Sometimes you are unaware of what is on your doorstep. I took a stroll round a nearby high street and was doing my best to take in every shop, cafe and restaurant as I wanted to know what was on offer (reasonably) close to home.
High Barnet high street has come along way. For a long time it lost it’s way with too many empty store premises, cheap shops and a constant change in businesses as nothing seemed to work for long – BUT, it seems to be on the up with a plethora of great looking new eateries, independent stores and a bustling little market.
A while after my stroll around the area, I realised I needed a nice spot for an anniversary meal. I had spotted Bottanika on the main road and after a little googling for their menu discovered it appeared to have some nice sounding vegan dishes. So I booked it!
Since we go out, it seems, once a year these days (we turned into old boring parents – kind of helped along by the pandemic and not being able to do anything!), we needed it to be good. Being a vegan and vegetarian pair, it’s harder to find much to choose from in the area but it is getting better.
Bottanika didn’t disappoint.
On arriving we were welcomed by really lovely friendly staff and couldn’t help but admire the really nicely done interior – unique and cool, without looking boringly like every other trendy eatery.
It did seem rather quiet but we are still coming out of two years of things being closed and I guess not everywhere is busy all the time. Fortunately the actual interior design helped to create an atmosphere even without many people!
The menu is quite petite but I like that because I feel like somerestaurants try to do too much where is if they have a small menu – they do it really well. Even with a small menu I had a choice of three vegan main course options.
For a starter I had the Vegan Cauliflower Pakora with coconut and lime yogurt. It was a generous portion (which could’ve been shared) but it was a light, tasty way to start my meal.
From the three vegan options for a main course, I chose the Beetroot Gnocchi
( Textures of beetroot, mint hazelnut pesto ). It was a simple but deliciously tasty plate of gnocchi. Again it was a good generous portion but I’m not complaining as the prices were really good.
After my two courses and a couple of glasses of a rather nice dry white wine, I did fancy a dessert but this was the only let down – like a lot of other places that aren’t a solely vegan restaurant they often only have a sorbet as a vegan dessert option – which kind of feels like a cop out and I think there’s so many more easy desserts a restaurant could offer it’s vegan customers
I would definitely go back as it was a really lovely experience with great food and lovely lovely staff that made us feel really welcome.
Bottanika, The Spires, Shopping Centre,
High St, Barnet EN5 5XY
THE LOCAL VEGAN 