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Vegetarian London (6th edition) Updates
Updates as at 23 Aug 2010
This page has the newest places listed first. The pdf has them arranged by area. NEW Otarian vegetarian fast food cafes, central London at 181-183 Wardour Street, Soho W1V3FB. Tel: 020-7734 0219. Also at 190 Shaftesbury Avenue, Covent Garden WC2H 8JL. Tel: 020-7240 1058. Both open: Mon - Sun 11.00-22.00. If you miss Red Veg (now obliterated for the new CrossRail terminal) you will love these places that opened 20 August 2010. Three soups £3.25-3.75 are all vegan. Salads £3.95-4.95. Burgers £5.95. Wraps and stuffed flatbreads £3.95-4.25. Tacos £5.25. Red curry noodles, spiced coconut curry, spicy veg noodles, veg biryani £5.95-6.25. Sweet potato chiplets in breadcrumbs £3.45. Lots of vegan or vegan-option savouries, even vegan guacamole 95p, but in desserts only an extremely disappointing one out of five is free of animal products, however it is a luscious-looking chocolate cake £2.45. www.otarian.com NEW Cafe Pura vegetarian cafe, Greenwich 48 Newton Lodge, Oval Square (Greenwich Millennium Village), West Parkside, London SE10 0BA. Tube: North Greenwich (Jubilee), bus 108, 129. Open: Mon-Fri 08.00-19.00, Sat 9.00-18.00, Sun 10.00-17.00. New cafe in the same building as the Ayurveda Pura health spa and beauty centre. Breakfast £1.95-2.95 such as rolls or toast with jam or peanut butter, fruit salad, muesli. Light meals and snacks £1.95-4.00 such as samosas, veggie burger, idli lentil and rice cakes with chutney, soup, salads, sandwiches to order. Cakes and cookies from £1.20. Hot and cold drinks £1.40-3.60 including latte, cappuccino, juices, smoothies. www.AyurvedaPura.com NEW Yummy V, Harrow Cantonese vegetarian restaurant, 55 Station Rd HA1 2TY. (next to Sri Rathiga page 359). Tel: 020-8862 6632. Open: Mon–Sat 12.30–14.30, 17.30-22.30. Sun 17.00-22.00. Tube: Harrow-on-the-Hill. Lots of fake meat. No onion, garlic or egg. Menus at www.yummyv.co.uk Veg at 4-6 Theobalds Rd (corner Grays Inn Rd) has closed (p.94). NEW Wholsum vegetarian cafe, Hackney 16 Dalston Lane E8 3AX (page 182). Tube: Dalston. The wholefood store has transformed into a vegetarian café and take-away with a Caribbean and Italian feel, next to the new Dalston tube station, and now open weekends too. Open Mon-Fri 08.00-16.00, Sat 9.00-17.00, Sun 10.00-16.00. Weekend cooked breakfast £4.90. 17 kinds of coffees £1-2.60, juices and smoothies £1.60-£4. Patties £1.50. Filled jacket potatoes £2.60-3.80. Take-away box of Caribbean food and salads £2.80-£3. Filled ciabatta £4.50. Vegan Routes in Brewer Street has closed. Try Mildred's round the corner, or the original, much better and completely unrelated vegan restaurant-in-a-bus Rootmaster off Brick Lane. NEW Amico Bio Italian vegetarian restaurant, the City at 44 Cloth Fair, Farringdon EC1 5JQ. Tel: 020-7600 7778 . Open: Mon–Fri 12.00–22.30, Sat 17.30-22.30, Sun and bank holidays closed. Tube: Barbican, Farringdon. Plenty of vegan food including a dessert. Sample menu (pdf 127KB) Map at www.amicobio.co.uk NEW Vx Lounge in the basement of Vx vegan shop, Kings Cross. Enjoy a slice of cake with hot or cold drinks, menu. Previously in Camden as the Secret Society of Vegans shop, now at a new bigger location and a new name at 73 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, N1 9BT, near Tony's vegan cafe (see map page 229). Tube: Kings Cross (5 mins walk). Tel: 020-020 7833 2315. Open: Tue-Sun 10.00-18.30. Shoes (Bourgeois Boheme, Veganline, Macbeth), grocery (vegan Oreos, biscuits, vegan pet food etc), frozen ready meals (+ burgers and nuggets), refrigerated French vegan cheese spread, cakes (cupcakes, whoopies), books including Vegetarian Guides, clothing (T-shirts, hoodies, fake leather jackets, bags, belts). NEW Saf, Kensington at Whole Foods Market, 63 Kensington High Street W8.
