Celia Brooks at French & Grace

I had a lovely vegetarian lunch today at French and Grace, where Celia Brooks was serving a special menu as a guest chef. She's written some great recipe books with interesting vegetarian recipes which I'm definitely going to try out some time and will probably take to university!

French and Grace is located in the very cool Brixton Village, which is full of good restaurants with reasonably-priced food and also hosts a few shops.

I really liked these caramelised onion, mushroom and cheddar tarts because the crispy cheese gave them a strong parmesan-like taste and the tartness (pun intended) of the onions made a good combination.

The trio of veg pâtés was stunning. I loved the three vibrant colours, especially of the purple pâté, made with beetroot, walnut and Stilton. I found the Stilton a little overpowering in this one, but the more subtle flavours of broad bean and basil were a hit with me. The brazil nut and garlic pâté was also delicious, with a great nutty flavour.

These gnocchi, made with wild greens, rather than just plain-old potatoes, were amazing. Served with a sage and porcini butter sauce and roasted courgettes, the whole dish was full of lovely deep earthy flavours. The salad of all sorts of different varieties of tomatoes, pomegranate seeds and olives was great. I really liked the olives which had been spice-roasted giving them a soft texture and slightly sweet taste.

The dessert was yummy - raspberry Eton mess: crunchy meringue and a rich, creamy sauce. It was sprinkled with leaves from the Stevia plant - a sweet leaf sometimes processed to be used as a sugar alternative. This, like most of the vegetables used in the meal, had been grown in Celia's allotment, making them all as fresh as possible.

I think I shall have to return to French and Grace another time to try out their street food, which includes delicious-sounding flatbread and hummus wraps as well!

Locanda Locatelli

I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Locanda Locatelli today. It was my first visit to Giorgio's restaurant since I was much younger, when I went to make ice-creams; I can hardly remember it. However, today's meal was a great reminder of truly fantastic Italian cuisine.

I was completely blown away by the gnocchi with morel mushrooms. There will definitely be no substitute for these delicately light gnocchi, made with King Edward potatoes, with their exceptionally light and fluffy texture. Of course the morels were incredibly rich and intense, and their earthly flavour in the sauce went really well with the potato gnocchi.

For my starter, I had some burrata with grilled vegetables, and topped with roasted almonds. The burrata, which is made in a similar way to mozzarella (although is much more runny!), had a refreshing creamy taste and texture. The buttery flavour was great with the soft, grilled courgette, and onion, and crunchy roasted almonds.

I had to opt for sorbet for dessert on such a hot day, so I tried three different sorbets: apricot & passion fruit, apple, and raspberry. They were all delicious, and not too sweet. I especially like the apple, which was very subtle - the apricot & passion fruit was also lovely and exotic.

The restaurant look great as well, I especially liked the glass panels with yellow streaks curling down, which reminded me of tagliatelle pasta! The staff were really kind, and well humoured!