I'm looking for recommendations for inexpensive vegetarian restaurants in London. I'll be staying in the Lambeth North area but plan to visit some of the major sites (the Tower, St. Paul's, the V&A and so on). The food doesn't have to be fancy at all. I've been doing some searching. Many Indian restaurants come up in the search, but I don't like spicy food at all. Middle Eastern is OK.
I do know about Wild Food Cafe in Covent Garden, 222 Veggie Vegan and the Garden Cafe.
Thanks!!
London is an excellent city for vegetarians. Are you limited to all-vegetarian restaurants, or are places with extensive vegetarian menus that also serve meat OK too? There are a lot more of the latter than the former.
222 Veggie Vegan is a real pain to get to, and it's nowhere near any of the usual sights. The food is good, but probably not good enough to merit a special trip.
Thank you so much!
I'm not opposed to places that also serve meat. I should add that I eat fish and dairy products as well as eggs. In my hometown, we don't have any vegetarian restaurants at all, so I am used to looking for the veg options on the menus.
I will check out that link!
Probably most restaurants in the UK have vegetarian options of some sort or other - often marked on the menus by a little "v" symbol. You'll find plenty to eat.
Among my favorite places to eat in London are the Tas restaurants: http://tasrestaurants-co-uk.ridvan.co.uk/ (that's a temporary site - their normal one is under construction right now). They serve a type of Turkish food that I've never really seen anywhere else (granted, I've never been to Turkey), and I think it's just delicious. They have several locations on the south bank near where you'll be staying.
London is very easy for vegetarians.
I have a similar diet and when I was in London a couple of years ago I found many available options on menus most everywhere.
There is always Pret A Manger which seems to be almost everywhere. Great for a quick salad , sandwich and more when the sudden hunger strikes.
And there is always Italian places... either independent or one of the many chains. We ate at ASK Italian a number of times in London and elsewhere in England when they were close to our hotels. While it was not Italy by any means , it was enjoyable, reasonable and offered many clearly marked options. We will likely stop at both of these during our May trip as well as many other places.
Have fun!
Every London pub has fish and chips with mushy peas!!! Love, love, love it and I'm a vegetarian too.
I will echo what others have said about London being pretty easy to find vegetarian food in. I am vegan and haven't had much of a problem.
As mentioned above the salads at Pret are pretty good as are the takeaway food at stores like Marks and Spencer or M&S as their food halls sometimes seems to be labeled. I also enjoyed some Egyptian street food at a place called Koshari Street near the National Gallery. It was pretty good altho their hot sauce was not as hot as I like it, lol (based on the vendor who sells koshari at my local farmer's market who uses his grandmother's secret hot sauce recipe.)
I also enjoy another chain called Le Pain Quotidien (the daily bread) which does have vegetarian and vegan selections daily. I've eaten in the one near Victoria Station.
I don't remember your whole travel plan and if you are going to stay in the UK the whole time, but if you are taking the Eurostar to Paris there are 2 M&S food halls in the St Pancras station so it's convenient to get food for the train trip.
This is the source I use worldwide- www.happycow.net/europe/england/london/ I am on the board of a vegetarian/vegan non-profit and I use this and recommend it a lot. There are around 82 places in London for you to try. This link will give you info and location info for them so you can go to their sites to see what their menus are.
Thanks, everybody!
@Pam, I will be in London the whole time. I've heard good things about M&S (through Rick!) so I'm eager to try it out.
The Ottolenghi restaurants all have wonderful vegetable dishes. We went to the spitalfields branch, and I had the most amazing eggplant dish! Really the best eggplant of my life.
I didn't have any problems in London as a vegetarian (NOT pescetarian). I even found an old pub near Chelsea that serves tofu fish and chips.
OK Thune...inquiring minds and all that! I'd love the name of the pub in Chelsea!
It's been maybe 5 years since I've been to London, but I've been to the Diwana Bhel Poori House, 121-123 Drummond St
London NW1 2HL, near Euston Station. It never has failed to be excellent in my opinion. By the way, I've been cooking Indian food at home for 40 years, much of that time using Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks.
Here is what the Lonely Planet says about this vegetarian restaurant:
One of the best Indian vegetarian restaurants in London, Diwana specializes in Bombay-style bhel poori (a tangy, soft and crunchy ‘party mix’ dish) and dosas (filled crispy pancakes made from rice flour). Solo diners should consider a thali (a complete meal consisting of lots of small dishes). The all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet (£7) is legendary while daily specials are £6.60.
Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/restaurants/indian/diwana-bhel-poori-house#ixzz4HoMariH5
Dee W., Richmond, VA USA
