Suchitra's Tunbridge Wells

71 Calverley Road,
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2UY Map
http://www.suchitras.com

During a conversation at the gym my wife was recommended a "Thai restaurant, just a bit further along from Mooli." Suchitra's seemed to fit the bill, so we paid a visit on Sunday evening.

The restaurant is nice and airy and the tables are a nice distance apart. It stretches a fair way back and has a sort of "garden area" with a large gold Buddha staring in through the window at you. It also appears to have a wine bar in the basement.

To start, I chose Tofu Tod, which was deep fried beancurd served with a chilli sauce. It was a fairly nice, but fairly standard Thai starter. My wife had Chicken Yum, which was chicken mixed with various Thai spices and salad. She said it was the best that she'd had since leaving Australia, seven years ago!

My main course was Fried Aubergine with Basil in a Yellow Bean Sauce. It was very nice, the aubergine had a nice texture and it was quite spicy but you could still taste the sweetness of the sauce. To accompany this, I had beansprouts with spring onions and mushrooms and fried rice with mint and chilli. Both were very nice, the beansprouts especially. My wife had Pad Coriander Chicken, which consisted of chicken, coriander and chilli, which she enjoyed.

The portions were generous, which meant that we were both too full for dessert. The service was friendly and efficient and the prices weren't bad either, with main course dishes being around £6-£7. We were both quite impressed and plan to go back sometime to try out some of the other dishes on the menu.

Cafe Spice Namaste, London

16 Prescot Street,
London E1 8AZ Map
http://www.cafespice.co.uk

Cyrus Todiwala is a regular on the various Saturday morning cookery programs and is the Executive Chef of the Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant in Aldgate. I've been wanting to go there for quite a while and the opportunity finally came up earlier this week.

The restaurant is about a five minute walk from Aldgate tube and seems to be an old school building or similar. We were seated in one of the corners and, although the room is fairly large, the atmosphere is still fairly intimate.

While we were waiting for our starters, we tucked into poppadoms with a selection of pickles. A couple of the pickles were really tasty. One of them I can only describe as a spicy Branston pickle, the other was quite fruity and tangy.

I started with a vegetarian selection of appetisers. These included a stuffed potato cake and Cyrus's famous Beetroot and Coconut Samosa. They were all really tasty, but I would certainly recommend the samosa.

For main course I had Paneer Shashlik Raiwalla. This is a dish very similar to ones I've had at other restaurants and is a combination of cheese, peppers, onions and tomatoes cooked on a skewer. One of the problems with this kind of dish, I've found, is because paneer cheese is fundamentally bland, when you have large chunks of it, the flavouring of it has to be good, otherwise the dish gets very boring. The spicing and flavouring of the cheese was absolutely spot on, and I could've eaten it all night.

To accompany it I had a dish from the specials menu that consisted of various pulses and nuts that was okay, and a dish with spiced pumpkin and aubergine that was much nicer.

My fellow diner had a barramundi dish that he said was better than the one he had at the Cinnamon Club.

The dessert menu arrived and it had a dish called Zafrani Creme Brulee, so I had no choice in the matter.

A short while later, a creme brulee turned up at our table. This was the first time I have ever had a creme brulee delivered that was on fire! It was quite spectacular as the blue flame licked its way across the dish. It tasted great too. The custard was of a nice consistency and it had a delicate cardamom flavour. It ranked 8.5.

The meal was very enjoyable and the service was very friendly and timely. There was always a waiter around when you needed one, but they weren't overly obtrusive during the meal, which was really good.

From my side of things, it was a little disappointing that there was only a single veggie main on the menu (wonderful though it was) although there were a host of veggie side dishes. Despite that minor niggle, I plan to go back sometime, hopefully in the not too distant future.

The French Laundry, Yountville, USA

6640 Washington Street, Yountville, USA
http://www.frenchlaundry.com/

The French Laundry was voted the World's Best Restaurant in 2004. Since then, it has remained in the top four and is best restaurant in America. I got the cookbook for Christmas and, although I've not made anything from it as yet, the recipes look wonderful.

So, when we booked our holiday in California I just had to try and get a reservation. If I could get it for my wife and I's wedding anniversary, then it would be just perfect.

The French Laundry only take reservations two months in advance, so for a couple of days in a row I was on the phone trying to get a table. Eventually I managed to book one for lunch on the day of our anniversary.

From then until the day we went I was excited and hoping that it would live up to all my expectations.

So, did it? You bet. And some...

We were seated just in front of the fireplace and our waiter wished us Happy Anniversary and introduced himself. We were then given the menus and the waiter explained them. The French Laundry has two nine course menus, The Chef’s Tasting and A Taste of Vegetables. Each menu changes daily, depending on the ingredients available which means that no two meals you have here will ever be the same. They also have a policy of only using an ingredient once in each menu, so that each course is a new experience.

My wife chose the Chef’s Tasting menu and I chose the Taste of Vegetables. Because of the ever changing menus, the French Laundry does not offer a set of wines matched to each course, instead the sommelier will talk you through the wine list recommending bottles that will match your selection. This was quite a difficult job as, for us, he had to find a wine that would match two different menus. But he did very well indeed. I can’t remember the wine selection, but he suggested that we started with champagne, have a half bottle of white between us for the first couple of courses, a red for the middle few and finish with a dessert wine.

Very shortly two small “ice cream” cones were delivered to the table. These were an amuse bouche, we were told of a salmon sorbet for my wife and a sundried tomato sorbet with fennel crème fraiche for myself. The flavours were great, it looked superb and it was an excellent start to the meal.

Then came the first course “proper”.

I had Tokyo Turnips, which consisted of baby turnips, perilla shoots (a kind of mint) and a pine nut puree. The turnips were sweet and crunchy and the pine nut puree was great.


My wife had Cauliflower Panna Cotta which came with caviar. She hadn't had caviar before and said that it tasted like a roast dinner.

