Food > The Big Eat Out: or IN
Wild Thyme // Food Review
14/05/14
THE GEN: Wild Thyme vegetarian restaurant overlooks the best-named road in Norwich – Labour in Vain Yard. Procuring images of tireless workers sweating their balls off to no praise is a fantastic Les Mis-esque montage, but not one you want to hold true to if you’re opening a new restaurant. Having jumped in the shoes where Pulse left last year, Wild Thyme continued the building’s tradition of being an all-veggie destination, and for this reviewer, it was a well-timed change from the meat marathon I seem to have been enduring (happily) of late. I was starting to look a little Sly Stallone under the eyes. Offering a menu of veggie, vegan, gluten free and raw choices, all sourced locally and organically where possible, my abused body was thankful for what it was about to receive.
ATMOSPHERE: If you’ve never ventured up the stairs above Rainbow Wholefoods, you’re missing out. A beautiful bare-bricked room awaits, with small kitchen bravely half-exposed. It was a lunchtime visit, but there was a great hubbub of people, of all kin and calibre.
THE MAIN EVENT: Stuffed Portobello Mushroom w/ Puy Lentils // Warm Chickpea and Roasted Veg Salad with Halloumi // Side of Sweet Potato and Thyme wedges. The main bugbear of my vegetarian friends is that there’s never enough choice on the menu. I would agree. With Wild Thyme though, it’s like they’ve siphoned away all the collective gripes of veggie-kind from other restaurants and produced the cure-all antidote in their menu. There’s loadsa choice. As a carnivore, a Portobello mushroom is always a good meat substitute. Bouncy and juicy, stuffed with a densely populated stuffing of pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, spinach and more of nature’s magic, it was a flavourfest in itself. Sat atop soft, but not gooey puy lentils in red onion gravy – if you were to imagine an imbibed Withnail (and I) lounging blissfully in booze, you’d be approximating the relationship of the mushroom to its pulse-filled bed. Halloumi is another strategic carnivore-at-a-V-restaurant move; the salty, leathery, squeaky Cypriot cheese gives your teeth the workout they need, and draped over little pockets of fresh bite and flavour from the roasted veg and chickpeas, it’s a moreish little combo. There was a black olive tapenade, and if you’re like me – in an indulgent love affair with salt – it laces the pure, terse salad leaves with an edge of sin. The sweet potato wedges were a nice side, and necessary for the larger appetite, I’d say. They didn’t go wild with the thyme though, ironically, and it would’ve been nice to taste a bit more of the signature herb.
PUD: Vanilla Crème Brulée A good crème brulée should be like a good bra. The glazed sugar fortress must entice, suggest and reflect the beauty of what’s underneath, but it must never try and hide, or be better than the goods it’s protecting. Once you crack that bad boy open, you must be met with further delight – simplicity, indulgence, and something oh so heavenly sweet. Wild Thyme were close to the mark; not the headiest vanilla swim I’ve ever had, but nice nonetheless.
VALUE: Wild Thyme is a specialist restaurant, and perhaps for that, you pay a price. With mains all falling between around £7-£10, they’re definitely affordable, but adding an extra £2-£3 for a side, if you’re more on the Desperate Dan / Me end of the appetite spectrum, might seem a bit of a stretch. For flavour and atmosphere though, the value was on the money.
OVERALL: The main aim for a vegetarian restaurant, when welcoming carnivores through the door, is to make them leave feeling like they didn’t miss meat. Not once did my fork search for the pork, or teeth miss the beef. I was wholely satisfied. A shot in the arm for every veggie who’s suffered bland risottos while out to dinner with their friends. Get your friends to Wild Thyme. Their meat-fatigued stomach will thank you for it.