Terre a Terre Restaurant Review

I've got kittens. Did I say? It's all a bit time consuming, and we're having a frugal month (with new kittens! who am I kidding?) and I've been feeling a bit peaky so food hasn't been exactly exciting or worthy of mention for the last week or two but to celebrate a family birthday last Saturday we all went out to Terre a Terre which is possibly the best vegetarian restaurant in the south of England.

We'd saved our appetites all day for the event, Terre a Terre is a restaurant we're able to visit perhaps every 18 months and we wanted to have plenty of room. That meant we were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures. As a substitute I've done some very quick (and rather poor) sketches of what I remember we had to illustrate but I must stress that they may not be fully representative of what actually came out of the kitchens which was very pretty indeed.



This was my starter. Smoked Sakuri Soba; Chilled Tamari Soba noodles, piled with crisp raw vegetable spaghetti, bean shoots and mizuna leaves, surrounded by umboshi plum white miso and rice wine dressing, served with toasted smoked tofu, spice satay, doused with warm toasted sesame oil, red ginger and pomegranate beads, as they say on the menu. Looks like I missed the cashews off the picture although I remember eating them now.

It was really nice although the two beige sauces weren't sufficiently characterful to be worth while having the second one, the large blob, on the plate. I'd rather have had a little more of the sauce beneath the tofu, which matched the other ingredients far better.

One of the other guests had the Tikka halloumi kebab starter and seemed to enjoy it and our other guest had some of the appetiser nibbles which I used to think were wildly exciting but now seem rather plebian since I've learned to make them all at home and serve them regularly there.



We had a bit of an issue with the mains. There are only a few vegan choices and we'd hoped to sample all of them by having a mixed spread around the table but one option was so popular that we ended up having two plates of that and a veggie dish that the Mr. and me couldn't try. Anyway, just to be different to everyone else I chose the Chana Chaat - which is as anyone might have guessed; Chaat spiced poori layered with black salt smashed potato and chana peas, heaped with mint , corriander and coconut limey served with hot mustard seed muffin, tamarind jelly and a Kerela soup sas.

It was really lovely and had I cooked it myself I would have swooned at my own cleverness but we eat Indian food quite often in many of the very excellent restaurants around and so I was disappointed that on a big night out I ended up with curry again. The mustard seed muffin was a fun addition and I think I enjoyed that the most, dipped in the sauce.

The others had Porcini Pudding and Cranberry Kraut; Little steamer crammed with port and porcini mushroom ragout served with mashed potato truffle cream, mulled red carmel cabbage and cranberry kraut, finished with chestnut milk and parsnip crisps.

This was a bit mushroomy for me although I tried the truffle mash and a little of the pudding. The others thought it was great and the veggie option of Kalamata Coka; griddled thyme onion potato flat bread, loaded with rocket pesto, topped with minted grilled feta, served with cucumber, tomato and onion salad, Kalamata crush and pungent tzatziki with heaps of oregano and flat leaf also seemed to go down well.



Despite being utterly stuffed we weren't going to stop there and ordered puddings! Mr. S-C and I shared a plate of Churros, served with a chocolate dip and some vodka soaked cherries, and the others had Treacle Tart (far too much on the plate, she ended up taking it home for later) and some of the house chocolate truffles, because they come in a box and can be saved to take home easily too.

Although we'd mentioned nothing to the staff they had twigged we were a birthday party and really sweetly, and without undue fuss, presented the truffles on a plate decorated with birthday wishes and a candle. Very touching and it made the birthday girl's meal.

So, to sum up, a good evening was had by all. It's not the cheapest night out but if you need pampering, understanding staff and excellent food it's definitely worth the trip to Brighton. They are usually very busy so be sure to book, I used the online system and it worked well.