Next up were a couple of salads. Mine was a Salad of English Cucumber which, as well as the cucumber, had charred scallions, avocado and was dressed with yogurt. Again (and you're going to to get fed up with me saying this) all of the ingredients were incredibly fresh and very well presented. The Chef's menu had a Salad of Big Island Hearts of Peach Palm which was accompanied with radishes, coriander shoots, a coconut "gelee" and a date coulis.


Next, I had Asperges Vertes en Feuille de Bric This consisted of asparagus (which has just come into season in California) the stalks of which were coated in a wonderfully light batter, pearl onions, lambs lettuce, Castelmagno cheese and a black truffle coulis. I will never be able to eat asparagus again without thinking of this dish - it was amazing.

My wife had Nicoise Olive-Crusted Fillet of Atlantic Halibut, which she enjoyed.

Next up was something that I thought just didn't sound right, Hand-Rolled Potato Gnocchi. It sounds okay so far, but it came with peas and a "Madras Curry Emulsion." Italy and India? Surely it couldn't work? It did. The curry flavour of the emulsion was very delicate (certainly not a "Madras" as we know it) and didn't interfere with the wonderful fresh crisp flavour of the peas, and the whole thing really worked well.

From the Chef's Menu, my wife had Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster "Mitts". These were accompanied by peas, white asparagus, mint, red chilli and passion fruit emulsion. The pink of the lobster, the green of the peas and the yellow emulsion meant it was a real feast for the eyes as well as the palette.

None of the portions were huge, but I never felt that they were that small either. After every course I was eager to see what the next delight would be. Every course was beautifully presented and both mine and my wife's were delivered together. The timing between courses was fairly short, but we never felt rushed.

Next on the menu was a "Fricassee" of Baby Artichokes. This consisted of tiny globe artichokes and baby carrots with a mustard vinaigrette. Again, it was the fresh taste of the vegetables that was most evident, perfectly accented by the vinaigrette.

The All Day Braised Kurobuta Pork Belly that my wife had was accompanied by a really smooth mashed potato, greens and maple syrup.

Next for me was a dish I was really looking forward to. Crispy Hen-of-the-Woods Mushroom. My previous experience of Hen-of-the-Woods was during the mushroom foray I did, where we discovered it at the foot of an oak tree.


The mushroom was really tasty and, as the description said, quite crispy which was quite an odd sensation for a mushroom.

My wife had Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Ribeye. She loves lamb and really enjoyed it.

And so, onto the cheese course.

I had Timanoix cheese with butternut squash, toasted pecans and maple syrup. My wife had Shropshire Blue with grapes, endive, watercress and green peppercorn "aigre doux". Both were lovely, but if I had to choose, then the Shropshire Blue would win. It was gloriously creamy with a lovely "sourness" that blue cheeses have.

Next up were a couple of sorbets. The Taste of Vegetables menu had a Sour Cherry Sorbet with Sesame Nougat and the Chef's menu has Diane St. Claire Buttermilk Sherbet with Field Rhubarb.

By now, it was time for dessert and we were realising that we were getting to the end of the meal.

Just before the dessert was delivered, a couple of small pre-desserts were delivered. My wife had a creme brulee and I had a sort of creamy set custard. The creme-brulee was nice (7.5) but had it been made with the custard that I had it would have topped the chart.

My dessert was Crepe Soufflee. This was essentially small banana pancakes and was served with Guinness ice cream. It was lovely and the ice cream, although a bit odd on its own complemented the bananas very well.


My wife's dessert was Granny Smith Apple "Bavarois" with Dijon mustard ice cream. As with the crepes, the ice cream on its own was very strange, but went very well with the apple. Once again, the presentation was wonderful.

Following the dessert were some petit fours and coffee. We were presented with an Easter Egg, some shortbreads, a French Laundry clothes peg that had been clipped to the napkin when we arrived and a copy of the menus.

To my delight, we were also invited to visit the kitchen.


It was interesting to see the chefs at work. There was none of the frantic action or cursing that we all have come to expect from being exposed to so many "Gordon Ramsay" reality TV programs, it was all very quiet and controlled.

So, that was it. The end of possibly the best meal I have ever had. It was certainly a fantastic way to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The setting of the restaurant is wonderful and the service is perfect. As a bonus, on that particular day, Yountville was having a wine festival, so after the meal we made our way there and were able to sample some more of the region's wines.

The French Laundry was a wonderful experience. I would love to go back if I ever get the chance. It's not cheap, but nowhere of this calibre is. The nine course menu is $240 and on top of that you have to add drinks. Luckily, service is included in the price, however we were so impressed that we left a bit more, a don't begrudge a penny (or cent) of it.

Greens, San Francisco, USA

Building A, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
http://www.greensrestaurant.com/

Greens is on the northern coast of San Francisco and looks out over the marina. If you are lucky to get a seat near the window, you can get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is a completely vegetarian restaurant with an ever changing seasonal menu.

We arrived early and had plenty of time to peruse the menu while we waited for the staff to finish setting the restaurant. Then we were shown to a table by the window - yay!

We started with a Mediterranean platter to share. It was really nice, with artichokes, hummus, quinoa and a gorgeous tomato chutney, the recipe of which is in the Everyday Greens cookbook, which was a good enough reason for me to buy a copy.

For mains my wife had a red curry and I had a vegetable filo dish. The red curry was nice, with a nice Thai-style flavour. The filo dish was good too with a nice selection of fresh vegetables, beautifully cooked.

For dessert I had an apple tarte tatin which was very tasty, although it would've been nicer if there had been a little more of it. My wife had a selection of sorbets that she wasn't that impressed with, describing them as "dry".

Despite that, we both had a really nice evening. The service was good, and the restaurant itself is comfortable, really airy and the view is great. If you're in San Francisco, it's definitely worth a visit.

California Dining

Well, not just California as we stopped off in New York for a few days before flying onto San Francisco. During our couple of weeks in the US we ate at some really nice places, some of which I'll mention below.

