Vegetarian food? Who me? Well, I couldn’t believe it but tonight I enjoyed a 3 course vegetarian meal, not a meat in sight, and I left very satisfied … if a little lighter in the pocket (£34 for 3 course meal one softdrink and service …)

The Gate is located in Hammersmith. Run by Indo-Iraqi Jewish (as they describe themselves) brothers the food is inspired by their grandmothers – a mix of Indian, Arabic and Jewish cuisines. The brothers pride themselves on sourcing the best ingredients and as a consequence the menu changes monthly (though noting there are permanent signature dishes).

The menu makes for an interesting read. Though options, such as Laney’s starter of butternet & cashew samosa and my starter of carciofini appear straight forward the description that follows is not. For Laney she had “deep-fried filo pastry stuffed with butternut squash, cashew nuts & cauliflower, served with a date & tamarind sauce” to look forward to where I had a “baby artichoke stuffed with dolcelatte & a wild mushroom duxelles, fried in a crispy beer batter, & served with a puy lentil salsa & lemon & garlic aioli”. I guess the rather large descriptions are necessary for a vegetarian restaurant as all the better to draw you in. Starters were nice if not terribly memorable. My carciofini was lovingly cooked if a little slightly light on the seasoning side.

Mains of truffled risotto cake (sautéed pied bleu, hedgehog, oyster & chestnut mushrooms, served on a truffle risotto cake, with a creamy cep sauce, rocket & parmesan) and aubergine schnitzel (layered with applewood smoked cheddar, basil pesto, roasted red peppers & plum tomatoes, served with potato dauphinoise & pan-fried kale & finished with a horseradish cream sauce) were much better. It took a while for me to get into the flavour of the aubergine schnitzel but once I found it I didn’t want to stop eating (though the smoke cheddar flavour wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be.) It was quite lovely. Laney loved her risotto cake which I think had to win the dish of the night. Still not sure what hedgehog is though … (other than those cute little spikey animals that is).

At the end of the two courses I was actually feeling pretty satisfied but of course it didn’t take much encouragement from Laney to opt for a dessert. She opted for a vanilla cheesecake and, even though I knew my stomach would regret it for its heaviness, I opted for the a coconut rice pudding served with caramelised pineapple. Damn me and my weakness for all things rice!

Service tonight was very friendly and efficient. Atmosphere was good with a lot more people turning up around 7.30. The Gate strikes me as the kind of place for regulars – located in Hammersmith and inside church grounds people are hardly likely to stumble upon it that’s for sure.

Overall as a vegetarian restaurant the Gate was pretty impressive – I didn’t miss the meat in my meal tonight at all which is rather surprising though I suspect come tomorrow morning I’ll feel a little hungrier than normal. Food quality and presentation is at a high level though if I’m to have a minor gripe about it I did feel, in the dishes we at tonight at any rate, that because the dishes had so many things going on that the flavours inevitably mixed too much and as a result had less of an impact than expected. Price-wise its probably quite a bit pricier than you’d imagine for paying for a non-meat non-seafood meal so I won’t be coming here every week but I’d be happy to come out their seasonal offerings.