot and spicy for me.

The flying saucer-shaped poori-s were not at all greasy (a common flaw) and tasted really yummy and very fresh. The salad was simple and seemed to be made with fairly good quality ingredients.

R's sandwich was a typical Indian street sandwich, layered with coriander and mint chutney, grated cheese, diced potatoes, onions, tomatoes and cucumber. The only tiny quibble was with the size of the sandiwch portion; it was really small. The chutney was also a bit too mild; so the sandwich wasn't as flavoursome as it could have been.

One of the owners - a rotund, middle-aged man - walked over at some point and gently ticked me off in Gujarati for not eating enough from the buffet , which I found quite sweet and quite different from our previous experience of the service. But in very typical Indian style, he also had a long chat on his mobile phone while mid-sentence to us, which was a bit bizarre to say the least.

All the set menu dishes were very simply and frugally presented in stainless-steel buffet dishes on the counter. There was no skimping on quality though as they were all cooked to perfection and would not have been out-of-place in any decent restaurant in Bombay or Delhi. The restaurant serves a number of a-la-carte chaat (street fast-food) and savoury dishes if you don't fancy the set meal. Most dishes cost between £3 and £5 each.

In sum, despite the patchy service and the fairly un-ambient ambience, I am sure that this is a place we would gladly visit again given the quality of cooking and our total bill of roughly £11 including 2 soft drinks.

SK Chaat House

63, Station Road, Harrow HA1 2TY

Peking Palace, Holloway Road, Archway

2009-06-09T17:40:00.005+01:00

Ph : 0207 281 8989

www.thepekingpalace.com

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.25/5; Ambience : 3.5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Peking Palace is a 100% vegetarian restaurant set on the busy Holloway Road and a few strides away from Archway tube station. As the name suggests, the restaurant (although owned by a Vietnamese couple) serves Chinese food.

In an evident contrast to most of the cheap, Chinese vegetarian buffet places that one finds in central London, Peking Palace has more of a proper sit-down restaurant feel with a more up-market, nicely spaced seating rather than a cram-as-many-seats-as-you-can approach. The restaurant is both veggie and vegan friendly.

We walked in just before their 3 p.m. lunch closing time on a Tuesday, but were pleasantly welcomed and seated quickly. At £5.50, the all-you-can-eat buffet sounded like a steal. So we enthusiastically piled our plates high. There were 8-10 vegetable dishes to choose from. On the day we visited this included a mock beef in black bean sauce, a mock-chicken curry, mock-meat in sweet-and-sour sauce,aubergine stir-fry, green beans in an onion and yellow bean sauce, 3 types of rice and the ubiquitous stir-fried noodles.

I tried the special fried rice with the green beans and a bit of the aubergine stir-fry. The rice was simple and well cooked and the green beans were spiced perfectly, if a bit oily. I must admit I just couldn't stop myself forking in mouthful-after-mouthful of those two. The aubergine stir fry was mellow with nice, un-oily and well-cooked pieces of aubergine. The mock-beef in black bean sauce was a bit mild for me yet fairly more-ish and quite nice texture wise.

The buffet also included some steamed greens and broccoli, (which were just passable given that the cabbage-y leaf was a bit stringy) and sides such as a potato omelette and crispy seaweed, which I unfortunately forgot to put onto my plate and only noticed when I'd finished my meal.

Noodles were fresh, and went well with the sauces, but wouldn't really be great if eaten by themselves. I picked at a piece of the mock-chicken in curry sauce on the boyfriend's plate. He liked it quite a bit, but I disliked the flavours intensely - it tasted very much of packet curry sauce and as a true-blue Indian, I hate anything that messes with "proper Indian food". (Yes, I'm fussy!!!)

Our drinks , a fresh apple and orange juice and a pre-packed passion fruit and mango juice were chilled, really refreshing and very reasonable at £2.10 and £2.70 respectively.

Service was efficient throughout and although we didn't really use the table service extensively, we did notice the owner and her assistant regularly topping up the buffet's serving dishes.

The quality of cooking at Peking Palace is quite a few notches above the oily, dried-out fare that one tends to find in other buffet joints. In total, a meal for two with 3 soft drinks added up to £17. So its definitely good value-for-money. The restaurant also offers takeaway and a-la-carte menus on which the mock-meat dishes in Peking Palace's spring onion and ginger sauce and the dim-sum are particularly recommended by those-in-the-know.

The final verdict - Peking Palace is a reasonably priced place, with decent quality food and is well-worth the perils of journeying to Archway on the Northern Line for a veggie Chinese-food-fix!

www.thepekingpalace.com

669, Holloway Road, N19 5SE

The Palm Court restaurant at The Grand, Folkestone

2009-05-31T19:46:00.018+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 3/5; Vegan-options available: TBC; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.25/5; Ambience : 5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

The Grand in Folkestone is a regal, part-residential , part holiday let venue with a fascinating history that stretches back over a 100 years.

According to its website it "...was constructed as gentlemen’s residential chambers, ..... King, Edward VII, became a frequent visitor, so much so that the locals would wander along The Leas in front of the building peering into the glasshouse to catch a glimpse of him; apparently because he and his friends were heavily bearded, it became likened to looking at monkeys in a cage, hence the sobriquet Monkey House".

And the Monkey House, now the Palm Court restaurant is where we ate.

The whole place evokes the gentle grandeur of bygone times and has an 'old-money', decadent feel . The restaurant's windows are set against the azure coastline, with clamouring seagulls to be heard and the white cliffs of Dover visible in the distance. I could well imagine the Scarlet Pimpernel popping in here for a drink with his aristocratic mates, before sailing off to rescue 'the Frenchies'.

I loved the casual glamour of the high creamy drape-lined ceilings and felt the restaurant evokes a sophisticated 60's filmstar chic that was definitely in keeping with our sprightly 70-something host, A, who was a model in her time .

Knowing I am veggie she had pre-booked vegetarian meals for us. I was also reliably informed that a vegetarian option is regularly available on the menu every day and is best pre-booked but is often not particularly imaginative.

Our table was simply decorated with proper table linen and crisp, white napkins.

Nearby, the central carvery area which was set in a grand hall boasted a huge buffet, with a number of vegetarian starter options (not labelled vegetarian, but the helpful staff will identify veggie-friendly options if in doubt). We tried the avocado slices, coleslaw, melon slices, bread rolls, pasta salad, new potatoes in mayonnaise and the tomato salad. The starters were all made to a good standard - freshly prepared , simple and nicely presented. My favourites were the thin-sliced melon which was a lovely palate cleanser and the light, yet creamy coleslaw.

Our main was a specially prepared dish of tomatoey-sauted vegetables, wedged between two slices of grilled aubergine (very close to a Melanzane Parmigiana but without the cheese). It was perfectly seasoned. For veggie sides, the carvery table is loaded with roast potatoes (cooked in oil) and steamed veggies. The potatoes were a bit cold and had the texture of cardboard, the veggies were filling but very plain. I didn't mind though; I ate every morsel of my main. I think the bracing sea air and the beautiful sunny day made it hard to find fault with anything and the simplicity of the flavours worked well for me on the day. The food wasn't as "grand" as the setting but it was perfectly nice.

Our waitress , a very young and charming girl, talked us through the veggie options amongst the puddings. I settled on the tiramisu, which was just so-so. I heard the chocolate mousse (unsuitable for veggies) and the strawberry tart (also unsuitable for veggies due to a gelatinous glaze) are the better pudding options.

The cheese board although touted as veggie, held a fairly dusty bunch of grapes (possibly left over from a royal banquet a couple of hundred years ago) and what appeared to be a pile-up of veggie-friendly and unfriendly cheeses. I was unsure if the other waiting staff were even vaguely aware if any cheese-s contained animal rennet, so I steadfastly avoided it.

The meal drew to a close with large, reasonably priced pots of tea and cafetieres of coffee which cost no more than a couple of quid each.

The verdict - At about £22 a head for the meal alone, the Sunday lunch is certainly not the cheapest option in Folkestone. But The Grand and The Palm Court restaurant are both definitely worth a visit- for the simple, homely food but perhaps more so for the splendid, coastal views and the harking back to the good old days, which to me form the perfect backdrop for my picture postcard memories of a great, relaxed day out with old and new friends.

Chennai Dosa, Wembley

2009-05-29T14:21:00.010+01:00

ph:02087828822

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

Walking down Ealing Road, a short stroll away from Wembley Central (tube and train) station, one is immediately transported to similar streets in Madras or Bombay. The Asian reverie is only broken by the toots of the trundling London buses that hurtle past on this busy road. This area is popular with South Asians, especially Gujaratis from nearby Gujju hotspots like Harrow, Wembley and Neasden.

Ealing Road is certainly one of the key retail commercial centres for the Indian community in London and is home to several Indian vegetarian restaurants and a phenomenal number of shops where one can buy everything from Indian groceries, vegetables, the sweetest of mangoes and traditional star-spangled saris right up to (to my complete amazement) an Idli dish to cook typical South Indian lentil dumplings.

Chennai Dosa's vegetarian outlet straddles the corner of High Road and Ealing Road. (Veggies, avoid the meaty twin next door and make your way up the ramp-ish entrance on the Ealing Road side) . Walking in, you'll find yourself amidst its typical clientele, consisting of "Indians from India" alongside a few of those brought up in the West, with the odd Caucasian thrown in to mix it up a bit. So, the atmosphere is very middle-class India - the restaurant is noisy, kids are welcome and noisy, but well-tolerated, and even doted upon by very patient staff, and the focus is pretty much on quickly serving hot food rather than on niceties. The decor is functional, if a bit basic. As is common in most budget, cafe-style places in Bombay, the jug of water is already on the table, and a laminated three-sided menu lists South Indian staples , Mughlai -style Northern Indian dishes (which are more common in the West) and Indian-Chinese fare. Most visitors seem to opt for the staple Dosa (lentil pancake), which as the restaurant's name suggests, is Chennai Dosa's flagship dish. We tried the rava dosa (semolina pancake), which was freshly cooked in oil that tasted like it was a few grades above motor oil , but was otherwise well-executed. The coconut chutney dip that accompanied the dosa was spot-on and the sambar (a flavoursome lentil curried dip) was really spicy-hot but oh-so-good. I've tried the plain dosa on more than one occassion , it's always been crispy but tasteless.

Also on the menu is the mixed platter or thali. At circa £4, it's an absolute steal. Eat as much as you like and ladle portions of piping hot, spicy gravies including kuzhambu (lentil gravy), rasam (tomato and lentil soup-y gravy) and kootu (vegetable stew) into tiny bowls crammed onto a decent-sized plate with just enough spare room to serve yourself some steaming hot rice. R, my boyfriend, managed to stomach the spiciness (he insisted he was an 'ard Northerner), but I must admit, I had to go easy on some of the curries and use only tiny bits to flavour my rice.

If like me, you can't stomach too much chilli, stick with the a-la-carte menu, from which the helpful, super-fast waiting staff will help you choose a more mild and flavoursome dish. The idli, a steamed lentil and rice dumpling is a healthy and safe choice for those whose stomach linings are on the delicate side. Avoid the Chinese dishes on the menu; to me, they tasted like they were flavoured with washing-up liquid.

Soft drinks are very reasonable at £0.60 a can. There's also a selection of lassis (buttermilk drinks) and juices . Not all juices are freshly made, so do check for the ones in season.

We paid £8.50 for a meal for two including soft drinks.

All in all, the place is decent and the food quality is on the right side of reasonable. (Don't expect super-high quality or gourmet cooking.) Best of all, its an absolute bargain. Who says cheap equals nasty???

www.chennaidosa.com

Ealing Road, Wembley

Shayona, Neasden (Meadowgarth Way, off Brentfield Road)

2009-05-16T19:57:00.005+01:00

Phone Number: 0208 965 3365

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 2.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

The suburb of Neasden, famed for its humongous Ikea, is the unlikely home to the largest Hindu temple outside India (Guiness book of world records, 2000). This exquisitely carved marble temple is testament to the hard work and devotion of the Swaminarayan sect, to which many members of the local Gujarati community in Harrow and Neasden belong.

Since a fortnight ago, Neasden has also become home to the temple’s restaurant Shayona, which sits quietly tucked away at the back of the temple's car park, beside a very large and well-stocked Indian grocery store and super-tidy sweet shop (all run by the temple's trust). To me, the temple is a real taste of exotic India amidst a very suburban British landscape. It strangely feels like the last remaining relic from the era of a fictional sixteenth century Indian conqueror, with the bland housing estates and industrial parks of Neasden developing around it. Visiting it always suddenly transports me in a matter of seconds to my local Gujarati temple in Bombay. I get the same feeling at Shayona; it feels very much like an upper-middle class restaurant from Bombay or Ahmedabad teleported in an alien yet weirdly comforting way into a car park in this bit of suburban London.

Inside, tables are spaced well-apart and everything is shiny and gleaming. Service is attentive and very pleasant but they did make a couple of silly mistakes with our order. Given that it has just opened, the management are still sorting out teething problems, and so this is understandable.

The team of chefs hails from Gujarat and North India and the restaurant specializes in “Gujju” staples like undhiyu , thepla (spiced, thin Gujarati flatbreads) and chaat [Indian street (fast) food] besides serving a few South Indian specialities, as well as a long list of North Indian spiced gravy dishes.

The food is served in supposedly trendy but not entirely practical triangular and oblong plates. The food itself is fairly traditional Indian fare and ranged from mediocre to outstanding depending on the dish ordered.

Not long after we arrived, we were served some complimentary crunchy boondi (crispy-fried lentil droplets) while we looked through the menu. The boondi was incredibly spicy but very fresh and delicious, as long as you can stomach it.

Next we tried the sev puri (lentil puff pastry topped with sweet, hot and sour chutnies, mashed spiced potato and the un-translatable crunchy ‘sev’). The puris were small, well-formed and perfectly arranged. The pastry was crispy and had all the right ingredients for toppings but somehow the dish as a whole was not as tasty as it looked.

Next up was a beautifully crispy, large but mediocre dosa (a South Indian rice & lentil crepe) served with a sambar (spicy lentil dip) that was nice enough but didn’t taste too authentic and a chutney (coconut dip) which was vile (I suspect that it was made from preserved coconut rather than fresh – sacrilege !!! ).

Then came a plate of hearty, well cooked chips. Very nice and filling !!

And finally the piece de resistance – an outstanding pau bhaji consisting of a beautifully spiced mixed vegetable gravy accompanied by breads that could be used to mop the gravy up. It’s been a very long time since I’ve tasted this dish served up this well anywhere outside Bombay. The use of the right proportion of spices allowed the stewed and braised vegetables to mellow into a mouth-watering dish with the texture of good quality mashed potato. The bread, though not authentic Bombay pau, was perfectly adequate.

Much as I regretted it, we had no space for either the thali (set meal) or pudding that would have been next on my list. So we came to the end of a very pleasant and satisfying meal that set us back roughly £18 for 4 dishes and 2 drinks. Perfectly reasonable prices for the quality offered.

And best of all, I could head outside, finish my Indian grocery shopping and buy some delectable Indian sweets to take home.

I’ll definitely be back in a few weeks to try this place once it’s fully operational and has the full menu available to serve.

Shayona, Meadowgarth Road

Ph : 0208 965 3365

Saravanaa Bhavan, Rayners Lane, London

2009-05-11T15:51:00.010+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

This Rayners Lane outpost of the quarter-century old Saravana Bhavan chain serves South-Indian vegetarian fare common to Madras (Chennai) and the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The food is a toothsome combination of the myriad and lesser-known alternatives to Moghul / North Indian -type curries and breads that are in evidence at Indian restaurants in the West.

The menu lists roughly three pages of variations on the Tamil dietary staples - rice, lentils and spices, and offers authentic dishes ranging from the ubiquitous dosas (pancakes made from ground rice and lentils, of which at least 7 distinct variations are available) and idlis (steamed dumplings) to vadas (rice and lentil savoury doughnuts) right up to the adai avials (lentil pancakes with a coconut gravy), kootus (simmered vegetables in gravy) and thalis (mixed platters consisting of a dozen different southern Indian curries with rice and bread).

