The January tribes
January can make my tribe feel like hunted creatures. Words like ‘detox’ and things ending in ‘anuary’ hang cold and abstemious in the air, like mist. The other tribe… the toxin dodgers, if you like… are firmly in charge; they make a bonfire of all life’s pleasures and light it, then dance around the flames proclaiming good health and eternal life. Meanwhile, my tribe keeps the bottle trade alive until the daffodils rise and the toxin dodgers tire of the gym.
As earnest as pumpernickel
The chance to review the Veganuary set menu at a vegetarian restaurant in Brighton’s fashionable Lanes sounded as earnest as pumpernickel, another ‘anuary’, particularly to this reviewer. My only previous attempts at veganism were in 1992 (some oysters were harmed, I’m afraid) and that Greggs sausage roll that created such a buzz in the Veganuary of 2019.
A Brighton institution in The Lanes
On a clear, moonlit night last week, I stepped out of the sparkling black cold with my wife and into the calm warmth of a Brighton institution, terre à terre – 30 years into its tenure as one of the two or three best restaurants in Brighton (it has shared the BRAVO top spot with Burnt Orange the last couple of years) – and may well be the best vegetarian restaurant in the country.
The large dining room is a place of barely audible background music, quiet chatter at neighbouring tables, and cosy banquettes lining the walls, with a faint Scandi feel.
What you’ll love
- Eight dishes land at once – instant table theatre
- Big plant-forward flavours
- A set menu that eats like a tasting menu
- Smart guidance (and drinks) from the team
- £35 for real creativity and generosity
How the set menu works
The Veganuary set menu is easy to navigate: you choose a starter, a small plate and two ‘side’ dishes (the servings are generous).
For two sharing, that’s eight dishes – effectively an eight-course tasting menu – and they all come at once, creating a brilliant spectacle on the table. Our waiter was on hand with recommendations and even advised on the order to eat things in, in terms of what really needs to be hot, what stays warm for the longest, and which are good eaten a bit cooler.
Standouts: Jaipur Jonny Brinjal and oyster Kinoko
Some dishes were riotously, cheerfully complex, like the ‘Jaipur Jonny Brinjal’ (seemingly an entire Indian street food market on one plate) and the oyster Kinoko (oyster mushrooms served with every lovely pickly/wasabi thing known to man); while others were serious and elegant, like the smoked tofu cubes. The rosti and rocket, which has been on the menu here since terre à terre opened, is deeply, robustly satisfying; most of the rest was an epicurean protest against the status quo.
Inventive not pretentious
The most surprising thing, given all the BRAVO wins, is the lack of pretension: the eccentric, inventive menu on printed paper and veneer-coated MDF tables both pointed towards a place that is well loved, as terre à terre is. The name – ‘down to earth’ in French – makes more sense than you might at first suppose.
Clever pairings for Dryanuary and beyond
Our waiter was strong on drinks recommendations, too. We had the first drinkable English red I’ve ever tried (actually, a lot more than drinkable), and he plied my wife with a very grown-up non-alcoholic cocktail. These have boomed in popularity on the menu here in recent years, and if you’re in the Dryanuary tribe, then this would be a real treat.
The magic of vegetables
I’m not sure there is anywhere else you will eat food of this level and creative flair at the price; the Veganuary set menu is £35. Given the simplicity of the ingredients (we’re talking broccoli and carrots after all), ‘cooking’ is not a strong enough word for what goes on here. It’s more like alchemy.
As for quantity, there was so much that we couldn’t quite finish, and we desperately wanted to; originality and abundance are not often found in one place.
One of the best meals you’ll eat this year (veggie or not)
Of course, a vegetarian would rave about terre à terre, but aside from the obvious bias, their only frame of comparison might be a childhood memory of frying bacon. Whereas, you might think, as I did, that you must have eggs or cheese, or at least butter, to survive an encounter with vegetarianism. Take it from me, as someone who couldn’t care less if it’s vegan, vegetarian, ‘pesky’ or calf’s liver: this is just straight up one of the best meals you’ll ever eat, veggie or not.
The food here has been called a ‘revolution’. It’s been described by a late member of my own tribe, AA Gill, a hard man to please, as “singularly and eccentrically marvellous.” He gave it the full five stars. A good decade on from that, not much has changed. The cooking… the alchemy… is wildly inventive, fun and clever, without being at all annoying with it. You’ve almost certainly never tried anything like this before; we hadn’t. And at £35 a head this January, it’s the most reasonable entry to the giddy heights of this sort of cuisine you’ll come across.
