I have to admit I've never thought of Bray as a gastronomic hub, yet there I was driving to Bray sea-front for the second time in a month, this time to eat a vegetarian meal. I'm a fairly committed carnivore and from time to time I'll even kill what I want eat, but my son assured me that 'Escape' was a place worth visiting.

The last time I went to a vegetarian restaurant was in the seventies. It was called 'The Good Karma' and it was somewhere around Liffey or Mary Street. I'm unsure of precisely where, because I'm now at that age where I suffer from CRS, which stands for 'can't remember shit'. What I do remember about 'The Good Karma' is that it was macrobiotic, you sat on cushions, the air was heavy with smoke from josssticks and herbal-type cigarettes and you waited forever to get any food, which as I recall, consisted of seeds, nuts and pulses. Any attempt to nudge the kaftan-clad waitresses into action was met with a chilly stare and the words 'Stay cool, man.'

'Why these rambling reminiscences?' you may ask. Well, for some reason or another 'Escape' brought back a flood of memories from a time when men could wear pink lace shirts and not be gay, when Janis Joplin was still singing with Big Brother, and when being vegetarian probably meant you got satsang at the Ashram. I suppose it's got something to do with the fact that neither the restaurant nor its customers are mainstream. The outside wall is covered in pop-art graffiti which sets the tone for what you find inside. It has the sort of atmosphere that an old hippy would feel comfortable in. It's eccentric; not in the sense that it's in any way odd, just that so many other restaurants are decidedly MOR and this one marches to the beat of a different drum. The place has a sense that it's run not to any well-tried formula, but rather to a personal view of what eating out ought to be like. It has a wilful individuality that I liked a lot.

We arrived early to find a quiet restaurant and were shown to our table. We sat and looked around. There's a lot of wood; wooden floor, wooden tables, wooden chairs, and the tables are lit with night-lights in holders. The walls are covered with paintings for sale and an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac, while the ceiling is hung with mobiles. If the conversation at your table were dull, you could amuse yourself for ages just looking at this Aladdin's cave of stuff. The only thing to read on our table was a flier about Denis, Escape's resident psychic. I wondered briefly did he already know that we wanted to order some food and that a menu would be nice. I finished a cigarette. We talked. I was about to light another when our waitress came over. 'Have you got your wine? she asked. 'I haven't seen a wine-list yet.' I replied. 'Oh, no, we don't sell wine or anything. Didn't you know to bring your own?'

A short walk down the sea-front had me at the 'Porter House' which I was told sold wine. The choice was an iffy looking vin de pays or a Hungarian red, which I bought in a spirit of adventure. Back at 'Escape' we sat looking at each other and an unopened bottle of wine. Our waitress came and opened the bottle. 'Let me tell you the menu.' She sat down and told us the menu: five starters, seven main courses. I chose the tomato and cashew nut pate, my guest chose spicy samosas. For main courses she chose the aubergine rishta and I chose the miso vegetables with basmati rice wrapped in Chinese seaweed. This process of reciting the menu and choosing from it took just under five minutes, which was fine when the restaurant was empty, but as it filled up these five-minute recitals at each table took our waitress away for long periods, ensuring that you can't have a hurried meal in 'Escape'.

My starter was great and my guest's samosas were nicely spiced with cumin. Even the Hungarian wine was very nearly drinkable by the time it had warmed up a little, although it might have benefitted from the addition of a little lemonade. The main courses arrived and the waitress said 'I'll be right back with your vegetables.' which made me smile. As soon as I tasted the vegetable miso, I realised that CRS had struck again. I remembered that I've never liked miso. Still, I made some inroads into it as well as my guest's aubergine dish, which was really good. Everything in this restaurant has a freshly-made feel to it - you just know the food hasn't been hanging around in warmers.

Not having seen a menu at this stage I had no idea what price the meal would be, but judging from the number of young people that began to fill the room I guessed it wasn't going to be expensive. The couple at the table beside us got a backgammon set from the owner and started playing while drinking their coffees. Once our main courses had been cleared away we had a long wait. 'Stay cool, man.' I ventured helpfully to my guest. More people were arriving and more menu recitals were taking place. 'Perhaps,' suggested my guest, 'we should ask for a chess board rather than a cheese board.' Actually, they do have chess sets, too. After half an hour my guest went off to find someone who might bring us a dessert and coffee. Not long after that, a nice man came and sat down beside us and recited the pudding menu. We chose an orange and chocolate crunch between us which turned out to be the sort of biscuit-based thing they teach you to make in domestic science classes. I also got a good cup of coffee, something that thankfully isn't as rare as once it was.

I liked 'Escape'. I know I've gone on about things being a tad slow, but then if it was fast food you wanted you could always go to McDonalds. There's an easy, comfortable feel to the place and it's gloriously quirky. You could argue that menus might make things simpler, but then again, it would make Escape lose some of its offbeat flavour and start to make it like a thousand other restaurants.

This is a place where vegetarians aren't treated as an afterthought, it's dedicated to them and they can be sure that there's no meat in the kitchen contaminating crockery and cutlery. It's good, wholesome food, the menu changes daily and it's not expensive: our bill came to £25. Like I said, I'm a committed carnivore, but I'll go back to Escape. Next time though, I'll know to take some decent wine.