The Gate

Amazing veggie food and completely worth every penny! Definitely coming back again. We had the tapas dish and some sweet potatoe chips and it was enough for a light lunch for two people. The staff is very friendly and the atmosphere was great too.

Wonderful vegetarian meal with excellent service an ambiance — will definitely return!

I had a perfectly pleasant lunch here.
My sweet potato and pomegranate salad was good, could have done with a little more crunch. My friend Jane had the rotolo, which was beautifully presented and she enjoyed the flavours. To drink I had a Sauvignon blanc which was below par, tasted more like a Riesling. Coffee after the meal was excellent, gorgeous rich roast.

I prefer to eat vegan and while my husband doesn’t, I was thrilled when he made reservations for us at The Gate. We had the bread with olive oil, courgette flower (chose the vegan prepared option), a glass of red wine, beer, and for the mains he had the thali while I had the Asian dumplings. The bread was ok, the wine and beer were ok, and the thail was just ok. I really liked the courgette flower and I loved my Asian dumplings!
Staff are nice, ambience is lovely, and there is a lot of space at this restaurant which is really nice.
I live pretty close to The Gate so I would not hesitate to go back.

I’ve been to The Gate a couple of times now, it’s always a treat, although the quality of the food is a little variable — some stuff is amazing, other things slightly less so. It’s always great to go to a vegetarian restaurant and have a whole menu of choice, plus the cocktail menu is good. Puddings less so. Good place to take the parents — quite up market.

The service is pretty slow but the aubergine noodles are worth it! Try their veggie sushi, too! It’s a good place with interesting food, it just gets way too busy on a Friday.

I’m not a vegetarian, but some of my friends are and I’m always a bit scared when they say «oh I know this great veggie restaurant». For me going out to a restaurant is too indulge yourself, so I’m not super excited at the though of eating tofu and salad.
BUT — The Gate offers a really various, gourmet selection of veggie delicacies. Who knew you could do so many different dishes with only vegetables?
The food was amazing, really tasty with some very interesting combination.
My friend and I shared a mezze platter (stufffed mini pepper, spring rolls, fried aubergines and tortilla) and a cheese plate and we really enjoyed it.
The place looks like your normal gastro-​pub, really nice to meet up with some friends.
The only thing I didn’t really like was the quantity/​price. It costs us £25 each for a tiny plate of mezze + carafe of house wine + a tiny cheese plate. A tiny bit overpriced for such small quantities.
The mains looked like they had more on the plate, but we already spent quite a lot just for the starters so we passed our turn.

Had a fabulous vegan meal here in a comfortable but chic setting in Clerkenwell. Green curry and starter sampler were standouts. Corn cake not very special. Good drinks list, service competent.

Lovely quick dinner, tad expensive for what it is but the desert was really worth it!
Will definitely be back.

The Gate was lovely, and big ups to them for letting us stroll in and get a quick seat without a reservation.
Agreed with Joey C.‘s comment that, from the outside, the restaurant is not particularly noteworthy — turns out, I’ve unknowingly walked past The Gate many a time. Inside, however, the space really opens up and it feels light and uncluttered.
There is a wide range of drink options — a nice wine list, and several gins (to pair with your tonic, natch) and tequilas on offer. Being August the table jumped on some cider, Pimms and an Aperol Spritz. The last two were nicely presented with an extra flourish of whittled-​down produce.
The pakora starter was totally forgettable, though I couldn’t fault anything specifically. I guess my attitude skews towards leaving pakoras for Indian restaurants, but this was one of the starters that was easily divisible by three so all of us could have a share.
The server recommended the mushroom gnocchi as the stand-​out entrée, so ²⁄₃ of us opted for that. The final plate was lovely; five round gnocchi (the read more like dumplings, frankly, than the traditional Italian gnocchi, but that’s neither here nor there) over a bed of mixed mushrooms and some cheese crisps lain atop. For 14ish GBP/​plate, it was not a large, hearty dish (despite its description). It was warm, not hot, and overly salted. The service was friendly and I’m sure they would have worked to fix the former quibble, but we were on a tight timeline for the night so it wasn’t worth the trouble.
Unilocal note: so would I, as a meat-​eater, prioritize this restaurant for a night out? Well no, probably not. But it’s well situated pre-​night out in Exmouth or Angel, or pre-​/​post-​theatre at Sadler’s Wells. And nice to have a vegetarian restaurant or three in your arsenal to suggest to your veggie friends!

Food was delicious and lovely presented :) had the roasted pumpkin, dolcelatte and sage tart for starter. It was delicious. Then we had aubergine teriyaki and butternut rotolo — the butternut rotolo was divine! And then for dessert we had the rosewater panna cotta and fruit summmer trifle. All was delicious, including the red wine (can’t remember which one we chose).
Service was 4 stars. The waitresses came round after delivering the food checking to see how everything was, which was hice.
Will definitely come back!

Light, bright, modern restaurant. The high ceiling makes it a bit noisy, but I like the airy atmosphere and the service was fairly good.
Although I like vegetables I don’t usually go for vegetarian restaurants. However this one has really tasty dishes that won’t make you miss your proteins. Fresh ingredients and interesting combinations of flavours like in the sweet potatoes and beetroot tortillas, with guacamole, sour cream and watercress.

