Skylon, London, England

Last time I was in London, I spent a long day wandering the streets, enjoying every little nook and cranny. It's a beautiful city, even in the rain, with plenty of parks to explore and creative sights to see. But after a day in the town, I was feeling a bit worn out, and needed to retreat from the street. I was meeting a friend for drinks later that evening, and decided to take a quite moment for dinner at the South Bank Centre beforehand.

For those of you who know South Bank, you may be thinking: "a quiet moment?". True - it's a buzzy place, with students chatting, people plugged into their iThings on every ledge, public music and theatre (some hot, and some in my opinion... not), families with balloons and babies en masse, and at this particular time there was a food festival on outside, so there were plenty of 20-30-40 somethings enjoying the afternoon sun with their plastic cups of beer in hand. It's a great community site, but nevertheless, I was in the mood for a quieter place to recharge my introvert batteries.

Skylon's Grill menu had exactly what I was looking for. A nice veggie ravioli with pine nuts and pumpkin, a side salad of kale, and a glass of wine to ease me into the evening. Because I didn't have a reservation, I couldn't sit and try the usual a-la-carte menu, but on first glance the smaller grill menu seemed to have more veggies anyway. The service was lovely, and because it was early evening I practically had the place to myself, except for a few couples quietly chatting. I remember beautiful flowers, and of course a lot of light - one whole side of the restaurant opens up onto the Thames.

This is a gem, right in the middle of one of the most popular spots for weekend festivities and the arts in London. There's not a lot of veg choice, but what I had was done well, and perfectly timed as far as my own collisions with restaurants in the universe goes. I'll be back again.

Add: Royal Festival Hall, London
Tel: +44 020 7654 7800
Web: http://www.skylon-restaurant.co.uk 

Millennium, San Francisco, USA

A quick google search tells you that Millennium is a vegetarian institution in San Francisco. History seems to tell us that it was the first fine dining vegan restaurant of note in the area. Having read some other reviews on the place, we were eager to try it out for ourselves.

Millennium is on the ground floor of a hotel in downtown SF. Even though we had a booking, we waited for 15 minutes or so in the hotel lobby, which doubles as the entrance to the restaurant. It's cosy and a little dated. The other diners looked equally as intrigued and hungry as us - we were a strange mixed bag huddled in that lobby together! All walks of live come together over good veggie food in Millennium!

Once inside, I got the sense that the restaurant had once been an old Irish pub, or something similar. The big bar in the centre of the room is a feature, and they seem to have attempted to strip some of the pub feel back by draping curtains. It was an odd mix, but somehow just added to my sense of the ad hoc experience.

Our waitress was European, with plaits curled around the back of her head, and had no sense of humour at all. She reprimanded me for not speaking loudly enough when I ordered, but then she seemed to soften up after that. So much for all vegetarians being jolly, life-loving souls. Turns out we take all types!

Due to said waitress I was too scared to take pictures of my food, at risk of enduring another reprimand from this quirky institution that seems to take itself quite seriously, so hence this is a very straight forward post! The food was nice and imaginative, and we left full and satisfied. I can say I've had better, but I've also had worse. Nothing to write too much of a post about...

Being in Millennium, I sensed it was all vegan hype - I know what it's like to have mediocre standards, simply because you want to be encouraging of the movement, but at some point we need to be honest that it's just not that great by broader industry standards. Power to the vegan fine dining establishments, and more of them I say! Perhaps that will make places like Millennium a little more competitive on decor and service, rather than just resting on the niche of being a vegan haunt. It's touted as fine dining, and you're asked to dress nicely, but apart from some nice food it's really not worth the online reputation it enjoys (humble opinion!).

Give it a go if you're vegan, in town, and keen to see for yourself, but there are true fine dining restaurants out there in SF who I found will gladly accommodate you with some notice.

Add: 580 Geary St, San Francisco, CA
PH: 415-345-3900 
Web: http://www.millenniumrestaurant.com/restaurant/index.html 

A Travola, Darlinghurst, Sydney

When I was a kid growing up in Sydney, there was a secret French artist who 'painted' the silhouette of a beautiful lady, seen from behind with arms outstretched. She usually had a fitted red dress and cropped black hair, and she always had her pet cat with her. Her arms and legs were like slender tentacles swaying from her body. I say he 'painted' her because he put this evocative image on a variety of street surfaces around the eastern suburbs - in particular one alcove on Edgecliff road. He seemed to use oil crayons, paint, chalk - a whole variety of materials. I considered her to be 'my lady' when I was young, although now I know that many Sydney-siders consider her as a friend of their own. Then one day I noticed the artwork was fading and not being refreshed ~ my lady wasn't popping up unexpectedly in secret city-scapes. 

Years later I found my lady in an art studio in Darlinghurst. It turns out the artist named Bruno Dutot had left Sydney for a few years, but returned and taken his lady off the streets and on to the canvas. I was lucky enough to receive one of those canvases as a Christmas present from my husband that year ~ I've had to leave her at home in Australia so that the oil paint doesn't get damaged, but now when I'm visiting home my lady follows me around my house.

The reason I tell this story, is because A Travola is just across the street from where Bruno's Studio was - it brought a lot of fond memories flooding back!

I visited A Travola with two friends, after a week of serious eating. We were feeling worn out, and a bit sceptical of any menu. We sat at the long, continuous wooden dining table that runs the length of the dining hall, and immediately started accepting our stern instructions from the European waitress. She went about her business with a level of seriousness that caused us not to question her, and to focus with furrowed brows on our menus.

The pasta selection was interesting and fresh, and there were some light but unique salads in there that caught my eye too. We settled on sharing some plates, and then proceeded to chatter amongst ourselves, hoping not to encourage the wrath of the waitress. She wasn't unfriendly, just unrelenting in her seriousness about the menu!

I don't recall being particularly full or bedazzled by the meal. It was alive with ingredients and benefited from being served al dente, but I was definitely left wanting. Perhaps that was a good thing considering the quantity I had eaten already that week!

However. . . desert blew my socks off. It came served in a coffee cup, and the fearsome waitress explained that it was best experienced by scooping your spoon directly to the bottom of the cup, and collecting a little of each layer of the desert on you're way back out. She was not wrong. Creamy and delicious is all I can say. I wish we'd ordered 3 of them, but I felt guilty asking my two friends to get their own.

In short, it's a nice atmosphere and benefits from being in the heart of what I consider to be one of Sydney's cultural centers. It's small enough to be hard-core, however I felt distracted and wasn't able to define their unique selling point. I guess I'll need a good excuse to go again.

Address: 348 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Ph: +02 9331 7871
Web: http://www.atravola.com.au/http://www.atravola.com.au/