The Gate Restaurants

Wonderful food, really good service! Will definitely go be going back!

We had a lovely three course meal at the Gate in Marble Arch. It was our first time visiting that branch of the Gate after enjoying going to Hammersmith and Islington on numerous occasions before. We both really enjoyed the food and boyfriend especially liked the chocolate yoyo!

Visiting from Scotland and ate here last night. Food was amazing, staff were lovely and service was fast. Especially enjoyed the red thai curry. Highly recommend!

The food, presentation, service all was good. Our hotel concierge had recommended the restaurant to us. For our meal we ordered wild mushroom risotto cakes, Avocado Benedict, and the tortillas. For dessert ordered the sticky toffee pudding and the chocolate snowball. They were all good. I would go back again. Highly recommended.

Myself and my wife ate at the gate after going to the theatre as they have a good selection of vegan options and all the food was 5 stars great choice great food great staff

Had dinner there with a friend and was absolutely amazed. If anyone believe vegetarian food is boring, you need to go the gate. It will completely changed your mind.

I had a 3 course meal and I love everything. Cannot wait to go back.

Great place for a meal with friends after work! Everyone enjoyed the food - even the non veggies! The three course set menu was amazing - every course was wonderful and we will be back for sure! Great service a real find �

Excellent food and service was exceptional. Our waitress, Caterina, was absolutely incredible! � She took great care and catered for all our needs.

Booked a table here for dinner last night with a friend who has been vegetarian since we were at school together, based on recommendation of a colleague... we enjoyed an absolutely fantastic meal. The glazed aubergine starter was amazing, the rotolo was tasty and the roasted cauliflower with smoky paprika was incredibly moreish! Friendly service & affordable wine selection rounded off the experience. Highly recommended! 5�

Beautiful food, lovely atmosphere, great staff and not overly expensive. Will definitely be back

Amazing food and so much choice for vegans. I wanted to try everything!

This was our first visit to the Marylebone restaurant (have been to both the Hammersmith and Islington branches before). The setting is great and the restaurant itself is lovely. Great service too ��

Amazing food - I had the special Poêlée de Cèpes, only available in October. � staff were great, brought out a special birthday desert for my partner. Highly recommended!

Absolutely devine food and brilliant service. Highly recommended!

A vegan family's prayers answered! Delicious food with so much choice in a relaxing environment and served by attentive staff. Very much worth travelling 30 miles for �

“There’s only one way to beat the holiday blues - eat out.” Angie Jacobs 2017.

I knew I’d be a miserable cow when I got home from a delightful child free week in Montenegro.So when a Time Out special offers email timely dropped into my inbox a few weeks before my departure, I figured that a trip to the vegetarian restaurant The Gate in Marylebone, was meant to be. And at £24 for 3 courses and a glass of Prosecco, it was a veritable snip.

Did there used to be one of the chain in Belsize Park circa 1998? I ask this because I seem to remember my husband taking me there to say sorry when I caught him smoking after he said he’d stopped at around that time. In those days he’d usually get away with a quick curry or fish and chips for his misdemeanours, so he must have been really really sorry. With my new(ish) passion for extreme restauranting, heaven help him if I ever catch him up to any badness now. (Mind you, it’s far more likely to be the other way around.)

My companion for the evening was to be the one I call my ‘cool’ friend - Laura Gold. (I once, only once, asked my son who he would’ve liked for parents seeing as we were obviously so rubbish and he replied, far too quickly - Laura & Paul.) It was a rainy evening and I parked at Canons Park Station and couldn’t decide whether to take my kagul or an umbrella. Laura usually floats around wearing a biker jacket that would look like mutton dressed as lamb on any other late fortysomething woman - fastened up. But an umbrella on Oxford Street? What do I care? I know I’m cool inside. On went the kagul.

Whoever I’m with, especially my husband, I invariably get lost. Get this - I came out of Bond Street Station, tapped the address into my Google Map app and found the joint without a hiccup. So, what can we deduce from this? Clearly, it is not me that has the poor sense of direction but everybody else. I knew it all along.

I enter the restaurant, very uncoolly early and what do I notice straight away? It’s quiet, bright and spacious. Just the sort of place that Tony would like, but I always cock up and take him to loud grungy ones. We had a beautiful meal which I will come on to soon, but I want to get the one negative out of the way so I can wax lyrical about the food (and the company, of course.) The toilets. What is going on there? The restaurant is spotless, the service just right and the food, yeah yeah I’m coming on to it, yet the toilets are strewn with paper towels, obviously not been cleaned that recently and smell like the public toilets in those cheap hotels in Spain that you booked on a whim because it was February and you hadn’t seen the sun for 6 months. Maybe there was a problem with the drains or something, because even with the pleasant decor and lovely toiletries, they were still rank.