Dosas, vadas, uttappams and idlis are all served with steaming hot sambar (a spicy lentil dip which was unfortunately over-spiced during our visit - too much of the sambar powder had been added and so it was vaguely bitter) and coconut chutney redolent of the hearty, tropical flavours of south India.

The food is authentic and, in the main, well-executed. Our rava masala dosa (semolina pancake stuffed with curried potatoes) had a mouth-watering, crispy outer layer and a well-seasoned filling. The plain dosa was crisped to perfection and the use of sesame seed oil in its preparation, highlighted the beautifully fermented flavours of the ground rice and lentils. Idlis were just on the right side of reasonable. The onion utappam (onion pancake) however, was under-cooked and disappointing. By this time though, we were too full to try anything from the pudding menu. So a very traditional beeda (Indian aftermint made from a stuffed betel leaf) rounded off the meal.

I must note that the restaurant also serves that unique category known as “Indian-Chinese” food, but like most South Indian restaurants is unable to deliver to a high standard on this count. {I have been hard-pressed to find a single Indian restaurant in London that does proper Indian-Chinese.}

The restaurant and its patrons are child-friendly in a very inclusive, South Asian manner. The decor is quite kitschy Indian and the place is medium-sized. There is also a little display counter so you can choose Indian puddings and savouries to take away in a neat pack. Our total bill for a table for six with a couple of dishes and soft-drinks each, totalled up to a reasonable £53. Very reasonable, given the quality of food served. Service could be improved as some of the waiting staff appear prompt but disinterested, but this is more than made up for by an ebullient and attentive restaurant manager and general food standards that have allowed this chain to become a household name in Chennai.

www.saravanabhavan.co.uk

403, Alexandra Avenue, Rayners Lane, Harrow-HA2 9SG.

Masala Zone, Camden Town & other locations

2009-04-23T23:43:00.008+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Yes (limited choice); Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 2.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

It's a Thursday evening and I am waiting outside Camden Town tube station for my little sister (C). We've decided to head to Masala Zone for dinner. As usual, C is late. She's somehow managed to miss the bus-stop and despite the fact that I left work long after she did, I'm the first to arrive. What is it with little sisters and timekeeping ?

I watch the punks and the office-workers, milling about. I notice some young men selling what appears to be cannabis to a suited-booted type. I watch people getting on with their lives, shopping, rushing to catch the bus or tube; a council-worker somehow manages to push his broom across the crowded pavement. It's a weekday evening and Camden Town seems to be buzzing; no one is standing still except for me. Suddenly I realise someone is waving their hand under my nose. It's C, i-pod earphone hanging out of one ear, blaring some music that I will never understand and trendy earrings hanging out of the other.

We trudge past the drug-pushers and the crowds at the bus stop and in a few minutes we are at Masala Zone. In a few minutes we are shown to a table for two that's squished quite close to the couples at the next tables.

I notice an entire row of 5-6 empty four-seaters by the window. Our waiter isn't too keen on seating us there despite a very muted request from me." We might be busy soon", he says with a charming smile. (When I left over two hours later, only two of those tables were occupied. The waiters had done a good job of cramming all the customers into the closely set central part of the restaurant).

The walls are plastered with cool, old Indian ads. The interiors of Masala Zone are a far-cry from those of a run-of-the-mill curry house. The decor is very earthy, ethnically Indian and somewhat rustic yet modern. We wait for about ten minutes before we find the waiter again and can order our drinks and our meal. The place isn't particularly crowded, so we are a bit surprised at how long it seems to be taking for those who are seated to get a waiter's attention. We order a grazing platter for starters and C orders a dal (lentils) with rice and I order a grand thali (a vegetarian mixed platter).

Our drinks arrive and a good twenty minutes later, so do the starters. We notice a child at an adjacent table, throwing a real tantrum because his meal hasn't arrived. When the waiter comes over, the mother asks "How come they (people at the next table) got served before us? The kids are hungry. Those people came such a long time after !" The waiter gently mutters in response, the mum doesn't look best pleased and soon busies herself serving the kids their meals. Their spats continue through the evening.

Our starters are really good. The bhel puri ( Bombay street food made with puffed rice and tamarind and coriander chutneys), is excellent. The sev puri (another street food ) is perfectly authentic and the flavours are brilliant; the sweet tanginess of the tamarind is a perfect foil to the spice of the coriander chutney and the crunch of the 'sev' and 'marmara'. Even C, who turns her nose up at most Indian food (nothing is ever as good as at her favourite restaurant in Bombay) , is pleased. We wipe our plates clean of every tiny morsel.

Another forty minutes later, our main course arrives. By this time, C is fuming. "For heaven's sake", she says, how long does it take to get something as basic as dal and rice. I sympathise a wee bit with the sentiment ! I'm hungry.

The kids at the next table are throwing a bigger tantrum now and I watch warily as the waitress resolutely forces two HUGGGGE men to sit down at the narrow two-seaters. They manage to squeeze themselves into the tiny space and I can see they are totally uncomfortable, but there is no chance that the waitress is going to allow them anywhere near the prized four-seaters, which are still only sparsely populated.

Finally our mains arrive and soon after, so does the manager. At the start of the meal, I had asked the waiter, how they cater to vegetarians in terms of dealing with cross-contamination, since this is an omnivorous restaurant. The manager earnestly tells me they have separate food preparation areas for vegetarian food. He says "In fact, we have one vegan main-course option too". I'm glad they take it seriously and I don't ask any more questions because I am distracted by the food now

My vegetarian grand platter consists of rice, a vegetable curry of choice (I chose the paneer makhanwala), a roti (Indian bread), a cauliflower and potato curry, a mixed vegetable curry, daal (tempered lentils), a carrot salad, a small vegetable patty and a half-poppadom.

The rice is well-cooked but lukewarm. The paneer's gravy is nicely flavoured and tomato-ey but cold; the paneer (Indian cottage cheese) itself is given in a meagre portion and tastes chemical-ish and is not particularly good quality. The vegetable patty is a bit too over-seasoned with cumin, but C enjoys it when she helps herself to some from my plate. The cauliflower and potato curry is hot (sharp) and spicy. The daal is perfect but again lukewarm. The mixed vegetable curry is a bit too dry and over-spiced for my liking. The roti bread is fresh enough but surprisingly not warm. Yes, you get the theme; my main course was served tepid and there wasn't a waiter in sight to ask if everything was ok. C enjoyed her rice and daal. Despite their tepidness and the fact that not everything was entirely to my taste, I enjoyed my mains too.

As we ate, we attempted to flag the waiter down at least 3 times to ask for water. The waiters got our order but all 3 glasses of arrived only a few minutes before we finished our meal rather than at any point during the meal, as we would have hoped. It took us a further 15 minutes after our mains were cleared to receive the bill and they even forgot to ask us if we would like puddings. That said, I must admit, I had no room in my tummy for any more.

When the manager asked us if we'd had a good time, I pointed out that while the service was very friendly, it was taking a very long time to get anyone's attention. He gave me some tired excuse as to how busy they were. Very strange, considering the restaurant, even at the peak of the evening service, was only about 60% full.

Our waiter, kindly arranged a doggy bag for our leftovers and we finally paid (after much waiting for the waiter to show up)

Our meal for two with two non-alcoholic drinks adds up to about £26 with service of 10% pre-included. Finally, after much waving across the room, the manager with his portable card reader walks over. He asks again if we enjoyed our meal. I gently mention that the food wasn't particularly hot temperature-wise. "That's not right", he says. " Your food should be hot, but we're busy today". I'm not too impressed by that answer, so we chat briefly about life, the universe and everything when I point out that we arrived at a time when the restaurant was hardly even a third-full. Finally I give up; there's no point prolonging the discussion. The manager is pleasant enough, but I should have realised that the "Did you enjoy your meal?" was just a pleasantry and I should have just said yes and ended the conversation.

We walk out into the warm summer's night. Camden is still buzzing with excitement. I'll probably visit Masala Zone again, if only for the decent quality of some of the food. It would be better (and the food would be warmer) if I popped over to their branch near Carnaby St instead. So that's probably where I'll go next time.

www.masalazone.com

Patisserie Valerie, Marylebone

2009-04-20T21:24:00.011+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-options available: Not on the cake menu although food menu has few options!; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cakes : 4/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

This afternoon, after a brief wander around the Oxfam Book Store on Marylebone High Street, the boyfriend (R) and I headed along swanky Marylebone High St looking for a cup of tea. Knowing the area, I kinda expected to walk away because I was not in any mood to shell out vast sums of money for a simple afternoon tea.

But then I spied my sister's favourite pastry shop, that I haven't visited in a long time. So at my suggestion, we headed into Patisserie Valerie. The patisserie's website describes its history

"Patisserie Valerie was originally conceived in Frith Street Soho in 1926 by Madam Valerie. She came to London on a mission to introduce fine Continental Patisserie to the English. ..... During the Second World War the Frith Street premises were bombed by the Luftwaffe and Madam Valerie subsequently set up shop around the corner in Old Compton Street where her legacy continues to this day in our Soho branch....The unique café-atmosphere includes the decor left over from the 1950's epitomised by the now famous Toulouse-Lautrec style cartoons by Terroni. A partnership of the three Scalzo brothers - Enzo, Robert and Victor - acquired it in 1987. We have grown steadily since then, having eight sites in Central london. "

Many a day has passed when I've had my nose pressed against the Marylebone branch's pastry-laden window, salivating at the various cakes and chocolates on offer, but not really wanting to push past the queues of coiffeur-ed Marylebone-types . Today though, we finally stepped in.

We seated ourselves at a table at the back and waited for our uniformed waitress to take our order. Distracted by the cake counter, I edged past the other guests trying to get a better look at the goodies on offer. Two rather tall ladies stood right by the counter, blocking my view and ignoring my valiant shouts of "excuse me please". I wasn't giving up though. I finally edged past them and managed to attract the attention of the counter-assistant. "Are any of these cakes suitable for vegetarians? ", I asked. She gave me a very quizzical look and turned to her colleague. My heart sank. I expected a muttered exchange followed by the classic shoulder shrug indicating that they didn't have a clue. I wasn't expecting a slice of cake anymore.

Instead, manager Paulo appeared. "All our cakes are suitable for vegetarians", he said, "except for the mousse which contains gelatine".

"Are you sure? No gelatine, no animal rennet?", I asked again, unable to believe my good luck.

"No, they're all suitable for vegetarians", he answered. I asked him for a recommendation. He suggested the Selva slice which was a combination of layers of fruit, chocolate, cream and zabaglione sauce. Mmmmmmm....

Soon after, the cake slice arrived at our table. R was already busy savouring his "cuppa tea". And not long after R was sighing with abject satisfaction. The tea was perfectly made and at £2.60 for a pot, R was pretty pleased on the value-for-money front as well.

I chomped through my cake. A bit rich and creamy, but then I had made the choice of this one over other less creamy options. The sponge though was absolutely light and the cake as a whole was perfectly baked.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the table next to ours being served a massive sandwich accompanied by frite-style chips. The chips looked absolutely fresh and yummy. I couldn't eat a morsel more, but I decided to check the veggie-friendliness of the chips anyway (for next time).

"Do you fry the chips with any other meat products", I badgered. Once again, manager Paulo took me by surprise. "No, we serve so many portions of chips, that we find it more sensible and indeed more economical to fry things like fish cakes separately", he noted. He added that they used the frier only for chips. Nothing meaty or fishy goes in there. In fact, they had a separate smaller frier for those items.

I was delighted and impressed. Finally and unexpectedly I had stumbled upon the rare occasion at an omnivorous restaurant where cross-contamination is not being condoned by restaurant management on cost or any other grounds.

As we headed out, I was already making plans for my return trip in a few weeks time with my cake-a-holic friend L. Shows you how good I thought it was ! And next time, I'll leave enough room in my tummy to taste and review the savouries ....

NOTE: According to the Patisserie Valerie website, their cheesecakes aren't suitable for vegetarians either. Please see http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/about/faqs.html#3 for further details

Patisserie Valerie,

105, Marylebone High St, London

ph: 0207 935 6240

http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/

Amaya, Halkin Arcade, SW1

2009-04-18T17:00:00.007+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 2/5; Vegan-options available: Not really; Value for money: 2/5 (except for the vegetarian set meal), Quality of cooking : 4.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

It's a lovely, sunny day and we head past the meccas of conspicuous consumption in Knightsbridge to a restaurant that's received several accolades - Amaya. It's the brainchild of the team that created Chutney Mary, Masala Zona and old-timer Veeraswamy.

I've heard about Amaya time and again and have never really thought I would be able to afford to eat relaxed-ly at this place, given its location, pristine reviews (it seems to be one of the most talked-about Indian restaurants) and (what I expected to be) a champagne-lifestyle price tag. Which is why, when I heard that it ran a vegetarian set lunch platter for £16.95, I convinced the boyfriend R, his mother S and her dear friend A to accompany me to a meal at Amaya.

S and A arrived this morning looking like true Sloaney-ponies; S with her French beret angled jauntily and A with her super-trendy sunglasses and designer necklace. R and I looked a lot more dishevelled. We walked into Halkin Arcade, past the lovely window of Patisserie Valerie and entered Amaya's rather elegant and sophisticated dining room. We were seated by the three main grills (tandoor - clay oven , sigree - charcoal grill and tawa - hotplate). The restaurant doesn't serve starters but mainly grills various items of your choice from the menu. We ordered a bread basket (at a whopping £9); A and S ordered drinks while R and I were too taken aback by the prices (£6 for lemonade) to ask for anything other than a jug of tap water.

The breads were cooked in the tandoor by expert chefs right before our very eyes; they arrived a few minutes later and let out small puffs of steam as we broke into them --- oooo, perfectly cooked (one topped with sesame seeds, another with herbs and the last made with wholewheat). They were served with 4 dips, the most unusual of which was made with rose petals, a rather exotic (and mild) option. I enjoyed the tomato dip best; the sharpness of the tomatoes was the perfect foil for the mild, warm and fresh breads.

The drinks arrived; S thought her cocktail was excellent. R and I contented ourselves with big glugs of water. I still couldn't get over the £6 lemonade (hmmm... I'm clearly not in the same salary league as most fine-diners). Noticing that the skewers and ovens seemed to be sending out plates of grilled meat by the dozen, I asked our waiter about cross-contamination and whether it would be possible to make sure my meal was vegetarian in entirety. Unfortunately his response, though politely phrased, was that "we cannot guarantee that there is no cross-contamination because our cooking utensils are the same, especially the grills and the tandoor". He, very charmingly offered to notify the chef so they could try and wipe down the relevant skewers at least, before they cooked my meal; a nice gesture.

Our veg platters arrived with asparagus and broad bean biryani (rice which has been stewed in rather royal spices), tandoori paneer kebabs (grilled spiced pieces of Indian cottage cheese), parsnip and turai (Indian ridge- gourd ) mini-pancake, spinach and fig flat roll, grilled pepper topped with goat's cheese, beetroot-topped raita (yogurt), daal (tempered lentils) and a Cox apple and micro-leaf salad. The salad which arrived first, was served in a beautiful tea-cup like bowl. It was the perfect palate cleanser and was dressed to perfection. 10 out of 10 for that. The platter itself was beautifully presented and the plate was lined with a bamboo leaf and a Japanese leaf whose name sounds like "kei-shi" (it tastes a bit like lemongrass and I've never eaten it before) that sat under some of the grilled delicacies.

The paneer cheese itself was of an extremely high quality; the seasoning was a bit too mild for my liking though. The biryani had been stewed in all the right spices and although the portion looked small, it was incredibly filling. Next up was the spinach and fig roll, an item that I was sceptical of. It reminded me very much of an Indian dish known as a hara-bhara kebab (a mixed blended vegetable grill that's been marinated in a few spices) for those of you who've eaten that before. It was very nicely cooked, was a wee bit too spicy for my liking and was definitely very popular with my guests, who had a good laugh that the only person of Indian origin at the table was finding it difficult to stomach the spices while the Caucasians were getting through it easily. I must admit that, surprisingly, the fig complemented the spinach and spices perfectly. The daal was simple and very authentic. The raita (which I didn't try) was raved about by A.

