Vegan London, part 1

[bryzee86]

yeah the foyle's one is good too. I've only ever had bakewell slices from beatroot and I liked them!

[aubergine]

It seems to be quite hard to make the cake part of a vegan cake moist, if it's a sponge-type cake?

We need to start a forum cake shop. I've tasted a number of forumers efforts and they beat any of the shop bought alternatives.

[harpy]

Forum cake shop - where do I sign up? (As a customer, not a purveyor of cakes; baking isn't my strong suit unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately.)

[aubergine]

We need to have a forum bake off!

[BlackCats]

yeah the foyle's one is good too. I've only ever had bakewell slices from beatroot and I liked them!

Oooh! Bakewell slices!:) Yummy, I feel a trip to London coming up.:) (I don't know what Foyles is, I will look it up.)

[mjnewbould]

All this talk of London - I really wish I was going there. I love it. I miss it when I don't go for a while. I used to live there - in SE1- I like where I live now but I do miss the river and all the life that goes on there sometimes.

[bryzee86]

We need to have a forum bake off!

I'm up for it!

[Marrers]

Oooh! Bakewell slices!:) Yummy, I feel a trip to London coming up.:) (I don't know what Foyles is, I will look it up.)
Those bakewells are nice but could do with some icing on top if you ask me! (I'm also a frosting / icing fan!) Beatroot cakes aren't very good and I've had words on several occasions - I've even given them recipes but (unless they have changed recently) to no avail. Please complain and maybe Ed will do something - I hate to imagine people are thinking 'this is what vegan cake is like'. :rolleyes:

You will know Foyles Aphro - it's the massive bookshop on Charing Cross Road (near Tottenham Court Road end) and there is a separate entrance for Ray's Jazz Cafe up some stairs from the street or you can get to it from inside the bookshop. The chocolate cake there is nice but a bit dry (I need 2 cups of tea to get through it) and it is not as good as the cakes at Fresh & Wild.

[alisont]

I made time to visit Foyles last time i was in London but they had no vegan cake and said they only have it on sometimes:rolleyes:

I love the choc crispy cakes in beatroot, the bakewellis nice too, choc cake was not nice!

Fresh and wild cakes are fab:D I will be stocking up Sat!

Has anyone tried rebeccas cakes? She has a totally vegan website now not got it to hand as its not bookmarked on laptop...i know you can collect from there all vegan cupcakes and tray bakes...

[alisont]

Back from my short trip to London had a good time.

Went to Peking Palace Fri for the buffet lunch, liked it there the dishes were all vegan and very tasty, with no MSG like the Tai buffets, so miles better, well impressed there. Be good for a forum meet up there.

Visited Maoz in the eve as good and cheap as ever.....

Beatroot for lunch today, yummy food box and took some choc cluster crispie cakes out.

Oh and also fresh and wild choc cake and the passion fruit one - brought some home for the family:)

London is just so good for vegan choice!

[BlackCats]

Alisont - I haven't even tried all these places yet! :D (Makes me ashamed of being so lazy.) I want to try Peking Palace. :)

[Marrers]

I was supposed to go to Peking Palace for Valentines Day but wasn't feeling well enough so had to cancel. :(

BTW I tried to email the Rootmaster bus cafe to enquire about tables for two inside the bus (from the photo it look like the tables for 4 could be split, otherwise you'd have to sit at the stools at the bench) but my email bounced back.

[bryzee86]

Back from my short trip to London had a good time.

Went to Peking Palace Fri for the buffet lunch, liked it there the dishes were all vegan and very tasty, with no MSG like the Tai buffets, so miles better, well impressed there. Be good for a forum meet up there.



aw you're making me want to visit this place so badly now.




London is just so good for vegan choice!

isn't it just? :D

[alisont]

Peking palace is on my list to visit next time i go to London!

Id say its best to get there at 12pm for the buffet when foods served so hot, at 2pm some dishes were warm not hot, but still very tasty, some dishes were running low and dont seem to be replaced, the staff said they do delivery to a lot of london addresses.

Im such a vegan foodie when in London:D

[maikeru]

I was thinking today I would have liked to have had some chips, so does anyone know of any suitable chip shops in London? Not fries shops, chip shops!

Obviously I would not expect them to offer much in accompaniment other than salt. Especially since whoever supplied that vegan pie to chips shops stopped doing so.

But because of not knowing whether they use lard or cook fish and chips in the same oil, I have never been to one since moving down here a few years ago.

Michael.

[flying plum]

it's always worth asking...some places are stricter than others about separating chips and fish. i can't recommend anywhere 'good', but my local late night takeaway place (recently taken over :() used to be very strict and always very obliging for me, even when i was half cut at 3am :D

amanda

[Marrers]

I can't remember if I mentioned this before but apparently Scoop (40 Shorts Gardens, Covent Garden) do home made fruit sorbets which are suitable for vegans.

[Mr Flibble]

I've also never found a chip shop that has a frier that is 100% only for chips. There's a place round the corner from us at work that has vegetarian only products in one, but that'd not good enough for me. I once enquired at a place and was assured they were totally separate as I parted with my cash, though as I watched them they were technically accurate - the fish was cooked separately, but then it was put in with the chips to crispen up....lovely (I didn't bother trying to get my money back, just walked).

I've never been that impressed by beatroot cake, but it wasn't too bad when i last had it a few years back. They tend to never be open when I'm in the area (after work). The rest of their stuff is good, thou they're really stingey on the sausage rolls. You have to trick them by asking for like 3 first, then fill up with other things and get some on top. If you go all in one go you get 3 max. Bastards.

I've only had foyles cake once; it looked better than it tasted. I'm fairly sure that fresh and wild didn't used to do vegan cake when i was shopping there regularlyish a few years back.

Bake off sounds good. But then, any fat sounds good at the moment. Damn rice cakes....

[maikeru]

The vegan chocolate cake from Fresh & Wild is good and not too dry, at least not for me.

Michael.

[bryzee86]

F&W's cake is gooooorge! My mate's buying us a whole one from the supplier for our wedding :D

[alisont]

Drools at thought of F&W choc cake....

Will have to get several slices when im next in London in April:D hope they open on a Sunday as dont intend taking cake into a Muse gig will get all squashed!

[Marrers]

I've found F&W a bit hit and miss lately, sometimes it is good but other times a bit dry - they seem to be getting stingy with the frosting though.

Keep an eye on Beatroot, there may be some cake improvement soon - fingers crossed.

(If I wanted a whole cake I think I'd get mailorder from Babycakes.)

[teaboy]

I was thinking today I would have liked to have had some chips, so does anyone know of any suitable chip shops in London? Not fries shops, chip shops!

Obviously I would not expect them to offer much in accompaniment other than salt. Especially since whoever supplied that vegan pie to chips shops stopped doing so.

But because of not knowing whether they use lard or cook fish and chips in the same oil, I have never been to one since moving down here a few years ago.

Michael.If you're in town, Maoz, the falafel place on Old Compton St in Soho do nice Belgian style (cooked twice) chips. They are definitely safe, since the only other thing they deep fry there are the falafels, which are vegan anyway. I love to smother the chips in Tahini sauce and I'm getting hungry thinking just about them. Soho tomorrow!

[maikeru]

I was in Barking yesterday and would have loved some chips then. It is more when out of town I get like that, otherwise I go all weak and end up visiting RedVeg.

Michael.

[Marrers]

I'd love to know about chip shops too. Anyone know?

Obviously it is worth asking wherever you end up maikeru but I'd make a special trip if I knew where to get vegan chip shop chips! (I'm not interested in those Red Veg fries.)