Despite being a confessed omnivore, my tendencies lean towards the more carnivorous than herbivorous. However,  this vegetarian restaurant had been recommended by Mr & Mrs N, of whom half at least, has similar leanings towards my own, so I thought it was worth a shot. In fact, it’s taken over a year for me to get down here since I first heard about it, so although my yearnings weren’t quite on the same level as a veggie’s for a bacon sarnie, I hadn’t let it stray from my mind, either.

The menu was certainly entertaining, if a little difficult to interpret in places, and there were several dishes I liked the look of. As my first choice of the Mushroom Cappuccino with Parmesan Doughnuts & Porcini Salt was selected by Mr R, I went with the Blue Cheese Soufflé and Walnut Pepper Salt instead. Unfortunately, I cursed my stupidity of not going with my first choice, as the Mushroom Cappuccino was delectable and most certainly enhanced by the truffle cream. The soufflé was OK, but not particularly exciting in any way. I was cursing more when I tasted Ms L’s Idli Spiced Puff Cakes with Bad Boy Brinjal and Ms R’s Leek soup. The soup especially was full of flavour but most delicate and sylphlike in texture.

The mains were a bit hit and miss overall, although it describes my Bengal Babs quite well, too. The kebab of 4 very small tandoori charged halloumi was excellent in flavour and texture. Unfortunately, whilst the smoked almond custard risotto nicely complimented the sharpness of the tamarind sauce, due to the sheer volume of the risotto, it got a bit sickly towards the end. The Fundamentally Fungus was much better, the mushroom ragout and Polenta Crumb Collars going down well, but the Kalamata Coka didn’t seem much more than a large piece of Feta with some salad, which is not particularly pleasing at £15 a pop. It was also so salty, it was more aptly named ‘Kalamata Stroka’ instead. The Pasta Acqua Pazza fared better, the tang of the sheep cheese against the chick pea, kale, garlic & parsley a good combination.

Desserts brought the biggest smiles of the evening, the two orders of Warm Chocolate and Chestnut Frangipan Tartine and the single order of Nice Pear disappearing pretty smartish.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed, mainly because I have tasted vegetarian dishes in nice restaurants which were far superior to my own meat based dish, so I was expecting a purely vegetarian restaurant to come up with some stunners, which unfortunately, they didn’t. Terre à Terre is most certainly inventive with their dishes and that should be applauded, and with the regularly changing menu, I’d probably be more than happy to eat there on a regular basis, if I was a vegetarian. As it is, I’m not, so whilst I would happily go back, I wouldn’t be too fussed if my return visit took longer than a year to occur, this time.