Roast, The Floral Hall, Stoney Street, London, SE1 1TL

Before starting this blog I never imagined that Lord of the Flies would be so relevant, but as this will be the second time that it rears its ugly head, I guess that I should just accept that for me, all bad food experiences are synonymous with this book...or at least some reminder of it...wait, scratch that last bit. You'll find out why in a moment. 

I fully understand that for a vegetarian, venturing into a place called 'Roast' and expecting a plethora of choices is somewhat similar to a midget trying to buy clothes at Long Tall Sally. 

With that in mind lets review the choices that they did offer:

At first glance the list looked impressive - 3 starters and 3 mains! Monsieur, with 6 choices you are really spoiling us. 

Sadly, Monsieur was not spoiling anyone. 

The 3 starters on offer: chilled mint pea soup, asparagus with hollandaise or tomatoes on toast. 

The 3 mains on offer: Summer vegetable salad, Somerset organic spelt and herb salad (so...that'll be the salad for you then, Madame) or mushrooms and egg on toast. 

At least have the decency to combine the last starter with the last main and just give me breakfast!

Maybe it would have been bearable if the food was tasty, OK even. Unfortunately, I think mine must have fallen into a mound of salt somewhere between the kitchen and the table. 

However, the sides of mashed potato, carrots and chips were pretty good, and warranted the price. 

I should also note that meat fiends were extremely happy...those bastards. 

On the upside, Roast had a good show of puddings: sticky date pudding gets a thumbs up, as did the Eton Mess. 

I also really liked the ambience: live music, mellow, airy. 

With good pud and an atmosphere like that, Roast was close to finishing on a higher note...until I spotted the severed pigs head. That's right...a severed pigs head, just chilling out on the counter facing the room. That's not 'we like meat', it's more 'we probably killed ants with a magnifying glass and pulled our cats tails far too hard'. 

Being veggie, I can't handle any food with a face...but even the strong stomached T-Rexes found the display of savagery a touch creepy. 


Price: Approx. £300.00 for 1 x bottle of red, 6 x mains, 4 x sides, 3 x dessert, 1 x cheese platter and service charge.
Veggie Friendly: 1/5 (unless you really like salad, in which case it's a 2.5/5)
Food: 2.5/5
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 2/5 (Loss of major points due to the severed pigs head) 

Trattoria Pomo D'oro, 9 Arany Janos Utca, 1051 Budapest, Hungary

The best penne arrabiata in the world is in Mexico City at a restaurant whose name I forget.

Thankfully, some of the other amazing Italian food is in Trattoria Pomo D'oro in...er...Budapest.

Our hotel told us that Pomo D'oro was casual. They lied. 

With all the open brickwork and heavy wooden tables they're definitely going for rustic charm. The clientèle dining on the Saturday night of Jubilee weekend may have had all the charm in the world, but there was nothing rustic about them: unless you call perfectly applied makeup, properly adorned bling and men in pink shirts, blue blazers and espadrilles rustic. 

Due to the impressive masking properties of the colour black, we just about managed to look like we belonged...sort of.  

Once again, we were blessed by a little Hungarian humour (who'd have thought), and fresh, well-prepared food. 

There were plenty of pastas and pizzas available for veggies - so many, that I have forgotten just how many. 

I had homemade green tortellini stuffed with spinach and ricotta, served with walnut and gorgonzola sauce...it was so good that I'm considering using D-Licious to describe it, but even this would not do it justice...the only way to capture the taste is to confess that I closed my eyes (just a little) to savour the flavours...

Pirate Mole had a veg ravioli - I forget what was in it (maybe it was pumpkin) but, I know that she too loved her main...as did Stubborny, who had wild mushroom tagliatelle...mmmm...tagliatelle...

Fiancé had some sort of meat feast pizza with white asparagus: Meat feast pizza: 1...white asparagus: 0.

The amazing food was washed down with equally amazing wine...which was washed down with a bloody good pudding of hot chocolate cake (it was really just chocolate fondant)...which was washed down with damn fine coffee...which was finished of by a really good sleep. Peace out. 

Price: 23, 646.61 HUF, (Approx £65.00) for 3 x glasses of red wine, 2 x starter, 4 x main, 3 x dessert, 3 x coffee and service charge/
Veggie Friendly: 4/5
Food: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5

21 Magyar Vendeglo Hungarian Kitchen, 21 Fortuna Street, Budapest, H-1014, Hungary

As a vegetarian, I feared that I would be hungry in Hungary.

As a literate human being, I fear that hungry in Hungary will leave you awkwardly silent at how bad that last line was.

