Bath, by virtue of its pronunciation alone, is surely one of the poshest places in the world.  (Linguistic side note:  my hometown’s neighbour is called Marske, but our northern accents force inhabitants to pronounce it “mask”.)  As such I was a little intimidated to be visiting it for the first time last summer, en route home from Cornwall.

We had a fleeting visit, but it was a lovely place to saunter in the sunshine.  Truthfully, we were a little short on money after a week on the road, so the best thing we did was lounge in this park by the Crescent, soak up the sunshine and watch teenagers posing for selfies.  Apparently it’s really hard to get a satisfactory photo of everyone jumping in the air.  And then we went for food!  (Actually, we also went for food before that too:  here’s my review of The Green Rocket Cafe.)

We’d booked ourselves a table at Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen for the last evening meal of our summer holiday, and it was a fine way to finish.  It was a lovely place with excellent service, though the upstairs dining area was a little cramped and we were seated in a slightly awkward position at the top of the staircase.  However, I can understand that they want to fit in as many people as possible, because it was completely full that night.  Definitely book if you’re going in the evening.  Despite being full, service was swift and the food was good.

The menu was about 50% vegan.  I ordered the smoked field mushroom, which was really sticky and smoky from the glaze.  It was perched atop a celeriac puree (that classic Masterchef side dish!), and served alongside a beautifully crispy potato gallette – just look at that dark brown colour!  Dr HH went for a vegetarian option, the stuffed courgette flowers.  Although it looked spectacular, he was underwhelmed by the flavours.  The vegan choice is always better.

We ordered the same dessert.  We had to.  The whole reason we had chosen to break our journey in Bath was so that I could have this dessert.  Salted chocolate tart with peanut butter sorbet.  Oh, it was everything I’d hoped for.  The chocolate was rich, as you can imagine from the colour, but it wasn’t too much:  this is the perfect portion size.  There was a crumbly little base underneath, and the sticky, sweet peanut butter sorbet on the side.  It was incredible.  Incredible.

I imagine it must be a staple on their menu, because over a year later it’s still there, only with a different sorbet.  Hopefully it will stay put at least until I get another chance to visit!  Apparently the recipe is available in their second cookbook, so I might just have to treat myself.