The House of Vegetarian - 68 Mott St, New York, USA
As the name suggests, this is a vegetarian restaurant in New York's Chinatown. The menu here reminded me of the Pink Giraffe in Oxford as it was mostly mock meat and fish. However, we decided to try their vegetable dishes rather than go for the veggie duck, fish, chicken etc. We had a few dishes, the best of which was braised broccoli in brown sauce. All the food was nice, but the broccoli stood out. Also, the portions were huge. A word of note - they only take cash, probably the only place that we went to in the US that did.


Katy's Place - Mission Street between 5th and 6th, Carmel USA
Katy's is well known for breakfast in Carmel and it's easy to see why. The menu is enormous and there are fifteen different versions of Eggs Benedict! So, obviously I had to try the veggie version. It was lovely. And huge. Three eggs, three muffins, mushrooms and home fries. Yumm!


Robin's Restaurant - 4095 Burton Drive, Cambria, USA
We visited Robin's last time we were here and I'm pleased to say it is still as good. I started with spring rolls and then had a tempeh laksa. Both were nice, but the tempeh wasn't needed in the laksa, it would've worked much better I think with shitake or oyster mushrooms.

For dessert I had a lemon creme brulee, which was really nice - a good 8.5 on the scale. It was good to see that Robin's was as good as we remembered.

CATAL 1580 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, USA
It was a nice surprise to find a restaurant as good as this in Disneyland. It was quite popular, but we didn't have to wait too long after putting our name down until we were called. The waiting staff were very knowledgeable of the menu and the service was great. The food was pretty good too.

I started with artichokes (I had a bit of an artichoke frenzy while I was in the US...) and my wife had scallops, both very tasty and well presented. For mains, I had a wild mushroom risotto, which was very tasty and had several different kinds of mushrooms and some truffle as a bonus!

Dessert consisted of a trio of small desserts which included an unpotted creme brulee (6) and a panna cotta. It was all very nice and the whole experience made a very nice end to our holiday.

Back to Boxwood

As promised in my December blog entry, I returned to the Boxwood Cafe to try out their Vegetarian Taste of Boxwood menu, and very good it was too. It is a six course menu (or seven if you opt for the cheese course) and can be matched with wines if you want it.

The first course was Jerusalem artichoke soup with roasted shallots. It was served in an espresso cup and was gorgeous. My Mum used to make a really sloppy concoction of artichokes and milk which I never liked, so it was really a revelation to have such a tasty dish.

Next up was Poached Burford brown egg, creamed potato and cep sauce. Again, this was great. The egg was perfectly cooked and the potato was really creamy and smooth. The cep sauce was divine and really complemented the egg.

After that was Baby beetroot, barrel aged feta, blood orange, pear and pine nut salad. The beetroot was sweet and the whole salad was really fresh and tasty.

I've not had white asparagus before, but my wife who works in Germany a lot of the time tells me that they say over there that it is much better than green asparagus. I was eager to test out the claim with the next course Grilled white asparagus, fontina cheese and barigoule vegetables.



To be honest, it was not that special. The asparagus was certainly not as tasty as the green asparagus, and it was only the cheese that gave the dish any real flavour. Also, I find it odd that all the top chefs harp on about seasonal cooking and here we have asparagus served up in March.

The next course was Risotto of roasted violet artichoke and herbs. Ahh, back to the good stuff. Perfectly cooked rice with gentle artichoke flavours. Wonderful.

Finally, for dessert there was Valrhona hot chocolate fondue, marshmallows, biscotti and fruit kebabs. Hold on! I hear you cry. Marshmallows on a vegetarian menu? Surely they have gelatine in them? I quizzed the waiter about this and he admitted that they did, indeed, contain gelatine. Tut, tut. Is this Ramsay's little joke? Still, no matter, I had the dessert without the marshmallows and it was lovely. The chocolate was gorgeous and wonderfully silky. The fruit (bananas, raspberries and blueberries) was wonderfully fresh and tasty.

We had wines matched to each course and these were really nice, especially the sparkling red Bouvet-Ladubay that we had with the dessert -it was really different. The service, as you would expect, was superb and really friendly. It was a great evening, and I'd quite happily go back sometime.

The Pink Giraffe, Oxford

43b St Clements Street
Oxford OX4 1AG Map

http://www.thepinkgiraffe.com/

If you've got an aversion to "mock" meat products then the Pink Giraffe is probably not the place for you. As well as the "vegetarian" chicken, beef, pork, ham and duck it has bean curd and vegetable dishes on the menu. It is the most extensive vegetarian menu I have ever see at a Chinese restaurant.

They offer several set menus, including ones for meat, vegetarian and vegan.

We chose to have one of the vegetarian ones and started with a very spicy vegetarian Tom Yum soup, that was absolutely packed with vegetables. This was followed by salt and peppered bean curd and "vegetarian chicken" satay.

Once we'd finished this, "vegetarian beef" in black bean sauce, "vegetarian chicken" in wine and hot garlic sauce, bean curd in yellow bean sauce and rice were delivered to the table. It was all quite tasty, but there was probably a little to much of the mock meat for me, I would've preferred a few more vegetable dishes mixed in.

Given that it is now around fifteen years since I gave up meat, my memory of what it tastes and feels like is probably pretty bad. However, the textures brought back a few memories and the "beef" was scarily real. However you feel about meat substitutes. if you look at it just as an ingredient to add texture and taste to a meal, then it works quite well in these dishes.

The portions were a good size, and I was too full for any dessert. With drinks and a tip, the meal was about £20 per head, which I think was a bargain.

Mooli, Tunbridge Wells

57 - 59 Calverley Road,
Tunbridge Wells TN1 2UY Map

http://sherpakitchen.com/2_Mooli/page/home.php

One of our favourite restaurants when I lived near Edenbridge was the Gurkha Kitchen in Oxted. When Atul Kochhar, of Benares mentioned in an Observer interview that it was in his top five Indian restaurants in the UK, we were really pleased for them.

