The Gate (Restaurant)

Top 10 things we discovered about The Gate restaurant when we visited:

1) Hungry diners exiting the nearby Angel tube station should resist the urge of Upper Street. Clerkenwell boasts all the best restaurants in the area these days.

2) The Gate’s entirely vegetarian, partly vegan (and very affordable) menu is the perfect antidote to 3-days of bank holiday shenanigans, offering salubrious, ethical and beautifully crafted dining to combat the ill effects of a heavy weekend.

3) The erstwhile pub allows further health-giving intent, in the form of the sun’s vitamin D, to flood the entire restaurant, bringing further smiles to the faces of the many happy diners; with one lucky table at the rear of the restaurant blessed with its own skylight, oooooh!

4) Dessert is unnecessary. Preceding portions sizes are meaty, although meatless.

5) A medley of vegetarian dining types and times are catered for, with an express lunch menu for local workers - such as the body-conscious performers at the Sadler’s Wells dance theatre close by - plus separate weekend brunch menus for adults and kids.

6) You should not be frightened by the generous size of the spinach, feta and artichoke tart encased in cheesy pastry, chaperoned by a pungently sweet olive tapenade. It is a crafty starter, deceptively light and fluffy.

7) Savoury lovers: the head of the salty courgette flower gratifyingly explodes once your fork pierces its skin, revealing a mmmm-inducing brain of goat cheese, pine nuts, leek, basil and sun dried tomatoes.

8) You can never go wrong with an aubergine; especially when it is panko and cajun coated, stuffed with okra, and served with sweet potato, guacamole and spicy red pepper salsa; like a Wahaca salad, only with more Olé!

9) Despite the fine quality displayed on the plate and in the service, a mass produced bedsheet-sized menu will never supersede a simple piece of A4 paper, printed that day, allowing only a handful of options, each instilling a sense of just-got-back-from-the-market-ness.

10) Juice schmuice! Total nutrition be damned. Bring me a crisp 4.8% organic Freedom pilsner lager any day of the week. Oh thanks very much, you already did....read more