First, thank you for reading this and for all your excellent advice. My husband has a health condition that requires him to eat SUPER healthy, mainly vegetables, fruits, grains, and some fish. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to research restaurants and remembered all the excellent advice this forum has given. Do you have any recommendations for healthy restaurants in London (which I think will be the easiest city to find healthy food), York, Peak district, and Yorkshire Dales? We will be going with our kids, who aren't as keen on their dad's diet, so if it serves healthy food and, as my kids would put it, "regular food" that would be great, but my husband being able to eat without having a heart attack is my #1 concern. Thank you again!
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
Nudging this back up the pages as it seems to have got overlooked
Posted by
Nashville, TN, USA
3895 posts
Your best bet would be to stay in an apartment, AirBnB, etc. with a kitchen so you could prepare healthy meals. This is easily done in London.
Even in a restaurant serving an all-vegetable stir fry, you don't know what oils and fats are being used in its preparation.
Perhaps in your other locations, you could rent a cottage with a kitchen.
Even if all you're serving for meals are sandwiches, at least you could control the contents and condiments.
This would allow you to prepare healthy salads for dinner, too.
Cooking in would save a bundle of money.
Search this forum for apartment suggestions in London.
There are entire threads that may help you choose.
You may find something here you like:
https://www.ivylettings.com/
Posted by
Olympia, Washington
249 posts
Denis and I are both health conscience vegans, although I dislike the term vegan for its inaccuracy and negative connotations. Anyways, I have to agree with Rebecca's comments above. We always get a place with a kitchen so we can control what we eat, plus we dislike eating out all three meals and always have. It's also fun to explore grocery options elsewhere. All that said, I suggest you explore the customarily recommended website https://www.happycow.net/. The green options are vegan, purple vegetarian and red veg/vegan options available. This may be quite useful to your family's varied requests. Do remember when exploring the website to check reviews to make sure they are current, as the pandemic closed many places.
On the vegan forum from which I/we historically learned a great deal, one suggestion is in an Asian restaurant to ask for the vegetables to be steamed (doctor's orders!) as opposed to oil cooked. This could be helpful to your husband.
London in particular is home to an amazing variety of cuisines, many of which are naturally veg-friendly.
Have a great time, and don't stress about it, just do your best each day and accept that perfection doesn't necessarily exist on vacation.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC
718 posts
The Ottolenghi group of restaurants and take out locations are very focussed on vegetable main dishes. You can look at the website for the various locations.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14818 posts
Where are you staying in the Dales? I am a plant-based eater but wound up adding in fish for my last couple of trips including Yorkshire. I did enjoy Indian food a couple of times in both York and Alnwick. I stayed in Hexham and had a delicious Mexican meal, believe it or not. The owner was happy to leave the cheese out of my meal and of course the margarita was vegan, hahaha. I also stayed at Aysgarth Falls where the hotel had a vegan savory pie which was delicious.
In London, nearly every place has some kind of main that can be made vegan. They always have menus posted outside so you can see if there is something to suit everyone. What area is your London hotel in?
Posted by
Bristol, UK
1453 posts
It will be easy enough to find vegan food but I’m not sure how healthy a lot of it would be if you’re trying to also avoid fats. Indian food, as mentioned above, is great for veggies but a lot of ghee or oil can be used. I think self catering will be the easiest option for you.
Posted by
Massachusetts
1103 posts
Do your kids like avocado? Last year while in London I ate at The Avocado Show. They have healthy foods as well as burgers.
Posted by
San Franciso Bay Area, USA
1035 posts
London is a great place for Vegan and Vegetarian. One of my resources for finding great eats in London (as well as other major cities) is the Infatuation. Here is there link for the top recommended Vegan restaurants as of January 2024 : https://www.theinfatuation.com/london/guides/vegan-food-restaurants-london.
Posted by
Nashville, TN, USA
3895 posts
One of my go-to guides for eating out in London is Time Out:
https://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/the-best-vegan-restaurants-in-london
Also the website Eater:
https://www.eater.com/maps/best-vegan-restaurants-london
A good list from Secret London here:
https://secretldn.com/vegan-restaurants-london/
And from Square Meal here:
https://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/best-for/best-vegan-restaurants-in-london_9452
Good articles here:
https://vegnews.com/vegan-travel/london-vacation-restaurant-guide
https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/vegan-restaurants-london
I hope that browsing these links helps you find some restaurants that appeal to you.
