Food: The Gate Restaurant, Marylebone London
Last week I went to The Gate to try out their food. I've always seen loads of posts about the gate online and I've always been amazed at the instagam posts I see of their gourmet food.
To start our meal we both ordered the Lychee Bellini. The Bellini itself contained a mixture of Prosecco, lychee flavoured liquor and is decorated with a hibiscus flower.
I'm a big fan of lychee flavoured everything so I was so delighted to see this on their menu. It is worth noting that the lychee flavoured liquor does seem to sink and therefore if you do not give this a little swirl before you drink it then the lychee flavouring is more concentrated towards the bottom. I've never actually tasted what a hibiscus flower tastes like and the only nearest thing I can describe this to taste like is rose syrup.
For starters we decided to get two different ones and share so that we could try more of the menu without feeling incredibly stuffed.
The first starter that we ordered was the Artichoke Terrine. Artichokes are one of my favourite vegetables so seeing this on the menu really made me happy. The terrine itself was made from truffle and hazelnut infused artichoke and comes served with semi-dried tomato & basil salsa and crispy bread.
My initial thoughts were that there was far too much terrine for the few pieces of bread that there was. I thought there needed to be more of a balance as there was also the tomato and basil salsa to get through. However, I thought that this was very delicious although a bit on the salty side but fortunately for me that is how I like my food. So if I could change anything about this, I would either serve this with more bread or just half of the terrine.
Another starter that we ordered was the potato chaat. For this dish, you could either order a vegetarian or vegan option. We opted for the vegan option that was topped with sweet potato, coconut, beetroot, crispy coriander and mint and tamarind chutney. The main difference between this version of the dish and the vegetarian version was that the vegan version did not have sour cream in it. The chaat had a tangy yet sweet taste with a distinct curry spice to it. These were very filling but definitely so worth ordering. I don't think I have ever had a dish quite like this in the past.
For our mains, I ordered the Wild Mushroom Risotto Cake and my friend ordered the Tortillas.
It's safe to say I have never had a main as pretty as the wild mushroom risotto cake. In fact, I had never had a risotto cake in my life and boy it was crispy. I loved how crisp the exteriors were and how fluffy the risotto cased inside was. If this reminded of anything, it reminded me of the rice burgers I used to have at Mos burger growing up in Singapore. The cake itself was topped with an sautéd assortment of mushrooms and topped with rocket. The cake sat in a creamy cep sauce and the ensemble was finished with lemon truffle dressing. The dressing itself here was zesty and to an extent reminded me of balsamic dressing. My only thoughts on this other than it tasting magnificent was that I would have liked more sauce as once you actually break open the risotto cake, there is a lot of rice.
My friend ordered the tortillas which were served quite differently from what I was expecting. Instead being laid down on the plate, the tortillas were served standing up in a puree of black beans & chipotle and guacamole. The vegan option skips the addition of sour cream. The tortillas itself contained sweet potato, corn, coriander, spring onions and chilis. Although I was not able to try this myself, my friend told me she loved that the sweet potato in the tortillas went incredibly well with the earthiness of the bean puree and the sweetness of the corn. Overall, she was really fond of this dish.
When it came to desserts, I was already quite full but a quick trip down the tagged posts for the gate show that their desserts are one of their most featured items and I too had seen a fair share of their desserts come up on my feed over time. So I obviously could not say no at this point.
When it came to ordering I was so conflicted on whether I wanted the Dark Chocolate Sphere or the Tiramisu. There were honestly SO MANY vegan desserts it was a challenge to choose from them all.
I went with the chocolate sphere which itself is full of chocolate mousse and salted caramel. I thought that the mousse was light, rich and creamy all at the same time. It was probably one of the best vegan mousses I have had ever. I had a bit of the chocolate sphere but I felt that the dark chocolate a was a bit too strong for me so if you like dark chocolate with a strong taste to it then this is definitely for you.
My friend on the other hand ordered the Mille-Feuille. No lie I had never heard of such a dessert before in my life but she very much rejoiced when she saw it on the menu as apparently vegan versions of this particular dish are hard to find. Though she really enjoyed this, she found it difficult to finish it as it was heavy and we had already eaten quite a lot of food in the first two courses.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the vegan options could be made vegan and I thought that a lot of effort had gone in to not only making the food unique but also into the presentation of the food.
Having said that, I definitely will be back in the near future for a main and one of their vegan desserts and will hopefully try the tiramisu next time.
Nikki Xo
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