Henderson's Bistro, Edinburgh

This, May 1st, 2007, was the last day of our long weekend in Edinburgh, and as we had to vacate our flat in the morning but had until late afternoon before it was time to head back to the airport, we seized the chance and walked around Edinburgh some more. We hadn't planned to eat out, but since we were at the Princes Street area, hungry, and knew where Henderson's was, having passed it on our way to the Botanic Gardens a couple of days earlier, we decided to investigate more closely.

Unlike David Bann at dinner time on a Sunday, Henderson's at lunch time on a Monday was nice an quiet. A few of the nice, cosy tables remained empty through our visit, though I can't imagine why, since the food... but I get ahead of myself. The decor is an... interesting mix of rustic wooden chairs, retro-modern glass and metal -and faux leather wall coverings. The last one, while it probably looked good when it was put there, still seems like a slightly odd choice for a vegetarian restaurant.

In addition to The Bistro, Henderson's have a Salad Table and a small shop in the same block, so it may be that The Salad Table gets most of Henderson's lunch trade. After three days of traipsing up and down of Edinburgh city, however, we wanted somewhere where we could sit down and have food brought to us. Eventually.

Again, the menu offered a plethora of clearly indicated vegan and potentially vegan options. I just had to try the vegan haggis, while spouse went for the day's special, a Moroccan stew.

The haggis, which, I'm sure, shares little besides the name with the real thing of sheep innards, was wonderful. It was comforting and, well, stodgy, but in the best possible way. The sort of meal you have after a full day of working the fields, full of carbohydrates, with starch, and some more carb. There were at least lentils and pinhead oatmeal in the mixture, and some other grains and pulses, and the generous pile of haggis was served with a side of mash and a ramekin of gravy, and some fresh greens. And, oddly, garnished with thin slices of apple, but we're going to ignore that bit. The mash, which had a specific name I can't remember for the life of me, was a perfect accompaniment for the haggis, and the gravy was the proverbial cherry, or possible apple slice, on the cake. Mmmm.

In practice I don't often get to have the traditional sort of cooking typical for the region of the world I currently live in, so this was a nice change. Though considering how heavily (but comfortably, mind you) the meal sat in my stomach afterwards, a few times a year is plenty.

The Moroccan stew and rice spouse chose was a much, much lighter affair, but none the less flavorful for it. The stew was fragrant and beautifully colored, with chickpeas and butternut squash, my very favorite vegetable. I must admit there was a moment I wished I'd chosen otherwise, but the haggis was a rare and wonderful experience.

We did have a garlic bread starter, as well, and it was a good thing we did, as we had to wait for our mains for quite a while. They did eventually arrive, without an apology (though that came later) or explanation, but the service was friendly enough, and we were on a holiday, so we didn't really mind. As for the garlic bread, it wasn't memorable enough to stick with me this long. Sorry.

The dessert, however, I still remember, and well. We, and especially me, were more than sufficiently sated after our generously proportioned main courses, but the rare chance of a vegan dessert was too good to let it go by. We shared a slice of vegan whole meal cherry pie with a vegan cream substitute. You could really taste the whole meal in the pastry, and the filling was red and sticky and gooey - yum. While the pastry admittedly was a little dry, and nearly rock hard on the crust, we nevertheless practically licked the plate clean.

To top the whole thing off, instead of the usual mints, the bill arrived with two little squares of Green & Black's dark mint chocolate. Those had to be stashed away for later.

As a total experience, and because it was a perfect end for the best holiday for a long, long time, on the Tiwinaku scale of planetary bodies Henderson's The Bistro reaches all the way to Neptune, since we're no longer supposed to count Pluto. We'll be going back when next in Edinburgh.

Mamma's American Pizza Co., Edinburgh

This was our third or fourth visit to Mamma's, though my first time there as a vegan, rather than just an ordinary veggie. We'd spent the day (April 30th, 2007), the whole day, at Edinburgh zoo, and in our exhaustion just wanted to go somewhere where we knew we'd get a good, quick meal. And as Mamma's American Pizza Co. is on Grassmarket, and our holiday rental was just off Grassmarket, there really wasn't any decision making to be done (luckily, the day had rather taken it out of us).

Now, Mamma's don't do a "vegan pizza", but nor do they bat an eyelid when you ask for a pizza with no cheese. I've had good cheese-free pizza experiences with our local take-out pizza place, and we knew from experience that Mamma's pizza base and sauce should be up to the challenge. I don't recall exactly what I had on my pizza, on top of no-cheese, but I didn't go for any of the more outlandish options they have available. Nor have I any idea what spouse had on his, but I'm sure it involved dead animal of some kind, as well as the cheese.

What I can remember is that the pizza was tasty and indeed demolished to the last crumb. Luckily, none of the desserts were vegan by any stretch of imagination, so we we went home and fell over. I think. It was a long day of walking and lions and tigers and bears and parakeets and cotton-top tamarins.

David Bann Vegetarian Restaurant & Bar, Edinburgh

This was a birthday meal, none the less. David Bann's is on Mary St, a few minutes downhill from The Royal Mile, past a few more ethnically oriented restaurants, at least one of which had a board out to advertise the vegetarian nature of some of their food.

