Review of Blah, Blah, Blah - June 2010

Where: Blah, Blah, Blah Vegetarian Restaurant, Shepherd's Bush, London
With who: Lady Vole
How much: £20 each (including a very good apple and elderflower drink, they're BYOB so grab some before you get there) for a shared starter, two big main courses and a pud.



Prior to seeing the excellent Local Natives at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, we ended up walking away from the gentrification and the monolithic Westfield centre with its chain restaurants - destination, the wrong bit of Goldhawk Road and the appallingly named Blah, Blah, Blah. 
It's a stayer to be sure, having been there for 19 years. Outwardly down at heel with some very dated touches, I did like the 'make do and mend' theatre lanterns on the ceiling and we were very happy to take advantage of the crayons they supply to draw on the paper table cloths (can't see chef Ramsey letting you get away with that somehow). Despite this, it didn't seem the cheeriest of places to be honest, dark and a little muted, though this was possibly due to the early week visit.
If the atmosphere was muted, the food was anything but. We started with a shared plate of potato fritters, the spicy battered slices served hot, straight from the fryer. A nice green salad accompanied the portion, too big for one, and the slices were perfectly offset with a zingy piquant sauce (not dissimilar to A1 Steak Sauce to my untrained tastebuds). My main was a reasonable aubergine 'schnitzel', stuffed with a cheese and tomato mix, panko crumbed and oven baked. It was fair enough, but it did make me long for a slice of veal. Unlike the excellent Mildreds in Soho, I felt the lack of meat here. A mustard sauce was well done, though a little incongruous (and I couldn't taste the alleged jalapeno in it) and the overcooked potato cake it came with was a pointless afterthought.


Vole went for the quesadilla, served with perfectly cooked coconut spiced beans and a wonderfully punchy tomato and basil sauce.
For me, the defining moment came with the desert. I'd be tempted back here for this alone. A tower of creamy mango cheesecake came teetering on a light biscuit base topped with a contrastingly tart passionfruit sauce. The combination was a resounding success, as was the American portion. Vole pleaded satiety but still managed to 'help' me with this, "If I wasn't in a restaurant I'd be licking this plate right now..." Praise indeed.
They make a good argument here at Blah Blah Blah. It's a terrible name, but pleasing solid food. To me though, for food of this style, a robust, spiced vegetarian take on classic world dishes, I'll stick to Mildreds, or head to Vanilla Black, for its meat free take on fine dining.