Paladar review: The vegan Latin American menu you need to know about - and it's all gluten free!

Since finding out I have coeliac disease, I've been doing a lot of experimenting with food. Eating out feels like a whole journey of relearning. When I went vegan nearly 20 years ago, i had to learn how to navigate eating in restaurants, or with people that didn't eat the same way as me. We've come a long way in the last 20 years - vegan options are everywhere (at least in the UK) and it doesn't feel like a huge stress to go out for dinner any more. But vegan and coeliac? That's a bit harder. 

I love finding vegan restaurants that are gluten free too, but when that's not an option, a gluten-free place that knows its way around a vegan menu can be a lifesaver.  Paladar is 100 percent gluten free with a separate vegan menu. It's a Latin American place, it's friendly as hell, and it's got a great drinks list. The music's turned up, so if you've got something to celebrate, so much the better. If you're wandering south of the river and looking for a great vegan and gluten free meal, you've definitely found the right place. 

The menu starts with a handful of vegan choices 'pa picar', or to nibble. There are a couple of familiar staples, deep fried spicy corns, plantain chips with guacamole, as well as some rarer treats - palm heart ceviche or black bean and sweet potato empanadas. On any other day, I would have been all over those empanadas like a wasp on a picnic but, knowing what the dessert menu holds, I passed and went straight to mains.

There are two vegan choices. The first, a rather tempting pulled jackfruit, guajjillo chilli sauce, corn tortillas, roasted habanero pineapple & chilli jam. I am a jackfruit agnostic, so I turned my hungry eyes to the second plate - roast aubergine, fried beans with salsa negra, and Maya hummus. If your first thought on reading that is 'hummus and vegetables? Is this 2005 all over again?' I can't really blame you. Happily, the description underwhelms to the same extent the dish overwhelms - a lot.

I love beans, but they're often the support act, aren't they? Just there in the background, making up the numbers, being a quietly-unappreciated protein powerhouse, sprinkling iron and fibre everywhere they go. I mean, they're great, but they rarely get top billing for their taste in the same way they do for their nutrition value. Beans that have passed through the hands of Paladar's cooks come out transformed into glorious smoky, spicy, velvety wonder. They're the sort of beans that you cram onto your fork and wave it in your fellow diners' face saying "YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!" while secretly hoping they don't, so there's more for you. Sure, the aubergine was nice and soft and silky, and the Maya hummus was nice but the beans? Well, you have to try them. 

Between the hummus, the beans and the aubergine, it's a very soft plate, and needs a bit of crunch carbs to balance things out. If you're wondering which of the sides to get, I'd say don't tax yourself with difficult decision - get the 'sides trio' so you can try three of them: rice, chimichurri fries and cassava chips. I love rice and I love fries (especially with a dusting of chimichurri herbs), but I really love cassava. Deep fried, it has that perfect crisp-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside texture. Sometimes cassava described as having a more nutty taste than an average potato, but to me it's just that bit more alkaline flavour. It's much starchier too, which gives it a satisfying chew compared to the humble spud. I found myself bouncing between the deep fried goodness of the sides trio to the beans and back again. 

Having demolished all of the above, I was finally able to look at the dessert menu and the one thing I'd had my eye on all day - vegan churros!  There are two sauce available with the churros, and you need to know which one to pick: coffee dulce de leche, which isn't vegan, and chocolate and ancho chill, which is.  I had stupidly agreed to share a portion, so I got two rather than a whole portion of four, but I'm glad to report that they were everything you'd want from churros - hot, crispy, slightly sweet, and a perfect vehicle for conveying  an abundance of spicy chocolate into your mouth.

One note on the churros though - they're purple corn rather than the traditional yellow, so when they turn up on a red plate, they do have something delightfully meal-the-aliens-in-Star-Trek-eat about them.

The vegan menu helpfully points out which dessert wines and cocktails are vegan too, so if you'd rather have a liquid dessert, there's that option too, but I'd suggest if you're that way inclined, have a drink as well as churros rather than instead of, because churros make everything better. 

I'm already planning my next visit to Paladar and this time I definitely won't be sharing. 

Paladar

paladarlondon.com

4-5 London Rd, London SE1 6JZ

020 7186 5555