I’ve been ‘in town’ with one of my oldest and closest friends tonight. Colin has been my buddy since 1984(ish, I can’t remember the exact sequence of events….I should check my gig diary because I met him at a gig).

Another friend of mine had recommended a vegetarian restaurant in London and so I suggested to Colin that we meet on the South Bank, have a mooch round then go for a meal. He readily agreed and so here we found ourselves on the concourse in front of the Royal Festival Hall, a concrete monstrosity of the worst kind of 60s excess. It’s an interesting phenomenon that one of London’s premier arts and entertainment complexes is housed in a building that I truly believe most people would regard as hideous. Perhaps the idea was to make sure the building didn’t compete for attention with whatever is going on inside?

Tonight, that British bastion of misery and angst, Morrissey, was playing and the amassed crowds were a strange mix of middle-aged trendies. The number of faded Smiths teeshirts was quite extraordinary!!!

I’m not sure if the balloons being let off were connected with Morrissey’s show or if it was one of those coincidences. Anyway, there is a little gallery of the sequence elsewhere in my galleries now.

After watching this spectacular but quick event, we crossed the river and hopped on a tube out to Hammersmith. When we arrived we were asked if we’d like to sit outside or inside and chose the former. The outdoor tables were in this charming courtyard with mature plants, shrubs and trees but when you looked up you could see we were hemmed in by high buildings. It was such a gorgeous little courtyard that the feel was of a secret garden. Wonderful.

I must say, even after a very strong recommendation from my workmate, Neil, I was still completely overwhelmed by the standard and choice of food. What an amazing place. I’m used to picking up a menu and finding not a single dish I can eat on it because I’m veggie. When there is a veggie choice, it’s usually something so obviously an afterthought that it riles me no end. There is a fashion in ‘the veggie’ option, that has changed and evolved over the years…..

Late 70s – cheese salad
Early 80s – cheese omelette then by 83, veggie lasagne
Mid 80s – mushroom strogonoff
Late 80s – spicy bean burger then veggie chilli
Early 90s – veggie curry
Mid 90s – stuffed peppers
Late 90s – vegetable enchiladas
Early 2000s – pasta with sun-blush tomatoes and parmesan.

What really gets my goat about this stuff is that the restaurants that serve up this stuff think they are being generous to us veggies by doing this. I must confess to wanting to jump out of my seat roaring like a lion with fury every time I pick up a menu with the same old ‘veggie option’. One of my best ‘party tricks’ is the posh restaurant where there is nothing at all on the menu. I have a little game that I play with them. I aks what is available for vegetarians and the waiter goes off to ask the chef. The chef says ‘ask the customer what they would like and I will do it for them’. When I am told this I describe a hugely complex dish that would take four hours to prepare and watch the face of the waiter fall as he realises this is going to send the chef into a frenzy. The waiter usually comes back a couple of minutes later and says something like ‘will a cheese omelette do?’. I have done this many times and the response is always the same.

Anyway, I digress because this restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant. And, more to the point, it’s completely and utterly wonderful. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere where I’ve been so stumped for choice and chosen such utterly delicious dishes. We shared a mezze for our appetiser that had small portions of all of their appetisers and then chose different main courses both of which were utterly, dribblingly divine.

Colin went on to a dessert and I must say that although I don’t like sweet food I will certainly be buying the recipe book from the restaurant and cooking this amazing pineapple and chilli crumble. It was just such an incredible flavour combination that it’s hard to describe. An initial burst of hazelnut from the crumble, the sharp/sweetness of the pineapple and then a finish of warming chilli. I know a certain man who’d love it!

So, the Gate in Hammersmith is THE place to eat in London. I will be recommending it to all my friends.

After we’d polished off our food and wine we got on the tube and came home here to arrive in time to see one of my all-time favourite reggae acts on Later with Jools Holland, Toots and the Maytals. What more perfect a finish could there be to my day? A text message beeping into my box from DM, the contents of which made my heart sing. But you know what? Even through this wonderful evening I’d still have preferred it if DM had been there too.