Acorn Restaurant in Bath is also the first vegan restaurant in the UK to achieve recognition by the MICHELIN Guide 2019 

Acorn restaurant

Acorn restaurant

Acorn in bath has been one of the country's top vegetarian restaurants since it opened in 2013 garnering many awards and accolades.

Most recently they won Olive magazines "Veggie Pioneer Award" and the Trencherman Guides Award for Innovation and Creativity to go alongside their MICHELIN Guide 2019 and Good Food Guide entries. 

Back in October 2018 owner/chef and author of high end cookery book Plants Taste Better, Richard Buckley realised they had so many innovative vegan ideas and dishes that they could easily serve a ‘plants only' menu that was so good no-one would even notice. 

Quietly they made sure all their drinks including wines and beers were 100% vegan and simply replaced any non vegan dishes with vegan ones.  

"It was amazing, nobody noticed.  We even had the founder of VIVA! Juliet Gellatley come in shortly after we did this and even she didn't spot it. 

The trick was not trying to veganise anything, we just served the most interesting food we could make from plants and everyone just went with it."

Their biggest pleasure was when those eating a vegan diet would ask which dishes were vegan and they could just casually say, all of them! 

"I think it is a real validation of how far vegan food has come that people aren't looking for lumps of animal protein and fat to make a meal but are instead looking for interesting ideas and quality ingredients across the board."  

Sadly the cat is well and truly out the bag now, in the age of social media you can't keep a secret for long so they are happy to now make the announcement - as the UKs finest vegan restaurant.

It was a wonderfully fulfilling experience though, to prove that you could easily continue to prosper as a quality restaurant without having to have any ethical compromise on your plates."

Acorn has a lunch menu, a 2 and 3 course set menu and a 5 course taser menu that can be matched with the best vegan wines.

The 3 course set menu is £38.95 and includes main courses such as:

  • Mushroom Parfait served with celeriac cooked in its own juice, pickled red cabbage, hazelnut butter and red chicory in hazelnut oil.
  • One Whole Cauliflower broken down & cooked in various ways: roasted florets, truffled puree, molasses pickled core & sautéed leaf, all served with almond milk croquetta infused with fenugreek & onion, spelt grain in a smoked almond emulsion & a tarragon oil.

And even though veganism is growing in popularity the elusive vegan dessert has centre stage at Acorn including;

  • Chocolate & Coffee light espresso parfait with a bar of chocolate ganache, cold brew & rapadura gel & a pink peppercorn crumb.
  • Slow poached quince with a walnut sorbet, coffee glazed salsify and a walnut meringue. 

2018 saw a host of alcaldes for Chef Buckley and his team including:

Acorn being awarded a MICHELIN Guide 2019 recommended status for the second year running and their first year as a fully vegan restaurant.  

This makes Acorn the first vegan restaurant in the UK to achieve recognition by the MICHELIN Guide 2019. 

Richard won the Olive magazine BEST CHEFS 2018 Award - for VEGGIE PIONEER.

Acorn also won the Trencherman's Awards 2019 for Creativity and Innovation.

2018 also saw the launch of Richards second recipe book Plants Taste Better. A beautiful hard back book with sophisticated vegan recipes.

Acorn has been featured in multiple national publications including The Independent, The Telegraph, The Times, Olive Magazine, Vegetarian Living, Stylist and Vogue.

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