EVERYTHING VEGAN WE ATE IN LONDON

With the Lost & Vegan app coming up, we needed to continue our deep dive into vegan restaurants. While there is so much to choose from here in Toronto when it comes to vegan food and restaurants, it’s not the only city to be featured on the app. You may have heard a previous announcement that Montréal is a city to be included, but there are some others. London, UK, is one of them!

We have always found London to be a vegan-friendly city, offering vegan options at non-vegan establishments and having a good selection of vegan restaurants to choose from as well!

During our further investigation into London’s vegan food scene, we tried a variety of dishes from some amazing places. Now, we can’t reveal all the places just yet, but here’s what we ate at all the places we visited.

VEGAN FISH & CHIPS

Yes, you read that correctly: vegan fish & chips. It’s definitely more common to hear about meat substitutions for chicken or beef. For example, cauliflower buffalo sandwiches or Impossible burgers. But fish is not usually swapped as easily. However, at the Mayfair Chippy, this was not the case. We were served a tofu-based fish and chips. The tofu was wrapped in seaweed to give the tofu that typical umami fish flavour. We almost couldn’t tell the difference in terms of the texture and taste of the meal. It was definitely a top-tier take on vegan fish & chips.

DAIRY-FREE ICE CREAM

Dairy-free and vegan options for ice cream are steadily increasing. Unfortunately, not all of these vegan options can fully replicate the rich flavour and, most importantly, texture of the non-vegan ice creams. Chin Chin ice cream was a parlour that not only takes ice cream to the next level but also dairy-free ice cream to the next level. Handmade with, get this… liquid nitrogen, their vegan ice cream was just as smooth, rich, creamy, and flavourful as a non-vegan ice cream. And possibly even better? This was a big highlight on the food tour.

FALAFEL

Falafel is probably one of the most common and accessible vegan food options out there. However, that didn’t stop us from giving it a try at some London restaurants. There was one place in particular that truly captured our taste buds, and this was Magic Falafel. Their rendition was packed with flavour, made fresh and had great texture.

VEGAN PASTA

Depending on where you go or which city you live in, finding pasta without meat or especially dairy-free cheese can be tricky. We were able to find this in London with a good amount of variety at multiple locations. For instance, Vapiano’s had a pasta with a meat-free tomato sauce and vegan cheese. In general, it was easier finding vegan cheese available at different restaurants.

DAIRY-FREE HOT CHOCOLATE

Having a vegan chocolate can usually be as simple as swapping out the milk. Although some restaurants and cafés offer hot chocolate that already contains milk powder. Therefore, swapping the milk wouldn’t be useful. There are cafés that had some swaps that aren’t commonly used. Additionally, there are cafés like Knoops that are completely dedicated to hot chocolate beverages for both non-vegans and vegans alike. We had a hot chocolate with coconut milk added. This added an amazing upgrade to the flavour without altering the signature taste of hot chocolate.

VEGAN BURGERS

Burgers with meat alternatives have been around for a while. Starting with veggie burgers and now with manufactured vegan meats like Impossible burgers, there have always been options. What makes the difference is the quality and ingredients used. There are great options for burgers made with flair, with innovative toppings, sauces and sides. A favourite of ours is Honest Burgers, as they have great ingredients and toppings for vegan burgers.