The spiced-pepper with goats cheese was a tiny little homage to the ultimate fusion of Western and Eastern flavours, the sharpness and flavour of the cheese complementing the grilled sweet-spiciness of the freshly roasted pepper. Ammmmmazingly good ! Across the piece the chefs had managed to master the art of procuring top-class ingredients and allowing these ingredients to speak for themselves, thus providing us with a beautifully-presented, delicately-cooked and outstandingly-spiced meal.

When the pudding menu came around, we were all rather full. But S and I made space for an Eton Mess and a single scoop of pineapple sorbet respectively. When it arrived, S's Eton Mess looked delectable with a tiny silver leaf adorning it. Not surprisingly this beautiful concoction of meringue, berry sauce and cream was so attractive that everyone at the table had to have a spoonful while ooohing and aahing, although I did notice S zealously guarding the bowl thereafter !! My pineapple sorbet was light, fresh and zingy, absolutely beautiful and garnished with a single rose petal.

All through the meal, the service was helpful, unobtrusive and elegant.

We left Amaya, sated and very willing to recommend this place to friends and family - the true test of a good restaurant. I'd really like to see them make more provision for vegetarians though and seriously too!! It would be good if a restaurant of this calibre started to do right by veggies.

I would also say that you should aim to go for times when they offer the platters or other set meals unless you are loaded !!!!! But Amaya is certainly a restaurant one ought NOT to miss.

Amaya, Halkin Arcade, Motcomb St SW1X 8JT

Ph 0207 823 1166

http://www.amaya.biz

Giraffe (& Chocolat Chocolat), Brunswick Centre, Russell Square

2009-04-17T21:47:00.010+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 1/5; Vegan-options available: Not really; Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience :/5; Service: 4.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Friday morning and we've (R and I) arranged to visit some student halls in the heart of Bloomsbury. We were due to meet at noon, but I misjudged my travelling time and arrived a half-hour early at Russell Square tube.

Instead of getting cold in the late morning drizzle, I decided to snoop around the Brunswick Centre nearby. As I walked around, being girl-y and admiring the various pretty things I can't afford, I spied a little chocolate shop. Chocolat, Chocolat is an homage to, yes, you guessed it, chocolate. As I walked in, I was transported to my last visit to a small chocolatier in the Marais area of Paris - a lady was rolling out thin slabs of chocolate at the little counter while another was tidying up. At about £3.50 for 100 grammes, the chocolate was about three times as expensive as my usual fix of mainstream brands and I must admit, I'm not really a chocolate connoisseur. But I decided that the caramel-flavoured milk chocolate slab looked too good to miss. I asked for a small 50g piece and the friendly serving-lady cut out a shard and charged me about £1.80. While I waited to pay, I tried the freebie chocolate coated hazelnuts.... oooooo....oooooooo... very good !! Then I marched around the centre nibbling on my shard of chocolate..ahhhhh...AAAAAMAZING...... Within a few seconds I was in chocolate heaven and happy with life, the universe and everything. With my cravings appeased, I didn't even need to indulge in any retail therapy !!!! (Oh and I checked, the shop has a clear list behind the counter listing the veggie-friendly chocolates, and it is a nice long list). I headed back to Russell Square to meet R with only a tidgy edge of the chocolate shard in tow.

When he arrived, we went back to the Brunswick Centre for a spot to eat. The first place to catch our eye was Giraffe. I checked the menu. Yes, they did have several veggie options and soon we were seated in a fantastic little booth by the friendly Aussie waiter.

R ordered the veggie falafel burger and I went for the veggie burrito. I also had a papaya-based smoothie (it didn't really taste of papaya at all !!!). When R's burger arrived, I immediately reached for the chips that came alongside. As I chomped on my first bite, I realised it had been fried in the same oil as some meat. Uh-oh !! Not wanting to be too fussy, I set it aside and dug into my own order of the burritto... and a vague fatty taste assailed my senses through the strong tomato sauce. I waved the waitress over. "Yes, the chips are fried in the same frier as the chicken", she said apologetically," but the burrito is vegetarian". Once she'd confirmed my suspicions about the chip, I could no longer eat the burrito. I don't know what was inside it, but it certainly had a meaty flavour and I suspected that was down to the contents being fried or cooked in a dish that still had meaty leftovers. That said, that could have just been my suspicions.

R tried to cheer me up by offering me his burger, but now I was sure that if the chef hadn't been able to correct the cross-contamination on the chips, he certainly wouldn't have bothered using a different oil for the falafel.

While R finished his meal, I located the manager near the till. So I walked up and explained very gently why I was a bit disappointed that their vegetarian dish wasn't really suitable for vegetarians and why I thought the cross-contamination on the chips was something vegetarians might find difficult to deal with. She was pleasant and apologised, even offered me another dish instead. But I wasn't really keen to eat at Giraffe any more, so I politely declined. Soon we were ready to leave and our bill arrived. We had only been charged for one meal and the drink . The very chatty waitress said to me " I understand how you feel; I don't think it's really fair if we say something is vegetarian and then cook it with the meat. But that's how things are done in the kitchen. Maybe I should suggest that we have two separate friers" I was impressed. They had goofed up, but her empathy with my sentiments made me feel a little better about the place.

We paid up and left. I'm certainly not going back until the management team begin to realise that putting a "v" sign against dishes on the menu is sheer trickery if the dishes aren't really suitable for vegetarians. I'm hoping a few other veggies like me will complain to them about the cross-contamination and these guys will start taking notice because I certainly would have liked to go back to this friendly place.

Giraffe, Brunswick Centre, near Russell Square tube

http://www.giraffe.net/

ph: 0207 812 1336

Note re: Giraffe : FussyVeggie has been reliably informed that the central management team assert that separate fryers are used for meat and non-meat /non- fish dishes and that staff members may be misinformed. This review, however is based on information provided on the day of the visit.

Note re: reviews : FussyVeggie reviews are based on information provided by staff rather than centralised literature to ensure that the reviews reflect realities on the ground or what restaurant staff know/ believe to be true. FussyVeggie does not usually have kitchen access (in order to aid anonymity, no one knows of reviews beforehand). So as its hard to check the veracity of corporate statements through a kitchen visit, FussyVeggie relies heavily on answers to polite questions and points re: veggie-friendliness are based on unrehearsed answers from staff or personal experience / other immediate evidence.

New branch of VEG, Greek Street, Soho

2009-04-16T21:37:00.014+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-friendly: 5/5 ; Value for money: 1/5, Quality of cooking : 0.5/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 0.5/5 ;Atmosphere: 0.5/5

Today my friend J , who is vegan, wanted to visit a restaurant called V&M. As always, I found it hard to resist, having heard from J that V&M was "the" place for veggie burgers and fries.

When we arrived though, V&M was nowhere to be found where he remembered it to be. The sign over the door now said 'Express Dining' but the waiter tried to convince us that this mock-meat Thai-vegetarian place was actually V&M. A helpful passer-by (who claimed to be the former owner of V&M) then explained to us that V&M had been sold to the VEG chain of Oriental restaurants. How strange, given that only last week I received a request to review this place!!! I decided I would go home and double check the address, just to make sure.

We'd been walking for ages by this time. So, given that the food at this place was still listed as vegetarian, J and I decided to go with an East Asian meal instead. J was happy. All the offerings on the table appeared to be suitable for vegans. Given that it's two days before payday, I was happy that the meal was about to cost me a reasonable £6.50.

We were presented with a drinks menu, but being on a rather tight budget this week, I decided to forego a drink. J ordered a cup of tea. We then looked down at our plates. I noticed a patch of grease; so I wiped my plate with the table napkin. J suggested we should request that the plates be changed. Our waiter (after a bit of confusion, since he didn't speak very good English), arrived with new plates and we headed to the crammed buffet bar.

I grabbed a fair few spring rolls, some cabbage salad, a samosa, a mock-prawn cracker and some noodles.

The crackers were slightly soggy, weirdly leathery and chewy, the spring rolls were adequate, but not particularly tasty, the samosa was not bad and the noodles were gloopy but quite edible. J seemed to be equally unimpressed with the plate of food he had served himself. He pointed out that the quarter-moon-shaped brown starters on his plate (that I had given a wide berth to), were quartered pieces of stale, cold veggie burger and the pastry-type dish on his plate was actually a chopped-up and cold veggie sausage roll. Urgghhh - I was glad I hadn't bothered trying it !!! He was however quick to admit that he actually enjoyed the cold mock-fish-cake.

I began to get desperate. Surely I could find enough on this fairly large array of food to make it worth the £6.50 I was about to pay. Alas, I had no such luck. In fact, even the fairly routine sugared seaweed tasted of rust. As I trawled the buffet bar, I noticed the waitress spray some disinfectant (inadvertently, of course) onto some prepared fruit salad. I tried to ask for some plain rice, but she couldn't speak English. Her waiter colleague rushed up and translated; after some fairly intense conversation between them, the waiter announced that they had run out of rice. A Chinese / Thai restaurant that had run out of rice !!!! If I wasn't so hungry, this surreal conversation would have been more funny.

Finally I gave up on finding anything reasonable to eat, and convinced J that it was time to head out. We went to the counter to pay. We had decided to go Dutch on this occassion, so we requested separate bills. For the privilege of using the self-service bar and not really being served anything (since I hadn't even ordered a drink), I ended up paying a 10% service charge, which the waiter haltingly explained was compulsorily required by the owners.

Unusually for me, I decided not to put up a fuss, so I just collected the change and headed off. As I got onto the bus after saying my good-byes to J, I pulled the change out of my coat pocket so I could put it into my purse. The waiter had not only charged me a service charge but I had also been short-changed. That just summed it up. I had been short-changed on the basic amenities (including cleanliness), short-changed on quality of food and short-changed on my receipt. Thank goodness J and I had a good chat. At least I wasn't short-changed on the company; but then, I did bring that along myself !!

AVOID this branch of VEG for a little while at least - head to the other branch on Old Compton St (see my review at VEG) instead, if you're desperate for cheap and cheerful veg spring rolls et al.

VEG (with a sign on the menu that says CHA and a board outside that says Express)

Greek St, Soho, London

Terre a Terre, Brighton

2009-04-11T06:32:00.032+01:00

READERS PLEASE NOTE THAT ON ACCOUNT OF A DECISION TO RE-REVIEW TERRE-A-TERRE, A REVISED REVIEW OF THIS RESTAURANT WILL BE POSTED ON OR BEFORE 30TH JUNE 2010

www.terreaterre.co.uk

71, East St, Brighton

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 2.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.85/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 5/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Its 09:57 a.m. on Good Friday and I rush past a series of unexpected Tube closures to get to London Bridge on time for the connecting train. The boyfriend (R) and I are planning to visit friends in Brighton and I am not at my best; I am a bit grumpy from having a late night and my hung-over head feels quite sore.

After much puffing and panting, we get on board the 10:54. An hour later we arrive in drizzly, overcast Brighton. Hot-footing it across the town centre, we reach Terre a Terre (TaT). Our friends D&N and L&P are there already, seated at a huge table by the window. The entire scramble to get to TaT for 12 o'clock is because when I called to reserve a table, the only one they had available was at 12.00; the next seating would have been at 15:45 (a bit late for lunch !!).

We exchange pleasantries and I inform our waiter that we've double-counted one of the couples. He cheerfully moves us to a smaller table further inside TaT; it's much bigger inside than I had originally suspected, with a wooden bar area separating the fore-store area from the main dining area behind the bar. The restaurant seems a bit empty and I wonder why they were so particular about getting us in at noon. Later, in about 15 minutes time, I notice that the restaurant has become packed to the gills super-quickly!

We take a bit of time ordering. Like me, the others are a wee bit intimidated by the diverse (and seemingly overcomplicated and rather steeply-priced) menu. We are all foodies, but there isn't a single dish on the menu that doesn't list at least 2 ingredients we've never heard about. We don't really know what we are ordering, to be honest. Later, on my way back from the rest room, when I catch our friendly waiter's ear, I ask him if there have been any customer comments or suggestions re: the descriptions on the menu. Very charmingly and honestly, he admits that most people don't have a clue what they are ordering (phew, that makes me feel slightly more normal !!) and would prefer a menu that's more straightforward. Hmmmm.... the person-in-charge obviously hasn't listened to the customer feedback.

While we make up our minds about the things we don't know about, D orders 2 plates of breads for the table.

First up is something called Lavash Tanoor (vegan). It consists of "deep fried lavash tanoor bread crisps, sprinkled with spice dust and fresh coriander, and served with aubergine zhuganoush". When the plate arrives, this turns out to be deep-fried tortilla-style crisps (made from bread) and a smoked and grilled aubergine dip (similar to babaganoush). Its delicious !!!

The second bread plate is a selection of "freshly-baked, own-made and artisan breads served with Sicilian extra virgin olive oil and aged organic balsamic or butter" (and yes it said balsamic not balsamic vinegar !!!). At least we understand the description on that one. The dish is o.k.; just mediocre bread and equally medicre olive oil; certainly nothing to write home about despite the flouncy title.

I'm beginning to dislike this place, despite the fantastic waitress. "Why do they have to be so pretentious? What are they trying to prove?", I muse.

We're a happy table. R, D and P went to Uni together over 20 years ago and have stayed in touch. Each has a nerdy , super-sporty side to them and it doesn't take L, N and me long to pick on the boys, who good-humouredly return the banter. The boys then feel obliged to poke fun at N's love of handbags - "I can't help it ; I looooooove them", she says; my obsession with watching commercial shopping channels & feeling vaguely superior because I haven't bought any crap (although I do buy really useless kitchen gadgets in the store later) and L's vociferously-defended passion for matching handbags and shoes. It's a very jolly bunch.

Our starters arrive. Given the generous portions of breads, we order only two starters for the table.

First to arrive is Arapas Mojos, wordily described as "Corn cake frits stacked and rolled in chemoula with carib and tamarillo salsa, splashed with lime oregano mojo finished with coriander chilli spiked avocado and chilli chelli". What the hell does that mean? Is a frit the same as a fritter - possibly not !!! And what the &%^$$ are chemoula, chelli and carib. Is this strange description meant to make food selection easier????

The dish arrives. It's a bit under-seasoned for my liking, but receives a good reception from the others. I still don't really know what I'm eating.

Next up is the Tikka Kachumber. To my mind, that's Hindi and should roughly equate to chargrilled-cheese perhaps with onion, tomato and cucumber salad. Nope, that's certainly not what the description says. It's "Tandoori spiked halloumi kebab served with yogurt cumin salt cooler and a soused pink onion, cucumber tomato chilli, coriander and toasted mustard seed limey dressing.". It's well-prepared, clean-tasting and fresh. I like it and so do the others. P particularly enjoys the bright-pink tandoori marinade that the halloumi cheese has been coated in.

We then order 6 mains.

N has a chana chaat described as a "Chaat spiced poori layered with black salt smashed potato and chana peas, heaped with mint, coriander and coconut limey served with hot mustard muffin, tamarind jelly and a Kerela soup sas". My Indian sensibilities are somewhat offended by this poncy description of what should be a simple uncomplicated piece of Indian street food. The dish looks pretty complicated when it arrives and tastes decent but not out-of the-ordinary. I wonder what makes a clearly talented chef feel the need to go to these extraordinary lengths when he or she could just as easily use the key flavours and create a wonderful, unfussy yet tasty dish. And what in heaven's name is "limey"???

I have the Better Batter and Lemony Yemeni Relish. It could have been described as a vegetarian fish and chips. Nope, the menu wordily pronounces it as "Soft buttermilk soaked halloumi dipped in chip shop batter, served with vodka-spiked preserved plum tomatoes, bright fresh pea mint hash with pickled quails egg, sea salad tartar and skinny frites, finished with lemony Yemeni relish". The basic battered halloumi and chips is perfectly cooked. I love it.

The skinny frites turn out to be thick-cut chunky chips; how strange is that? D loves the hash (which turns out to be not-so-mushy peas) and tastes like his mum's home-cooking , which is certainly high praise. The tiny half of pickled quails egg is cold and tastes like a normal hard-boiled egg gone a bit sour and the sea salad tartar turns our to be capers in some weird, weird sauce, which is absolutely revolting.

