Strange as it sounds, it can be difficult to come across a vegan restaurant serving up a decent selection of vegetables. It’s often easier to find seitan cooked 17 ways than a plate of plants. Fulham-ish vegan spot Kiss My Grass swerves this issue, defiantly ignoring fake meat – even tofu and jackfruit – and focusing on veg. The line-up includes gnocchi with sauces, filled gyoza, bowls of dhal and a few variations on cauliflower and aubergine.
There are no sides or starters, but after ordering we were swiftly gifted some marvellous, toasted flatbread and equally marvellous baba ganoush that was better than some I’ve had in Middle Eastern restaurants.
The fun continued with excellent gnocchi: fluffy on the inside but with just the right level of bite, served with a subtly sweet cinnamon squash sauce. It didn’t try to do anything clever and tasted all the better for it.
Roasted aubergine with pearl barley wasn’t quite as impressive, but was still decent. A ‘spiced cream cheeze’ topping was a little plain and seemed unnecessary on such a vegetable-driven menu, but both aubergine and barley were cooked and flavoured well.
Dessert was a bready affair – banana bread, and fig-and-date bread – as, sadly, there weren’t any chocolate brownies left. Both were enjoyable enough, even though neither supplied the promised hit of spice and fruit.
Kiss My Grass is a welcome reminder that vegan restaurants don’t need to do junk food to be memorable. Skip the dessert and share an extra main instead. You’ll have nailed your five a day, too.