When I heard that they were opening a sister restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, called Mooli, it was immediately put on our list of places to visit.

We popped in on Saturday evening shortly after they opened on the off-chance that they might be able to fit us in. They said that we could have a table until 8pm, which suited us fine.

While we were perusing the menu, we were presented with spicy poppadums and pickles. Personally, I would have preferred plain poppadums as the spices detracted from the taste of the pickles, a couple of which were very good.

The menu is very similar to the Gurkha Kitchen, and I started with Dayalu, potato cakes made with lentils, spinach and fresh herbs, served with sesame pickle. They were very tasty. My wife had prawns, which she said were lovely and went extremely well with the mint puree that they were served with.

For the main course, we both chose dishes that were favourites in Oxted. I had Chayu which was mushrooms filled with lightly spiced cheese, peppers, tomatoes and onions, served on a sizzling platter. They had a sweet spicy flavour and were just as good as I remember. My wife had a lamb dish, which she said was really good. To accompany the main courses we had beans and cabbage in soy sauce, and potatoes and courgettes in a spice and herb sauce. The beans were great and went really well with the mushrooms, providing a nice counterpoint for the spicy/sweet filling of the mushrooms. The potatoes, were nothing to write home about, next time we're there I shall try something else. We also tried out the Patina Patre, an unleavened bread with mint, which made a pleasant change to a plain naan.

It took a while for the dessert to arrive, but when it did, we found out why. My wife chose a fruit platter, which was huge! It had banana, red and green grapes, apple, pineapple, orange and kiwifruit, all of which were sliced and presented nicely - the pineapple especially. This is really a dish to share.

I had heard good things about the Holy Sweet -grated carrots cooked in milk, honey and nuts and served with vanilla ice cream. I always like to try something a little different if its on the menu. The aubergine dessert I had at Tas is still something I still talk about and I have to say, Holy Sweet is probably going to be the same. It was gorgeous, tasting similar to a sticky toffee pudding. It was also nice to see little dots of real vanilla seeds in the ice cream.

The food was great and presented nicely and the service was good. An apology for the delayed dessert came without prompting and a dropped spoon was retrieved and replaced almost without me noticing.

So, what was the damage? For the food, a couple of white wines and a cobra (well you have to, don't you?) and service, it came to about sixty quid. Not bad at all and we're both keen to go back.

Return to Thackerays

Last weekend, my wife and I had the chance to return to Thackerays along with an ex-collegue of mine and her husband. We had decided beforehand that we would go for the tasting menu and I gave them a call during the week before to ask if they would do a vegetarian tasting menu for me. I was told that it would be no problem and I spent the next few days in anticipation of what I would get.

The only table we could book was fairly early and when we arrived they were still getting the restaurant ready, so we sat in the bar with a drink while we chose which options we would have from the menu. Thackeray's have a vegetarian menu, and for the tasting menu I had one of the starters as an appetiser and the other as a starter. I then had a choice from the mains section of the menu, and would then join the others for a choice of desserts.

Very shortly, we were shown to our table, and once we were comfortable, a truffled mushroom veloute amuse bouche arrived. It was served in an espresso cup, which was lucky as it was deliciously rich and it would have been very difficult to have a lot of it.

Next came the appetiser. I had chosen to have a butternut squash risotto which was lovely and this was followed by a starter of goats cheese and beetroot parfait, which I had had on my last visit.

This was followed by a lemongrass granita which was extremely refreshing and left my pallette cleansed ready for the next course.

For the main course I had an open ravioli of mixed vegetables which had a really interesting mix of sweet and sour flavours. It was very enjoyable.

For dessert I had Chocolate, Hazelnut and Banana Torte which was very nice, and I also had a taste of the Apple Tarte Tatin which was really delicious.

We decided to have the accompanying wines that were matched to the food, and they worked very well. One surprise was a Pinot Noir that accompanied the monkfish that my wife had, but she said it worked.

The food was really good - there is nothing to match it in Tunbridge Wells - however, the service this time was slightly lacking. None of the wine glasses were removed from the table, meaning that by the end of the night we each had half a dozen of them sitting in front of each of us. There was a long wait for coffee and then a longer wait for the petit fours, which really should have arrived with the coffee. Thackeray's used to have a Michelin star, and this is something they'll have to brush up on if they are to get it back.

Apart from that, it was a truly enjoyable night, there was no pressure to leave which meant that we all had plenty of time to catch up on the latest gossip over some good food and wine.

Quilon, London

41 Buckingham Gate
London
SW1E 6AF Map

http://www.thequilonrestaurant.com/

I guess its unfair to say that if Quilon didn't have a Michelin Star I would have enjoyed the meal more, but it's true. During my meal there, I was waiting for the "special something" that would put Quilon on par with Benares (which has a star) and above the Cinnamon Club (which doesn't) but it never arrived.

If, as Fay Mashler suggested in the Evening Standard, Michelin feel that they should give their stars to Asian restaurants to stave off criticism of a French bias, it really devalues their brand. Let us hope that this is not the case.

So, ratings aside, how was the food?

Well, on the whole it was good. I would recommend the egg paratha, which I can only describe as a paratha with an extremely thin omellete inside, and the mashed aubergine part of the Two Type Aubergine dish was excellent, but some other parts of the meal were disappointing - the poppadums tasted a bit stale and one of my fellow diners was very disappointed with his Avyal.

The rasam, that we were presented with between courses was very good - we all agreed on that.

The dessert menu was fairly uninspiring, and none of us were tempted.

The service was fine, a spilt drink was efficiently dealt with, and the food arrived quickly.

We had a good time, but there just wasn't that special something I've come to expect that lifts "starred" restaurants above the normal "run-of-the-mill" restaurant.