Why couldn't they have stopped at the battered halloumi and chips with the lemon dressing? Why tinker with something that's already good?

P&R both have the Kalamata Coka , helpfully described as "Griddled thyme onion potato flat bread, loaded with rocket pesto, topped with minted grilled feta, served with cucumber, tomato and onion salad, Kalamata crush and pungent tzatziki with heaps of oregano and flat leaf". Of all the descriptions on the menu, that's the only one I can understand even remotely, but could someone teach this menu-designer how to write the rest in English please?

P enjoys his main thoroughly. He seems genuinely pleased and I feel happy. I'd hate to invite friends to a vegetarian restaurant and have them leaving feeling intimidated, confused and not really wanting to try veggie food again.

L has ordered something called "Pippin Squeak". Its "crispy fried bubble and squeak rosti crammed with British brassica, topped with baked Cox's Pippins and Sussex cheddar rarebit, finished with spring onion bulb hash".

L has grown up on a farm, but even she doesn't really know what brassica is. We later find that it's a salad leaf.

L doesn't seem to be best-impressed with her main.

Finally D has the Smoked Sakuri Soba which are "chilled Tamari Soba noodles, piled with crisp raw vegetable spaghetti, bean shoots and mizuna leaves, surrounded by umboshi plum white miso and rice wine dressing served with toasted smoked tofy, spice satay, doused with toasted sesame oil, red ginger and pomegranate beads".

This dish provides us with much entertainment, as D enviously points out to the waitress that his dish is about a third of the size of everyone else's. P&R cringe in true-Brit-stiff-upper-lip mode when D good-humouredly tries to cajole the waitress into serving him a bigger portion.

The manager arrives and very, very politely and warmly takes the dish away. By the time the rest of us have almost finished our mains, the dish arrives, garnished with a few more pomegranate seeds and a few cashews to make the plate look fuller. D, the math genius, is tricked into believing that the dish is somewhat bigger and now that he's placated, he tucks into his meal. Because the salad has been piled in a thin-ish tower, it looks like a lot more when the tower tumbles onto the plate. The food itself, is fresh, well-flavoured and really quite nice.

Everybody's had their fill. The plates are wiped clean except for the stray, weird concoctions that remain untouched on the corner of each plate (the sea salad tartar or the Kerela sas, for example). What the hell is a sas anyway ???

For pudding, P and I order the 'Ladies of Seville' to share - it's a "wonderfully warm chocolate and hazelnut torte with bitter chocolate sauce, served with seville candy orange salad and caramel salt icecream". The torte is beautifully presented but not particularly exquisite taste-wise.

We have also ordered 'A'rite Treacle' - " complete comfort treacle and crumb tart with poached ginger pear pickle and vanilla cheesecake icecream".

This is P's recommendation and L has kindly ordered it, so I can try it. I've never eaten treacle tart before. It's an absolute triumph as far as I am concerned. Absolutely, perfectly perfect. Yummy yummy yummy. YUMMMMMY.

It could do without the ginger pickle and a simple vanilla ice-cream would have sufficed on the side. So we just ignore the ice-cream and the pickle is untouched.

Finally the bill arrives. For drinks (mainly soft drinks, except for a beer and a glass of wine), 2 breads, 2 starters, 6 mains and 2 desserts, we pay £180. That's about £30 a head, when half the table didn't have a starter or a pudding and we were mainly drinking fruit juice. Not prohibitively expensive like some celebrity joint but still relatively pricey for credit-crunched Britain, though the food was good and the service was excellent.

I've had a good time and the company was wonderful. I'm glad we went somewhere vegetarian, but I can't help thinking that the others round the table would have preferred not to pay so much for "vegetarian food". I think this menu could have been provided for two-thirds of the price if the kitchen had not wasted its time and effort on some of the unnecessary flavour combinations.

I feel a bit let-down by the snooty, inaccesible menu. It's fine for the menu to showcase the provenance of TaT's food, but this menu smacks of pretentiousness - do I really need to know the first name of every snail that crawled on a lettuce leaf I've been served?

One shouldn't come out of a restaurant that one reccommends, worrying if one's friends feel like they've been forced to pay for something they would not normally expect to spend.

So why is this place so crowded???? I can't really figure that one out !

As we walk out, I hear one of the diners who's waiting to be seated say "I just can't afford to eat here on a regular basis". I don't mind hearing that kind of comment, if this is the kind of special, hallowed place where one would save up to have a meal at.

Although TaT is good, it's not somewhere I would save up for, or have as an aspirational venue. The service is very, very good, the ideas are great and most of the execution is competent. It still needs someone to streamline and simplify the food and focus the place on what it's good at.

TaT is currently not a restaurant at the top of my list unless of course I win the lottery. I can find equally good, nice food elsewhere.

Oh and I apologise that this review has gone on-and-on just like TaT's menu, but hopefully this review is slightly more intelligible

www.terreaterre.co.uk

71, East St, Brighton

Kalpna Indian Vegetarian, Edinburgh

2009-04-04T11:34:00.006+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 4/5; Ambience : 3.5/5; Service: 2/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

The next destination on our vegetarian culinary expedition across the Scottish capital, was Kalpna's - a family-run Indian restaurant in Edinburgh's University quarter.

We were immediately ushered to our table on arrival. As I looked around, I was amazed at the Indian-ness of the place. It looked like it had been transported whole from Gujarat (India). Later, when we chatted with the owner we found out that most of the mirrored decorations and the clay on the walls had indeed been brought over from India, with Indian artisans coming over to do up the place. The immediate impression was one of a kind-of Gujarati rustic homeliness, combining traditional art with middle-class tastes; not hugely upmarket, but almost as comfortable as a friend's home, if that description makes any sense.

I ordered the Raj Bhog Thali (the restaurant's speciality "royal" mixed platter) and R (the boyfriend) ordered a chaat (Bombay street food snack). The food arrived not long after, and R felt compelled to sample the wonderful selection on my plate. Each of the curries presented was delicious. The paneer was fresh and the gravy was a perfect blend of spices, the mushroom curry was unsusual and coconutty, the daal (lentil gravy) tasted like my mum's cooking and the methi aloo (potatoes cooked in fenugreek) was phenomenally satisfying. R's starter was equally well-made and I was struggling to find a single thing to criticise about this place (not that I was hugely inclined to try), except for the absent-minded (and slightly haughty) waiters.

When I was little, I used to look forward to our family being invited to dinner at the Mathur's (our family friends). Unlike at restaurants, where as a child I found most of the food too spicy, I knew that dinner at the Mathur's would be homely and special and I could wander around their house looking at the exotic furnishings and be transported to their home-state of Rajasthan, where I'd never been. Kalpna gave me the same feeling of home-away-from-home comfort food coupled with an exotic but down-to-earth exploration of a culture which was so Indian and yet so different from my own South Indian roots.

The meal ended with a simple rice pudding that accompanied the thali (this was so-so, but not sweet enough for my hard-core sugar cravings). My thali cost a reasonable £16.50 for an enormous amount of food while R's snack set him £4.50. As we were leaving we noticed a sign that advertised a £7 eat-as-much-as-you-like lunchtime buffet and decided to head back the next day.

The following day when we arrived , the restaurant was understandably quite full. We were directed promptly to the buffet, which was limited in the number of dishes but not in their diversity. We sampled an array of dishes ranging from Western-Indian specialities like poha to the more traditional bhajiyas (fritter-like things) to normal potato curries , the usual chana masala (chick peas in gravy) and simple rice dishes. Each dish was well-cooked, moderately spiced and perfectly seasoned. This confirmed my assessment that this was a simple homely place, that did simple homely well-cooked food. Nothing flashy or crass or nouvelle; just decent properly-executed cookery that one could come to every other day without feeling too overwhelmed.

The verdict - a decent, family-run joint; definitely worth a visit if you fancy a reasonably-priced and good vegetarian / vegan curry when you are in Edinburgh.

www.kalpnarestaurant.com

2-3, St Patrick Square, Edinburgh

David Bann's, Edinburgh

2009-04-02T23:02:00.011+01:00

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan friendly - 5/5 Value for money: 0.5/5, Quality of cooking : 0.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 2/5

This week, I've been up in Edinburgh again on work. So I had a good excuse to try out some more of the Scottish capital's vegetarian restaurants.

We decided to visit David Bann's restaurant which seemed to get really good reviews on websites I had "googled". The menu on the website sounded rather modern and unusual. I was looking forward to the meal. When we walked in, we received a warm and friendly welcome and were quickly seated at a nice table. The tables were spaced well apart; the purply-walls and the trendy, minimalist setting provided an airy yet romantic backdrop.

Looking at the menu, we decided to order an initial bowl of chips while we made up our minds from the long list of fusion-ish starters and mains. The menu looked like a strange journey to Asia and the Mediterranean via Scotland with no real central theme except vegetarianism; I asked our friendly waiter for advice on the main course options. "It's a new menu we introduced only last week or so", he said admitting that he hadn't tried a single dish. I was a tad disappointed. Hadn't these guys seen any of the celebrity chefs on tv. Ground rule number one: make sure your front of house have a good idea what you are serving? Forget about any detailed questions re: provenance, this guy couldn't even tell me which dish was recommended. After a bit of umming and aahing, and with the waiter's watery recommendation (given his experience that some customers gave good reviews to the curry), we decided on the Thai fritters and the Soup of the day (caramelised onion) for starters and the Crepe with braised vegetables, basil & dunlop cheese and a curry for the main.

The chips arrived first, served with an apple & tomato ketchup and sour cream. The chips were average in taste and quite fresh quality-wise. The ketchup though was a total disaster. Really, really vile. Any pleasure one took from the chips was totally negated by this monstrosity of a concoction; a precursor of things to come.

The Thai fritters which came next were a total waste of good tofu. This disastrous blend of coriander seeds, tofu, lemongrass and God-knows-what, tasted like it had been chargrilled with something vile; we left the plate fairly untouched. Fortunately the waitress noticed and offered to take it off our bill, suggesting that it was probably the smoked tofu that we didn't like. It wasn't the tofu that ruined it , I thought to myself; what destroyed that dish was a failure to mimic Thai flavours by simply bunging in anything that sounded vaguely Asian and assuming that it would pass off as nouvelle cuisine.

The onion soup that R had next was so-so; nothing to write home about and with the faint taste of slightly-off leftovers, although R didn't mind too much.

We then moved to the mains. The next assault was on Indian cuisine. The chef's modernist take on my curry meant that it was a total disappointment - gloopy, under-cooked and served without any rice but with a couple of little fritters made from rice flour. The fritters were under-seasoned but edible. The curry wasn't even as edible as my own home-made curry would be at a stage when I've just ground the basic ingredients together.

The final onslaught was on French cuisine and here, the crepe was soggy, there was no hint of the basil which had been promised, the filling tasted overpoweringly of peppery-tomato puree with no sign of the promised cheese and even R, who is normally not fussy at all, gave up after 2 mouthfuls. This time, the waitress didn't notice or even ask for feedback on why the plates were virtually untouched.

When we finally arose from our tables, deprived of nearly forty pounds for one starter and two mains and two soft drinks, I felt relieved. At least I didn't have to face pudding and watch perhaps yet another great culinary tradition destroyed by the vile machinations of the chef who would no doubt have produced yet another surreal mish-mash of flavours.

All in all, a total waste of time and money except for the fantastic ambience.

Avoid, until they sort their food out !!

www.davidbann.com

56-58, St Mary's St, Edinburgh

Vanilla Black , City of London

2009-03-23T21:39:00.014Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-friendly: 4/5; Value for money: 3.5/5, Quality of cooking : 4.5/5; Ambience : 4.5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

As you all know, it was Mother's Day this past Sunday. So the boyfriend (R) and I had planned a special treat for his mom. The boyfriend's mom S, is a jolly good sport and she certainly appreciates the finer things in life.

Vanilla Black is a restaurant that I've recently been reading rave reviews about; so, we looked at the menu listed on its website. And right from the word go, VB was a winner. The menu was entirely vegetarian (I was delighted !), the venue was clearly rather cool and posh (that would certainly suit S) and it offered a cheese toastie for starters (what more could the philistine boyfriend ask for?).

The lady taking the bookings was pleasant and helpful. We wanted to visit on the Sunday. VB isn't open at weekends, so she suggested other dates and times when there was availability.

We called again to revise the timing on our reservation. Again, the response was prompt and courteous.

When we arrived, the seating had been arranged for 3, as per our booking . I think that's a nice touch - mostly when I order a table for 3, I tend to see 4 chairs with 3 place settings, here it was 3 chairs and 3 place settings, which made it feel like they had made a special effort. The tables themselves were set well-apart, giving a feeling of spaciousness and comfort.

The restaurant is located near the Royal Courts of Justice and is tucked in a really unusual back-lane that is a couple of minutes walk from Chancery Lane tube station; so its easy to get to on public transport. We asked the front-of-house manager why the place was called Vanilla Black . She was refreshingly honest and said that she's made the name up herself. Later we found out that Donna (our maitre'd) co-owns the place along with the talented chef Andrew Dargue. Apparently they wanted a memorable yet simple name, that had no particular references to anything (" Not every meat-serving restaurant is called The Pig's Trotters ", Donna un-selfconsciously pointed out. "We want to be known for being a good place to eat and not for a vegetarian-sounding name". Made sense! )

The waitress took our drinks order promptly and offered us some freshly baked bread-rolls . On the table, they had placed 2 types of butter (one sea-salted and the other encrusted with pepper). The decor was simple and fairly minimalist and sophisticated The table-ware was clean and un-fussy. Best of all, the restrooms were spotless and had really good-quality, thick paper napkins. Not the ones that disintegrate at the first sign of any moisture. That served as an early sign that that this was certainly a classy act!!

We caught up on S's recent trip to visit R's sister in Australia, and not long after the waitress arrived with the starters.

R had ordered a potato and watercress-soup with goat's cheese crouton. I had the tomato pain perdue with grilled paneer and pickled vegetables and S had the Wenslydale cheesecake and toasted orange bread with peach chutney and cornichons (that's gherkins to the uninitiated).

S's starter was definitely (and exquisitely) the winner in that round. The cheesecake was perfectly cooked and the gherkins added a really nice and unusual twist. The orange bread was strangely delicious to say the least and complemented the cheesecake perfectly.

R enjoyed his soup, but to be quite honest it was simple and rather basic and I've managed a similar standard at home (or so, I believe).

My starter was a bit of a let-down. For my palate, the paneer could have been seasoned better and was a bit bland. The pickled vegetables - I got pieces of cauliflower - provided a huge burst of wasabi-paste like flavour and worked well with the paneer by giving it the kick it needed to take this dish away from very being very boring and ordinary ; as for the tomato pain perdu - hmmmm I didn't care for it very much at all.

On reflection though, all 3 of us demolished our starters but I can safely say that S's starter was head and shoulders above the rest.

Our plates were collected promptly once we were done (A very pleasant change compared to some of the pretentious places in London - Don't you hate it when you pay loads of money and the service is still inattentive?). The service at VB was attentive yet fairly unobtrusive . It was not particularly smiley and obsequious but not surly either and some people like me might prefer that.

We were given time to relax and talk and digest our starters and just as we were getting peckish again, the mains arrived.

S had the Poached Duck Egg and Fossway Fleece Pudding with Hickory Smoked Potato Croquette and Pineapple pickle. The egg was beautifully and perfectly cooked and although it does gall me to call a main course a pudding, the cheese-y ensemble was gloriously executed and thoroughly enjoyable. S seemed to really enjoy it and I admit I felt very relieved . When I booked the meal, I had been fretting about whether S would really enjoy the food given that it was entirely vegetarian, but I needn't have worried; she enjoyed it thoroughly.

I had the mushroom Duxelle Torte with a burgundy sauce and button onions and vegetables. Ooo-la-laa, this was fantastically fantastic. The pastry was perfection itself - crisp , soft and flakey, all at the same time. The mushroom stuffing was beautifully cooked and, all-in-all this stole the show. The burgundy sauce was unbearably good. My only slight suggestion would be for them to serve a wee bit more of the sauce than the small quantity originally dotted on the plate. That said, they gracefully brought me some more of the sauce when I requested it.

