Food Leigh on Sea
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
John Lawson’s restaurant is a place with purpose, and all the more appealing for it. To the incomer, it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it spot, squished between other high-street shops, but locals clearly know it well. What draws them? Lawson’s mission is, above all, to nourish with wholesome, organic, thoughtfully prepared ingredients via a daily changing menu (it’s only revealed at the end) that champions vegetables and vegan cookery. Expect to spread cashew butter, salt-flecked and creamy, on your gluten-free bread at the start, and for proceedings to finish deliciously with a strawberry and vanilla cashew ice cream. This is the star detail in a pretty dessert that includes strawberry consommé, honey-oat granola, subtly elderflower-infused cream and fresh berries, and in which sugar has been used with healthy restraint. In between, come pickles and ferments to snack on, a little fennel salad and pitch-perfect asparagus on top of a white-bean houmous, and you can just taste the goodness in the minerally greens that support a beautifully cooked piece of Cornish pollock. There are more greens, lusty and vital, alongside a cauliflower 'steak' simmered in mushroom broth, or served for meat-eaters alongside wild rabbit. The latter is a standout dish, the bacon-wrapped loin tender as you like, the leg cooked down into a hot, moreish, focaccia-crumbed croquette, and a swoop of carrot purée with hints of star anise giving balancing root-veg sweetness. The wines stay true to the message. The paired flight is good value: four interesting, low-intervention pours include a pleasant Chardonnay-Rebula from Slovenian makers, Gašper Wines. As befits the restaurant's ethos, herbal teas are taken seriously, with kukicha (Japanese twig tea) promising to aid digestion and promote a sense of calm.
