I’ve been meaning to try the Herbivore pop up supper club for absolutely ages, and now I have, I’m kicking myself that it took me so long. It was bloody excellent.
Herbivore is run by Simon, a long-time vegetarian and previously the chef at Milgi, another place I love and have written about plenty of times before. These days, he brings his Herbivore concept to some of Cardiff’s best little independent restaurants as a one-night-only pop up, with a different menu each time.
Here is the £25 “F word” menu we enjoyed for the Valentines popup at the Embassy Cafe (also home of the fab Real Junk Food Cafe in Cathays in which Simon is also involved), along with a very nice BYOB bottle of wine.
The Herbivore F Word Menu
I was really exited by this menu in particular, as the food sounded just like the kind of stuff we ate (and I loved) when we travelled to Israel a few years ago – I wasn’t disappointed.
Falafel at the Herbivore popup
Lebanese salad at the Herbivore pop up
Filled fatayer pastries at the Herbivore pop up
Baklava with date caramel at the Herbivore pop up
Every single course was a delight.
The falafel was crispy on the outside and wonderfully soft and flavourful on the inside – you won’t be able to eat the stuff you get from the supermarket ever again after eating this.
The salad, which included char-grilled lettuce, something I’ve never eaten before, was excellent. Smoky bbq-ish flavours with crunchy croutons and little pops of freshness from the pomegranate seeds.
The Fatayer was like a lovely light and healthy pasty – tasty, filling and not at all stodgy, and it was delicious with the pickled fennel – another first for me.
Of our two desserts, the Orange blossom was my favourite and is pictured as the header image of this post – it was like a slush puppy Jaffa cake, really refreshing! I was less keen on the baklava, only because I’m not the biggest fan of super sweet stuff, but it was still a beautifully presented dessert, flavoured with rose water, which gave it a slight hint of Turkish delight.
In a nutshell, I absolutely loved Herbivore and will be booking on to the next date as soon as it is announced on Twitter – I can’t wait to see what will be on the menu next time. Join me if you can, you won’t regret it.