This may have been in order to lure in the overflow from David Bann's; we were after an early dinner on a Sunday evening, so hadn't thought it'd be necessary to book. How wrong we were. We were lucky to get a table at all, and after only a short wait - they were turning more people away as we waited. Later on there were a couple a larger groups of obviously pre-booked people, one of which may have been that scourge of Edinburgh, and indeed Dublin, a hen-party. Despite the amount of cocktails the young ladies consumed, however, they did behave themselves admirably.

The interior smacks somewhat of those boutique hotel type places one sees on interior design programs, but the atmosphere was nevertheless pleasantly intimate and the tables far enough apart for privacy.

The food. Vegan and potentially vegan options were clearly indicated on the menu, which made my job of picking two courses *and* dessert much more difficult than I'm used to (my usual experience of eating out in non-specialist restaurants is along the lines of "well can you do a green salad, then? no, no cheese, please."). Omnivorous spouse had even more trouble.

For a starter, he had a dish of mushrooms and polenta, and some parmesan. I gathered there was not much that could've made it better.

My starter was their smoked and marinated tofu. I'd never tried smoked tofu before, which I'm sure makes me a bad vegan, but I've never been that fond of cooking with tofu. This may well have been my loss, as the tofu was wonderful, firm, and with just the right amount of smokiness. In fact, it must've been the first time I tasted anything smoked since I stopped eating animals, and I quite used to like smoked fish. In any case, smoked tofu will hopefully appear on the family menu before long, spouse has certainly mentioned that trying to cook with it might be an interesting thing to try.

For the main course, spouse had a mushroom, smoked cheese and ale strudel - again, I didn't get to try it, but judging by the pleased sounds from across the table, it was, again, very good.

I, on the other hand, went to town with the new and exciting tofu experience, and had ordered a tofu main, as well: "Home smoked tofu with udon noodles. Tofu smoked with aromatic spices, pan fried and served on udon noodles, red pepper and pak choi, konbu, miso dashi (kelp, soya soup) with sesame paste, lime, fresh ginger and spring onion. Topped with cucumber, nori and mizuna."

Now, I like Japanese food as well as any other, and this tofu was, again, lovely. The noodles were not bad, nor was the miso dashi, but I just didn't like the taste. It did sort of grow on me as I worked my way through it, but still somehow wasn't quite right. I suspect this was purely due to it being a new taste I hadn't encountered before, and that I might well come to like it with more exposure. Still, the experience could have been better.

For dessert for me, there was vegan chocolate "ice cream", presumably the usual soy-based thing, though they don't specify. Three scoops was more than enough, and spouse was free to finish my portion. The ice-cream was sweet, and cold, and chocolate-flavored, but that was it, I fear I've had better soy ice cream from a supermarket. Additionally, the balls of ice-cream were set on top of little, thin discs of biscuit, which to me tasted a little stale - spouse was happy to scoop them up, though.

Spouse had rather more choice on the pudding front - there was just the vegan "ice-cream", sorbet, and one potentially vegan item for me to choose from, whereas he had the width of the menu. Choice fell on a rhubarb cheesecake, which I understand was, again, gorgeous.

Service at David Bann was what you'd expect from a high-end restaurant, despite the place being full. They were sufficiently attentive and didn't leave us sitting there with empty plates, or indeed without plates, for a noticeable length of time at any point.

In a "pulled out of my sleeve right at this minute 'cos I didn't know at the time I'd be reviewing the place" scale of Tiwinaku stars, David Bann Vegetarian Restaurant & Bar in Edinburgh gets 4 for location (nice and close to our rented flat for the waddle home), 4.5 for service and 4 for food. It was all very good, but I don't want to be carried away just because I'm not used to eating in proper, nice, vegetarian restaurants.

Kalpna, Edinburgh

This was late March, a month and a half ago.

Kalpna is an Indian vegetarian and vegan restaurant just outside the beaten tourist trail in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can take the bus, or indeed a taxi to St Patrick Square, but the 15-minute walk down South Bridge from High St (part of The Royal Mile, the most beaten of Edinburgh's tourist tracks) gets you into what feels like a more real, everyday city than the one hedged with kilt shops and ghost tours - recommended, if the weather allows. Don't be confused by the map - Kalpna in on the left, across the street from the square itself.

The menu is reasonably extensive and has all the items you'd expect of an Indian restaurant - in vegetarian versions. The dishes aren't, however, explicitly labeled as vegan, and as ghee traditionally used Indian cooking in place of vegetable oil, I took the easy and tempting option and went for the only clearly indicated vegan item on the menu, the Vegan Thaali. I'm sure they would've been more than happy to tell more about their menu, had I bothered to ask.

What arrived after we'd nearly finished our complimentary poppadoms and chutneys was indeed a "balanced selection of dishes from their menu full of complimentary flavors and textures." There were four or five different dishes, selection of naan breads and rice, but further details escape me after six weeks. I can recall it being all very enjoyable, though. The individual dishes were small, in their little metal bowls, but after working through the whole tray I was fed more than well.

Relentlessly omnivorous Spouse went for the Thaali Raj Bhog, a "royal platter", and a feast fit for a king it was: seven different dishes, plus the breads and rice. There were appreciative noises.

Service was friendly and attentive without being intrusive. The restaurant has a comfortable feel, even if it does come across as slightly worn out and even cafeteria-like. On a completely arbitrary scale, I give Kalpna an eight for the food and value for money, a six for the location, and a nine for the whole experience.