The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant, Hammersmith

For our 1st anniversary Rosemarie and I had a meal at The Gate. It’s one of those places with a great reputation that has been recommended to me but I never quite made it to. Now we live another 10 miles away, of course we have.

Finding our way their was slightly strange, it’s just around the corner from the Hammersmith Apollo, but on a very residential street. It’s not until you are right on top of it that the hidden little entrance is obvious. You enter via their beautiful garden which has a patio with space to sit and eat. After having looked at the upstairs, one giant if well decorated room, we decided to eat outside.

They had an excellent selection of drinks but were all out of vegan beer due to a large party upstairs. However they did happily offer us still, sparkling and tap water. It’s nice to be given the choice without feeling embarressed. We started with the mezze platter of the vegan starters. We were enthralled with this eclectic dish. While the Caesar Salad was lacking the Thai Salad was well balanced with the crushed peanuts. The broadbean falafel was just great, however the crowning glory were the indo-iraqi potato cakes. I think these will be my start on our next visit, despite the quality of some of the other options these stood out head and shoulders.

For the entreé we opted for the Cajun Aubergine and the Shitake Won-Ton & Pumpkin Laksa. The laksa was of a good standard, the won-tons especially but it was missing some pizzaz. Perhaps I’m jaded by the amount of Thai food I cook at home. The Cajun aubergine had a good flavour although there was a hint too much chilli in something, we think it was the guac. The roasted okra in complemented the roast aubergine well however some of the okra were a tad stringy which somewhat ruined the effect.

For desert we had a pineapple & chilli crumble. I found this to be an interesting dish. I enjoyed the heat of the chilli with the sweet tart pineapple. However, I thought they used too much chilli as they were in visible strips in the base. The pineapple was also a bit sweet, which I think led to Rosemarie’s thoughts It’s like tinned pineapple topped with granola with some chilli thrown in. It’s way too hot. Not quite damning, but close. I think I’m more of a sucker than her for anything with heat.

Despite the food going gently down hill after the starter the atmosphere was good and it was refreshing to talk the duty manager. He was extremely friendly and we have a very pleasant chat about our favourite veggie restaurants. I’m definitely going to look at going back to The Gate, however I think I’m going to be more fussy about what I pick from the menu.

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