London has become a bit of a hotspot for vegan food lovers, offering a wide range of plant-based dining options across the city. Popular vegan restaurant app, HappyCow selected London, a city with over 700 vegan restaurants, as the world’s most vegan-friendly city in 2024, ahead of Berlin (No.2) and Barcelona (No.3). From trendy cafés to upscale restaurants, the city caters to every taste with innovative vegan dishes. Here are eight of the most popular London restaurants for plant-lovers.
1.Plates, Shoreditch
East London’s recently opened Plates, from siblings Kirk and Keeley Haworth, has already rightly won a legion of fans for its innovative, vegetable-forward cooking. Following his win of North West Young Chef of the Year award at age 17, Kirk Haworth went on to work under the world’s top chefs at The French Laundry, The Square and others. In 2016, a diagnosis with Lyme Disease led him to overhaul his lifestyle and explore a plant-based diet in pursuit of health. Happily for us, the result is one of the city’s best vegan restaurants, with a regularly-changing tasting menu (£75), that also features some of Kirk’s top scoring dishes that gained him the Champion of Champions title on BBC Television’s Great British Menu. Seasonal, whole and organic produce is at the core of the restaurant’s regularly changing tasting menu. On the current menu, the laminated sourdough bread with whipped spirulina butter, the Mung and urad bean lasagna and the raw cacao gateaux with sour cherry are incredible. The website says that Plates is booked until February 2025 but do try for cancellations.
2.Holy Carrot, Notting Hill
Holy Carrot had popular temporary locations in Knightsbridge and elsewhere but this Portobello Road location is the first permanent space, with a 50-cover restaurant and 12-person outdoor terrace. Ex-Acme chef Daniel Watkins oversees a menu of bold flavors that has a strong focus on “fire and ferments” and uses seasonal produce, sourced sustainably from local farmers, foragers and suppliers. The crispy celeriac fritter, smoky roasted carrots and koji flatbread with chilli ragu and smoked mushroom are incredible. For dessert, the matcha tiramisu and super creamy chocolate tahini cremeux with roast hazelnuts are both a great choice.
3.123Vegan
“I believe the future of food is plant-based” says Chef Alexis Gauthier who stopped cooking meat and fish in 2015 for ethical reasons, following a convincing anti-foie gras protest outside his Soho restaurant. Since then, he’s gained an ardent following for his delicious vegan sushi. Browns boutique in Mayfair is the latest location with a lovely restaurant in the store and outdoors in a gorgeous private garden courtyard. Plant-based sushi and nigiri plus a selection of salads, bowls and desserts are superb. His other vegan restaurants are fine-dining Gauthier in Soho and the more casual venture Studio Gauthier.
4.Mallow, Borough market and Canary wharf
The team behind one of London’s oldest vegan restaurants, Mildreds opened the brilliant Mallow in two locations, serving seasonal, sustainable food, with ingredients sourced from small businesses, including those in London. The Borough market location, in a restored townhouse with beautiful floral murals inside and out by Saint Design has a fun, buzzy, busy (be sure to make a reservation) atmosphere with a sharing plates concept. Starters are outstanding: padron peppers with a smokey peanut chilli oil; turmeric milk bread with apricot harissa whipped butter and yummy cauliflower hummus with pickled mango dressing. Other menu highlights include pan-fried green chilli oil gyoza and shiitake and chestnut mushroom croquettes.
5.The Gate, Hammersmith
Tucked off a side street near Hammersmith tube, one of London’s oldest vegan restaurants, The Gate, opened in 1989 as a vegetarian restaurant initially. Michael and Adrian Daniel, brothers with an Indo-Iraqi heritage wanted to recreate the diverse flavors and culinary experiences they had enjoyed as children, eating food with Arabic, Indian and Jewish influences. Now widely recognised as one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the UK, the Gate has a loyal and devoted following. On our recent visit, we loved the Crispy Courgette Flower filled with butternut squash, sun dried tomatoes pine nuts and basil and the Corviche, a stuffed fritter filled with oyster mushrooms and peppers. And the Chickpea Tagine was a lovely concoction of courgette, butternut, cauliflower, chickpea and apricot in a rich Moroccan spiced sauce.
6.Naifs, Peckham
Tom Heale, the sous chef of the beloved fine dining restaurant Vanilla Black, sadly no longer open, opened restaurant Naifs in Peckham, south London in 2019, with partner Anne Stokes. The petite restaurant serves dinner only and it’s a seasonal set four-course menu for a very reasonable £33. Taking inspiration from multi-dish dinners such as Greek meze, food is meant to be shared family style, with appetisers and desserts that can be added on as extras. Lentil pate with moreish bread from local bakery Toad followed by fried cauliflower with smoked chilli, apricot and tahini were enough to make us return in a flash. Another menu standout is grilled courgettes with braised chard, green pea hummus and pangrattato. The chocolate mousse with blood orange chocolate and lemon curd is the ideal way to finish.
7.Plants, Mayfair
Plants, a relaxed bistro in Mayfair, is owned by Eleanor Mills, best known for the popular plant-based “Deliciously Ella” food blog and brand. Everything is made in house from culturing their own butter, to baking their own sourdough. From creative small plates to hearty mains and indulgent desserts, the seasonal menu can include dishes like roasted cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate, Caesar salad, risotto with cep and cashew-based cheesecakes. The flatbreads are highly recommended too.
8.Tendril, Mayfair
This (mostly) vegan kitchen and bar, as sometimes there’s cheese (brie and feta), from Chef Rishim Sachdeva (of Fat Duck, The Dairy) showcases what’s possible in plant-first food. This means no fake meat or processed “plant-based” ingredients. Like nose-to-tail for omnivorous diners, Tendril uses every possible part of the produce. For example, they use left-over cauliflower stalks in the kimchi, surplus trimmings for long ferments, pickling juice for cocktails behind the bar, and beetroot tops in the salads. Tendril serves a set menu throughout the week, an a la carte menu from Monday to Wednesday, and late long brunch on Saturday and Sunday. Menu highlights include: “Chinatown” purple potatoes with sticky soy and sesame and fennel fritter with curry leaves and moilee sauce.
