I have for some time resisted going to veggie restaurant, bar and takeaway Tibits. I don't know why.
I think it's the name - the irksome loss of the second 't' that it's so clearly crying out for either weird marketing reasons or reason prudish reasons grates on me.
Still, this Thursday, my boyfriend was in possession of a Taste card and a hankering to use it. A quick search of veggie places that are available on the Taste card found Tibits, and we were off.
The Tibits schtick is basically a huge buffet (renamed a 'food boat' for the squeamish) of hot and cold dishes that you pick from yourself, and then take to the counter to be weighed. It's £2.20 per 100g, or half that if you've got a Taste card.
They serve beer and wine, cocktails and puddings, and all is handily marked vegan, gluten-free etc where appropriate.
I love buffets. I think it's the glorious feeling that greets you when a hotel buffet breakfast is laid out before you - no waiting, the freedom to mix jam with hash browns if you feel like it, and the sheer open invitation to gluttony it offers.
While the pay-by-weight scheme means gluttony comes at a price, the fun of getting to try a bit of everything and create random and possibly noxious combinations is still there and, unlike a few of the dodgier buffets I've visited in my life, the food really is quite good.
There's some stodge (potato wedges, samosas) and loads of healthy salady bits to balance it out with, along with some dishes that you could easily make a main out of on their own (thai green curry and rice) along with dips, sauces, breads and all sorts of other bits and pieces.
The highlights for me were the salads - a couple involving green beans were phenomenal - and the samosas, which were a cut above the lazy jobs you normally get in restaurants.
There was only one pudding in the form of sticky toffee. It wasn't sticky toffee in any traditional sense of the word - it wasn't hot, there wasn't a sticky toffee sauce - but for a nicely fruited and spiced iced sponge, it wasn't half bad. And, thanks to having landed in Buffet World, I stuck a bit of fruit on the side, so I could pretend my pudding was healthy.
So you don't end up with the prettiest plate of food (see above) - you do end up being able to eat one dish or try 20 of them. And if you go for the latter, remember you can always put a piece of pineapple on the side - it's only wafer thin...
Tibits
www.tibits.co.uk/
14-18 Heddon Street
London
W1B 4DA
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