Walking to this dinner venue was very very nostalgic for me – and even more so when I got there. Caravan Bankside is ‘housed on the ground floor of an old metal box factory’. 10 years ago, I worked in that very building on the third floor, and it was a dodgy building, with a dodgy lift and no air conditioning…. my my my… how times have changed! It is now a trendy hipster building (with air conditioning, no doubt) with a trendy hipster restaurant, and if this restaurant was there when I was, I would be there every day, no doubt.
Gin has become very popular and trendy over the last few years, but this is the first place I’ve come across that makes their own tonics! Had to be done – I went for an orange and cucumber tonic with Hendricks. Refreshing, light, a touch sweeter than I wanted, but really really good. Go home made tonic! We also had some juicy olives and almonds – so good that M ordered that again for dessert!
The meaties ordered a few dishes which they enjoyed; air dried beef and oxtail (meat good, black beans – hard).
I loved the fact that there were SO many options on the menu that were vegetarian and could be veganised. We went for a whole load of them, the highlight being the squash, with miso and herbs (no blue cheese). This was so good, the fresh thai basil, mint and spring onion perfectly complementing the soft squash and the deep, sweet miso. The spiced cauliflower (with pomegranate yogurt on the side) was also very good. Soft cauliflower sitting on this spicy harissa sauce – really really really good. We also ordered some potato bread (that came with olive oil instead of lemon thyme butter – thank you :0) which was soft, flavourful with an excellent crust. YUM! The crispy, chilli salt tofu was excellent too.. silken tofu, with a super crunchy coating, and lots of yumminess – black beans, coriander, soy sauce, spring onions.. I thought the portion size was a lot smaller than the other small dishes.
The other dishes we ordered were the quinoa dish (this dish contains honey – why? not sure, I don’t see the point. I only ate the peanuts, which were copious and delicious). The molasses roasted beets and onions with loads of seeds was super salty – I suppose the goat’s cheese curd (on the side, which was apparently VERY good) was to balance it, but I wasn’t a fan of the dish.
Overall it was a really tasty meal, really enjoyable and I already want to go back and try the other dishes I didn’t!
Another really good meal to mention this week, at another regular restaurant – Chawallas. I decided to go for a vegetarian thali instead of my usual Chana Masala, and other than the yogurt and dessert, I could eat most of the food. Really delicious and just under a tenner for all this food. I didn’t even take a pic of the three giant puris and the poppadom that came with it. Large enough to share, or enough for one greedy person. Yum yum yum.
Countdown to Asia is in full swing.. I still need to finish my packing and I only have a few days to go!! Sooo excited!
PB Eats, PB Travels 