Tel: 020-7368 4555/6, 020-7613 0007. Open: Mon–Sat 12.00–21.30 (last orders 21.00).
Tube: High Street Kensington. Bus 9 or 10 from centre. New second branch of the gourmet vegan and raw licensed
restaurant opened April 2010.
www.safrestaurant.co.uk/kensington.html NEW Zilli Green Italian vegetarian restaurant, Soho at 41 Dean Street W1D 4PY. Tel: 020-7734 3924. Open: Mon–Sat 12.00–23.00. Plenty of vegan food including desserts. Menu and map at www.zillirestaurants.co.uk/green NEW Lucca vegetarian pizzeria, Kenton 402 Kenton Road, Harrow HA3 9DW. Tel: 020-8204 1002, 07931 891 122. Open: Tue-Fri 12.00-14.30, 17.00-22.00; Sat-Sun 13.00-22.00; Mon closed. Vegan pizza bases. Take-away only. Call and collect. Menu and map www.luccapizzeria.co.uk Wild Cherry vegetarian cafe (page 176) and Friends Organic wholefood shop (page 175) in Globe Town / Bethnal Green have closed. But the nearby Gallery vegetarian cafe in Old Ford Road (page 177) is now open longer hours and has lots of free events: Mon, Tue, Thu 9.00-19.30; Wed 9.00-22.00; Fri 9.00-23.00; Sat 10.00-18.00, Sun 11.00-18.00. Every Wed open mic night for poets and musicians from 19.00. Every Fri free live acoustic or electronic music from 19.00. Time Out's First Thursdays has art, culture and events. NEW Loving Hut, Camden, Chinese vegan buffet, eat and pay as you like (but be fair). 3 Plender Street, off Camden High Street NW1 0JS. Tel: 020-7387 5710. Open: Mon-Sat 12.00-21.00, Sun closed. Fabulous vegan cakes. Hot and cold drinks, soya cappuccino. Big veggie burgers and kebabs (great for people who miss Red Veg). NEW Veg, Highbury and Islington Chinese vegan buffet restaurant, at 177 Upper Street N1, opposite Islington Town Hall. Tel 07837 381 898. Open: Mon-Sun 12.00-22.00. Lunch £5.50, Sun and evening £6.50, plus 10 per cent service charge (for a buffet, but still amazing value). Take-away £3.50. Buffet includes dessert of sago with coconut or pineapple. Tea and soft drinks £1.50. Glass of Chinese wine or bottle of beer £2.50. NEW Tata, Charing Cross Road Chinese vegan buffet restaurant, but this one takes the franchise to a whole new level with scrumptious desserts, beer, coffee and a shop. At 3-5 Caxton Walk, on the east side of Charing Cross Road a few minutes walk from Tottenham Court Road station, next to Blackwells bookshop and Salsa. Tel 07884 445544. Open: Mon-Sun 12.00-22.00. Lunch £5.50, Sun and evening £6.50, plus 10 per cent service charge (for a buffet, but still amazing value). Take-away £3.50. Also vegan desserts for only £1 such as cherry and apple pie, carrot cake with vegan cream cheese frosting, banana and raisin or blueberry muffins, yum yum yummy. Juices £1.50, freshly squeezed juice £2.50, beer £2.50. Speciality coffees, soya cappuccino. Vegan shop next door selling frozen fake meat and fake fish from Taiwan. Just look at all these new vegan places - everybody come to London! Eat and 2 Veg has closed in Marylebone. Try Woodlands Marylebone instead, Tibits (below), or head to the Euston section. NEW Itadaki-zen organic vegan Japanese restaurant, 139 King's Cross Rd, WC1X 9BJ. Tel: 020-7278 3573. Open: Mon-Thu 11.00-22.30, Fri-Sat 11.00-23.00, Sun closed. Lunch sushi set £7.50. Multi-dish dinner with dessert £19-21 + 10 per cent service. www.itadakizen.com Inspiral Lounge in Camden now has an alcohol and dance licence and is open till past midnight. And the food is mostly vegan. And they have lots of vegan ice-cream. It’s brilliant for meeting friends.