R had the Truffled Potato Bubble and Squeak with Red cabbage, cumin-spiced parsnip crisps, carrot puree and brown sauce. The main part of this main course was competently executed and R thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm personally not entirely sure that I could recognise a very strong truffle-flavour but the dish did taste rather good. The tiny parsnip crisps were neither here nor there and tasted of nothing while the red cabbage had a really strange and implacable kind of flavour that I did not care for much at all.

For pudding we went with one sticky toffee pudding between the three of us. The portion was generous. The pudding itself was well-made and satisfying but I've certainly tasted better. In sum, pudding was nice enough but not exceptional in any way.

When we finally settled our bill, the meal had set us back £87 . There are 2 menus on offer. Depending on the menu you use it costs £18 for 2 courses and £23 for 3 or £24 for two courses and £ 30 for 3. Our bill also covered 3 soft drinks and a 12.5 % service charge. The service charge was probably the only thing I would quibble about, but that would be anywhere else too. I don't care much for restaurants pre-including a charge such as this on the bill, when the food itself is not particularly cheaply priced and the service team consists of 1 waitress and 1 front-of-house manager who provide fairly competent (but not exceptional) service and particularly because I would rather put in a discretionary tip of my choice , and I will usually plump for at least 10% but I'd like to make the decision myself , thank you very much. When one is paying top whack, I think a pre-added service charge smacks slightly of avarice (and I feel the same way of all restaurants that behave in this manner) ; service to my mind should really be included within the price of the meal rather than as a separate add-on. In a place like this, having a pre-included, supposedly discretionary service charge feels like one is being held to ransom because questioning it might suggest one was unhappy with the service in the first place (which I clearly was not).

So, the verdict - This restaurant is certainly in a league of its own when compared to other mainstream veggie restaurants in London. It is definitely a really good and much-needed veggie destination. The chef is clearly very skilled and the food quality is high throughout. It's on the expensive side; I did struggle to assign a value-for-money score in terms of how one judges that in a place like this . So unless you're loaded, this is not a daily lunch joint and it doesn't really aspire to be; it's somewhere to go to for a special occassion, with family / friends visiting from out-of-town or with senior / well-heeled business colleagues. On the other hand, given its mainstream fine-dining peers which tend to offer the staple mushroom risotto as the vegetarian option, I'd rather be at Vanilla Black than anywhere else when I pay this kind of money.

It's a place where one can savour delicious flavours in a very relaxed setting. There is no pressure on turning tables ; the service is of a high standard. Other than small-ish quibbles, there is virtually nothing I could fault with our experience on the day (Wow, that's a first !!)

We had a fantastic time. This is an independent business and in today's times, I'm keen to patronise non-chain places like this (when I can afford to) and I reckon many others amongst us are too. Vanilla Black is not your run-of-the-mill cheap-and-cheerful hippie-style veg cafe. It's a grown-up restaurant and deserves its well-earned reputation of being a fantastic place for all foodies (vegetarian, vegan or carnivore). Its a very fine example of fine dining that finally takes account of vegetarians.

Note for vegans : VB offers a well-structured vegan menu, which even includes freshly-baked vegan bread. The menu must however be requested at the time of booking to ensure they have all the ingredients available on the day. I have also been notified by a reader that the vegan wine selection is limited to 2 choices.

http://www.vanillablack.co.uk/

17-18 Tooks Court, London. EC4A 1LB

Govinda's , Soho Street (near Soho Square)

2009-03-19T21:37:00.007Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-friendly : 3/5, Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 4/5; Ambience : 2/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 2.5/5

I left home at 5.45 am today; a really, really early start at work. The day's been rough and I didn't manage to get more than a banana for lunch. (And, as some of you know, a hungry FussyVeggie is a grumpy FussyVeggie).

I cheered up immediately though, when my dearest friend D, offered to buy me dinner and walk with me on my 8 mile trudge home. I hate the gym and I definitely need the exercise given my foodie habits, so I walk home from work a couple of times a week (8-odd miles). It makes me feel so virtuous, that rather contrarily, I often stop off on the way home and reward myself with a nice, healthy (and preferably small) meal, so that I don't have to start cooking dinner when I get home just under two hours, after I've left work.

D's keen to eat something Indian. I suggest Govinda's, the little restaurant on Soho St that's run by the people from ISKCON (the Hare Krishna people). [The Hare Krishna temple and a giftshop are in little rooms above the restaurant]. D's not too convinced. He's been there before with his wife and they thought the food tasted a bit weird, he says. I know what he means. Many years ago, I used to volunteer at a soup-kitchen type charitable venture run by the committed volunteers at the temple. (For those of you who want to know; the charity is called Food for Life, they cook their own food in the restaurant kitchen plus take any excess from the restaurant and serve it at Lincoln's Inn Fields most weekday evenings to the cold, hungry and homeless) . Another set of volunteers cooks the food for the restaurant itself. From what I understand, these people believe that they are cooking the food as an offering to Lord Krishna and that customers at the restaurant are then receiving it with the Lord's blessings after He has been served the first portion from all the big pots of cooking. From what I recall, (and this may have changed since), I suspect that different sets of devotees cook the food at the kitchen at Govinda's every day, although, they do have a few regular volunteers who turn up on specific days. Consequently, because the volunteers believe they are preparing food for offering to Lord Krishna, they make a particular effort to use the best ingredients they can and they also tend to prepare the food with utmost sincerity. However, the quality of cooking does vary to some degree on a day-to-day basis because although they try and prepare certain standard dishes to standard recipes, the volunteers' cooking styles differ slightly from person to person. So D's experience of what I think was really an "off-day" at the restaurant, is plausible .

Since D doesn't seem too convinced by the place, we decide that we'll pick up a small take-away from Govinda's for my flatmate, and we will head into Soho for dinner. But when we get to the counter, D takes one look and caves in.

For £8.50 each, we get an "all-you-can-eat thali". A thali is a typical Indian plate of food consisting of an assortment of curries, rice, bread and so on. It is basically similar to a mixed platter in a main-course sense.

The Hare Krishna man at the counter serves us a hugely laden plate consisting of rice, two lentil dishes, 2 vegetable dishes, a poppadom, salad and a roll of bread. D kindly pays and we head back to the table. We also pay for a small extra portion of the special veg of the day - a paneer dish made with Indian cottage cheese.

The dishes on the counter are definitely all vegetarian. It's a Hare-Krishna, strictly vegetarian policy. No eggs are used at all. But for the vegans among you, take care because a number of the dishes include dairy products, an experience you have no doubt confronted at many Indian restaurants where ghee (Indian clarified butter) is used in most dishes .

D & I stagger to a corner table. It's a real miracle that someone as clumsy as me survives the Ikea-looking-furniture obstacle course. That's one of the problems with this restaurant. The tables are set too close. D & I are intrigued by the Hare Krishna devotee fervently trying to explain his faith to his dinner partner at the next table. We are then distracted by the hippie-ish woman at the next table who's having a discussion with a chap who sounds like he's helping her get a movie produced. Eavesdropping is dreadfully easy, given that the tables appear not more than a foot-and-a-bit apart from each other.

D and I tuck into our meals. D regales me with stories of the scrapes he (and a few of our friends) got into when they first came to London. I'm drawn in by gossip from old friends and D's wonderful story-telling ability. But occasionally my attention wanders, to the yummy food on my plate. The two daals (lentils) are cooked really well and taste fantastically and authentically Indian. The curries too, are perfectly seasoned and very tasty. The food isn't too spicy; but is so authentically Indian I wonder how that is. I then realise why. This is my grandmom's style of cooking. Not too much spice, but a flavoursome gravy for the curry which highlights the original flavours of the main vegetables rather than drowning it in chillies or other spice combinations. No wonder it tastes like home food.

D too is very impressed. He keeps thanking me for suggesting we came to Govinda's . He's changed his mind about this place. "Maybe the wife and I came on a really bad day last time, or maybe I had my expectations set too low as a result this time; but the food is really good. I can't resist this even though I am so full" he says. I know what he means. I am now bursting at the seams and my plate still hasn't been licked clean. No chance of using that all-you-can-eat facility whatsoever. I can't and indeed shouldn't eat another morsel, let alone re-piling stuff onto my plate.

It's finally time to head out; D and I roll out and I feel obliged to walk for at least another half hour to digest the fabulous meal we have just had.

I'm a happy, stuffed mock-pig. So I decide to update this blog and allow you to partake in my gluttony.

**By the way, if you're not religious / interested in the Hare Krishna stuff, don't get too put off . There is no preaching / proselytising inside the restaurant except for the Hare-Krishna's tapes running on stereo through the restaurant at a low volume. But, if any devotee does approach you to spread the word, feel free to be straight and tell them you aren't interested. It's as easy as that.

Govinda's, Soho St, Off Soho Square (nearest tube : Tottenham Court Road)

Eat and Two Veg, Marylebone High St

2009-03-18T06:12:00.011Z

THIS RESTAURANT HAS NOW CLOSED

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Vegan-friendly: 5/5 (to be reconfirmed); Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 3/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5

It's a sunny Tuesday afternoon and after a spot of window-shopping in Oxford St , I head to fashionable Marylebone High St. I'm going to meet M, the manager of the local Oxfam shop, where I volunteer.

M's a committed meat-eater and invariably we verbally spar (nicely) about my vegetarian leanings. It's been a while since we met, so I offer to buy him lunch at the local vegetarian place - Eat and Two Veg. All dishes at this place are 100% vegetarian or vegan so, after some mock-moaning, M agrees to join me.

Eat and Two Veg reminds me of an old-style American diner with its comfy booth seats. In the past when I've visited, the waiters have guarded these comfy sofa seats with their lives, directing smaller parties to the less-nice normal chairs and tables. Today though, we are in luck, and are waved through to a cosy little nook.

In places like this, I feel obliged to order a burger and a milkshake. I'm on a diet. So I reluctantly forego the shake and plump for the cheeseburger. Martin grudgingly orders the bangers and mash. He regales me with stories of his naughty 8-month old son and before long our food arrives.

My cheeseburger is served with a huge helping of thin-cut fries, coleslaw and a mixed salad. The burger is good; the bun is firm but yielding, the chutney inside (although not my favourite, is quite nice and the pickle is good-quality). The soya-patty inside is on the good side of 'o.k.'. The fries are more-ish and the mustard dressing on the mixed salad is exceedingly good ,as is the coleslaw.

Martin reluctantly admits that his plate of food is a lot better than he expected from anything vegetarian. He warns me not to quote him. "If you tell anybody I liked veggie food, I'll pretend we never came here", he says. He can't resist nicking a few chips from my plate though. He thinks that this place does good, traditional cooking.

I concur - I've eaten at Eat and Two Veg on more than one occasion. I've always found that their food is competently prepared. Other dishes I have tried and can recommend are a Rendang curry (which is a wee bit too mild for my liking), an unbelieveably good mushroom stroganoff-ish dish (which has now unfortunately been taken off the menu, but could come back if enough of us ask for it), the crispy mock-duck pancakes (nice but a bit expensive for what they are) and the veggie all-day breakfast (although I don't think the sausages are anything special).

The service is passable , not un-friendly but not particularly outstanding. The prices are definitely Marylebone High St prices . Our meal which consists of two main courses , and no drinks adds up to twenty pounds. (Somewhat justifiable given that the food is definitely well-prepared.) It's not particularly cheap, so definitely not a daily-visit type place for someone like me.

However Eat and Two Veg, is definitely the kind of reliable place one can go to for a nice Sunday afternoon meal with family or a quick bite after a spot of shopping on Oxford Street. It's relaxed, it's simple.

Its somewhere you can take carnivorous friends to, for a veggie meal. I'm sure the veggie comfort food will win them over.

Note for vegans: Although a vegan option has been listed on the menu , the choices are more limited than the vegetarian options. Please call ahead or check the website to ensure you don't have a wasted journey.

Eat and Two Veg, Marylebone High St

http://www.eatandtwoveg.com/eatv.php

Whitecross Street Market - London EC1 (near the Barbican)

2009-03-12T03:39:00.008Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 4/5; Vegan friendly - 3/5; Value for money: 5/5; Quality of cooking : 4/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Working in the City, and being a veggie who doesn't like cross-contamination (which is rampant in local sandwich bars), one gets accustomed to a hurried lunch at the desk typically consisting of a fairly unimaginative soggy sandwich from the local supermarket. (Unless of course, one is organised and sensible enough to bring one's lunch in.) Which is why, it's a real treat to be within walking distance of this fantastic little food alley, that's really quite veggie-friendly.

Whitecross St is just a short walk from Barbican, Moorgate and Old Street stations. It lies just behind the Golden lane estate and a short hop, skip and jump from the local Waitrose.

The market runs Mon-Fri and the veggie stalls I list below are usually open on all those days. There is supposedly a specialist food market on Thursdays and Fridays, but the regular weekday stalls are not particularly augmented in terms of more veggie stalls or options on these two days, although the market is busier and has more food stalls on Thu/Fri.

Typically the food stalls pitch up at about noon and are mostly out of food by about 2, although the market website says the stalls are on till 5 pm.

Although there is no standard layout to the market, typical stalls include Hoxton falafel (about half-way up and with the 'long but quickly dealt-with' queue) , Mantra serving well-cooked Indian food (at the Waitrose-end) and the burrito shop which serves one veggie option. There are also other stalls serving Thai, traditional English and Asian cuisine. That said, I haven't noted these other stalls to be particularly veggie-friendly although they do serve vegetarian options. For instance, I detected a strong whiff of fish-sauce in the "vegetarian" curry served by the Thai stall. At the burrito shop as well, I sense a strong possibility for cross-contamination with the chicken/beef (but that could be me being paranoid), as atleast the chef in particular seems to be really clear about vegetarian options.

The falafel shop and Mantra are the best options for both vegetarians and vegans. The food is cooked to a very high standard for street food and its really easy on the pocket. The falafel with all the trimmings only adds up to £4.50 and for about £3 you can get a fantastic meal at Mantra consisting of 2 curries, rice etc. I strongly recommend both stalls for service and a really friendly attitude too.

There are also a few, nice, cake and pudding shops, although these are somewhat more expensive and stall owners are a bit confused about what the terms vegetarian / vegan mean. ("Oh, you're vegetarian, so that dish contains butter and you can't have it " is a common, confused response; so I dont expect them to have thought about gelatine / animal rennet usage .)

The one thing some people get quite concerned about with street markets is the levels of hygiene and cleanliness. All I can say is that I eat there almost every day and haven't fallen ill to date.

The market is quite busy , so there's nowhere to sit down and eat within the market itself. But there are tiny parks in the lanes nearby where you can sit down and enjoy your lunch. The local , slightly grotty pub on the corner called the Two Brewers, allows you to bring in your lunch from the market, if you buy a drink. The pub is quite friendly but you have to get there early to get a decent table so you don't end up wedged in beside the stinky toilet , the dart board or the constantly swinging front-door. It's quite down-to-earth, so don't expect somewhere gastro-pubby :-); just relax and enjoy your pint.

There is also a veggie sit-down restaurant called Carnevale on the same street (which I will review separately).

Last but not least, local attractions which you might wander to, if you're heading to the market and don't have to return to your desk are

the Barbican with its varied attractions
the temple of Mithras (haven't been)
a couple of art galleries
the local church which has been converted into a concert hall for the London Symphony Orchestra and often has free lunchtime concerts
Bunhill fields
the Guildhall

Whitecross Street Market

www.whitecrossstreet.co.uk

www.hoxtonbeach.com

Woodlands - Hampstead (also at Marylebone Lane, Panton St and more)

2009-03-09T22:14:00.007Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 3/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3.5/5

It's Monday evening. It's been a very busy day at work and now I'm heading to Hampstead with my best friend, my sister, my flat-mate, my best friend's husband and the little lady who's top of my priority list at the moment (my cutey-pie 17-month old monster niece)

P (the best-friend's husband) is a South Indian like me and has set my taste buds in motion by reminding me earlier in the day of our favourite South Indian restaurants in Bangalore, Bombay and Madras. He is missing "proper" South Indian food. One can find decent North-Indian food at quite a few restaurants across the U.K. But most Indian restaurants in the West don't do the dosas, uttappas and idlis that we love. He wants to head to Sagar (For further details check out my musings on South Indian food within the review of Sagar, the restaurant in Hammersmith) for some serious grub. But he's tired, cold and also has a two-hour journey home outside of London. So I've hit upon a good half-way house - Woodlands in Hampstead.

