Glass reviews London’s vegan dining scene

VEGETARIANISM is now part of the food landscape – witness the success of National Vegetarian Week that has just ended – but until very recently the same was not remotely true for veganism.

There is change in the air and even in a far from avant-garde outpost, a famous department store in Knightsbridge’s Brompton Road, Chucs Harrods is bringing something new to the shop’s Fine Watch Room. The restaurant, with direct access from the street, has food and décor suggestive of yacht life on the Italian Riviera but with a menu that includes vegan items. Moreover, as you would expect from Harrods, there is the willingness to craft something bespoke  The cobb salad was tweaked by removing meat and the asparagus risotto suffered not a whit without the goat’s cheese. With a separate entrance down a handsome staircase from the street and open well after the store closes, Chucs Harrods’ receptiveness to vegan diners is a sign that the times are a changing.

vegan Green in every sense – asparagus risotto at Chucs Harrods

The much-lauded Oldroyd in Islington is another sign of the times with the launch of  its meat-free Mondays a few weeks ago. The restaurant’s small scale – the kitchen is tiny – does not allow for frivolities on the menu and on Mondays everything is vegan unless stated as vegetarian. Expect exquisite starters like a miniscule salad defined by its Sardinian and Sicilian tomatoes or asparagus finely grilled to add a smoky element. The chef is not afraid to make a meal based around leeks – hardly the most sexy of vegetables but enlivened by a salsa romesco and perfect for this time of year.

Catherine and Andrea, looking after Redemption Bar

Not surprisingly perhaps, Shoreditch is leading the way when it comes to all-vegan restaurants and. Redemption Bar is flying the flag with aplomb. It is situated in the courtyard of an old church, with outdoor tables shielded from the traffic of grimy Old Street and a conservatory-like interior which is sparkly clean. The shakes are nutritionally charged: maca powder from Peru, high in iron, and mixed with raw cocao vies with a superhero shake |(chia and hemp seeds with almond milk, banana and blueberries) that looks sinfully like a chocolate milk shake. The house burger with sweet potato fries is huge and packed to bursting with beetroot, mushrooms and black beans wrapped in a smooth filling and a crunchy bun. Redemption Bar is a fun place to eat and capable of cheering up a grumpy carnivore who reluctantly accompanies you and is discombobulated by discovering there is no alcohol on the menu.

At Essence Cuisine vegan food reaches a new high

Veganism could be central to a new zeitgeist given how motives for adopting a plant-based lifestyle are many and varied – ethical, environmental, health and budgeting issues may all play a part – and if this is the case then another restaurant in the vicinity, Essence Cuisine, is also playing a pioneering role by deconstructing the notion that vegan food is pallid and incapable of exciting an epicure’s taste buds.

The décor at Essence Cuisine is designer-modest: grey in colour; bench seating with tables on one side which face a row of five smaller tables bolted onto wooden seating on the other side – so couples sit alongside each other rather than face to face. Tables have 3-pin plugs and USB ports – this is Shoreditch remember – during the day being connected is de rigueur. At 5pm the all-day breakfast/brunch food gives way to a dinner menu that is guaranteed to exceed expectations: ‘sushi’ rolls (nori, jalapeño cream, avocado, carrot, beetroot sprouts) as aesthetically pleasing as anything a fine-dining Japanese restaurant in Mayfair could come up with; ‘noodles’ employing  kelp and grilled shiitake; and a nut-constituted “cheeseboard” of surpassing chutzpah. Essence Cuisine produces what looks uncannily like familiar meat- and dairy-based plates of food – not dissimilar to the Chinese vegetarian tradition of cooking that produces perfect imitations of meat dishes. Raw ingredients have never before been used to produce such sophisticated compositions of food.

