10th April 2011

Last night had to have been my best trip to Manna EVER. Now I always enjoy it, but it’s not all the time Mr Ikeda my non vegan husband agrees to go to a vegan restaurant. We had been to Manna together once before but it was not quite the mind blowing experience that as a vegan you always want a meat eater to have but yesterday we finally came up trumps! I guess it was really only a matter of time before we found the dishes on the menu that Mr Ikeda would enjoy. So what were they?

The soup had a little bit of a chilli kick and was Mr Ikeda’s favourite of all the meze. The ravioli (which I would say was more like a wanton as they were crispy) was filled with a tasty satisfying mushroom and walnut pate and was accompanied by an amazing fennel cream sauce.  So amazing Mr Ikeda was eating it by itself like an extra bonus soup he thought had ended up on his plate. We both struggled to finish the tart, which is a very generously sized slice and quite stodgy with the crusty pastry, but it pained me to leave any because a) I didn’t want to give the impression I hadn’t enjoyed it because I had and b) because that cashew cheese ricotta filling with the sage dressing was sooooooo good. With my meze I also had the Indonesaian satay which I’ve had before and the specials starter which was a raw Vietnamese spring roll – crunchy, light and a perfect contrast to everything else I had on my plate and it came with the perfect sweet dipping sauce.

For dessert I selected the tiramisu cheesecake, I thought the cheesecake itself had the same taste and consistency that I remember, but I didn’t really get any tiramisu from it. Mr Ikeda was not keen on it, but admitted that the almond ice cream that came with it was indeed divine.

What was different this time? I can only think he actually chose things he thought looked interesting from the menu rather than going for what he was familiar with like the bangers and mash he ordered the last time. None of these dishes were trying to be anything other than what they were and just happened to be vegan into the bargain.

I was also really pleased to see just how busy they are, it makes me happy to see a vegan restaurant doing well proving vegan food IS delicious.

Tags: Manna