Blue Velvet
Stylish decor and imaginative vegetarian food at Tibits
If the idea of a Swiss vegetarian restaurant makes you think of muesli and cuckoo clocks then, well, you would be half right. Tibits, one of the new eateries on Westfield’s Southern Terrace, does indeed offer muesli....but plenty more besides.
Gone are the days when there was nothing on the menu for vegetarians apart from a cheese-soaked and unappetising vegetable lasagne. At Tibits, you can enjoy organic tofu with curry sauce and pineapple, fennel in olive oil, Indian chick peas, cheesy polenta, jalapeños fried with sour cream, and black salsify, which turned out to be some kind of root vegetable - altogether enough to make your tastebuds celebrate.
It is a place where vegetarians can afford to be smug, and determined meat-eaters who ask questions such as, “Well, what DO you eat, then?” will be able to find some answers.
But do not expect to be waited on: at Tibits, you help yourself from the many dishes laid out on the ‘food boat’ and then make your way to the counter to have your plate weighed. At £2.00 per hundred grams (or 3.5oz for those who are metrically challenged) it sounds extremely reasonable. However, it is easy to get carried away and by the time you get to the till, you have no idea how much the bill is going to come to.
The Tibits concept was launched in Zurich in 2000 by three brothers who wanted to create a high-class, fast food vegetarian restaurant.
And high-class is how it feels. Red velvet flocked wallpaper is often associated with cheap Indian restaurants, but its blue cousin, which decorates the walls of Tibits, gives the restaurant a luxurious, sumptuous feel. Add to this the blue velvet curtain at the front door, blue velvet cushion covers and matching blue lampshades and you find yourself dining in a calm sea of aqua. According to the company’s website, every Tibits is designed differently and is redecorated every two years.
To go with the upmarket theme, staff are on-hand to help you carry your tray to your table if your hands are otherwise busy with shopping, pushchairs or whatever.
As a purpose-built restaurant, Tibits is wide and spacious enough to have several specially designated areas: long tables at the back for large groups, small tables along the sides for couples, and a ‘Kids’ Zone’ with toys and a blackboard for the little people. You can also sit outside and watch the world, quite literally, go by as you eat.
Several of Tibits’ neighbours are not yet open and you cannot help feeling that the Swiss restaurant itself only just made it in time: attention has been paid to every detail in the dining area itself but if you pop out to the toilets at the back, the walls are part-painted, part-plaster and look as though they are waiting to be finished.
We had two main dishes made up of a varied selection from the superb ‘food boat’, a tiramisu with fresh figs and a fruit salad and muesli for dessert, plus soft drinks and coffee. The bill came to £32.10.
Next time, we willl be back to try out some of the aperitifs (Champagne with peach and passion fruit syrup) and cocktails (Tequila with orange and raspberry syrup).
In the meantime, this place looks set to become a mecca for London’s vegetarians - and perhaps for the capital’s meat-eaters too.
Yasmine Estaphanos
3 November 2008
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