Good vegetarian restaurants that serve healthy hearty meals are extremely hard to find. Many will associate vegetarian food as boring but healthy cuisine. However this is far from the truth because chefs tend to deep fry ingredients to enhance the food texture or add excessive amount of spices to compensate for the perceived lack of flavour.

The Gate is a quaint eatery tucked away in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom.

The interior is tastefully decorated. Chic yet maintaining a homely feel that blends comfortably with its surroundings.

For starters, I had the “Leek, trompette and stilton tart” (Baked with crème fraiche custard, served with crispy leaves and red pepper tapenade). Presentation is lovely as a starter and the combination works especially with the earthly scent from the truffle dressing. However, the tart itself was disappointing. I could hardly taste any stilton and the red pepper tapenade tasted more of tomatoes than pepper.

 For mains, I had “Wild mushroom and celeriac rosti” (Pan fried and served with sautéed girolles, pied de mouton, king oyster and paris brown, with cep reduction sauce and finished with rocket and cheese shavings in truffle dressing) and a “Chunky herb polenta chips with a garlic aioli” side.

The main dish was executed well, although I would have preferred a mushroom jus in place of the cep reduction sauce. It is an awful shame to musk the delicate flavours of the various mushrooms with double cream.

 The garlic aioli  that accompanied the polenta chip was slightly disappointing. There was sparing amount of garlic in the condiment. But other than the sauce, the polenta chips was up to scratch.

 Overall, it is hard to fault the presentation of the food and the ambience of the restaurant. The quality of ingredient is  generally good but more thought needs to be put into how to utilise the nature flavours of the various ingredients rather than drowning it with salt and cream.