Woodlands is a chain us Bombayites have known since we were kids. Its known for staple, decent meals. Nothing too exciting! Just a very middle-class offering frequented when it was a parent's birthday /anniversary (middle class compared to the more working class origins of the Sagars of the Indian udipi restaurant scene). When I was in my first job in India, the bunch of us young green graduates would head to the local Woodlands, usually after our pay-day for a meal; a sign that we had finally "arrived" and were "grown-up" and could afford a meal at the kind of place our parents would go to.

In London though, despite being paid in pounds now, I've always found Woodlands to be a bit over-priced for what it offers. Although the ambience is usually decent, I've often found the food quality to be patchy. But I must admit to applying really strict South-Indian standards here. ( I can be really unforgiving when it comes to South Indian food).

We head to Woodlands because I know that P, the flat-mate and the best friend are a lot more forgiving on food-quality than I am. Hell ! The meanies ganged up and spent most of the meal reminding me how un-fussy I used to be ["You'd eat anything", " You're so bl**dy fussy", "You're a real pain in the ...", " Don't you dare complain about the food", and so on to be precise] and what a food-snob I am now.

I ignore their jibes and focus on my lovely niece who is un-musically banging on the table with her fork and knife.

Between the 5 of us we order a thali (which is a lot like a set menu, but is basically a plate with about 8-9 different curries and gravies on it in addition to bread and rice), a plate of idli (the one dish every decent South Indian restaurant worth its salt, must do well), a rava masala dosa (a special lentil pancake filled with spiced potato) and an onion uttapa ( another lentil and rice pancake variation that includes chopped green chillies and onions).

Our thali is fairly good. It's got a good spread of different curries of which the veg kurma (mixed veg in a coconutty-gravy) is definitely the highlight. Our mini-starter of sev puri (a street food from bombay which is made with atleast a dozen different main ingredients) is very good. The lemon rice , the palak paneer curry (cottage cheese in spinach) and the daal (tempered lentils) are all the right-side of mediocre. The rotis (indian breads) are fresh and wholesome. The food (unlike some of the rubbish served at so-called Indian restaurants) is well-spiced but not so hot that one can't taste any flavours.

The masala dosa looks good, but hasn't been cooked to my exacting standards. I can still taste the uncooked-ness of the batter and the potato filling, although fresh, lacks depth of flavour. The sambar (lentil dipping sauce) that accompanies it , tastes of having been burnt. The chutney (coconut dip) is not seasoned properly.

The onion utappa is fabulous. Although P originally ordered it, I keep passing my plate over for "just another small piece". He generously shares ; I wouldn't if I were in his shoes, the utappa is yummmy.

The big decider for P & me is the idli. Idlis are the safest thing you can eat if you are in India (one because its a steamed dish and two, because its hard to mess up). The idlis at Woodlands dont taste authentic at all. They taste of the microwaved idlis I make from the cheap and nastly ready-mix pack. But I have eaten much better Idlis at Woodlands in the past. Perhaps we just got a really bad batch this evening.

The puddings are poor; we tried the gulab jamun and the sheera (both traditional indian sweets), which to my Indian palate were not properly cooked or "sweet enough".

This evening we were at the restaurant for a good couple of hours with a chatty 17-month old who luckily didn't thrown a tantrum but wasn't really going to be confined to her seat either. But the staff were attentive and in-obtrusive throughout. They made us feel welcome without being overly pushy or trying to ingratiate themselves. The place was fairly empty on a weekday, but I've generally found the staff to be accommodative of children even at busy times.

The service was flawless. P is happy. The South Indian in him has been appeased by the utappa despite the sub-standard idli ; so I'm pleased. We get the bill. It works out to roughly £17 a head including a soft drink each. Not super-expensive but definitely not as cheap and value-for-money as some of the other more authentic South Indian restaurants I have reviewed. That said, it's shaved off a good hour off potential journeys to the more traditional outposts of good South-Indian 'food-meccas"

The meal is over. P has kindly paid; he's being all Indian big-brotherly and generous despite unhesitatingly taking the mick out of me all evening. I get horridly sentimental. I can't believe that after ten years, the best friend has finally moved to the U.K. and I'll get to see my little niece grow up. I feel really glad that we are all here together.

So Woodlands gets a big thumbs-up despite a few hiccups ! One to visit again if only to relive the memories of happy times.

http://www.woodlandsrestaurant.co.uk/

Wagamama's - Moorgate / Wigmore Street / Camden and at other locations

2009-03-09T22:01:00.010Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 3/5; Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 3/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 3/5
Whenever a bunch of us from work want a quick, reasonably-priced, hot lunch, we head to our local Wagamama's. If you don't have an aversion to Oriental food, then Wagamama pretty much has something for everyone; including us vegetarians (I'm not sure of the vegan options though).
For those of you unfamiliar with the place , the seating is pretty much like it would be in a school cafetaria -long rows of benches laid out one alongside the next. For some reason all Wagamama's seem to have really poor acoustics. So its not the kind of place for a romantic date and you invariably have to focus on your food and avoid conversation (or strain really hard to hear what your mates are saying). This can sometimes be a good thing, especially when the food is hot and you are tired of the office gossip. That said, at the Moorgate Waga's I've often inadvertently eavesdropped on gossip from unnamed other banks because the next set of people is seated just an elbow-nudge away. The poor acoustics could partly be attributed to the fact that Waga's is almost always packed to the gills at lunchtime, but more honestly , I think it has more to do with the layout, building materials and set-up of the place.
Starters at Wagamama are probably best avoided by veggies; they are unimaginative !! The grilled asparagus is not really worth it; one pays £4.10 for a 4-5 asparagus spears with a light tasteless dressing - not spectacular at all. The edamame is another rip-off at £3.50 for a small bowl; I think edamame (on account of its simplicity) is best cooked at home; for the same money you'll get more than a kilo of the frozen from your local Chinese / Korean supermarket and it takes only a couple of minutes of boiling in salted water, plus it's a really nutritious snack. The yasai gyoza (vegetarian dumplings) are tempting. But a big warning here. There have been a couple of times in the past few years when I have been served the chicken dumplings rather than the veggie ones. They look exactly the same from the outside. Except that the veggie ones are served with a single leaf of parsley on top, to tell the waiting staff of its veggie-ness. I bit into one once before I realised it had chicken inside and then given my incredibly fussy veggie-ness, spent 20 mins in the restroom cleaning my mouth; that said, they were really apologetic and seemed to mean it genuinely. This chickeny-mishap happened once again a few months later (both times at the Canary Wharf branch) but this time I had been savvy enough to cut open the gyoza and check, so i wasn't as miserable, although it was a bit yucky to be honest. This kind of serial mistake makes a committed veggie like me quite annoyed and I must admit, I did give the Wagamama chain a miss for a while after. That said, the pleasantness of the waiting staff, their willingness to add or remove ingredients as per one's choice and the generally good value have drawn me back
In terms of mains, if you're looking for something soupy, you should try the soupy-noodly saien soba. Top tip : Have it on the udon (egg-free thick) noodles as Udon noodles hold their texture better in the boiling hot, soupy liquid. the standard noodles end up with the texture of bread thats been soaked in warm milk for days - i.e. mulchy. If you prefer a more stir-fried kind of noodle, head for the yasai yaki soba. Its a soya-sauce flavoured stir-fry with really fantastic-tasting, shocking pink, pickled ginger on top of the noodles.
And if you like your rice try the yasai katsu curry ( consisting of plain rice topped with breaded aubergines / other vegetables and a weird curry sauce) or the yasai cha han (vegetable fried rice). I tend to order the vegetarian dishes with the "no-egg" option because I'm somehow never entirely sure if the egg served is free-range and given that the eggy pieces often smell a bit weird to me (and this could be a personal thing), I prefer not to take the risk of things going wrong when its rush-time lunch hour for the chefs.
All the veggie mains are REALLY NICE.
Note: With the yasai cha han (fried rice), Wagamama serves a miso soup for free. If you are careful about your vegetarianism, I'd suggest avoiding this, as it smells a bit sea-foody to me. But that could be my imagination. However I must note here, that the dish is labelled as vegetarian and Wagamama seems pretty serious about its vegetarian labelling even if its staff sometimes make mistakes during a service.
[ Its worth noting here that at last count , I found that sushi chain Itsu's vegetarian dumpling soup wasnt vegetarian at all, although the dumplings are vegetarian, the soup as a whole isn't ; I smelled something fishy in it and after several enquiries I was told by the then Canary Wharf branch manager that apparently they forgot (for a while) to mention that they use bonito (tuna) flakes in the soup. I haven't eaten at Itsu since; The attitude reminded me of the great Mars-bar debacle when Masterfoods was very strenuously insisting at one point that some vegetarians are happy to consume products containing animal-derived whey / animal rennet. Just an annoying lack of sensitivity to vegetarians that I will not tolerate]

Back to Wagamama - Drinks that are available at Waga include Japanese beer, sake' and fresh fruit juices (which I tend to plump for and are invariably quite good and very refreshing and healthy)
Main course portions are fairly substantial at Wagamama's. So I haven't really tried very many puds at Waga. Of the ones I've tried , the chocolate cake with wasabi paste was vile. The pavlova is ok.
In summary, Wagamama has a decent selection of vegetarian options, the staff are veggie-friendly and it's good value. Stick with a few staples and you will do well and come away with a full tummy. Don't expect gourmet food though and you won't come away disappointed.

www.wagamama.co.uk

City Point Moorgate or Wigmore St (behind Selfridges) and other locations

Red Veg - Dean Street, Soho

2009-03-08T19:10:00.011Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 1/5, Quality of cooking : 0/5; Ambience : 1/5; Service: 1/5 ;Atmosphere: 0/5

It's been a lazy weekend. I've been unwell this past week and have been feeling a bit sorry for myself. It's been raining, so the planned walk with the grumpy flat-mate has been put off. Instead I decide to indulge in some retail therapy (well , credit-crunched retail therapy - i.e. go and try and exchange the watch that's broken down less than 4 months after you bought it) and then plan to grab a veggie burger. Somehow I manage to con the flat-mate into accompanying me.

I niftily finish off my shopping. The grumpy flat-mate is now less grumpy. He is looking forward to a nice plate of chips. For once, Oxford St is virtually shopper-free on a Sunday afternoon and there are no crowds . So we make it rather quickly to Red Veg in Soho's Dean Street. I'm really looking forward to this meal. I've read about Red Veg and the reviews have been fairly good; I am salivating at the thought of really good veggie burgers and hotdogs.

Walking into RedVeg, I'm not particularly impressed. It feels like I've walked into a really tiny kebab shop. White walls, a steel counter with not much in it, specials scrawled rather out-of-sight on the board and a little window, with a serving tray-ish hatch (like the ones at McDonalds where burgers pile up) connecting the kitchen with the counter. A lone member of staff, politely distracts herself from a phone call to take our order. A veggie burger with cheese, a portion of chips and some cheese-stuffed Jalapeno peppers. We pay up less than a tenner and wait for our order to make its way out of the kitchen.

Grabbing a drink each (£0.95), we seat ourselves in the sad-looking seating area by the window. The lady at the counter resumes her telephone chat. There's only space in this tiny place for about 2-3 tables at a time and (unlike Maoz falafel nearby) unfortunately that doesn't make this place feel cosy and welcoming at all. The flat-mate and I make small talk as we watch the shoppers filter into Tesco nearby and soon enough, our food is ready. We head to the counter to pick it up and start munching soon after.

The chips are fried in what tastes like days-old oil . They have that disgusting smell you remember from the bus when some teenager nearby is carrying some fried-chicken and chips. The flat-mate doesn't mind them; he thinks they are better than the ones at McD's. I still can't stand them.

The burger consists of a soggy bun, some brown-ing lettuce, a slice each of onion and pickle, lots of chemically-enhanced ketchup and a burger-inside that tastes of nothing recognisable. In fact, I open and double-check the burger, because it certainly doesn't taste vegetarian or like anything else for that matter.

The jalapenos are slightly nicer; they are at least crispy on the outside, even if they do smell like they've been in cheap cardboard wrapping for far too long.

I'm disappointed. I can't believe this place made it to a recently published rather famous list of "good cheap eats in London"; I'm definitely not in repeat-customer mode.

The food is vile. The ambience is dire. The place has no personality .

We head out less than 20 minutes later. Its been a wasted journey.

The sum and substance of this review -- Red Veg is cheap..... but the food is nasty. And so, in my book, however cheap it is, it's certainly not value for money. Definitely one to avoid !!

www.redveg.com

95, Dean St, London

Manna , Primrose Hill, London

2009-02-28T12:19:00.013Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 2/5, Quality of cooking : 3/5; Ambience : 5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 4/5

Additional note: This restaurant was re-reviewed on 9th May 2010 . The quality of cooking score and the score for value for money have both gone down. QoC has fallen slightly from 3.5 to 3 (we thought the food was of a reasonable quality but did not particularly enjoy the meal). Value for money is even poorer given that we didn't enjoy the food and didn't think the portions were substantial enough to justify the prices. Service has been upgraded from the previous score of 2.5 to a much more positive 4.

Original review:

Its Thursday and we've just been to a university open evening to explore the boyfriend's PhD plans. (Yes, he is a bit of a swot!!!).

There aren't many freebies except for celery sticks and cheese on offer and I'm a wee bit disappointed with the rubbish chocolate cake slice from the university cafetaria. We've walked 5 miles to get to the place and I'm not in the mood for cooking dinner. So we head to Manna, London's oldest vegetarian restaurant, and a place that I've wanted to visit for months.

We walk down the quiet streets near Primrose Hill and find the restaurant tucked away half-way up a quiet side street. For mid-week it seems quite well- attended. As we walk in, the place has a friendly yet fairly sophisticated feel to it. Our waiter is warm and courteous and we are quickly seated at a nice table towards the back of the restaurant. I look around and realise that the place blends in perfectly with both the yuppie Primrose Hill set and the village-y feel of its surroundings. It wouldn't surprise me if the models / film stars from the local Primrose Hill set thought this was a nice place to go to dinner with family or friends.

The boyfriend is engrossed in his Uni prospectus when I return from the powder room. "Would you mind if I continued reading?", he asks. I glare at him and he knows better.

My ears perk up as the two Sloaney-types seated at the next table, giggle over the merits and demerits of swinging. They laboriously discuss what effect this has on their partners...and as the waitress brings the menu one of them is astonished to find that the restaurant is vegetarian. Hee hee... Our drinks arrive and so do the menus.

The boyfriend is hungry. Our waitress is now at the next table holding forth on property prices in Primrose Hill. "Gosh, another bloody Kirsty Allsop", the boyfriend mutters (referring to the chatty host of the Channel 4 programme Location, Location). The waitress has forgotten about us and continues to chatter away. After a few false starts, we finally catch the eye of the waiter, who'd originally seated us.

The boyfriend and I order a vegetarian bangers & mash and a yam& corn fajita. (The prices are about £15 for a main and around £7 for a starter; these are definitely Primrose Hill prices).

The dishes arrive not long after, served by the waitress who now bestows her widest-ever smile on the boyfriend, who consequently forgets all his snide comments about her estate-agent-y abilities.

The bangers and mash looks yummy; its decorated with a tower of crispy onion rings and is set on a bed of kale. The sausages are fairly good and the mash is delicious, the onion rings are outstanding but the red onion and thyme jus that accompanies it tastes amazingly yuck !!!