Kwan Thai, London

The Riverfront, Hay's Galleria,

London Bridge, SE1 2HD Map

http://www.kwanthairestaurant.co.uk/

For Valentines Day, my wife and I went to Kwan Thai, a Thai restaurant that overlooks the Thames in Hays Galleria, near London Bridge. The vegetarian menu on the a la carte is quite large, however unfortunately we only had the choice of the set Valentines Day menu.

For starters I had a spicy mushroom salad that wasn't bad. It was nicely presented in four lettuce leaves, but parts of it was a bit vinegary. My wife had marinated deep fried crabs, that she said tasted "a bit like medicine" when you got to the middle.

Then we had a soup course, sweetcorn and asparagus (in February?) for me and pork and egg noodle for the missus. There's not much I can say about them, they were nothing special.

For main course I had a Thai Green Vegetable curry which was good, and my wife had a large portion of chicken breast with garlic and pepper sauce, that she said was okay. These were accompanied with a pineapple fried rice served in a pineapple skin and stir fried greens (bok choy and the like) in soy sauce. The greens were lovely, they had a really smokey flavour.

We finished off the meal with a dessert of Thai Crepes with strawberry sauce and ice cream. The crepes were really nice and we both agreed that this was the best dish of the evening.

We had a good table upstairs where we could gaze out across the river and the service was okay - a lot of the reviews I've read mention that the place has rude waiters/waitresses, but we saw nothing of this. The set menu was £30 a head plus tip (12.5% added to bill) and drinks. We'll probably go back sometime to try the a la carte.

Another Culinary Tour of Tunbridge Wells

A while ago, I reviewed a few of the restaurants and cafes in my home town of Tunbridge Wells. Since then, my wife and I have sampled many more establishments, so I thought its was time for another round up.

ID, 26 London Road Map
ID has a nice extensive menu, including vegetarian options and a veggie set menu, although some of the dishes come with oyster sauce, so you'd need to check these to see whether they are using the “Vegetarian Oyster Sauce” that you can get that is made with mushrooms. The service was good, and the food was very tasty. They have an outside patio area that may be nice during the warmer months.

Junahki, 63 St Johns Road Map
The thing that stood out for me was the service. After waiting in the bar area for a few minutes, we were shown to our table which was already set with poppadums and pickles – a nice touch. The food was tasty and there were plenty of veggie options.

Himalayan Ghurka, 31 Church Road Map
I was a little disappointed with the Himalayan Ghurka. I was expecting the kind of food that I used to get at the Ghurka Kitchen, a Nepalese restaurant in Oxted, but it was pretty much standard Indian fayre. There was plenty of it however, and the service was fine, although the waiter could give us absolutely no advice on the wine list.

Woods , 62 The Pantiles Map
We went here for breakfast one weekend. The service was good and the food, I had Eggs Florentine – poached eggs with English muffins, hollandaise sauce and spinach, was really nice.

Pleasant Sandwich Bar, 7 Mount Pleasant Road Map
This is your fairly basic no-frills greasy spoon, but if you want a cheap filling “Full English” then this is the place to go.

Coffee House, Mount Pleasant Road Map
We tried the Coffee House for breakfast one morning. It's neater and tidier than its near next-door-neighbour, the Pleasant Sandwich Bar, but I preferred the “Pleasant”.

New Diamond, 51 Grosvenor Rd Tunbridge Wells Map
This is my “local” Chinese takeaway. They do a really huge selection of veggie dishes and a great veggie set menu. The Aubergines in Black Bean Sauce is a particular favourite of mine.

McDosa, 49 Grosvenor Rd Tunbridge Wells Map
I've only had a takeaway from here once. The dosa was great, but the rest of the meal I had was nothing special.

Java Bean Café, 67-69 High St Map

It's generally a toss-up whether to go here or Carluccio's for breakfast, and the Java Bean often wins, mostly on price. The juices that they do are really refreshing and the breakfasts are tasty. The service could be better, often there seems to be a lot of staff standing around unsure what to do.

Café Divine, 5 Castle St Map
I discovered this independent coffee-shop on Delocator, a website well worth a visit if you're fed up with the Starbuck's and Costa's that are taking over our high streets. And Café Divine is worth a visit too. The service is friendly and the coffee is superb!

Tas, London

72 Borough High Street,

London SE1 1LL Map

http://www.tasrestaurant.com/

Tas is a Turkish restaurant near Borough Market. I went here a couple of years ago so its definitely time for an update.

We managed to get a table on a Friday night for eight of us, which was pretty lucky. The menu is quite large with several set meals that you can choose from. They also do a group menu, that will give you a selection of starters followed by the main of your choice.

We decided to grab a selection of starters to share around the table and then choose a main course each. The starters included Hummus, Enginar - artichokes with carrots, potatoes and beans, Patlican Slatasi - aubergine puree, Dolma - stuffed vine leaves and several salads. They were all nice, especially the Enginar and the Patlican.

The menu has quite a large vegetarian main course section (about a dozen dishes) and after quite a while, I finally decided on Baklali Enginar. This was similar to the Enginar that was part of the starter selection, but more spicy. The dish consisted of globe artichoke bases, presumably boiled, that were filled with tomatoes, potatoes and broad beans. These were all in a gorgeous sauce that had just a hint of spicyness about it.

I decided not to have a dessert -I'm sad to say that the cubed aubergine is no longer part of the dessert menu, but I did get a taste of the chocolate cake, which was very nice.

The service was fairly good, and they were very accommodating when two extra people turned up making our initial party of six, a party of eight. Pricewise, it isn't bad either, especially considering its location, just a stones throw from Borough Market and London Bridge station.

For a veggie on a night out with collegues, it was really nice to end up at a restaurant that had a really good and tasty vegetarian selection. If you're in the London Bridge area, I would definitely suggest giving Tas a try.

Gaztronomy Top Ten 2007

My wife and I love eating out. Since becoming vegetarian 15 or so years ago, my diet (believe it or not) has expanded as I found new ingredients and flavours to replace the "meat and two veg" diet that I had been brought up on.

