HERBIES
Hearty, nourishing food make this the perfect restaurant for a restorative lunch on a cold, wintery day By Harriet Noble
T
ruly international cuisine’ is a phrase that’s often bandied about by restaurants and plonked on their websites. As well as sounding like a rather generic sentence, it’s also one that is highly unlikely to be true. If Herbies were to put this on their website however, you’d be hard pushed
to disagree. A quick glance at the menu reveals a whistle stop tour of the globe. You’ve got burgers, nachos, baba ghanoush, dahl, tzatziki, tagine, Thai curry, pizza and editerranean platters. here s also healthy stuff teeming with veg like their buddha bowls and super green salads, as well as naughty stuff like eaven in evon, the evon fudge ice cream, chocolate brownie and vanilla sauce affair topped with clotted cream. It’s quite the cosy scene in Herbies, especially on this nippy day where Exeter folk are nipping out of the o ce on their lunch break to see a friend – they come in, take off their hats, gloves and scarves and are soon slurping on their soup, dipping in great chunks of bread and hugging
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mugs of hot chocolate. If there is one thing better than feeling cosy it might be watching other people enjoying being cosy. The vibe here is also friendly and informal with art from local artists hanging on the wall, a sprinkling of hanging fairy lights, and indie music and the odd bit of The Beatles playing in the background. When everything at this time of year can feel a bit jarring, this is a place that soothes. And today I’m in no mood for any of the healthy salads, all I want is something that’s going to make me forget that I didn’t layer up sensibly this morning. I begin with two starters: the white bean and pistachio pâté and the artichoke and wild mushroom risotto. The pâté is a marvellous Mediterranean mouthful, with lemon, olive oil and a generous portion of garlic chucked in; it’s been vigorously puréed too so that it is super silky. olloped onto a toasted flatbread, you ve got the creamiest, smoothest topping. The risotto, my personal favourite dish here, is an equally smooth number that feels really decadent.
