Rasoterra

You may think I've gone mad – me, a defender of carnivorous eating who has a secret admiration for Hannibal Lecter – but I went once more to eat at a vegetarian restaurant, and didn't even give it a second thought. I'd heard good things about Rasoterra, and on their website I saw that they have a gift for communication, and that they don't need anyone's granny cooking in their kitchen. Their manifesto, eight commandments where they lay out the restaurant's doctrine, makes it all very clear.

Rasoterra offers a set lunch menu that has good value for money and is a much higher quality than other vegetarian restaurants, not to mention other restaurants that serve fish and meat cooked on automatic pilot. I chose to start with a cold cream of beetroot and courgette, and orecchiette pasta with cashew pesto as my main dish; both choices were perfect for a hot June afternoon. The ecoformulas, as Rasoterra calls the dishes that fill the menu, change according to the day. If I'd ordered the ravioli made with organic eggs and filled with provolone and onions caramalised with oregano butter, I'd also have been exceedingly pleased, and that's what going to eat in a restaurant is all about. The yellow soy and buckwheat with red onion sauce I'll have to try another day – when I'm a gluten-free vegan. For dessert I had the pear sponge cake.

There are some places where they don't put much thought or care into the preparation of their food and presentation of dishes. But this is not the case with Rasoterra, a wholly recommendable vegetarian restaurant that uses local products (when possible from their own gardens) and is part of the slow food movement. Even Hannibal Lecter would enjoy a flesh-free meal or two.