Over the last few years the vegetarian food in restaurants has improved no end. No longer is the ubiquitous vegetable lasagne the only choice available, many restaurants are now offering exciting and tasty meat-free meals as part of their menu.

Some of the top chefs now offer amazingly imaginative and tasty food now in their restaurants and this is a list of my favourites that I visited in 2007.

1. Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons
The afternoon we spent at Raymond Blanc's two Michelin Star restaurant was superb. The food and the setting were spectacular and it was wonderful to go back there to cook on one of their courses.

2. La Ginestra
I visited this organic restaurant during the course I did in Tuscany. Having previously toured the farm, it was wonderful to eat their home grown produce at their restaurant.

3. Thackerays
The best restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, no question. The food was imaginative and the service was great.

4. Boxwood Cafe
A Gordon Ramsay restaurant that has a vegetarian menu? And an impressive one at that. You'd better believe it!

5. Neal Street
Sadly, Antonio Carluccio's flagship restaurant has now closed, leaving a big hole in Covent Garden. I visited it just before it closed and had a fabulous meal there.

6. Locanda Locatelli
This is my wife's (who doesn't suffer from the same meat-free affliction that I have...) current favourite restaurant. There's not a lot of veggie stuff on the menu, but what there is, is fab. The atmosphere and service make this a cut above the rest.

7. Raj Pavillion
I think this is the best Indian restaurant in Tunbridge Wells. It has a really varied menu and the service when we went was great.

8. Terre a Terre
Brighton's no 1 veggie restaurant really shows what you can do with veggie food.

9. Carluccio's
For a chain of restaurants, Carluccio's is superb. The food and good service are consistant across all the branches I've been too and, on the odd occasion when thing haven't quite gone to plan, they have sorted it out with a "customer comes first" attitude that is all too rare these days.

10. Imli
Imli's "Indian Tapas" experience makes for an exciting and interesting meal, and the prices considering its London location, are extremely good.

Rasa W1, London

6 Dering Street

London W1S 1AD

http://www.rasarestaurants.com/

Just off Oxford Street is Rasa W1. It used to be a totally vegetarian Indian restaurant, but has now added some meat and seafood dishes to the menu. However, it is still a real haven for veggies as there is a wealth of meat-free dishes to choose from.

This was another Toptable booking, and as soon as I mentioned my name we were shown to our reserved table.

We ordered some snacks to start which consisted of a selection of pappadom type "crisps" including Achappam, a flower shaped snack made of rice flour and coconut, black sesame seeds and cumin seeds, Pappadavadai, pappadoms dipped in a light batter of rice flour, cumin and sesame seeds and fried, Banana Chips and Murukku, crunchy sticks made from roasted rice flour, black sesame seeds and cumin seeds. These were accompanied by small bowls containing garlic pickle, lemon pickle, mixed vegetable pickle, mango pickle, pickle coconut chutney and coriander chutney.

For starters we chose the Rasa Platter a selection of vegetarian starters that consisted of battered banana slices served with peanut and ginger sauce, fried potato balls served with a creamy coconut chutney, fried battered aubergine slices with a fresh tomato chutney and a spongy dumpling served with coconut chutney.

Both the snacks and the starters were really nice, especially the banana slices. We were still finishing the snacks when the starters arrived and I was worried at this point that we might be too full to enjoy the rest of the meal, but despite the batter dumplings and potatoes, it all seemed to be quite light.

For the main course I ordered Beet Cheera Pachadi which, according to the menu is traditionally only served at wedding feasts. It consists of fresh beetroot and spinach in a coconut yoghurt sauce. It was very pink and tasted great.

Also on the table were a spinach and toor dal, stir fried savoy cabbage and rasam, a lentil soup which we poured over the rice. It was really good.

On the side we also shared some rice pancake things that were ideal for mopping up the various sauces.

By the end of the night we were all pleasantly full, but not overfull. The service throughout the night from the moment we walked in, to the time we left was really friendly and very efficient.

The whole meal, including drinks and tip (which was included in the bill) came to just over thirty quid each which wasn't bad at all.

If you're in Oxford Street and get a hankering for a curry, then Rasa W1 is definitely worth a visit.

Food for Friends, Brighton

17-18 Prince Albert Street
The Lanes, Brighton BN1 1HF

http://www.foodforfriends.com/

Having been recommended the veggie roast at Food for Friends by my acupuncturist, we decided that, despite being on a New Year diet a visit to Brighton for Sunday lunch was in order.
So, at high noon, we turned up at the restaurant just as they were turning the sign from "Closed" to "Open". Food for Friends doesn't take bookings at weekends so we thought we'd get there early. As it was, there were another two parties that entered with us, which isn't bad for a vegetarian restaurant on a cold Sunday in January.

Food For Friends is often thought of as Brighton's "other" vegetarian restaurant after Terre a Terre. However, as the website points out, Food for Friends is Brighton's original vegetarian restaurant and was established in 1981. I've been past it a few times before in years past and have never been tempted by the menu as it always seemed to be part of the "nuts and lentils" side of veggie food.

Not any more, however. The menu is much more up to date, with many Asian influences apparent.

So, what of the meal?

I decided to go with the Sunday lunch special. For starters I had a Curry coconut soup. It was very pleasant, not too spicy, very much in the standard pumpkin/carrot and coriander mould. My wife decided to go for something off of the a la carte menu and chose Hot and Spicy Tom-Ka, which was a hot lemongrass infused tom-ka soup with chestnut mushrooms and shredded spring onions served with steamed jasmine rice. I had a taste and it was great! Nicely spiced without overwhelming the Asian spices.

For main course my wife decided to stay with the Asian theme and ordered a dish called flash in the pan which was shitaki and cashew nuts stir-fried with garlic, ginger and shallot, sweet potato and mixed vegetables served on nori with a crispy vermicelli nest and rice noodles. There was a lot of it and after eating about half of it she said she was now bored as the whole dish tasted the same. I had a taste, and it was nice but I can imagine that without any variation in flavours it would become quite boring to eat after a while.