Moving ever so swiftly on, Budapest had been on my 'list of things to do before I'm 30' for quite some time...quite some time clearly not being longer than 29 years...boy am I rambling today. Anyway, Budapest is awesome, as was 21 Magyar Vendeglo: Friendly and witty staff, dark wood décor, but ... hardly any veggie options. By hardly any...I mean one...Asparagus soup...with a random boiled egg yolk 'decorating' it.

Thankfully it was really tasty, and the bread and cheese dip skaplungle (it's a word) that it came with was D-licious which, should be the name of a rapper...or a wannabe rapper.

D-licious was also fully involved with dessert, of which we ordered an array of: Hungarian chocolate cake - as intense and flavourful as it sounds with layers of white and dark chocolate, some cottage cheese pudding which was a cross between cheesecake and mousse, and last but not least, something simply called 'sponge cake'...what a deceptive title for something that involves rich, dark chocolate, ice cream and cream. If this is sponge cake, then slap a hat on my head and call me Gloria. If this is sponge cake in Hungary...then Hungary is where you'll find me. 

Price: 22, 180.94 HUF (Approx. £61.00) for 4 x coffee, 3 x hot chocolate, 3 x starter, 1 x main, 4 x dessert and service charge. 

Veggie Friendly: 1.5/5

Food: 4/5

Service: 5/5

Atmosphere: 3/5 - would probably be a 4/5 in the evening - twas a twidge (also a word) too quiet at lunch

Odette's, 130 Regent's Park Road, London, NW1 8XL

Canada was visiting for a few days, so we chose to spend the time catching up and being posh (pronounce that 'o' as if in 'oh my, this white wine spritzer is just what I needed after a long morning shopping, redoing botox injections and strolling in the park).

Remove the bit about botox, and you pretty much have the day I spent with Canada, pretending to be ladies who lunch. Fortunately, for the purposes of childish sniggering and being wowed by huge, sparkly rocks, we were surrounded by actual ladies who lunch. I can safely say that three of the said ladies had enjoyed the exact same day as us, inclusive of Botulinum toxin...Toomuchinum facein! 

Facial paralysis and Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor diamonds aside, Odette's is delicious...and expensive, but so worth it. We went a la carte, hence the price below, but they do have a lunch menu that's three courses for approximately £20.00. 

I'm not a huge fan of runny eggs, but the crispy duck egg starter (crispy on the outside, soft on the inside) was pretty darn tasty, as was my main of blue cheese gnocchi. Again, un-melted blue cheese and I don't always get along, but Odette's did the whole dish so well (complete with tenderstem, perfectly cooked broccoli) that I was left with little to grumble about...ok, one thing to grumble about, I could have still done with a little less blue cheese - that stuff is so overpowering!

Dessert was blackberry soufflé with vanilla ice cream...D.I.V.I.N.E...which stands for Deliciously Incredibly Veritably Indulgent and Nicely Executed. Besides being 'eyes-shut and rolling' tasty, the portion of 'give me more souffle' was generous...so I should keep my waist slim(ish) and refrain from asking from more souffle...however, if you have any spare...

Price: Approx. £70.00 for 2 x white wine spritzer, 1 x starter, 2 x mains, 1 x dessert and service charge.

Veggie Friendly: 2.5/5

Food: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

The Quilon,41 Buckingham Gate: Take Two

It's still delicious...that's all I have to say.
Oh, and if you're going later on in the evening, pre-order bibinca...I'm not the only one who loves it so. 

Earle, 4 Cecil Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA15 9PA

It's created by the same genius behind Greens, so the quality of the food is on the same level...for those of you who have been unlucky enough to stumble upon my insane ramblings but are not frequent readers, Greens is one of my favourite, all-veg restaurants.

The veg options served at Earle is pretty much a smaller selection of what is on offer at Greens, can't complain there. 

The decor was similar to that of Greens, apart from the space was much bigger. Despite the increase in size, the space still retained some of the 'cosy feeling' I like at Greens. 

As a veggie, I will always opt for unlimited choices at Greens, over limited choices at Earle. However, if your party's food preferences are mixed, then I suppose bottling your selfish desires is necessary. If you don't give two hoots about bottling anything when it comes to food, then I fully support you...unless it's soup. Always, bottle soup.


In short - find my review for Greens to find out more about Earle...feeling lazy today!

Price: Approx £100 for 5 x soft drinks, 3 x starters, 5 x mains, 3 x pudding, 3 x coffees/teas and service charge. Sunday set menu
Veggie Friendly: 2/5 on the set menu, 3.5/5 a la carte.
Food: 5/5
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 5/5