Riverside Vegetaria rescues the evening

The new Charter Square area of Kingston links the old market square to the river with a huddle of modern bars and restaurants so it seemed the ideal place to head for a special night out. So we did.

But we were disappointed by what we found. The bars were bright, minimalist and featured the soft leather sofas and the brash modern art that you would expect but the menus were very limited and exceedingly boring. There were several place that we would happily have sat in for a drink but nowhere that we wanted to eat. As a vegetarian you expect the choices to be limited but surely not as limited as this; there are reasonable alternatives to goats cheese tartlets!

So we headed south a hundred metres or so where another cluster of restaurants includes the reliable Riverside Vegetaria.

As the name suggested, this is a vegetarian restaurant but that did not make the food selection any easier as all we had done is swap a menu where we want to have nothing to one where we wanted everything!

Still, a difficult choice is better than no choice and I eventually settled for the Organic Potato, Cashew Nut and Spinach Curry simply because it contains lots of ingredients that I like and ends with the word "curry".

The patio doors to the riverside were closed but the bobbing boats just a couple of metres away added to the atmosphere as did the cheery bottle of Bergerac wine.

So, not for the first time, the older generation showed the youngsters how to do it and I'll be taking advantage of the Kingston Riverside Vegetaria's experience, menu and location again before too long.