I decided to have the roast. I had a choice of a Mushroom and Cashewnut roast or Butternut squash spinach Brazil nut and mixed mushroom strudel. Both were served with roast potatoes, glazed parsnips, red cabbage, swede and carrot mash, broccoli, yorkshire pudding red wine and date gravy.

I decided on the strudel. Again, there was plenty of it. And very tasty it was too. The red cabbage was especially nice - it had a sort of Chinese five-spice flavour to it. The mash was really smooth and the strudel was very nice indeed and had a nice texture, with pumpkin seeds giving a nice crunch to it now and again. The gravy was quite sweet, but very nice and theroast potatoes mopped it all up nicely.

By now, we were both too full for dessert. The bill came to forty-four quid for the two of us, including drinks (a couple of non alcoholic cocktails and a coke) and tip. The service was good, the only complaint I had was the screaming kids with the diners next to us. We will be going back sometime to try other dishes on the menu, possibly in the evening when the kids should be in bed...

Boxwood Cafe, London

The Berkeley
Wilton Place
Knightsbridge
LONDON SW1X 7RL

http://www.gordonramsay.com/boxwoodcafe/

My nephew is a bit of a Gordon Ramsay fan, so I decided that I would take him to the Boxwood Cafe for his sixteenth birthday. We made our way to Hyde Park Corner and thence to the Berkley Hotel, home of the Boxwood Café. This was my nephew's first visit to London and he was quite overwhelmed by the crowds, the tube and general noise of the big smoke. He's also not that adventurous with food (although better than he used to be) which is why I chose Boxwood as the least imtimidating of the Ramsay stable to introduce him to fine cuisine.

After our coats were taken we were shown downstairs to our table, walking past Stuart Gillies who was sat in the mezzanine area chatting to a couple of punters. Downstairs, the restaurant "proper" has quite a relaxed and, although I can't say informal - it's certainly not formal or stuffy, atmosphere.

We were given three menus each (3 course set menu for £25 a head, Taster (of which they do a veggie version too) at £55 per head and the a la carte) We decided to go a la carte.

For starters I chose a beetroot, pear and feta cheese salad. Very nice indeed. There were a couple of different kinds of beet and tucked in amongst the various layers were some slithers of shallott that gave the dish some nice pockets of different flavours. My nephew had a pea and leek tart of which I tried a small piece and have to say it was extremely nice - very light and creamy. He loved it.

For main course I had Ravioli of Italian winter squash with caramelized hazelnuts, parmesan, goat’s curd and soft herbs, and my nephew had Roasted loin of suckling pig with garlic roasted potatoes and grain mustard sauce.

The ravioli was delicate and perfectly cooked. The sauce was very similar to my saffron sauce (although a bit more watery…) and the pumpkin was sweet without being too sweet.

My nephew proclaimed his pork to be superb and he ate every bit, except for a small strip of crackling. As is my wont these days, I asked the sommellier to match a glass of wine to each meal. My nephew had a claret and I had an oaked chardonnay. The chardonnay went very well with the pasta, and my nephew said that the dry fruitiness of the claret cut nicely through the fattiness of the pork… (or was that the sommellier?) Anyway, he drank it all.


And so, to dessert. I had mentioned the reason for the visit when confirming the booking, and we were both delighted when his dessert (a chocolate fondue with marshmallows, biscotti and fruit) turned up with a candle in one of the marshmallows and "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate around the plate. Apparently it tasted pretty good too, as another empty plate would testify.

Myself, I plumped for banana sticky toffee pudding, which was quite simply the best sticky toffee pudding I've had. A coffee and bill later (£110 including tip) we left full and very happy.

I'm keen to try the veggie taster menu, so I'll be back there sometime in the New Year to give it a try.

Munich/Salzburg

Last weekend my wife and I made our annual trip to the German Christmas markets. This year we also took a trip to Salzburg in Austria to the markets there.

Munich has a vegetarian restaurant called Prinz Myshkin, which I've visited a few times before. This time however, the service was very slow - to the point that we decided not to have dessert despite the fact that there was a dish consisting of three different creme brulees! Having taken a hour and a half to serve us a starter and main, we decided that we just didn't have enough time to waste waiting for dessert.

The food that we did have was good, but it was disappoining to see that the menu has hardly changed in the three years that we've been visiting Munich.

We also went to Salzburg in Austria for a day where we discovered a host of different cuisines. As well as the normal restaurants offering various types of sausages and other meats, there were Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants. And all within a stone's throw of the cathedral in the old part of the city. We chose an Italian called Trattoria Da Pippo. We got there at just the right time as it began to fill up just as we were seated. We started with a really good cream of tomato soup, and the had pizzas which were very good. The service was good and the prices not bad either. If you're in Salzburg, you could do worse than visit Da Pippo.

Terre a Terre, Brighton (revisited)

71 East Street,

Brighton,

East Sussex BN1 1HQ

http://www.terreaterre.co.uk/

I last went to Terre a Terre in June 2006. This year, a friend and I made the trip down to Brighton on a very windy night. It was my friends first visit and I was hoping that it would be as good as my last trip.

From the front, Terre a Terre is fairly unassuming. However, once inside it opens up to reveal quite a sizeable restaurant with polished wooden floors and wooden tables. Upon arrival, we were given the choice of sitting at the large open area towards the rear of the restaurant which is quite noisy or one of the four tables near the front, where it was quieter. We opted for the latter and duly took our seats and were presented with the menu.

Choosing starters was easy as Terre a Terre offer a "tapas" of starters that includes most of the starters on the menu and more. Mains were more difficult as we wanted all of them… So, we ordered some wasabi cashews as an appetiser, drinks and the starters hoping that by the time the waiter had returned with the drinks and nuts we would have decided. And, as luck would have it, we had. So, we ordered dishes called "Fundamentally Fungus" and "Poke Mole and Turtle Soup." Oh, and a side of Smoky Scrunch Chips with Bang Bang Salt.

