My solo Valentine’s date at the UK’s first Michelin-starred vegan restaurant

I’m at Plates. Heralded this week by that esteemed arbiter of restaurants, Michelin, that marketing vehicle for the tyre firm that dispatches its secretive inspectors across the planet to dine and to distinguish the great from the good.

This week, as it announced its greatest and most sought-after accolades, its stars for Great Britain and Ireland, it highlighted a little place in east London. A small and newish establishment near Old Street, among a smattering of Vietnamese and Korean restaurants. Plates received a star. Which is why the editor sent me. Not just because it has a star and is a restaurant but because it’s a vegan restaurant. And I have some history with vegans and our scraps usually end messily.

So I’m dispatched to Plates, but under specific circumstances – tortuous, even – you might say. Because while I must eat out here, there and everywhere in service of our readers, I am specifically minded to swerve the plant-based gaffs. And the places with tasting menus, those gargantuan mind- and stomach-blasting hot coals of hell. I also loathe dining solo; restaurants are for joyous human interaction. And there is one day I do not dine out on, and that’s Valentine’s Day.

So get this exquisite horror show: a vegan tasting menu and a table for one on Valentine’s Day.

The single seat is at the bar, along with another space for two. Walk-ins can wing it because the solo place gets released last minute for foodie obsessives who care more for food than company. On my V-Day visit, I’m told the tables around me were booked last April. That’s how popular this creation of brother/sister duo Kirk and Keeley Haworth is with diners, no doubt in part due to chef Kirk’s appearance on BBC show Great British Menu. He dazzled with his plant-based fine dining, was made “champion of champions” for 2024 and the viewers went mad for it.

Now with a Michelin star – the first UK plant-based restaurant to win such a thing – the bookings system is crashing and the phone lines are burning.

Dubious of claims by vegans that their diet is planet-saving and healthier than that of carnivores, and tired of the moralising against us, I harrumphed at the Michelin award. Year after year, the tyre company strives for headlines in its bid to stay relevant, so this sort of stir is inevitable. But I also feel the vegan tide is receding. Just this week, a survey was published revealing that Britain is a nation of secret meat eaters. And London butcher’s Parson’s Nose announced new trading figures on Thursday and talked of “soaring sales as vegans turn their back on plant-based diets”.

I take my solo seat at the bar. The room has the style of a French bistro, with linen curtains over the lower parts of the windows, pale banquettes and the buzz of industry from the team which, to me, is sweet as music. And the ratio of staff to diners is ballsy in this economic climate: six in the kitchen, five on the floor for just 26 covers.

There’s an excellent wine list with innovative choices using red grapes for white sips, such as a Greek xinomavro which is crisp and smooth.

The first of eight courses comes, a bitter bite of apple and a sweeter hug of squash and ginger soup. There’s a dish of slow-cooked leeks, tempered by verjus and a shiitake mushroom with black bean mole and the crunch on top of puffed rice.

The cooking techniques, explained with each dish, are exhausting to contemplate but I only have to eat. And there are some miracles here: a sourdough with the texture and flavour of the finest croissant, a mini lasagne with a rich umami filling of mung and urad beans, and a wonderful little rice pudding ice cream.

So, of course, I get it. And so should you. Who cares that it’s vegan when it’s just clever, brilliant fun? And, unlike with most tasting menus, I leave feeling light of tummy and with room for dinner. Which, back home for my Val’s Day date with my beloved wife, will be a ribeye and chips.

For a balanced menu, a rich experience of fabulous charm and great endeavour, Plates deserves stars and bookings. Which I knew all along of course.