The yam and corn fajita is nice - not particularly exceptional - but fairly well-made ; definitely needs to be less bland though, could do with a kick of some spicy sauce; the chipotle sauce that its served with does it no favours. The fajita comes with a pineapple salsa that sounds weird but tastes rather nice.

The portions are a good size though and we are fullll... We agree to share a fruit crumble for pudding. As she takes our order, I ask the smiley waitress if it contains any cinnamon which I am trying to avoid. She says she doesn't know, and will let us know. When I say I would like an extra scoop of ice-cream with the crumble, she asks which flavour. "Strawberry I say". She's distracted and replies " Oh, yes chocolate". I go , " No strawberry, please". She says, yet again " Chocolate". This goes on for a while and she finally walks away with our pudding order. A few minutes later the waiter arrives with pudding. The boyfriend and I dig in. I can smell it - its a very cinnamon-y fruit crumble. I see the boyfriend wincing " it tastes of some weird powder and has a really weird texture. " he says.

The kindly waiter comes over. I explain to him that the waitress had said she would check about the cinnamon. He is pleasant and says " Of course, we'll change that - it definitely contains cinnamon".

We hang on to the strawberry ice-cream; its devilishly delicious. I love it .. I adore it.. the cinnamon is forgiven. I've decided Manna is a good place... not the very best.. but certainly a good local...

Manna, 4, Erskine Road, London NW3 3AJ

Ph : 0207 722 8028

www.mannaV.com

Henderson's of Edinburgh at Hanover St

2009-02-28T10:49:00.010Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 5/5, Quality of cooking : 5/5; Ambience : 5/5; Service: 4/5 ;Atmosphere: 5/5

Its Tuesday afternoon. After a dire sandwich at London's King's Cross station, I'm on board the 14:00 train to Scotland's capital Edinburgh.

I've been to Edinburgh before and I'm looking forward to my 2 day stay in the capital. Its a regal city; the roads in the City centre are criss crossed at different heights and I like walking around this majestic place.

The taxi driver takes me on a rather round-about route to the hotel. "We're having a new tram system put in", he apologetically murmurs. I drop my bags off and try to find a vegetarian dinner. The receptionist does an internet search and Henderson's pops up on her list. "It's just off Prince's St and George St", (which are both very central), she says and I head out into the cold evening breeze to find my supper.

Along the way, I forget the name of the restaurant, but have the street name marked on my map. So on the street, I ask a bunch of taxi drivers for "Harrington's ", as they rowdily queue at the taxi stand. They good-humouredly banter with me for a bit and then say they think I'm looking for Henderson's, which is just down the street at the next set of lights.

The restaurant is built in the basement of the building with a bistro and art gallery from the same owners next door. I later find out, it is Scotland's first vegetarian restaurant and is now 47 years old.

The restaurant itself has been in the same family since inception and was originally an outlet for excess farm-produce. So definitely one of those small, honest businesses, we feel inclined to patronise and sustain during the credit crunch. There is a small bakery attached, and if you visit at the right time of day, the aromas of freshly baked bread supposedly waft through the streets. Henderson's also has stalls at local farmers' markets in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leith and does catering (if you're lucky enough to live in Edinburgh).

Anyways, back to the restaurant. As I ducked into the restaurant, I found myself confronted by a well-stocked salad bar and an array of desserts. Queueing up, I looked at the day's specials and ordered myself a 2 -course set meal ( main and pudding for about £13) . I'm not usually tempted by risotto, but something told me this one would be special and given that it came with a hearty recommendation from the girl behind the till, that's what I went for.

A few minutes later, I was seated in the quaint and old-fashioned seating area, with some very pleasant live guitar playing in the background. (Apparently there's a different instrumentalist playing every night). Customers ranged from a boisterous 20-strong group of twenty-somethings , to animated looking middle-aged women catching up with old friends. In general a very laid-back and "comfortable" set of people :-). By that I mean, people who aren't posing or showing off, people who appreciate and savour good food but are not looking for showy, up-market , dressed-up food, ordinary everyday people who are out for a good, wholesome meal with friends.

I started off with a small cheese scone and some fresh butter . Baked to perfection and fresh. Not long after, the delicious looking butternut squash and mushroom risotto appeared at my table, on a bed of very fresh rocket with a smidgeon of blue cheese on top. It was very deftly executed and definitely of the melt-in-the-mouth variety. Although it was a very generous portion, I couldn't help stashing away every last spoonful. Yummy yummy yummy is all I can say. So fantastically filling that I didn't have room for dessert that I had already paid for. And the service was discreet and very efficient.

"Not to worry" says the lady at the dessert counter. "Of course we can pack it up, but the chocolate mousse", (served in a see-through glass), "wont look as pretty in a plastic take-away container". As I dawdled back to my hotel room, I have been transported to wholesome veggie heaven ! In a pleasant city, with no jostling and pushing and no rushing about, stuffed to the gills with the best risotto I've eaten in ages and looking forward to a good book and some chocolate mousse and with only one regret - the boyfriend isn't here with me to share this... but I'm sure an extra mouthful of chocolate mousse will do the trick !!! The fussy veggie has been appeased !

Hendersons, 94, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1DR phone 0131225 2131

[Restaurant, shop, bistro/bar, wine bar, party catering and craft bakery]

www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk

VEG TAI (Soho) & Thai Square (The Strand)

2009-02-20T00:13:00.008Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie-friendly : 5/5, Value for money: 4/5 ;Quality of cooking: 2.75/5; Ambience: 3/5; Service: 4.5/5

Its the day before payday and I'm trying not to get dangerously close to my overdraft; my dining companion likes food but, being a proud new father, he is being careful with his money, too. We're in central London and we're looking for something Oriental. We are on a budget but looking at the ornately decorated Thai Square restaurant on the Strand, we are both sorely tempted and can't resist walking in.

We are welcomed warmly. Noting that there are no vegetarian symbols against any of the menu items, I end up being the "fussy veggie" again. I attract the attention of our smiley and efficient Thai waitress and ask the dreaded questions :

Do you have a vegetarian set menu? - ANSWER : Yes, we can modify the normal menu. Its about £16 a head for starter, maincourse and an accompaniment.
Do the dishes listed in this "vegetarian" list contain nam-plah (fish sauce) or shrimp paste? Are the spring rolls / tempura etc fried in the same oil as the prawns and other meaty dishes? ANSWER : [Here I must praise the waitress for taking a moment to think and actually being honest ] Yes to both questions. However there are some stir-fries we can make without fish sauce. But that would mean you can't have a starter.
Would you mind very much if we headed out without ordering: ANSWER [ And here I must laud them for their unflagging courtesy] No of course not; we're sorry we don't really cater to strict vegetarians. Most of our vegetarian dishes contain fish sauce / shrimp paste

So much for that.

And onto the main review - Walking out of Thai Square on the Strand, my friend and I head to a trusty favourite of mine. It's in the alternative-lifestyle heaven that's Old Compton Street. Even though it's mid-week and the credit crunch is biting hard, the bars and restaurants are buzzing !!!

VEG doesn't have any pretensions of catering to the fine-dining end of the market. Its an eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet where the decor is in a slightly nicer-than-usual Chinese cafe-style.

The greeter at the door, shoos us in, has us seated, takes our drinks order and hands us plates within 3 minutes. We are seated right by the buffet. So its a quickly and deftly (careful, that elbow might nudge the next diner) executed move to start loading our plates with the vast quantities of mock-meat and other veggie delights on offer. Every single item on the buffet is suitable for vegetarians. We start with the mock-prawn crackers, the veggie dimsum , the veggie spring rolls and the mock-crispy duck pancakes. All cooked to an acceptable standard and definitely veggie in their composition. Encouraged by the thought of getting value for money (at £6.50 per head, it's not too hard), we dont hold back.

I must admit that I tend to pig out on spring rolls. I can't help myself when I see them. It' s the same with salted peanuts ; I always eat so many that I can't even bear to look at them for days after. And yet in a month's time, I'm offered peanuts and , there I go again - I just can't stop myself.

We slowly wend our way through the sweet and sour mock-chicken (passable), special fried rice (oily but ok), plain noodles (tastes like it was cooked in disinfectant) and head straight back for the dimsum and spring rolls. In the past, I, (and I note a few others have too), have always asked for plain white rice (not on the buffet but the waiting staff have very kindly obliged). This, I then drench in the spring onion and green ginger sauce and I kid you not, its my favourite concoction at the restaurant. To be fair, most of the other dips are good too. In addition, now, piling my plate with nice sweetcorn and other raw, thinly sliced vegetables that taste delicious, makes me feel like I've atoned somewhat for stuffing myself with all the deep fried spring rolls earlier.

Finally we roll our super-full selves to the dessert section and pile our fruit bowls high with chopped pineapple, thinly sliced oranges and chopped apple. Some of the fruit is in a sugary syrup. I assiduously avoid the syrup, but my friend gorges on it (he won't admit it, but he's got a really bad sweet tooth). With a soft drink each, our bill adds up to £8.25 a head.

We pay up and dawdle out. I pick up some tiny pastries from nearby Princi. It's a good late night stop-off point. At about half-way up Wardour St, it's very central, is open late and does fabulous bread (If you've been to Wagamama or Hakkasan, the name Alan Yau might ring a few bells; he's partnering some Italians on this venture).

The night draws to a close. Given the friendliness of the waiting staff at VEG, the prompt and effortless service (despite the fact that none of them really speaks very much English) and the fairly decent meal for under a tenner, I just cannot fault the place. It's certainly not high-falutin'; but if you're craving Oriental food but don't fancy the splayed ducks in Chinatown, are looking for somewhere properly veggie but find your pocket is not quite ready for the gourmet quality your tummy craves, then VEG is definitely a good, cheap and cheerful option.

The only slight downside - We are so stuffed and guilty about the excessive eating, we end up taking a long walk rather than the bus home. But that's a good thing, because we get some more time to chat, laugh and enjoy what true friendship is really about - enjoying the other person's idiosyncracies and liking them no matter what !

NOTE TO fellow fussy veggies : My experience is that most Thai restaurants seem to forget to mention the oyster sauce used in some stir fries and the shrimp paste and fish sauce used in red and green curries. Similarly, my personal experience has been that even the slightly bigger and nicer-looking restaurants in London's Chinatown don't really want to deal with veggies. So you may end up having to give these a wide berth if you are a serious veggie. This isn't just a random fussy whinge; hand-on-heart. I speak from bitter experience. The last time I visited a restaurant called Young Cheung in Chinatown (as part of the office meal out), I was given the sole option of the mixed vegetable fried rice. Finding little pink pieces in my dish, I asked the waiter what the pieces were. He replied - chopped garlic. Plausible, but the shape looked a bit strange and I was unconvinced. So when I found a bigger pink piece, I got one of my carnivore friends to try it. It was pork. When I checked again with the waiter, he said " Well, we chop our meat and veg on the same chopping board. So sometimes the pieces get mixed up"... So much for cross-contamination risks, eh?

VEG: 33, Old Compton St, London W1F 5JU. Just opposite Patisserie Valerie and a short walk from Charing Cross Road with its book and music shops :-)

P.S. They also run a Veggie course on Sundays where you can learn how to cook the stuff they serve at the restaurant.

Sagar, Udipi (South Indian) restaurant in Hammersmith

2009-01-13T12:08:00.002Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie-friendly : 5/5, Value for money: 4/5 ;Quality of cooking: 3.5/5; Ambience: 3/5; Service: 4/5

It was a freezing Saturday morning and I was yearning for some steaming hot idlis. Idlis are South Indian comfort food - little rice and lentil dumplings served with a lentil dip called Sambar.

When I was a kid, I hated idlis, because they seemed to be all my mom ever made for breakfast. But as the years have gone by, I have rediscovered this seemingly simple dish. Because they are steamed and made of rice and lentils, idlis are the perfect high-protein, high-energy breakfast food. And my ma was so right when she said I would crave them if I couldnt get them anymore. Idlis are not particularly simple to make. The right proportions of lentil and rice have to be soaked , ground the previous night and left to ferment. Living so far away from home and not having the right grinding equipment means that I can now only savour them once a year when I visit family in Madras.

When I am in Madras, I head out early with my great-uncle for a walk along the beach at about 6 a.m. , well before the temperatures soar to the 37 C standard temp. Then, as my treat for getting the morning exercise out of the way, I huddle with loads of messy eaters to savour steaming hot idlis in the tiny restaurants that dot the road by the beach. The kitchens in these little places are bustling with staff scurrying around, sorting orders in a really haphazard but perfectly pragmatic way. The idea of queueing is alien to the Madras-i psyche and there is even a sense of silent admiration beneath the mutterings as some clever-clogs thrusts his order under the waiter's nose ahead of the person who was there well before him.

Anyway, back to freezing London and frozen Hammersmith in particular. There is no congestion charge between Xmas and New Year's. So, I have managed to cajole the grumpy boyfriend into driving us across central London to this little joint called Sagar.

After getting lost in the maze under the Hammersmith Flyover, we finally arrive at the restaurant which is just by the Town Hall. Walking into the restaurant, I am transfixed, as the decor transports me to the typical Udipi restaurants of India. (For those of you who are unfamiliar, its pretty much the same style as a slightly up-market cafe). Very functional and you can be assured of the staples. As usual, I over-order, hoping that I can convert the boyfriend to the joys of South Indian cooking. The idlis arrive , perfectly steamed. The boyfriend looks suspicious when he sees the little white UFO-style dish but steels himself and tries a mouthful. He doesn't look too impressed. But I am in food heaven. Next we try a rasam-vada (this is a fried lentil doughnut in a thin spicy soupy gravy). It blows the roof off the boyfriend's mouth. Finally we settle for a main course of dosa (lentil pancake) and utappam (a different lentil and rice pancake with chopped chillis and onions). Now the boyfriend is hooked. He gobbles down the meal and I can finally rest assured that the heathen has been converted to South Indian food. The service has been quick, efficient and inobtrusive. And the bill is in the early twenties, despite a couple of soft drinks each. I am satisfied. The next time I miss the restaurants of my childhood, I know I can visit and Sagar will safely transport me back to Madras without a bill thats as expensive as the aeroplane-fare.

SAGAR restaurant , 157 King St, Hammersmith W6 9JT

Rocket Restaurant - Old Broad St

2008-11-28T10:25:00.000Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie-friendly : 1/5, Value for money: 3/5 (if you're not veggie);Quality of cooking: 4/5; Ambience: 4/5; Service: 4/5

A few months ago, it was my colleague L's leaving meal. Being the thoughtful person that she is, L decided to double check that the restaurant had enough veggie options for the sole vegetarian at her table. The restaurant assured her that they did. And the booking was made.

When L told me, we were all going to Rocket for dinner and it was veggie-friendly, of course, I was pretty pleased. It makes a change to go somewhere that caters well for vegetarians than to end up having the cheapest, least exciting dish on the menu and ending up paying a fifth of the bill later. Just to double check though, I scrolled through the online menu and was surprised to find a number of dishes marked as suitable for vegetarians. Not wanting to ask a thousand questions at the dinner table, I called ahead to confirm if the cheese-based dishes are made with vegetarian rennet. A confident voice at the other end of the phone assures me they are. She says she will double check with the chef, takes down my details and says she will call back ahead of the meal, if there are any issues

The next day we headed to the restaurant for an early dinner. I loved the chic decor and the nicely-spaced out tables.

It had been a strange day; my lunch was delayed and I was no longer too hungry; so I ordered a simple salad and some chips. The chips were delicious and although the salad was nothing to write home about, it was perfectly adequate. We had a brilliant evening. The following day however, I got a call. It was the restaurant manager ; there was a mistake he says. The dishes marked as suitable for veggies on the menu arent actually suitable at all. Most of them include ingredients derived from slaughter. I thank my lucky stars I went for the salad.

The manager invites me back to the restaurant. He sounds so sincere and genuine , I drag a few friends and head back a couple of days later. I call in advance to let the manager know. When we arrive, we are treated brilliantly and the manager says that our waiter will make sure that the meal I eat is entirely vegetarian. A few minutes later, the waiter arrives to take our orders; I am not filled with confidence though, when he explains that a particular starter is definitely vegetarian because the cheese is made from pasteurised milk. As the meal progresses, his ideas about vegetarianism become even more apparent - he hasn't got a clue which items are vegetarian and which dishes aren't. Having gone to so much effort inviting us back, I am disappointed that they haven't bothered to set right the basics that were wrong last time around. The chips are fine but I am really nervous about trying much else, because I have zero confidence that the kitchen or front-of-house know what goes into the meals they are serving vegetarians.