NEW Sagar Covent Garden Indian vegetarian restaurant 31 Catherine Street WC2B 5JS (near Aldwych). Tel 020-7836 6377. Open: Mon-Sat 12.00-23.00, Sun 13.00-22.00. Like the branch at Tottenham Court Road, page 101.
Health Food Centre, Warren Street (page 100) has taken over the shop next door and now has a vegetarian café plus therapy rooms offering acupuncture, reflexology, nutrition etc.
Soho The Chinese vegan buffet restaurants in Lexington Street and at 10 Greek Street have closed. V and M fast food has closed. Red Veg has closed for the new Crossrail station, try Maoz instead for fast food.
NEW in Peckham, South London: Grass Roots Wholefoods vegetarian cafe-restaurant and take-away, vegan owned. 194 Bellenden Road, London SE15 4BW (corner Danby Road). Train: Peckham Rye BR. Tel 020-7358 1999. Open: Mon-Wed 9.00-20.00, Thu closed, Fri-Sat 9.00-21.00, Sun 11.00-17.00. 75% organic. Bright, friendly, relaxing. If you like Pogo Cafe Sunday breakfasts, you'll love this place any day. Rootsy big cooked breakfast £6.50 with home-made sausage, scrambled bean curd, beans, roasted veg, hot drink. The Buljol £5.60 with plantain, ackee, Dominican Buljol salad and Mastiff bread. Gluten-free porridge £3.50 with quinoa and millet flakes and teff flour. Muesli £3.95. Moving on to lunch, soup £4 with bread. Le Kwazib £6.50 carib bites, rice salad, tomato and pepper sauce. Mezze £6.10. Sir -fry with buckwheat noodles £5.90. Jam Dom ackee and scrambled bean curd with rice £5.90. Sandwiches can be bagel £2.95, baguette £3.50. Desserts made with unusual ingredients such as spelt, hemp or Ethiopean teff flour such as apple pie, cherry pie. Cakes such as spelt flour choc coconut sweetened with date syrup £3.10 eat in, £2.80 take-away. Tea, coffee, hot choc £1.20-2.30. They make their own almond and sesame milk. No alcohol yet, BYO for now. Children welcome, baby changer, high chairs. They sell a few groceries.
NEW Ma'at Centre vegetarian cafe and juice bar, Catford, 129 Rushy Green, London SE6 4AA. Tel: 020-8698 2044. Train: Catford (from Blackfriars) or Catford Bridge (from Charing Cross or London Bridge). Open: Mon-Fri 12.30-16.00, 18.00-21.00; Sat 12.00-23.00; Sun closed, food demo classes. Opened April 2009 and very welcome in south-east London. The first two vegan readers to visit on opening night report that it is really good. Afro-Carib, International, mostly vegan, 60 per cent organic. Salads and two soups £2.50 such as lentil, pumpkin or vegetable. Various filled roti wraps £3.50. Main courses £7.50 with a grain (rice, pasta, millet or quinoa) plus Ital stew, chickpea or soya chunks, yam, plantain, sweet potato, stir-fry veg, salads. Cakes and desserts are all vegan £2.50 such as fruit crumble and non-dairy ice-cream. Freshly squeezed juices £2.50. Herbal tea £1. They use rice or almond milk.Cash only. No alcohol, you can bring your own though they do not encourage it. NEW Tai Buffet Shepherds Bush (north side of the Green), 86 Uxbridge Road W12. Tel 077950 80418. Open every day 12.00-22.00. Yet another new Chinese all-you-can-eat vegan buffet restaurant. £5.50 lunch, £6.50 evening and Sunday, +10% optional service charge. Hot and cold drinks £1.50. No alcohol. Cash only. Take-away box £3.50. NEW Vasanta Bhavan Indian vegetarian restaurant, East Ham 206 High Street North E6 2JA (junction Sibley Grove, by East Ham tube). Tel: 020-8475 8986. Open every day 10.00-22.30. Fantastic value south Indian restaurant with young staff