Posted by
OP
21 posts
Wow! I am so thankful for all your replies! They have been super helpful! We will be staying at AirBNBs so we can make some of our food, but it wouldn't feel like a vacation for me, the mom, if I was always cooking, and cleaning, you know? So thank you for the websites that have helped me navigate restaurants, and the restaurant ideas! Pam, I love Mexican food, and am so curious about a Mexican Restaurant in the Dales! Donna & Denis I enjoyed looking at the happy cow website. Claire, I will be looking up the Ottolenghi restaurant group. Helen, you are right about Indian restaurants and oil and ghee. My husband has found that out to his his dismay that a lot of indian dishes have ghee, though every once in a while there is a lentil daal that works for him. Mary, we love avocado (we have family members that are avocado farmers!) so I am curious about an avocado restaurant. SandyO thank you for the website recommendation. I am researching now! Rebecca, thank you for the list of websites. Wow! That was so kind of you to do that for me! isn31c, thank you for keeping my page up so that people could read it and comment, that was so thoughtful. This is really a great community. I appreciate all the effort you put into helping me. I feel like such a newbie when it comes to travel to Europe, and I'm always looking for help and you always come through. Thank YOU!!!
Posted by
518 posts
In London we have eaten at Mildred’s at two of their locations. The food was excellent and all plant based.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14818 posts
The restaurant in Hexham is right around the corner from Hexham Abbey and is called...wait for it....Little Mexico, lol. The owner is very hands on and makes an excellent margarita! Really I wanted a 2nd one but I knew it would be dicey walking back to the hotel with another one on board, lol....
Posted by
Olympia, Washington
249 posts
I had another thought...... Marks & Spencer has a food hall, generally on a lower level if I remember correctly. We got groceries as well as prepared dishes for picnics there. That would be another cost effective option and allow for varied tastes as well. We've even gotten stuff at a Gatwick airport location for plane travel.
Posted by
SoCal
176 posts
Hi! I’m a fellow vegan headed to UK this summer.
If you are a facebook fan, you may check out the group, “London vegans” and ask your specific questions there for more feedback. I joined it recently looking for the best falafel (hoping to find one as good as L’as in Paris). Anyway, i had a ton of responses. It’s a “private group” but you just have to request to join. They also have tips for grocery stores and food markets that are set up like food courts, so everyone gets what they desire.
We are mostly staying at places with access to a kitchen or apts so we can control what we eat. We rarely eat out at home but there’s lots of interesting choices out there!
Bon appetite!
Posted by
OP
21 posts
Thank you for the facebook idea ,Shawn. You are a magical Unicorn! I appreciate everyone's help. YOU are ALL helpful, phenomenal swans!
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
For anyone visiting Keswick I noticed today that the Lakes Fish and Chip Shop (opposite Wetherspoons) has a good Vegan menu (this is NOT The Old Keswickian, which Rick's groups use)
Posted by
SoCal
176 posts
Awesome. So happy to help.
And Thanks for the tip in Keswick, Stuart. I’ll add that to my own list for June :)
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
By the way, also in the Lake District, there is a startlingly good Vegetarian Cafe (not Vegan) in Penrith- it's location is not one which the casual visitor would find, being at the rear of the Devonshire Arcade (behind the George Hotel)- facing the baker's and fishmongers. It totally deserves to be better known with the amount of effort they have gone to developing their menu.
It is called Simple Goodness- https://simplegoodness.co.uk/
(I was reminded of this as I cut through the Arcade on Saturday night, changing buses, making a -10 minutes connection which on paper was totally impossible, and which I wasn't aiming to make). A cut through which only a local would take! When I saw the forward bus in and waiting (running very late due to congestion in Keswick) I totally changed my route home to West Cumbria as I was going to route back over the Kirkstone Pass and Bowness on Windermere- a gloriously long way round using the new later evening buses.