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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
I like The Highfield.
You know what to expect as soon as you walk in the door. I’ve been many times over the years both in a
blogging capacity and as general diner and have had the same smiley experience
from them on all occasions, so I know that their approach and welcome is
genuine.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Last month, I visited The Highfield in my guise as a blogger
to check out their Tuesday night special ‘Live Life On The Veg’ menu. A
new concept for them, responding to the rise in vegetarianism and the spike in
veganism, they are offering a menu that allows non-meaters variety as opposed
to a just couple of menu choices which is the norm.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
How it works is that you can either have a dish on its own
or you can have a taster of each one via the Tapas Style offer. As I was
dining with my flexitarian Mother, we thought it made sense for us to have the
tapas style so that we wouldn’t miss out on anything.
With my horrendously inconvenient chilli allergy, I had to
discuss with our waiter Joe if the dishes were suitable for me. Sadly, the Courgette Fritters weren’t as they had a chilli base, so we were
offered the Aubergine, Roast Pepper &
Onion Tart instead and also the Summer
Vegetable Salad, Orange & Toasted Cashews with Oriental Dressing (which
are on the menu as a standard items).
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The Kitchen Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
One thing that I applaud The Highfield for is their
flexibility. They’re very keen to adapt
their dishes to ensure that allergies and preferences are catered for. This is very important for vegetarians (and
for non-chilli eating veggies like me!) who may feel that all that is on the
menu is all you can have when it isn’t the case. This is one thing I think that The Highfield
need to promote on their menu and elsewhere as appropriate, to ensure that
people have the confidence to ask for changes if needs be.
Okay, so here’s a roll-call of what we had:
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Aubergine, Roast
Pepper & Onion Tart – a light, flaky pastry base with shredded
aubergines and peppers on top. The vegetables
were lightly fried, and the dish wasn’t as heavy as it sounds. If purchased as a main course, it would need
some green vegetables to pad it out with.
Overall, very enjoyable.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Cherry Tomato
Rigatoni, Garlic Crumb, Ricotta & Basil – although pasta is the epitome
of go-to-veggie-food, this was delicious.
Very buttery, crunchy, with a bit of punch from the garlic.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Vegetable Bimbap,
Fried Egg & Gochunjang Sauce – I would describe the bimbap as a light,
fancy, stir-fry. The gochunjang sauce
was replaced by soy sauce for my portion to avoid any exposure to
chilli/spice. When splitting this up for
Mum and I to eat, I gave the egg to Mum which was speckled with nigella
seeds. Again, a very light dish, with a
little salty edge from the soy sauce.
Mum said that the egg really complimented the stir fry and with a
slither of the sauce (which she could have) it made it tangy.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Caramelised Goats
Cheese, Confit Shallot & Pumpkin Seed Salad – beetroot and goats’
cheese are great partners anyway and again in this dish, they worked well. The cheese was baked slightly to soften it
and its sharpness when dipped into the balsamic glaze around it, brought a
collective of all the flavours together.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Sweet Potato &
Black Bean Burrito, Avocado & Coriander – the different textures worked
well together, it had a little kick, but it was pleasant and probably wouldn’t
have been noted by someone not sensitive to spice.
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Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Summer Vegetable
Salad, Orange & Toasted Cashews with Oriental Dressing – fresh,
crunchy, with a mixture of textures with a little hit of citrus and ideal for those watching the calories.
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Hendrick's English Garden Cocktail (left) with Hendrick's Gin, Elderflower & Apple Juice Country Rose (right) with Apple Juice, Cranberry Juice & Elderflower Cordial Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
Even as served in tapas style, the portion sizes were good
and for £30.00 for 2 people it is an ideal option for mid-week eating and a
great affordable price to dine out on.
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Pink Grapefruit, Lime, Soda Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
What’s very inspiring is that The Highfield team are working
and training with Mildred’s team in London.
For those that know their veggie food, Mildred’s is a renown
vegetarian/vegan restaurant near Soho which have an avid and almost a cult-like
following down in London. So working
with Mildred’s, it clearly sends a positive message about how serious The Highfield are about creating a quality vegetarian offering.
Equally, what is great about Live Life On The Veg is that their menu changes weekly so that you
know it won’t be a predictable cycle of the same dishes.
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Chocolate Cake as dessert - fabulously fudgy! Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
It was great to see other diners enjoying the Live Life On The Veg menu and Joe was
explaining that more and more Tuesday night diners are opting for it which is
fabulous all round to hear. My only
suggestion would be that it would be good to see the boundaries pushed on the
options and to move away from easy choices like pasta and burritos. I think that with the know-how from
Mildred’s, the sky’s the limit.
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Lemon Posset as dessert - fresh, taste of real lemons comes through! Photo: Word In Veg Ways |
I shall be going back, and I definitely recommend it. So, swap Meatfree Mondays for Tuesday at The Highfield, take a friend and go tapas style.
PS: Tuesday 23
October is a Live Life On The Veg Special with Daniel Acevedo from Mildred’s. See here for details.
~
Disclosure: This post has been written following a complementary invitation to dine from the Life Live On The Veg menu . This review was conducted honestly without bias and I was not required to produce a positive review. For further details of my PR policy, please see the Press, PR & Food Writing page of this website.
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