Vegetarian Restaurant Betty's

I was a vegetarian for six years before rediscovering the pleasure of flesh in the most wonderful creamy chicken curry in Asia. I've eaten meat ever since, but have always had a soft spot for vegetarian food, despite being frequently amazed at the lack of imagination most restaurants display in their meat-free dishes. As a result, I was intrigued to discover vegetarian restaurant Betty's.

We were greeted by the owner and waiter Gido Schweitzer, a bespectacled man in a red polo shirt and tank top, who looked more like an academic than a restaurateur. Appearances can be deceptive, though, as he turned out to be enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. In fact, he plied us with nearly as many stories as dishes during the course of the evening.

Vegetarian Restaurant Betty's week menu, which is the only option available, is completely meatless, organic and free of eggs. We started with Italian bread soup, which, according to the first story, was traditionally eaten by shepherds who lived in the mountains for months at a time. They took hard bread with them that wouldn't go off quickly, but because it was too hard to chew they softened it first in soup.

Image of Betty's Restaurant starter Accompanying the soup were slices of crusty bread topped with a thick cannelloni bean paste; goat’s cheese drizzled with apple essence produced, according to the next story, by a wealthy French restaurateur who spends half the year travelling and developing gourmet condiments; and mozzarella flavoured with an aromatic oil made from the nuts of the argan tree, which grows almost exclusively in Morocco.

Vegetarian Restaurant Betty's kitchen is only open from 17.30 to 20.15 (the premises themselves are open until 22.15), and by the time we had worked our way through our starter, the place was nearly deserted - something of a mood-killer.

Image of Betty's Vegetarian Restaurant main course Our main course was polenta lasagne with fresh basil, a side dish of mixed seasonal vegetables (broad beans, chickpeas and asparagus), roast potatoes, mixed salad and a French-Algerian pumpkin dish.

It was a seriously generous, varied whole, but lacked the subtlety of the starter. In addition, the cumin in the pumpkin seemed to dominate all the other dishes.

Like the week menu, Vegetarian Restaurant Betty's house wine list is limited, with only one red and one white on offer. A further 10 wines are available by the bottle, with prices ranging from €26-€37. Luckily, the house wines were both well chosen: a crisp, fruity chenin blanc from the Languedoc, and a merlot, carignan and alicante blend from Carcassonne.

The desserts were displayed in a fridge next to the kitchen. We passed over the cheesecake, home-made bonbons and double-decker cake topped with desiccated coconut, plumping eventually for a sort of ontbijtkoek, a moist Dutch gingerbread cake, covered in very orangey butter icing.

Image of Vegetarian Restaurant Betty's dessert Two thick slices of this was too much after the generous portions we'd already had. At around €35 a head (without wine), though, we couldn't accuse Betty's restaurant of not providing value for money. This is one haunt where herbivores will never go hungry.