Recently, a vegetarian chum newly arrived to Bath asked
me to recommend some suitable restaurants, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t
actually tried that many – so I resolved to remedy this immediately with a trip
to Green Rocket Café, about which I’ve heard great things. It’s a cosy little
space, with rough wooden tables, tealights in teacups, and smiley waitresses,
and the menu is really rather impressive. Normally, it’s just too easy to
predict what will be on the menu when it comes to vegetarian cuisine – risottos
galore, giant mushrooms claiming to be burgers, half-hearted pasta dishes – but
there’s none of that here. Green Rocket takes inspiration from all sorts of
fabulous cuisines, from Iranian to Malaysian, and comes up with a mouth-watering
menu with no clichés in sight.
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| Bath oyster mushrooms |
To start, I chose the seared Bath oyster mushrooms (grown
in the vaults under Green Park Station – you can’t get much more local than
that) with pink peppercorns, walnuts and sauce courchamps. The flavours were
huge – I was slightly taken aback by the first mouthful – but I cleaned my
plate, because it all worked so beautifully together. The mushrooms were firm
and meaty, the sauce was strong and tangy, and the touch of walnut was just
right. My dining companion chose Kuku Sabzi, a Persian herb and walnut
frittata, which was much more subtle but still nicely balanced, with a gorgeous
texture.
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| Indonesian tempeh |
For our main course, I picked the Triple Salad –
courgette ‘spaghetti’, caponata, and cannellini bean salad, served with focaccia.
I love a really good creative salad, but I have to say this was a bit of a
mixed result. The caponata was fabulous – rich and juicy – and I did enjoy the
flavours of the cannellini bean salad, which came with a lovely walnut sage
vinaigrette, although I felt it might have been nicer warm. I’m afraid the
courgette ‘spaghetti’ didn’t do anything for me, but then I am a pasta addict
so perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise! My dining companion went for
the Indonesian Tempeh, with rice croquettes, satay sauce and roasted red pepper
puree. The textures were gorgeous and the satay and pepper sauces were both
very tasty.
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| Raw raspberry cheesecake |
Dessert was probably the standout course for us – several
people have recommended the sweets at the Green Rocket so I must admit I was
very much looking forward to this bit! We chose a beetroot & chocolate pot,
and a raw raspberry cheesecake, both served with vegan soy bean ice cream which
was indistinguishable from any full-fat double-cream version. The cheesecake
was beautifully light and bursting with proper summery flavours, but my heart
belongs to the chocolate pot – dark, rich rather than sweet, perfect with
raspberries and ice cream.
Overall, I was definitely impressed with the Green Rocket
– a properly good effort at offering something totally different to the usual
vegetarian options, and a serious advert for tasty vegan food. The service was
quite slow, considering how quiet it was, but the waitresses were cheerful and
friendly, and very knowledgeable about the menu. The next time I’m asked to
recommend a veggie place in Bath, this will definitely be on my list.
