So, my festive food journey around Brighton continues with one of my FAVOURITE restaurants in Brighton. This was the one I’ve had in my diary for over a month and I’ve slowly been counting the days as I just love, love, love Terre à Terre. I think I would go as far as to say it’s my favourite place in Brighton. You may have seen my last review from the summer – the food is just out of this world, so I was excited to see what festive treats would be on offer. For me, the best thing about Terre à Terre is the vast choice on the menu and just being able to relax and eat every dish as it’s all vegetarian. I always feel so spoiled for choice! I’m also always wowed by the creativity of the dishes and always come away feeling like I’ve tried something new and different, this is never your run-of-the mill meal out.
On the day of our review, annoyingly both Vee and I were feeling totally under the weather with an awful cold, but after eagerly awaiting our meal at Terre à Terre, we just couldn’t miss out – so we plodded on out into town, hoping they would look after us and fill us full of comfort food and vitamins to cure our ailments. As soon as we arrived, we were shown to our table and upon seeing our sniffly noses, we were offered hot lemon and honey (I think Vee had a shot of Whiskey in hers!) to help us feel a little better. I thought this was such a lovely touch and with my sore throat soothed by the warm drink, I felt a little better already.
If I am honest, there wasn’t anything on the Festive menu I didn’t want to try, I may even have to go back so I can say I’ve tried it all, but eventually we ordered the following…
Starters: As a mince pie lover (I think I started eating them in October this year), I just had to order the Mince Pie and Chantilly Face (Hot Twineham Grange cheese and mustard seed pastry mince pie filled with mushroom marinade mincemeats served with hot porcini custard, quince pepper jelly, sherry and spice pickled walnut and Chantilly salt bean curds). I have to say I’ve never tried a savoury mince pie before but the flavour was just amazing – they had totally encapsulated the festive taste of a mince pie but with a gorgeous mushroom filling in the most delicious buttery pastry. The cream on the side was sweet, giving this a really interesting combination of salty and sweet – a taste sensation!
Vee went for the KFC (Korean fried cauliflower with sweet and sour sesame, onigiri rice, soused shiso dikon pickled mirin ginger jelly and green leaf salt dried chips finished with chestnut purée.). She chose this option as we’d tried it back in the Summer and loved it. The KFC are sweet, succulent fried cauliflower pieces with a light fluffy batter that isn’t at all heavy like some tempura can be, dipped in an oriental mix of flavours and sesame to give it that asian fusion taste.
Mains: For the main, I had my eye on the the soufflé, but with Brighton Blue cheese, this is a big no-no in pregnancy so I had to be good and go for my second choice of Ding Dong Dengaku (Slow soft baked ume and ginger sake aubergine with tahini, toasted seed oil, white miso and mixed sesame crust with cranberry hibiscus juice. Served with amchur nori salt dusted puffed rice seaweed cracker, edamame, wasabi and yuzu pesto and wakame vegetable thread salad.). This was a completely unique dish, I wasn’t sure what to expect! The main part of the meal had a strong salty taste, which was almost a little overwhelming for me (or maybe I just have super pregnancy taste buds) however, mixed with a mouthful of the wakame vegetable salad gave the perfect balance with a refreshing, tangy zing. This was perfect comfort food as I was feeling under the weather, the cooling salad soothed my poorly sore throat and the flavours were strong enough for me to taste through my stuffiness!
Vee went for the Chai Fawkes (Chestnut Rosti bomb with salt plum and camembert molten middle, rolled in gunpowder beet tea embers, served with heritage and rainbow chard flames, ragout of hoppy sticky cinder salsify and root logs, juniper soused bulbs and boktops. Finished with silken mushroom mallow, black garlic aioli and amber crimson salts) and I have to admit I had slight food envy as it looked just amazing! She described it as eating a wintery ‘posh’ roast dinner that sizzled and popped in the mouth like popping candy! This is the most festive, creative dish I’ve seen on my festive food journey – I was impressed.
Desserts: Lastly, our desserts – my favourite part of the meal! After our dessert last time at Terre à Terre, they had a lot to live up to, but honestly – this time they didn’t disappoint either! We were both delighted with the pudding menu as both of our favourite dishes featured, for me – I couldn’t wait to have my first taste this season of Christmas Pudding, so I went for the Figgy pudding (Figgy pudding sticky with rumtopf fruits aged with spice spirits and barrel brews. Served with tangerine and Frangelico ice and smugglers clove custard and poached cranberries). This was the perfect traditional figgy pudding with a twist of the refreshing tangerine and frangelico ice – a real festive mix of tastes that had Christmas written all over it.
Vee was excited as her favourite, Churros were on the menu with a Terre à Terre twist – the Churrosimo (Cinnamon sugar spice dusted doughnut straws served with vodka cherries, salt caramel sticky dunker, warm dark chocolate dipper and finished with wild berry freeze dried crumble and extra brute cocoa powder). They tasted like they were baked, rather than being fried which took away that classic donut greasy taste, but the bit that made this dessert was the dip – Salt Caramel with Dark Chocolate in layers made this a real treat. The vodka cherries and wild berry crumble gave the dish a festive twist too.
Overall, we absolutely loved our festive menu experience at Terre à Terre, I know I’m biased as I’m a huge fan of the restaurant, but it was one of the best festive menu’s we’ve tried this season for both taste and creativity! I also felt super looked after by the wonderful staff who chatted to us lots, created special cold remedies and catered for our every whim.
If you’d like to try the festive menu, head down to Terre à Terre this month – the set 3 course menu is £33 per person and worth every penny. To book a table, visit their website or call 01273 729051.
We were invited to Terre a Terre for a complimentary meal in return for an honest review – All words and opinions are my own
having gone vegetarian in the last year (along with my teenage daughter) I am amazed on how exciting and adventurous the vegetarian diet is -these dishes above are amazing!! wow I would love to be able to cook like that!!