Sky Apple Cafe, Heaton, Newcastle

Jan 4 2008 by Geoff Laws, The Journal

OUR daughter, Anna, became a vegetarian as she hit adolescence. In the years that followed, her meat-free diet came with just a hint of moral high ground.

Imagine our amazement when, after years of soya and lentils, during her gap year in Kenya, she returned to being a carnivore, and what a carnivore! Not just lamb cutlets and roast beef, but antelope and elephant. Now it was our turn to scramble to the moral uplands but, as she pointed out, her current position was dictated by the motto “When in Kenya, do as the Kenyans do”.

Luckily, when she returned home, the antelope stayed behind and Anna resumed a more moderate, meaty diet.

On hearing we were going to Sky Apple in Heaton, Newcastle, she decided to come, too, and revisit the veggie years.

Her first course of chirashi sushi salad rekindled her vegan embers, with sticky rice wrapped with black seaweed topped with miso aubergine, al dente green beans with nutty sesame sauce and braised mushrooms with poppy seeds. A fierce soy, wasabi and pickled ginger dip mixed spice fire with sushi ice and she was one happy person.

Our courses were just as good. The goats’ cheese and spinach timbale, a floating spinach mousse anchored to the plate with melted goats’ cheese, came with an airy otergard sauce and slices of tomato and red onion salad. The brie and cranberry crepe was a lacy-edged pancake folded around melted brie and cranberry sauce, with a walnut dressing on the salad and decorated with a garland of cranberries.

The main courses followed in sparkling form. A wonderful aubergine tagine, sweetly rich with dates and almonds, came with falafel, fiery-spiced chilli sauce and nutty couscous to temper the heat and balance the dish. The wild mushroom stroganoff had a creamy, full-bodied sauce enveloping all sorts of mushrooms, with curly wurly parsnip crisps on top, piled on to a mound of crisp-coated potato cake.

Anna’s roast pumpkin cannelloni was a fulsome mix of roasted butternut squash, with basil and tomato, in pasta rolls topped with a light white wine and mascarpone sauce with a crunchy rocket salad.

As I paused to look around, I noticed I was one of only two men there and the whole place was full of women eating very healthily and enjoying it. Undeterred, I soldiered on ploughing the furrow for all men and ended my meal with a superb steamed ginger sponge that had the added attraction of a brandy snap basket cupping a golden ball of vanilla ice cream surrounded by a deeply caramelised sauce.

Anna tucked into an organic chocolate cheesecake, the description underselling the beautiful truffle texture and intense chocolatiness of the filling on a sturdy pastry base with caramelised oranges in a Cointreau cream for good measure.

The unanimous verdict at our table was that Sky Apple is a restaurant par excellence.

If I had discovered food like this when I was a teenager, I would definitely have backed the veggie cause.

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Address: 182 Heaton Road, Heaton, Newcastle

Tel: (0191) 209-2571

Open: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-3.30pm; Thur-Sat 6pm-10pm

Where is it? About half way along Heaton Road.

First impressions: Super-relaxed and informal. Tightly packed tables create an instantly cosy feel.

Welcome: Bright, breezy, laid-back.

Style, design and furnishings: The glass chandelier could do with refreshing but the fluffy, float-by clouds mural and kitchen pine tables establish the everyday feel very well. Notional candles nudge the daytime look towards evening.

Cuisine: Vegan alongside more liberal vegetarian dishes.

Wine: It’s a BYO but they sell a range of good quality cordials and Fentiman drinks.

Service: Excellent timing and delightfully cheerful.

Value: An incredibly economical £47.50 for everything!

Parking: Street parking but you may have to walk a bit.

Disabled facilities: Fully accessible.