Omnivore turned Herbivore at Vanilla Black

I went herbivore the other day and sampled what is widely credited as London's best vegetarian restaurant. As you may have realised by now I am passionate about meat, but I honestly don't mind what food I eat, as long as its good. I have been to a few purely veggy restaurants and prepare some veggie meals for myself on the odd occasion.

However cooking with out harming animals is hard, the flavour of most dishes resides in fat and bone. As a rule fast cooked meats, your steaks, sausages and burgers rely on fat for flavour. While slow cooking meats such as shin of beef or chicken thigh rely on bones to add to the liquor/stock of stews and pies. So you can see vegitarian chefs have their work cut out pleasing me.

Vanilla Black is a charming restaurant just off chancery lane and offers a two course lunch for £18.50. Coming in you realise this is a rather posh veggie offering. Vanilla Black is a proper gourmet restaurant, the dishes look great and the wine list covers every eventuality. With offerings such as:

Starters
Whipped Jacket Potato and Crispy Shallots Tomato Syrup and Wensleydale Cheese
Roasted Onion Curds and Fried Sage Bread
Red Cabbage Cracker and Brown Buttered Chestnuts
 Mains
Double Baked Ribblesdale Pudding and Smoked CroquettePineapple Pickle and Poached Hen Egg
Deep Fried Pickled Egg with Chips and Beer GravyPiccalilli Vegetables and Curry Oil

The menu does speak to omnivores and I defy anyone not to find something they fancy off the Al la carte menu. I had the double baked ribblesdale pudding, the pineapple pickle. The Cheese and pickle paing married well with the smoky croquette and the richness of the egg. You can see the chefs have to work hard to inject flavour, using smoke, cheese, spices, gravies and reduced syrups to great affect. In these dishes they swap animal fat for cheese or egg (still animal fat, but no one died). Bone is swapped for smoke or reduced vegetable sauces to give those long lingering flavours. My friend, a vegetarian was very excited by the whole menu and loved the whole experience.

I have been to better vegetarian restaurants in Brighton and Bristol where larger portions or dished up but the flavours here were great. My only other gripe was the service and the wait between courses. Otherwise I would advise you to treat a herbivorous friend to a full choice gourmet menu in central London.


NB:
My other slight gripe with vegetarians is that they may not realise it but they are probably eating animal products everyday and not realising.

• Firstly the worst crime is puff pastry. In fact most pastries contain lard. That means croissants and danish pastries.
• Gelatine or E441 is made from animal bones and sets just about anything from jelly and ice cream to marshmallows. Vegetarian alternative is Agar-agar.
• Cheese is made using rennet to set the milk. Rennet can either be found in the stomach linings of animals or can be made from a vegetarian source. But any self respecting veggie should check. 
• Wine is filtered using animal "finings" used to remove proteins. Finings can be made from gelatin or even blood. Finings are removed before bottling and not all wine is fined but vegetarians should be aware. 
• Sliced white bread contains certain E numbers made from animal fat to make the bread last longer on the shelves. 

 Obviously all these products only contain small amounts of animal products and there are always veggie alternatives. But you'd be amazed how many herbivores don't know these facts.