Vegan London, part 1

[chridus]

well, i do not get in touch with my host-family, but we got a sheet where everyone should write on, what is important for him or her, for instance people who are allergic to fur will not have a host-family with a cat and so on. i wrote that i am a vegan and explained what it is. i share the host-family with two other guys who are "vegetarians" (in fact they are not real vegetarians but the english food has such a bad reputation that quite a lot of my class mates wrote on the sheet that they want some vegetarian food). my former english teacher who organises the trip promised me that he would do his best that he could find a vegan family for me or at least a family, where i can eat my own food.
i'm already active as animal right activist and in touch with the austrian vegan society. there i can buy the "vegan passport". this passport will help me to say what i want and is also helpful if i want to order food in restaurants, which are not special vegan-restaurants. the passport contains many different languages and- of course- english as well.

well, thanks for your help and best wishes
-CHRIDUS-

[harpy]

in fact they are not real vegetarians but the english food has such a bad reputation that quite a lot of my class mates wrote on the sheet that they want some vegetarian food

Heh heh - very wise, being vegetarian eliminates some of the worst horrors of English food though not all of them sadly.

Sounds as if you should do OK, with the helpful teacher. Vegetarianism is pretty widespread here and most restaurants more or less understand the concept (some of them still try to dish up fish). Veganism still baffles some people though so the vegan passport may well come in handy. I have got one somewhere as well!

[xaaronx]

I'm going to London on Friday and staying over night till Saturday. So was just wondering if there is any good places to eat breakfast?

Also any good places to eat dinner?

Cheers, Aaron.

[Marrers]

It would help if you are a little more specific about the area you are staying in or want to eat in. London is a big place with lots of options for fine vegan dining!

[bryzee86]

hey folks, here's a link to happycow's london directory: http://www.happycow.net/europe/engla...don/index.html

have a look in there and i'm sure you'll find somewhere. London's a big, varied city with plenty of options. Failing that, Holland and Barrett are a chain health food store, chridus, and they do some snacks for when you're out and about.

Feel free to PM me either of you if you have any questions regarding the local area you'll be staying in or the areas you'll be visiting whilst you're here.

[bryzee86]

oh and Vegan London's own site: http://www.veganlondon.co.uk/eat/index.htm

[alisont]

Im off to London this weekend and cant decide where to eat!

Me and friend will be needing 2 lunches and 1 eve meal - well when in London I have to eat lots of yummy vegan food!

Am tempted to go to Mildreds or 222 but should try new places really.....

Thinking Peking Palace as a poss for the lunch buffet? Im not sure about travelling round there at night and can try different dishes with buffet.

We are at exhibition at the 02 so totally other end town for 222, and hotel is Liverpool St way, cant say i fancy the hour plus wait for Mildreds but am tempted by idea of that mushroom and ale pie!and bet 222 is booked due to valentines day on the Thu - we are going to be in town Fri/Sat......

Too much choice in London!!! and ive not taken veggie friend to Red Vege yet either

Hmmm i may dream of London vegan food tonight

[harpy]

We were in 222 on Saturday evening. FWIW it was full and as a result the service was quite slow, which was OK for us but some of the other people there looked as if they might go on the (vegan) rampage So if you're liable to be in a hurry I'd maybe avoid going there on Saturday evening.

[alisont]

Good point that, but Mildreds is also slow eves and you have to stand for the hour or so til tables free, will have a think, so many places to go to im really spolit for choice! It will depend what time we leave the 02 as it takes at least 45 mins to get to 222 from there i think poss more?

[Sluggie]

How about Pogo Cafe in Hackney? It's about half an hour from O2, and 20 minutes from Liverpool Street.

[Marrers]

Has anyone been to the Rootmaster vegan cafe (in a Routemaster bus) on Brick Lane? Looks well worth a visit to me!

Exterior photo
Interior photo & Happy Cow review

[bryzee86]

ah i thought it might be veggie! I saw a picture in the london paper, but no description. Might check it out when i'm in the area

[Troutina]

Has anyone been to the Rootmaster vegan cafe (in a Routemaster bus) on Brick Lane? Looks well worth a visit to me!

Exterior photo
Interior photo & Happy Cow review

I walked past this the other day, it looks like the funnest place ever!
I'm even more excited now I know it's vegan!

[alisont]

Now that looks interesting!

That is another poss place for lunch indeed!

Pogo is a good idea too!

Too much choice! I need to get to London more

[harpy]

Has anyone tried the cakes in Vitaorganic? I thought they looked quite nice but the place was a bit too busy for me to interrogate the waiters about what they were. I assume they're vegan, seeing everything else in there is?

I had a nice smoothie type thing instead, called a Pink Mermaid I think.

[bryzee86]

the cakes aren't much to write home about, tbh. I like my cakes a bit more, shall we say, decadent :P

They're very wholesome and, on occasions, a bit dry and stale (I don't think they do them fresh each day, so sometimes you'll get fresh, sometimes not).

[BlackCats]

Has anyone been to the Rootmaster vegan cafe (in a Routemaster bus) on Brick Lane? Looks well worth a visit to me!

Exterior photo
Interior photo & Happy Cow review

Yeah let's go there for a meet up, quite close to where I live as well.

[bryzee86]

why not!

[harpy]

the cakes aren't much to write home about, tbh. I like my cakes a bit more, shall we say, decadent :P

Thanks Bryzee - sounds as if I made the right decision! Wholesomeness isn't necessarily the first quality one looks for in a cake

I went with a couple of omnivores and they seemed to like their grub.

[bryzee86]

be sure to take in fresh&wild's cake next time. yum!

[harpy]

Yes, they are indeed yum. I had a couple at a party we had a while ago and the omnivores all did that "I can't believe this is vegan" thing

[aubergine]

Vita Organic changed to Raw cakes for a while which were quite dry. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

I really like the cakes at Beatroot.

[harpy]

Must try the Beatroot ones - think I've only ever had salad in there.

Cakes aren't one of my main vices but if I do have one I like it to be unctuous. They often do seem a bit dry unfortunately.

[BlackCats]

I tried a Beatroot cake but it wasn't that nice, it was quite dry, maybe I should try another one. I usually prefer the icing cream stuff on top instead of the actual cake itself anyway.

[harpy]

It seems to be quite hard to make the cake part of a vegan cake moist, if it's a sponge-type cake? Hence the icing:cake ratio can be critical

ISTR having a nice one in the cafe in Foyle's once.

[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'.

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

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

Fresh and wild cakes are fab 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! (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?

[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

[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

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

[alisont]

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

Will have to get several slices when im next in London in April 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.)