Vanilla Black
Address: 26 Swinegate, York
Telephone: 01904 676 750
Meal For Two, including wine and service: £35-70
A couple of months ago I was sent by another section of this newspaper to review a vegetarian restaurant run as a collective, on its vegan night. While the Bonnington Cafe in London's Vauxhall was a rather charming place, the food - so much gritty, flavourless sludge - was an exercise in culinary incompetence on a quite magnificent scale. Naturally I said so, and naturally enough a whole bunch of vegetarians took to the blogosphere to condemn me as Satan's spawn. One argument was repeated a number of times: meat eaters ought not to be allowed to review vegetarian restaurants.
Do I need to tell you quite how many types of cobblers this is? No, I thought not. Vegetarian cookery is just cookery and it must be able to hold its own against all-comers. A few weeks ago I ate at L'Arpege, a Michelin three-star in Paris, where I enjoyed two of the greatest dishes it has ever been my pleasure to be served: a gazpacho with a quenelle of a light mustard ice cream, and the Arpege tomato, stuffed with a variety of herbs, spices and citrus peels, then cooked tableside in a sweet-sour caramel, and plated with a wild-flower ice cream. But then chef Alain Passard is regarded as something of a culinary genius, unlike the numpty who cooked my dinner at the Bonnington.
Still, if I am to make my point, I need the help not of the Parisian three-star but something more modest. Thanks must go, then, to my companion this week, Tom Harper, a historical novelist who spins intrigue from the mysteries of Byzantium and who wrote to tell me that 'some of the most interesting cooking in York is at a vegetarian restaurant called Vanilla Black'.
There is something interesting going on here. It says a lot that I was disappointed that I had to eat at lunch, rather than in the evening, when the menu has a certain mellifluous appeal: how about 'millefeuille of truffled mushroom duxelle, tomato relish and sage-infused jus'? Or 'raised Portobello mushroom and lovage pie, creme fraiche mushy peas, leek and onion gravy'? Or 'hickory smoke duchess potato, Olde York cheese pudding, pineapple pickle, soft-boiled quail egg'? OK, I could slap their wrists for the 'e' on the Olde, but this is intriguing stuff, and the experience of the simpler menu at lunch time - four or five savoury dishes, plus three or four desserts - gives me good reason to think it would be worth trying.
Tom's mature cheddar and bread pudding with buttered cabbage had the flavour profile of Welsh rarebit, and came with a slick of bright, acidulated red wine sauce. Alongside this came salted new potatoes and a little baby-leaf salad. Mine was something on toast, except that it was gypsy toast, and the things that perched upon it - button mushrooms, toothsome refried white beans and sprightly cherry tomatoes - were of top quality. This is the point about this sort of cookery, and something I will (appear to) concede to my critics. A reasonable hand at the stove can do a pretty good job with the most mediocre cut of meat. With non-meat cookery, if the ingredients are substandard the game is up, however smart your ideas.
The part of this meal which really indicated a strong hand in the kitchen was the smallest: a tiny pot of home-made brown sauce to go with my gypsy toast. It was dense and savoury and sang with the musky, winter fragrance of clove. The same skill was evident at dessert: a smart little treacle tart, with just the right balance of thin pastry to filling, served with a light lemon cream, and a berry crumble, served with both berry sauce and cream.
On their website, the restaurant describes the interior as 'crisp, Thirties inspired', and I think, with its white walls and dark varnished wood, they have it about right. It applies to the service, which is equally so. But the point here really is the food; I hope to return soon to give the menu a proper shakedown.