Thai Red Curry at The Gate Marylebone

It is nearly thirty years since the first Gate restaurant opened in London, at a time when vegetarian restaurants were few and far between, and the original one at Hammersmith was followed by an opening in Islington. Now there is The Gate Marylebone and the menu is virtually 100 per cent vegan. The success of The Gate chain of restaurants in attracting non-vegetarians is the substantial size of the plates of food that arrive on your table. The corny old joke about eating vegetarian before going home to have a meal is emphatically overturned here. A spicy mix using tofu and vegetables tastes like an authentic Thai curry and there are a number of offerings that avoid tofu altogether, like an aubergine schnitzel enlivened with pesto and sauté kale.

Live music and vegan food at Chino Latino

The Gate Marylebone is a good place to bring someone who harbours suspicions about vegan dining – the drinks list  holds its own in any restaurant within this price bracket – but there are also restaurants where vegan and non-vegan food can be enjoyed at the same table. The exuberant Chino Latino is wonderfully sociable, partly because it’s in a hotel with a tide of travellers ebbing and flowing like the Thames that is visible outside the large window fronting the Albert Embankment. The other reason is the way splashes of live music from a corner of the bar area gradually flood around the tables as the lights go down. The vegetarian menu is vegan in all but name, plus the main menu has meat- and dairy-free items to enjoy, while a carnivore or pescetarian will be thrilled by what is available and probably wish to return for one of the special bottomless sushi & jazz brunches on selected dates until the end of September.

For somewhere quieter to bring a non-vegan, Sunday brunch at Casita Andina is a tasty and civilized affair when Soho’s Great Windmill Street is eerily empty and still in hangover mode. There are imaginative vegan choices by way of beetroot tiradito, artichoke ceviche and a lovely mix of Peruvian olluco potatoes and butternut squash with aromatic rice. Dishes are small and best shared, providing opportunities to tempt your companion with something vegan; eat at the bar on street level or upstairs in a cosy room decorated with ethnic art. An after-dinner cocktail beckons in the form of a  Latino version of an Irish coffee but with pisco instead of whiskey – being a Peruvian eatery, it is named Toro Mata after the famous song (The Bull Kills).

Darcie & May Green at Paddington (and a new restaurant, Scarlett Green, now open in Soho)

Boats and the London Underground don’t naturally go together but they do at Darcie & May Green given how you step out of Paddington station and your floating restaurant is a few steps away on the Grand Union canal. An entertaining venue for carnivores in search of a 320-gram sirloin steak, vegans can tuck into a jackfruit vegan curry that goes well after a salad of chickpeas, black rice, avocado and tamarind. Old school classic pop plays in the background – Joy Division, Cyndi Lauper and the like – and the Peter Blake paintings will catch your eye.

Chill out with Mustard’s vegan menu in Shepherd’s Bush Rd Feature Image

Final and very satisfying proof that going vegan is on the rise is to be found at a lovely neighbourhood restaurant in Hammersmith: Mustard. Situated on a leafy section of  Shepherd’s Bush Rd, Mustard’s calm green, easy-on-the-eye colour scheme takes the busyness out of its brasserie character; relaxed and comfortable vibes make this a place to chat quietly and linger over the vegan and non-vegan menus. A starter of asparagus and broccoli came with what looked like guacamole but was actually a mix of pea shoots and mint. The stuffed eggplant (iman baylidli) was so deftly prepared that, if tasted blind, you might be deceived into thinking it was a delicate south Indian creation.

Vegan 100 by Gaz OakleyVegan 100 by Gaz Oakley

Vegan comfort food in 15 minutes flatVegan comfort food in 15 minutes flat

The kind of food surprises that restaurants like Mustard conjure up shows how vegan food is radically reshuffling the culinary cards and – who knows? – perhaps a National Vegan Week is not too far away. In the meantime, give it a twirl and take note of new cookbooks like Gaz Oakely’s Vegan 100 and  Katy Beskow’s 15-minute vegan comfort food – packed with recipes for meals that are affordable, environmentally and ethically righteous plus sensationally satisfying to eat.

by Sean Sheehan

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