If you're planning to go vegan — or you're looking for some very good food that just happens to be plant-based — these are some of our favourites.
Tendril Kitchen — across London
Chef Rishim Sachdeva's pivot to home delivery was one of the more joyful food discoveries we made in Lockdown 1.0. His Soho residency is open again now and we strongly encourage a visit — which you'll need to book for: it's a popular one. But if you're not London-based, or still isolating — or just dgaf about any dinner you have to get dressed and leave the house for — you can get his food sped to your door in batches of three meals.
Order from Tendril or email [email protected] for menu and delivery details.
Mao Chow — Hackney
The menu at Mao Chow's all vegan, most of it fiercely chillied, all glorious. Mushroom mince in the dan dan gives the noodle dish a rich, dense can't-believe-it's-not-meat thunk of flavour: those and the 'meaty veg' dumplings are The Ones for wistful carnivores dabbling in vegan menus — but their short menu's all hits, no misses.
Order from Mao Chow.
Eat of Eden — Brixton, Lewisham, more locations
Eat of Eden's expansion this year is great news for vegans, vegetarians, or anybody into great-value, warming Caribbean. Grains, salads and cold dishes all feature but from now till spring we'll be heading straight to the stews and curries section, maybe with a small detour for some fried plantain and their vegetable patties (pasty-style crescents stuffed with curries).
Order from Eat of Eden.
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Club Mexicana — Soho, across London
The ex-KERB traders are doing their TexMex-leaning menu — fake-meat tacos, loaded nachos, burritos — in delivery form within the usual radius of their Soho branch. But they're also now doing DIY taco kits, available for delivery across London (very generous, relatively hard to mess up, more about assembly than actual cooking skills, £25 for four people).
Maybe it goes without saying, but there's absolutely no chance you're going to mistake their fake turkey tacos for real turkey tacos, their To-Fish for fish or their 'jackfruit shortribs' for... shortribs. These are not persuasively meaty vegan tacos. It's all great in its own right, regardless.
Order from Club Mexicana.
Halo Burger — Brixton, Shoreditch
London's had some solidly good new vegan burger places land in the last few years, but these guys are still one of our favourites. Their MO is fast food McDonald's-ish burgers so they don't feel that substantial — it's squashy rather than chunky — but when you want a junky, (fake)cheese-dripping fix, this is a good bet. Just fyi, their Dirty Fries don't travel that well — we'd recommend ordering the normal fries and having a lot of hot sauce and vegan cheese available at home to melt over them, if that's what you're after.
Honourable mention: Mooshie's vegan burgers, delivering near their Shoreditch branch.
Order from Halo Burger.
Rudy's Vegan Diner — Camden
Rudy's has been a beloved staple of Londonist's lunchbreaks/after-work drinks/pre-gig stomach lining for years — mostly thanks to their talent for making vegan takes on US diner classics feel just as sloppily filthy as the originals: mac and not-cheese, pretend-pastrami sandwiches, fake-milkshakes creaking under the weight of their toppings.
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Order from Rudy's.
Sagar — Soho, Hammersmith, more locations
Bit of a cheat, this one, as south Indian restaurant Sagar's actually vegetarian rather than vegan. But most of the dishes are either vegan or can be made vegan on request, and their greatest hits (the dosa, the sambar and most of their curries) don't need any adjusting.
Order from Sagar.
Atcha — across London
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Most of the Atcha menu's vegetarian, and more than half's vegan, and they deliver across London. While you can order one-off dishes from their range of south Asian-influenced rice bowls, soups and salads, their fill-your-fridge package aims to keep you going for a week — any five dishes (each of them three portions) from the heat at home range, for £40. Brighten your lunchbreaks with sesame-dotted beetroot thoran, a gobhi sabzi glowing with turmeric, and the smoky aubergine curry.
Order from Atcha.
allplants — across London
Delivered frozen, these are just some good, straightforward ready meals that are ideal for having on standby for unpredictably manic work days. Everything we tried from their new Summer Bundles (three days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, smoothies, and desserts) were significantly better than whatever toast-and-more-toast effort we tend to end up hurling into our faces at high speed during our lunchbreak when things turn busy, but no less easy — all of the mains are 30 minutes in the oven, or seven minutes in the microwahvé. Expect just-add-oat-milk mango and greens smoothies, sticky mushroom udon, and tiramisu 'cheese'cakes. Disclosure: we were sent a free box to try by their press team, but we've already demolished them and are making our next, paid-for order.
Order from allplants.
Crosstown Doughnuts — across London
They use sourdough for a denser, chewier doughnut at Crosstown, one thing which sets them apart from the doughnut masses. Another's their extensive range of big, decadent vegan doughnuts. Our favourites include the very simple Vanilla Bean Glaze, or the much messier Peanut Butter and Blackcurrant, a square slab of Americana topped with peanut butter glaze, blackcurrant compote and toasted nuts. Honourable mention to the Lime and Coconut, filled to the point of oozing — thought it'd be too tropically sticky, but turned out to be just the right amount of tropically sticky.
Crosstown Doughnuts, see website for locations and stockists across London.