from Chennai. Over 100 items on the menu. Starters, dosas, utthappam, curries and Chinese dishes £1.40-3.40. Fri-Sun lunch buffet 12.30-16.30 £4.75. Mini meal set lunch 12.30-16.30 every day £3.50. Butter ghee used in some dishes but can substitute oil for vegans, but there is no vegan dessert. Tea 60p, coffee £1, no soya milk. All prices plus VAT. No alcohol. www.thevasantabhavan.com NEW Falafel King, Portobello Market 274 Portobello Road, W10 5TE (by the Westway near Portobello Wholefoods). Open every day 11.00-19.00. Vegan cafe and take-away with what they call "the best falafels in the Western world." Falafel £5 with hummous, salad, tahini, chili sauce and a fresh lemonade. Half portion £3. Kids falafel with drink £3. Freshly squeezed orange juice £3. Some seating outside. Provender Wholefoods (page 314) has moved in November 2008 from Forest Hill to 50 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath Village SE3 0BD (almost opposite Holland and Barrett). Tel 020-8318 1694. It is now a vegetarian cafe and take-away with a few seats, not a shop. Open every day except Monday 9.00-18.00. www.provender.org.uk NEW Tibits vegetarian restaurant, 12-14 Heddon Street, W1B 4DA (off Regent Street). Tel: 020-7758 4110. Open: Mon-Wed 09.00-22.30, Thu-Sat 09.30-24.00, Sun 11.30-21.00. Big and beautiful new gourmet vegetarian buffet restaurant close to where the much loved Country Life used to be, operated by the owners of a chain of vegetarian restaurants in Switzerland. Country Life fans will enjoy the big buffet with over 50 items. Buffet price for breakfast £1.50 per 100 grammes, lunch £1.90, dinner £2.10, and £1.40 take-away. They now have more vegan hot dishes and hooray vegan desserts on the buffet. Unlike Country Life, Tibits is open Friday night and Saturday too, and they have an extensive wine list, from £3.50 glass, £12.50 bottle. Organic lager £2.10 (25cl), £3.90 (pint, 568ml). Cocktails £7. Freshly squeezed juice £3.70-4.10. While Soho has a vegetarian restaurant or cafe every 100 metres, Tibits is the only vegetarian restaurant on the west side of Regent Street and therefore very welcome. Coffee and cappuccino are good value for the area at £1.60-2.40. They have soya milk. Kids area downstairs. Some outside tables. Big area downstairs is good for parties, groups and events. No reservations (except for the party area). www.tibits.co.uk NEW Mrs Marengo's, Soho, 53 Lexington Street W1F 9AS. Tel: 020-7287 2544. Open: Mon-Fri 08.00-21.00, Sat 12.00-21.00. Mildred's (page 60) has opened a take-away branch in August 2008, a few doors to the right to cope with their exploding take-away trade. There are some seats for eat-in too. It also describes itself as a coffee and cake shop with lots of cakes, though when we visited only one was vegan, but what a cake indeed, chocolate and raspberry truffle cake, and they also had fruit, nut and seed slice, both £3.25 eat in, £2.75 take-away. (For a bigger selection in Soho, vegan cake monsters can head for Beatroot, page 56, or Foyles, page 66.) However if you are not in a cakey mood, there are stacks of vegan savoury dishes. Starters £4-5 such as soup with homemade bread, dumplings, falafel or (Mon-Fri 12-3pm and 6-10pm) sandwiches. Lunchtime salads £4-5.50. Same fabulous mains as Mildreds £5.85-7.75 such as detox salad, pasta of the day, chickpea tagine with couscous, mushroom and porcini ale pie with fries and mushy peas, Asian stir-fry. Burger of the day £4.70-5.90. 