Herbitopia

This column has before seen the likes of a vegetarian restaurant, but this time I feel we lie witness to a more congruous claimant to that title. Henderson's exudes that earthily, organically comforting warmth one might expect of a herbivorous eating house. The place is so evocative of Hessian-weave and wheat-grass, rolled oats and country kitchens, it's earthy feel-good demeanour immediately envelops you in the cosy arms of contentment.

However, to account for this is difficult. Perhaps it's the low ceiling, warm lights and old wooden furniture. Perhaps it's the soft, soulful music rippling delicately across the laid-back restaurant from each night's live musician. Or perhaps it's simply the organic cheerfulness of being so attuned with the earth, seen in the smiles of the waiting staff, the sumptuously abundant food-counter and – of most importance – the very taste of the food itself. Henderson's is aglow with health-giving happiness.

Both times I have been blessed with a Hendersonian meal, I have pinched the pennies and opted for the Student Special (£5 for main course of the day plus a substantial delicious salad, £7.50 to include pudding). Each occasion proffered a curry, though I feel this stands as testament to both the kitchen's skills and the diversity of the dish, rather than a regrettable lack of imagination. The first, a headily aromatic North African root vegetable tagine, sweet with sultana's and nutty with the roots. To accompany, a simple cous-cous salad, a pleasant blanket of flavour against the curry's power. For the second instalment we go Keralan, with a glorious chickpea curry, sweetly silky with coconut cream, fragrantly scented with lemongrass, mint and coriander, and spiked with lime. The light creaminess was brought bolsteringly to earth by the dense graininess of the chickpeas to form a most delicious lunch. No embellishment was needed, but a light salad of cucumber, olives and feta, though not quite in the same register, provided cooling relief from the flavour-festooned curry. There is nothing to condemn Henderson's; this long-standing bastion of vegetarian nirvana rightly deserves its fame and popularity.