Anyway, I’m back up in the restaurant and squinting through the menu. Everything looks delicious. The menu is varied but concise enough that it doesn’t get overwhelming. Laura breezes in looking 32, but I did note she wasn’t in her biker jacket.

The waitress came over and explained the menu to us - there really was no catch - 3 courses and a drink, oh, but not the platters, which was fair enough. I don’t usually drink at all when I’m driving, but figured I would be ok with one glass at the beginning of the meal. I did check what my companion’s intentions were though, as I had parked my car on a no parking between 2-3pm bay and had the day off the next day, so could always walk and get it. She was up for maybe another glass but not a whole bottle, so that was fine and gave me closure .. or so I thought. There was a long gap between our starters and main and I could see Laura becoming distracted and it definitely wasn’t because I was boring her. She called the waitress over to see where our food was and she went to check. On her return she came back and informed us that it was just being plated up and would we like another glass of Prosecco on the house? Bloody hell. I held strong and sipped at my tap water.

For my starter I had smoked tofu which doesn’t sound that exciting, but when it’s with a chana salsa made of Kalamata olives, shallot , tomatoes, roast pepper & coriander & harissa it is pretty delicious. I don’t usually list the ingredients like that, but they deserve a mention as they totally elevated the dish. Laura gave me a bite of her mizo glazed aubergine which was topped with toasted cashews, coriander and ponzu sauce. It was very tasty but I was satisfied with my tofu. Gosh I was having a good day (oh, apart from the Prosecco thing).

Main course was a difficult decision as there was nothing that didn’t sound gorgeous. I let Laura go for the Malaysian curry (see the photo, the presentation was amazing as I had made a spicy potato curry in coconut milk for my vegetarian son and myself the night before. (I’d put the leftover half of coconut milk a glass in the fridge, knowing full well it will never get touched). It was nice but tasted a bit licoricey. I tried to think of that aniseedy spice, but she cleverly pointed out it could be the Thai basil.

My dish was a corker - aubergine schnitzel. It came looking like a posh cheese toastie and the filing of smoked Cheddar, basil pesto, tomatoes and peppers was fabulous.

When I suggested we share dessert, Laura looked horrified thinking I meant only one. However, she is all talk as she gave up very early on, leaving me to finish most of the strawberry Eton mess and sticky toffee pudding myself. A personal trainer by trade, she was very interested (and astonished) in the 10 000 steps a day challenge I took on in June.

“Are you still counting…” she started as I shovelled the last towering mouthful of pudding into my mouth

“Calories?” I asked, “Does it look like it?”

There was no bill to pay other than service, which was lovely and we looked outside to see what the weather was doing - it was chucking it down. I noticed the “Deliciously Ella” restaurant opposite. One to visit? Laura didn’t think so as she found Ella far too pleased with herself for eating healthily. I mused to myself. Laura could and should be annoying like Ella. She is slim, attractive, kind, intelligent, sensible yet a rock chick and funny. But she’s not. I put on my kagul while Laura could only turn up the collar of her light jacket. At least I’d be dry.

We went to the Marylebone branch on a Friday night. Food was creative and delicious. Unfortunately we were let down by their service. We had booked a table but we had to wait for 20 mins to be seated. Then we waited more than 40 mins for food to arrive. Plus they forgot to bring water we had asked.

Was thrilled my non vegan friends booked this for our night out just so I (the vegan) could have a good meal and lots of choice. Unfortunately the service was severely lacking. The next table were asked if they wanted their coats hung where ours just sat squashed nx to us. It took ages for anyone to come over to take a drink order to start with. The main meal took and hour and half to arrive. I was a bit upset so did complain as we had a booking for a drinks table at 10 and were going to struggle to make it. The waitress was apologetic but didn’t say why it was so late. Dessert was incredible and almost worth going for alone but I’m gutted that the one time my very pro meat eating friends go to a vegan restaurant they are disappointed if not by the food but by the service. The waitress said that it’s not usually like this.. well I doubt my friends will want to come back now to find out! I think the manager should have come over myself but never mind. Disappointing.

Food was nice and there are plenty of choices on the menu. The host was not very happy for us swapping tables and moving it a bit of it's place. To me she was a bit rude, we had to place the table back to where she felt it need it to be. Her argument was to leave enough "access" space to a booked table that never turned up while we were in the restaurant. Perhaps next time she should make "access" space at the other end of the restaurant rather than by the window, which on a sunny day, people will prefer to be seated. The waitress was very polite and made great suggestions!

Food okay but small portions. Nice colombard wone. Service variable