Seriously gourmet vegetarian place that turned me on to filling, delicious vegetarian food. It doesn’t have to be boring at all!
The outside of the restaurant looks underwhelming, but the space is quite open inside with high ceilings.
At just a few steps away from the Sadler’s Wells theatre, this is the perfect Pre theate spot.

Pleasant atmosphere and comfortable enough ambiance. Jalapeño margarita had a delightful kick to a refreshing cocktail. I had the polenta chips and falafel to start. Polenta chips were delicious, falafel was ok. Mushroom risotto as the main — memorable as savory indulgence.
Overall — solid vegetarian option in the neighborhood.

Went here last night with my friend who is vegan who was visiting London, lovely vegetarian restaurant close to Upper Street and Angel station so great location, doesn’t look massively impressive from the outside but inside is really nice, lot’s of space high ceilings.
I had the tortillas and my friend had the tofu thai red curry, tortillas were amazing, I love sweet potato but to have it with goats cheese was delicious and the thai red curry was really well spiced.
We were early diners at 6pm but the service was attentive without being suffocating. I had the sticky date pudding for dessert and my friend had the crumble as this was the only vegan option — this is really the only negative thing I have to say as I definitely think more effort to include at least one other vegan option could be made.
Overall delicious food, good service, great location.

As one of my vegetarian friends was visiting me for the weekend, we went to The Gate, which is known for its international dishes and its inventiveness.
What I wasn’t prepared for though, was how beautiful the place actually is! High ceilings and well stock bar: always a winning combination!
The starters were really rather good: the Mediterranean Peppers, filled with an artichoke & hazelnut paste, and served with tapenade and pesto, this dish was basically the sun on a plate. The peppers themselves were melty and artichoke paste had a very delicate, slightly sweet flavour, which worked really well against the stronger flavours of the accompaniments.
The Three Onion Tart itself was absolutely flawless: thin, cheesey, flakey pastry covered with a smooth, creamy, leek-​ey filling. I wasn’t as much of a fan of the caramelized red onion sauce, which was slightly too sweet for my taste.
For mains, the Wild Mushroom Risotto was fairly nice and well balanced, the Broccoli Flower Ravioli (which was really more of a gyoza-​type thing) was a bit meh (but the accompanying wasabi & pumpkin purée was ace!).
The winner dish though? *THAT* Aubergine Schnitzel! Silky-​smooth grilled aubergines, layered with smoked cheddar, pesto, roasted red peppers and tomatoes. SO GOOD!
All together, it wasn’t bad but nowhere near as creative as I expected it to be, so I’m not sure I’ll visit again. Or maybe just to try the desserts, as we didn’t get a chance to do so this time!

Great food experience for usual meat eaters like myself. We tried a combination of the starters and main. Make sure you order mushroom risotto! Great service and they make excellent recommendations if you are not sure what to get.

Great Place. It seemed that all tables had a reservation. But we were early so got a chance to try this restaurant while we were in London. Both our meals were excellent and the service very friendly + a nice athmosphere close to the open fire.
Would go tere for sure next time when i am nearby :)

A visit to the original Gate in Hammersmith has always been a special treat — one that I haven’t indulged in for too many years. I remember saving up for a meal there when I was much younger. I used to be vegetarian and the choice of decent restaurants was very limited. The Gate and Blah Blah Blah always stood out.
I have since started eating meat again, but I still favour interesting vegetarian over burgers. The Gate still delivers and I can’t wait to return for a full meal soon. The Islington branch is the perfect match to a night at Sadler’s Wells, and I have tickets for another performance in a couple of week’s time.
Last night we were just after a post-​theatre drink — The Gate still looks as inviting as a pub on an Autumn night, and a few seats are available at the bar. It’s advertised as a restaurant as well as mezze and it didn’t take much persuasion to order a mixed plate.
Mind you, there was no active persuasion from any of the staff — the bar man didn’t even know where the food menu was (it is not at the back of the wine list!) and we had to ask several times until someone fetched one for us. This seems to tie in with Hina’s experience, but I really didn’t mind on this occasion. My friend and I had just experienced such an amazing dance piece and so much to talk about, the slightly dizzy staff did not upset us. However, it does not go with the overall feel of the place — or the prices.
The food was amazing! Tiny portions of deliciousness, and no hummus or olives in sight!

I’m a pescetarian, but I usually prefer to eat vegetarian when I go out for meals. My husband made reservations for my birthday, and I was very much looking forward to it. We got 3 courses that all sounded interesting and promised a lot of flavour.
Well, what we got was a LOT of flavours. Too many flavours. It started to taste like they just crammed a bundle of randomly chosen flavours and tried to make them taste nice in one dish. To me, this does not really ‘show off’ the wonderful flavours different vegetables can have when cooked right and paired with the right ingredients. To be fair to them, the individual items were cooked well, but the dishes were very disappointing considering the hype.
It seems like they have the technique, but they just don’t have the ideas quite right or thought out well. Maybe that’s just what they want to be or they need more time to mature. I’m not sure. I will keep an eye on the menu, but I’m not rushing back to this place on a special occasion.