Review: Acorn, Bath

I like to think I’d find it easy to go vegan. When I scan a menu it’s the accompaniments that catch my eye before the protein. “Oooo… roast jerusalem artichokes and Madeira sauce! I’ll have some of that! With chicken? Sure, whatev.” More than that, some of my favourite dishes at top restos have been veggie ones recently. And more than half our meals at home are meat-free.

But my meal at Acorn, a new vegan fine dining restaurant in Bath, leaves me wondering whether in reality I would have to stop at merely vegetarian? Maybe all those veggie dishes I’ve loved at other restaurants only work because they’re heaving with butter, cream and – sometimes – a wee drop of fish or chicken stock?

Or maybe Acorn just isn’t very good.

The old Georgian house in the tangle of lanes behind the Abbey is a cosy and romantic setting, though the tables are packed in a little too cosy to be properly romantic. Front of house were a bit lacking in knowledge or engagement. I suppose it was a Sunday night!

Lemme pick apart some of the dishes.

Smoked potato and hazelnut agnolotti in a red wine sauce. The pasta was okay, the potato puree inside was most definitely smoky. If there was hazelnut in there, the flavour had got lost. The wine sauce was thin and weak. Perfectly edible dish, just not really elevated anywhere.

Butternut squash was a dish of roasted butternut squash, some shreds of crunchy sauerkraut, and a dark umami broth that was rather good. But not really good enough to lift this or make these few mouthfuls look like a dish that deserved to be a tenner.

Shouldn’t really come as any surprise that truffle oil popped up twice. On the celeriac dish it was the overwhelming flavour. They’d taken all the trouble to make something like a celeriac boulangere (very thin slices layered, pan baked, then sliced) and had somehow eradicated all of the beautiful celeriac flavour.

By the time dessert rolled around I had low expectations. So Maureen’s burnt apple compote with blah blah was surprisingly good, packed full of flavour and a nice balance of bitter-sweetness. My pear concoction was much closer to form. Poached pears in almond milk. Pretty much literally, two slices of plainly poached pear with some almond milk.

The dishes at Acorn are all perfectly edible, but if you detect damning with faint praise then you’re right. Dinner at this price point and in this setting needs to feel special and luxurious, whatever the style or cuisine on offer. They haven’t elevated vegan cooking to the right place here. I’m keen to love vegan food, but the Acorn hasn’t hit the spot for me. Four courses was £38 each without drinks.