Verdict - Rocket is a nice restaurant. The ambience is lovely, service is reasonable, and the location is very convenient for those who work in the City. But if you are vegetarian, avoid it like the plague. They just don't have a clue.

http://www.rocketrestaurants.co.uk/

Maoz Falafel on Old Compton St

2008-11-27T18:07:00.000Z

Scores out of 5 : Veggie friendly: 5/5, Value for money: 4/5, Quality of cooking: 2.5/5, Ambience: 3/5; Service: Self service ;Atmosphere: 4/5

Its a chilly Saturday evening and we've just headed out from a cheap and cheerful matinee at the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square.

Striding past the dawdling tourists and steadfastly ignoring the variously splayed grilled ducks hanging in the Chinatown restaurant windows, I find my way to Old Compton Street.

Old Compton Street and Soho make me happy (despite the fact that I'm not looking for anything kinky). I like people-watching and here I can do it to my heart's content and there's loads to look at. The cross-dresser, the lesbian couple, the rock-chick with the strange hair colouring and stranger tattoo, the tourists gawking at the young man writhing in the window of the gay bar, the trendy office folk, the cool young twenty-somethings the people trying not to stare at the various shady establishments and the people stealthily heading out of seedier establishments, the druggies, the alcoholics - I love the mix. Its alive and pulsing and no one seems to give a damn about what others think !! Its COOOL

On Old Compton St, I also know I can find the last surviving branch of Maoz Falafel in London. Maoz is a cheery, down-to-earth place. The Middle Eastern staff are friendly and the food is reliably decent every time I visit. The crowd is a mix of locals and a scattering of tourists. I've been to Maoz in Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. I know what I can get and I know its properly veggie.

I walk in and order my usual, a Maoz meal with extra aubergine and humous (with a free drink thrown in). It includes a falafel sandwich, a hot paper cone filled with chips and access to the salad bar. The falafel is nothing to write home about, but its hot and very filling.

[I must admit I'm spoiled though - Working near the Barbican, I often walk to the "Hoxton Falafel" market stall that sells Falafel on foodie Whitecross Street. The falafel there is fresh and Rashid the falafel seller always has a cheery smile, despite the fact that he's making a thousand falafels a minute in the freezing cold..]

Soon its my turn in the Maoz queue, and as I hand in the token that says I've paid, I'm handed a tray with the falafel. I stuff the top of my falafel pouch from the full-to-the-brim containers of pickles and salads , squeeze on some green chilli dressing and squirt a bit of garlic sauce and tomato ketchup onto my tray to go with the steaming hot chips. I then grab a drink from the cold shelf.

Finally I scooch onto a table next to two animated Russian women, and begin to savour the chips. The chips are fresh and crisp and as I chomp away, I slowly get engrossed in the Russian conversation. I dont understand any Russian, but I'm sure they're talking about a man. I study them intently looking away when either of the women looks up. But they are too busy talking , to notice.

As I hurry back a little later for a little salt and pepper, I take care to guard my handbag. (I once stopped a totally drugged-up guy from lifting a woman's purse at Maoz) and I can see now why he found it so easy. Everyone is so relaxed from the food and the atmosphere, no one is really paying attention to what's happening around them. Easy targets !!!

The meal is soon over. I will admit the food is not remarkable; but I will always come back. The meal is just about a fiver, the chips are always good, the two pieces of crispy aubergine are oily but tasty and the salad was plentiful. I cannot imagine walking past and not popping in for a quick plate of chips. In an area, where you can spend a lot more money at touristy joints that serve rubbish food, Maoz is down-to-earth and very reasonably priced. The food is basic and done to a decent standard. There is no variation in the menu - so its very reliable. The staff are friendly (One broke into a Bollywood song the other day, after asking me if I was from India... yes... very strange but funny). And its a great place to look out onto the cooolest, hippiest, trendiest and weirdest , while you munch away at a decent chip.

Maoz website

Birthday Greens - A visit to The Gate, Hammersmith

2008-11-27T14:53:00.001Z

Scores out of 5: Veggie friendly : 5/5; Value for money: 2.5/5, Quality of cooking : 3.5/5; Ambience : 4/5; Service: 2/5 (except for booking in which was definitely a 5/5); Atmosphere: 3/5

Oct 20th - my 32nd birthday.

And how better to celebrate, than at a veggie restaurant with friends and family !!

I trawl through the internet, hungry for some grown-up veggie restaurants that don't feel like a cross between a cafe and coffee bar. I don't really fancy a hippie joint or somewhere that will try and sell me gungy green stuff. I want good ole comfort food and I want my carnivore guests to enjoy the experience too.

Hours of trawling and I almost resign myself to eating somewhere where either the seating isnt too comfy for my backside or somewhere where the food seems like the ghastly machination of some over-ambitious chef who thinks that vegetarian food has to be poncy or include weird concoctions that no other normal person would like to see thrown together.

Until, finally , I stumble upon The Gate !!!

I have heard about it before and my elderly foodie neighbour reckons its a good choice. I look over the website. The menu seems seasonal if a bit confused, and there doesn't really seem to be a theme around the food except that it's veggie. But it looks nice, so I decide to set my suspicions aside and rope in the sister, boyfriend and best friend into buying me my birthday dinner.

I call the restaurant to make my booking and arrange parking and the antipodean voice at the other end (Aldo, I think!!) is cheerful and helpful. It makes me happy when a restaurant sounds like it wants my custom.

Its a motley bunch that arrives at the restaurant. The boyfriend is a meat-reducing carnivore who's happiest when he's served a toasted cheese sandwich or a plate of chips. (Yes, I put up with him despite his being the one who thought a coq-au-vin was a shag in the back of a lorry.) The best friend is a carnivore too and he is nervous at the thought of being fed only greens and the sister is a fussy eater who doesn't quite like vegetarian restaurants despite being a veggie herself, and only wants familiar food. " Oh - What a wonderful bunch, aren't you going to have a nice birthday dinner !!" - I hear you mutter. Yet, they all love me and so they decide to trudge down to Hammersmith with me to eat at a vegetarian restaurant that none of them quite fancies rather than sitting in front of the telly while I slave over the stove... I am pleased - the birthday girl has had her way .

It's pouring as we head out. But I'm all dressed up in my poshest frock, the boyfriend looks cute and we are all looking forward to some interesting dinner table conversation....

We find our way through the maze under Hammersmith flyover (who asked the boyfriend to get me to navigate???) and pull into the parking space on Queen Caroline Street. Its about 7 p.m. and we are all hungry. There's a small sign indicating the restaurant and when I walk in, there are signs for what sounds like an evangelical Christian gathering on the Ground Floor. As someone who's not too evangelical about anything other than vegetarianism, the religious theme is a bit daunting and I wonder if the restaurant is going to be themed around some religious stuff... We head upstairs to the restaurant and I find myself relaxing when I find myself in a room that has the strange and rather bizarre feel of an unexpectedly large conservatory in a converted church. I like the little tree in the corner and the eco-friendly laid back yet sophisticated feel of the place. The ceilings are high and a fair few of the tables are occupied by people who look like serious, middle- aged Guardian and Telegraph readers (so, definitely not your average hippie joint).

On the left is a long pine-ish bar with a couple of waiters and the bartender surveying the diners !!

They find our reservation quickly and we are led to our table by a young Eastern European-ish girl, who doesn't seem particularly impressed when the boyfriend tries to discreetly hand over the birthday cake to her.

The menu arrives promptly. Ours is a happy table. We are busy teasing each other and laughing. Even my normally reticent sister is animated... I am a happy bunny. But our waitress certainly isn't. We order 2 cokes, a diet coke and a glass of tap water. ... The drinks arrive and I find the best friend and sister grimacing... They've gotten 2 diet cokes as well...We try to catch our depressed waitress' eye and finally she shows up and is even more unhappy. The drinks are swapped without a fuss, though. So we continue on our merry way... My heart is sinking now... I was really hoping the others would enjoy this meal too and the standard of the table service is a bit of a downer. I wonder what the food is like.

For starters we order a mezze platter for 3 and a carcioffini. I decide on chipotle mushrooms for the main course. I ask if we can swap the polenta that goes with it for some plain rice. I am informed rather abruptly that the kitchen doesn't do rice. I feel like a chastened schoolkid who's asked for an extra helping and here I was, hoping that they might offer me an alternative to the polenta...A muscly young manager-types walks over a few minutes later. Mistakenly, i think he's come to offer us an option. Oh no, we are told rather brusquely again that they don't do rice. They dont waste their smiles on customers, these folk... I wonder what we've done wrong...but then get distracted by the chatter at the table .....

The mezze platter arrives. It looks quite nice but lacks cohesion. It feels like the culinary equivalent of finger painting - just a random hotch-potch of things that don't really seem to go together. In fact, the plate seems to have been put together with slivers of whatever was in the kitchen..with little feel for the balance of flavours .The individual flavours are in most cases delicious, but together they seem like a very strange melange !!!

I begin to wonder if we've been robbed when I remember the hefty £23.50 price tag for what seem like loads of salad leaves and single mini-portions of everything that's remotely more substantial than the greens. We try the pomegranate drizzled salad (which is exquisite), an indo-iraqi potato cake (okay-ish but boring), a piece of a quiche-like dish (yummmyyyyy), another smattering of salad (okay-ish)and some other tiny morsels (which were not particularly memorable). The dressing on the salad leaves on the plate is unbelievably good (the best I've tasted in many years, and I begin to forgive the £23 pound price tag, but not quite ). The others are picking at the leaves on the plate too.. and no one seems to be eating very much else at all...

I bite into the artichoke carcioffini. It tastes pretty much like tempura-ed artichoke. The batter is light and wonderful. Completely at odds with what's inside.. The artichoke tastes weird and its smell reminds me of the gluesticks I used as a child. I want to walk up to the chef and ask him to stop ponce-ing around. How can someone who is clearly a very talented chef , just put together such random flavours? I love artichokes but my first experience of deep fried artichokes leaves me reeling . I can't help thinking ''if only he'd used that batter on a humble cauliflower or even a slice of onion!!! "

The chipotle mushrooms arrives with the dreaded polenta...It costs a hefty £14.25 and I'm hoping the mushrooms are good. The others at the table gracefully decline the dish and I (wo)manfully attack it while they try and quell their hunger with the side dishes they have nervously ordered.... The chipotle mushrooms are another mistake..I'm not too impressed with the gravy or the mushrooms or the combination of the smokey and mushroomy flavours.. it does neither mushroom nor sauce any good to be combined with the other....(I try to get the others to try it and none of them likes it either. ) I soon give up and head back to the salads on the mixed starter plate. We are really hungry now and just want a portion of something more substantial than just salad leaves. At some stage, we are offered home-made bread... the waitress seems rather annoyed when I take more than 1 roll and thanks to the dismissive look I sense the waitress is giving me, I'm back at school again..back to being a naughty school kid who's been told off for asking for more pudding.

The boyfriend requests the waitress to bring out the cake (M&S) at some point ..Finally she perks up - I cant help wondering if its because she's glad we're near the end of our meal. The cake is yummy - Its the second best thing we've eaten that evening other than the pomegranate salad / salad dressing.

We reach the end of the meal. The bill arrives and its just a fraction under £65 . Not too much at £15 a head for 3 courses. But then I remember - the starter wasn't particularly large, the main remained uneaten and we brought our own dessert... Hmmmm... not such a good deal after all...i guess...

When I go to a veggie restaurant I'm always secretly willing them to do really well. At The Gate, they have some of the ingredients but they've managed to let themselves down... The decor is nice but its spoiled by the distinctly soul-less service..The food exhibits technical brilliance coupled with what I feel is a complete lack of appreciation for the combination of flavours or menu items and yet, all it needs is someone to pull it together a bit !!!

We pay up and head outside... its still raining...and our waitress seems glad to see the back of us... As we hop into the car, the others suggest stopping somewhere on the way to get a bit of food because they're all still hungry...

Its been a very nice evening company-wise but this veggie restaurant certainly hasn't won over the carnivores at my table.

Its been a month now and I call back before writing this blog to ask for a copy of the October menu. Luckily, I get the helpful Aldo on the phone again. He fishes out the details and is pleasant and extremely helpful. I wonder if I was harsh on the food and service.. Aldo's pleasant manner makes me want to head back to the Gate to give it another try.. I'm hoping that the seasonally changing menu will offer me a better selection this month..l'd love to go back, but I certainly hope they've improved the food and service to justify the price tags. And this time, I'll have to find someone else to go there with.. !!!

www.thegate.tv

Who's the fussy veggie?

2008-11-27T13:20:00.004Z

Hello reader !!

I am a vegetarian and I love food.

I relish spending my hard-earned money in restaurants [in addition to finding good produce and cooking for friends and family at home]. Let me say it again - I love food !!! and I love eating out !!!!!!!

Lately though, (and I blame it on getting older - who says age brings wisdom and maturity??), I find that my visits to restaurants are getting more and more fraught and I often leave the restaurant wanting to thump someone !!

This , despite the fact, that London is fantastic for vegetarians. Unlike in Paris or Madrid, no one looks at you like you have a communicable disease when you say you are vegetarian. And you often get a lot more than a meal fit for cows !! A veggie can take his or her pick from the capital's finest and humblest restaurants - from those serving the ubiquitous mushroom risotto to those serving a Southern Indian speciality Dosa to those others serving burritos, fajitas, veggie sausages or the humble chip.

Then why do I still find myself complaining instead of being grateful, you ask !!

Well, because there are over 5 million vegetarians in the U.K. alone. If my friendly restaurateur wants to make money by serving 'vegetarian' food and I'm paying for it, I really do expect to get something good and something vegetarian. I find myself getting more and more reluctant to pay good money at a supposedly "good restaurant" and then figuring out , much to my dismay, that dishes labelled with the all-inclusive 'V' sign aren't really veggie-friendly.

Call me picky and fussy , but I find it hard to part with my money and then provide the table entertainment by spending half my meal-time at the restaurant (irritating my fellow diners) asking what seem like 'moronic' questions to waiting staff who wish they could stuff a turkey down the vegetarian's throat and get me to shut up !!

But being a serious veggie, I often find that I have no choice other than to be the table imbecile, who's trying to be awfully polite but asking the most annoying questions.

Is that supposedly-'vegetarian' risotto made using chicken stock ? Do you cook the veggie burger in the meat juices on your grill? Do you fry my veggie chips in the same oil as the meaty hors d'ouvres and the deep-fried squid?

Is this 'suitable for vegetarians'- labelled dish really vegetarian? It says it contains oyster sauce or that its made with Parmesan cheese. ("What's wrong with Parmesan cheese - for Christ's sake !!??, I hear my carnivore mates asking, shaking their heads in amazement at my silly question). Well most Parmesan contains animal rennet made using calves liver !! So, did you,Mr Restaurateur, really go out of your way to buy a vegetarian Parmesan to cook with?

Or (I hear the little niggly, meddlesome voice in my head asking) 'did you just mark that vegetarian because it sounded like it might be vegetarian and you thought the 'V' sign looked pretty and you thought you might thug me out of my money but serve me some tosh as the vegetarian option??'?..

And my horrified carnivore friends understandably hang their heads in misery and go " oh no, the fussy veggie strikes again!!")

This blogs charts the culinary highs, lows (and the many mediocre) moments of my fussy veggie jaunts around London . It owes a huge debt of gratitude to my friends, colleagues and family who still put up with me and my fussiness and still accept my invitations to 'dinner out' . Its also a time to acknowledge my debt to patient waiting staff who didn't bash me on the head or spit on my plate (well, who knows?? Maybe they did !!)

P.S. If you need to get in touch with me with suggestions of places to review, you can reach me at fussyveggie at googlemail.com. Please post any other comments directly alongside the relevant review !!