The wasabi cashews, although quite expensive for what they are, were fab. Not too hot, but just enough to give a pleasant kick and to keep you busy until the starters arrive. I guess its one of those indulgences you just have to try.

The starters arrived on rather a large plate and the waitress explained what each of the dishes were. Now, my memory is a little fuzzy on the exact contents, but here goes. There was sushi, Mushroom cappuccino and parmesan doughnuts, Spiced puff cakes and charred aubergine, sweet potato fritters, tandoori halloumi, various leaf and grain salads and foccacia bread. I'm sure there was more, but my memory fails me. It was all very nice, especially the tandoori halloumi and the sushi. It was also very filling and I was worried at one point that I may not be able to fully sample the rest of the menu.

There was a bit of a mix up when they delivered the wrong main courses. However, this was remedied quickly and politely and we both tucked into our not-insubstantial main courses.

My main was titled Fundamentally Fungus and the menu described it as "big rich mixed wild mushroom merlot regout, tarragon strands and shallots crammed into polenta crumb collars served with salsify frizz, roast barley buttered black cabbage toasted hazelnut milk and creamy mashed potatoes." And that's pretty much what it was. The mushrooms tasted very similar, if not the same, as the "mushroom cappucino" in the starter "tapas" and were served inside a polenta tube (for want of a better description) which was a very imaginative and tasty way of using polenta, one of the worlds most boring ingredients. The same mushrooms were also on the plate separately. The cabbage was lovely and the salsify "frizz" (foam) was divine. The creamy mashed potatoes were indeed creamy and extremely nice.

My friend had Poke Mole and Turtle Soup which consisted of sweet potato fritters served with a poke chipotle gazpacho, avocado mousse, lime oil and warm spice corn. The sweet potato fritters were, again, similar if not the same as the ones on the starter plate, and the gazpacho was quite spicy. The "bang bang" chips that we had to accompany the meal are a "must have" if you're ever here and come with a wickedly spiced guacamole, despite the fact that we were too full to finish all of them.

At this point, dessert looked an impossibility, but after looking at the dessert menu, we decided that we would "go for it". So, shortly afterwards "Bananas and Custard" and "Rain Vodka Cherry Chocolate Churros" were brought to the table. The bananas were caramelised and accompanied by custard, almond fried rice pudding, muscavado ice cream and a whisky and vanilla syrup. Apart from the rice pudding, which was tasty when first bitten, but then with every subsequent chew, became bland and glutinous, it was superb.

The cherries, although not to my taste, were pronounced a dessert marvel by my friend, especially when a cherry, accompanied by a piece of churro was then dipped into the chocolate and then eaten. Even I subscribe to this fact. Though I didn't like the cherries on their own, when eaten in combination with the chocolate and churro, they were very, very good.

This was then followed by a coffee (and I was delighted to find somewhere in England that serves "flat whites" - a milky coffee I came to love in Australia) and the bill which came (with tip) to a round ton.

Sure, its not cheap, but Terre a Terre has lifted itself above the usual "nuts & lentils" vegetarian restaurant. This is a restaurant that creates imaginative and tasty food that just doesn't need meat or fish.

Having been here before, I thought that this time the meals were much more "complete meals" rather than my last visit where you received a plate that seemed to consist of separate small tasters that ended up with too many ingredients and tastes on the same plate.

As a vegetarian, it is quite exciting to see a menu of this calibre where I can eat everything. However, as mentioned before, the prices mean that I am unlikely to frequent Terre a Terre that regularly, so if the tapas style starter idea was extended to a tasting menu where one could sample examples of many of the courses, I would be an eternally happy bunny.

I also think that a slight redesign of the restaurant would make for a slightly better dining experience. Although where we were sat was fairly quiet, being quite close to the door we did get disturbed by diners that were coming in later in the evening and standing around waiting for tables. By using this area as a waiting area on busy nights, serving drinks while the tables are made up etc the dining experience could easlily be improved, and quite possibly, more money made.

Also, the back of the restaurant, due to the open space, is quite noisy so white table cloths could help deaden the sound as well as giving it that more "high class restaurant" feel that it undoubtably deserves.

Benares, London

12a Berkeley Square House
Berkeley Square
London, W1J 6BS

http://www.benaresrestaurant.com

Benares is a Michelin starred Indian restaurant in Berkley Square, run by Atul Kotcher, who you may have seen on tv in such programs as the Great British Menu.

The restaurant itself is comfortably lit with the tables well spaced. It's not too noisy, so holding a conversation is fairly relaxed.

This was another TopTable deal, three courses for £30 from a special menu. As the menus are restricted to two or three choices (or a single one if, like me, you do not eat meat or fish) it gives you the chance to try dishes that maybe you wouldn't choose from the menu normally.

For starters my choice was a tomato and goats cheese salad. Not something I would have normally chosen, and it was really quite surprising. What arrived on the plate was pretty much a Caprese Salad, except that it had goat's cheese instead of mozzarella. On first taste it tasted like a Caprese Salad too, but then very subtle Indian flavours started to appear that were fantastic. I've never had anything like it, it was quite amazing.

For main course, I had a red rice pumpkin risotto. Once again this had a sort of Italian/Indian flavour to it. The texture was just like a risotto, but it was nicely flavoured with Indian spices. Dessert was a panna cotta, which was perfectly set and had a really delicate flavour.

To accompany the meal, we had a complimentary glass of house wine, coffee and petit fours. We also matched wines from the wine list to the meals, which had he effect of doubling our bill. But we didn't mind, the sommelier picked some good wines which matched the food perfectly.
If you don't go silly on the wines like us, then this Toptable offer is great. Even if you do, then the food is still good value. The food at Benares is lovely, the service spot on and the surroundings are very pleasant.