Vegetarian: London's Top 10 Best Restaurants
The best thing about being vegan or vegetarian is the variety! That’s right! Walk into any restaurant and you’re catered for…....in the ‘side dishes and salads’ section of the menu, that is. Well, enough is enough! No more plates of greasy chips and stodgy vege lasagnes! This guide sets out to help you shuffle along to some of the best vegetarian and vegan restaurants across London and to salute those fine establishments who recognise the limitless possibilities offered by the humble chickpea and her friends (yes, CHICKpeas are definitely female).
by Jade Jacobsohn
Image courtesy of Flickr user
comedy_nose
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Manna
(Restaurant)
4 Erskine Road, Primrose Hill, London, NW3 3AJ
Cuisine: Organic
The great tradition of Sunday roasts: it's not that you don't like the laid-back lethargy of this English institution, it's just that you don't dine on swine (or chicken or beef). For years, Manna has offered a solution. This elegant and up-market Pimlico restaurant boasts an adventurous vegetarian menu which gushes with culinary mastery and a conservatory for slow weekend dining. They also offer a first-rate selection of organic wines that are popular with the ever-present diners.
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Carnevale
(Restaurant)
135 Whitecross Street, Old Street, London, EC1Y 8JL
Pumpkin tart with honey and vanilla ice-cream. Need I say more? Alright, I'll say a little more about this little place. It's small and cozy and very romantic. So long as you're prepared to incorporate some backstreet tracking into your special night, you'll find this chic vegetarian restaurant to be just the setting for a lazy and dreamlike Mediterranean feast. So much so, in fact, that you may want to ask the waiters to slow the service down a tad!
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Saf
(Bar / Restaurant)
152-154 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3AT
Cuisine: Vegetarian
From the ashes of vegetarian boredom, Saf and its Japanese-inspired vegan delights have risen. Ordinarily 'vegan' and 'delights' would never be found in the same sentence, but this chic venue in Shoreditch offers a counter-intuitive experience to 'ethical eating'. The cocktails are creative, the crockery and décor extraordinary, and the menu goes a little nuts with the nuts. Plus, the Thai curries are to die for! Pricey though it may be, this is THE place to convert any sceptical meat-eater.
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Tibits
(Bar / Restaurant)
12-14 Heddon Street, Mayfair, London, W1B 4DA
Cuisine: Vegetarian
If you had to sum up this West End vegetarian restaurant in one word it'd be 'wholesome'. The food is wholesome (in a fresh-healthy-and-never-been-alive-or-kicking kind of way), the environment is wholesome (bring the kids, there's a play area! Bring the hound, water will be provided), and somehow even the dessert is wholesome (pudding that's good for you)! With a wider variety of cold dishes than hot you may prefer this as a lunchtime joint but either way you'll find that you love it 'tibits'!
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222 Veggie Vegan
(Restaurant)
222 North End Road, West Kensington, London, W14 9NU
Cuisine: Vegetarian
If you're walking down North End Road and spy a bright little café brimming with happy herbivores, all grazing upon the extensive (and cheap) all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet, then walk through the doors, find a perch, and join in. A full à la carte menu is available in the evenings. You'll be impressed at how the vegan ethic does not limit the options but rather inspires the design of a wide range creative and tasty meals. Try the pancake-wrapped ice-cream with vanilla and chocolate sauce!
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The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant
(Restaurant)
51 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9QL
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Perhaps it's because this vegetarian-vegan restaurant is nestled in the courtyard of a Christian centre that the food tastes as though it were chopped, stirred and dished up by God. The massive portion sizes, however, make you think that the Devil also had a part to play. Vast windows and high ceilings allow light to pour in over freshly-baked breads and divinely seasoned mains, whilst efficient and friendly staff bustle about. Angels? Truly, this busy eatery must be what heaven's like.
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Rasa
(Restaurant)
55 Stoke Newington Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 0AR
Cuisine: Indian
Although not strictly a vegetarian restaurant (that's to say it's not a vegetarian restaurant) some of the best vegetarian dishes are served up in this pretty pink pocket of Stoke Newington. What this means is there's no painful process convincing meat-eating friends to come along, and you're able to study more than the salads section of the menu! The aroma of Kerelan spices engulf you from the moment you walk through the doors. The wide variety of vegetarian meals never disappoints.
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Sagar
(Restaurant)
17a Percy Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1DU
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Refreshingly, this South Indian vegetarian restaurant does not contain the usual assortment of kitsch decorations that threaten to flip the stomachs of diners in most Indian restaurants. The décor is simple: wooden tables and brass animals. The tables are a little close so do WHISPER those sweet nothings in your partner's ear! The food is a little less simple: authentic Udipi dishes with vegan, wheat-free, nut-free, and onion- and garlic-free choices. They offer great £5 box lunch takeaways.
9
Kastoori
(Restaurant)
188 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting Broadway, London, SW17 7EJ
'Deceptive' is the best word to sum up this cunning little joint. It looks like your common South London curry house, but it's not. This is very possibly the best curry house in London. It's also one of the best vegetarian restaurants in London. You won't be venturing across the city for the interior design, but the food (and sensible prices) are well worth the schlep! The Ugandan influences in the curries make for unusual taste travels. Try everything. Twice. And then try it some more!
10
Indian Veg Bhelpoori House
(Restaurant)
92-93 Chapel Market, Angel, London, N1 9EX
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Vegetarians are beautiful and sexy. In fact they are more beautiful and sexy than ANY other group of people. Don't believe me? Then you've got to take a trip to the Indian Veg Bhelpoori House in Angel. The pro-vegetarian propaganda plastering the walls is reason enough for multiple visits! Another good reason is the food: excellent, albeit basic, vegetarian curries and exotic juices at ridiculously low prices. The all-you-can-eat buffet is £3.50 and has been for years!