12oz fresh organic juices and smoothies £3.50. Organic coffees and fancy coffees £1.60-2.40. Organic soft drinks £1.60. Even the soya milk is organic. And the staff are absolutely lovely! See Mildreds website for take-away menu. www.mildreds.co.uk NEW Bourgeois Boheme, London's first vegan shoes and accessories shop Hydrex House, Garden Road, Richmond TW9 4NR. Tel: 0208-8788 388. Shop hours: Mon-Fri 9.00-17.00, Sat 10.00-14.00, by appointment. www.bboheme.com NEW Jai Shri Krishna, Turnpike Lane 10 Turnpike Lane. N8 0PT. Tel: 020-8888 7200. Open: Tue-Sun 12.00-14.00, 17.30-23.00, closed Mon. New branch of the popular Finsbury Park Indian vegetarian restaurant. NEW Vanilla Black, off Chancery Lane 17- 18 Tooks Court, The City, EC4A 1LB. Tel: 020-7242 2622. Open: Mon-Fri 12.00-14.30, 18.00-22.00, closed Sat-Sun and public holidays. York's posh vegetarian restaurant has relocated to the City. 2 courses £24, 3 for £30. Set lunch menu 2 courses £18, 3 for £23. Optional 12.5% service charge. Wine from £4.50 glass, £14.50 bottle. www.vanillablack.co.uk NEW The Flea Pit, Shoreditch 49 Columbia Road, London E2 7RG (corner Ravenscroft Road). Tel 020-7033 9986. Cafe Tue-Sat 17.30-23.00, Sun 10.00-14.00, Mon closed. Gallery Sun 10.00-14.00 and events. Vegetarian cafe-bar in Shoreditch in a street full of unusual craft and clothes shops, near Brick Lane Sunday market or Columbia Road Sunday flower market. Home-made vegetarian meals and snacks, micro brewed beers, organic wines and spirits, freshly made organic juices, coffees and teas. Falafel £3.90. Thai veg curry with rice and salad £6.50. Beers £2.70-4.50. Wheelchair access. www.thefleapit.com NEW Alchemy vegetarian cafe and juice bar, Camden Stables Market, Unit 101, Chalk Farm Road, Camden NW1 8AH. Tel: 020-72676 188. Open: Mon-Fri 10.00-21.00, Sat-Sun 10.00-19.00. Very conscious cafe in a yoga and meditation centre. Hot and cold meals such as hot rice bowl, hot grains and soups, salads, vegan chocolate, cakes, coffee and tea, and lots of fresh juices and smoothies. Seats 20. Main course £3.50-£7. Entrance is on Chalk Farm Road at the intersection with Hartland Road. "Go straight through the entrance and follow the signs straight ahead. 150 yards inside the market. Just pass Cuban restaurant turn left and go up the stairs (towards the bathroom). Cross the short bridge on the right. We are above Karmaa, the kickboxing studio." www.alchemythecentre.co.uk NEW Planet Organic, Islington 64 Essex Road, N1 8LR. Tel: 020-7288 9460. Open: Mon-Fri 08.30-21.00, Sat 9.00-21.00, Sun 10.00-20.00. New branch of the organic supermarket opened September 2008. See map on page 229 of Vegetarian London 2008. www.planetorganic.com NEW Planet Organic, Muswell Hill 111/117 Muswell Hill Road, N10 3HS. Tel: 020-8442 2910. Open: Mon-Fri 08.30-21.00, Sat 9.00-21.00, Sun 10.00-20.00. New branch of the organic supermarket opened August 2008. www.planetorganic.com Saf Shoreditch phone number (page 134) should be 020-7613 0007 and it opened April 2008. Now open for Sunday lunch. Spirited Palace phone number (page 278) is now 020-8768 0609. Lush and B in Carnaby Street, Soho (pages 69-70) had their leases terminated and had to close but you can still go to the nearby Regent Street Lush (page 69) and Mayfair Lush (page 127), and the flagship Covent Garden Lush and B (page 84), and the new B store at 332 Oxford Street W1C 1JF (Bond Street tube). Total Organics, Marylebone (page 125) has closed. |