The best vegan restaurants London has to offer - a Twisted guide

Stop! Are you looking for the best vegan restaurants London has to offer? Doing Veganuary and need some inspo?

Well, look no further, because we've decided to delve into some of the top restaurants offering plant-based fare the Capital, from those with fully meat and dairy-free menus to the vegan friendly restaurants London residents should try.

The best vegan restaurants London has to offer

Whether you're looking for a vegan Chinese restaurant, a veg packed Indian spot or a plant powered burger, let us show you the gems.

If you're in London and wondering 'where are the vegan restaurants near me?' then wonder no more.

Team Twisted has eaten around North, South, East and West London to root out the vegan restaurants worth visiting. It's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it.

Tofu Vegan

Tofu Vegan is all about plant-based regional Chinese food (Credit: Tofu Vegan/ Instagram)

Tofu Vegan is quickly becoming one of the city's trendiest plant-based spots. It's also undoubtedly one of the most popular vegan Chinese restaurants London locals have on their doorstep.

From friend-of-Twisted Chao Zhang, the menu focuses on lesser-known regional Chinese dishes, as well as some of the more expected items, like wontons and smacked cucumber.

They promise authentic flavours with a vegan twist – and that they deliver.

You can expect a lot of meat substitutes, tofu and beancurd. However, vegetables also have their time to shine. Aubergine plays a very convincing role in the 'twice cooked fisc' dish, and the shredded oyster mushrooms are a must-order starter.

If you need further convincing, Chao also runs Xi’an Impression in Highbury, which is a local institution. With chains of Tofu Vegan in Islington, Spitalfields and Golders green, small plates start from around £6.50 here, but it can get expensive as you'll likely wanna try everything!

CookDaily

CookDaily is an east London vegan institution (Credit: Instagram/ King Cook)

It's no exaggeration to say that CookDaily is responsible for bringing the vegan restaurant scene to east London.

King Cook has been a plant-based pioneer since he first popped up in Shoreditch's Boxpark in 2009, drawing in music legends like Skepta and JME as fans in his early days.

After popping up around various spots in London, and even opening a restaurant in London Fields, he went on a short hiatus (which felt very long for his loyal customers). But fear not, because finally the King is back!

With just 11 dishes on its menu, this casual and unassuming spot is all about Southeast Asian bowls packed with veg and heavy on the flavour. There's the High Grade – with stewed cabbage, mushroom, yam, and loads of other veg in a delicious BBQ sauce, and the Jerk Bowl, with puffed tofu, carrots, aubergine and a flavour-packed slaw.

Oh, and don't sleep on their plant-based chick'n either. It's some of the best we've tried.

Most bowls will set you back around £15, but they're so worth it.

Sisterwoman Vegan

Sisterwoman offers modern vegan soul food (Credit: MOKO/ Instagram)

Sisterwoman Vegan is the newest spot to take residence at MOKO in Tottenham, and we'd suggest checking it out immediately.

Offering up ridiculously good modern soul food from chef Safiya Robinson, the menu features an Ode To BBQ, with smoked jackfruit, peach hemp BBQ sauce, vegan mac n cheese, greens and slaw, and The Rudeboy Sandwich, stuffed with cornmeal fried oyster mushrooms, spicy akee remoulade and escovitch pickle.

There are small plates (starting at £6) and mains (starting at £15) depending what time you visit.

The restaurant's aim is to celebrate "the sounds and flavours of the Afro Caribbean diaspora," and that it certainly does. The city's vegan food scene has been missing a spot like this.

If you're sifting through the vegan restaurants north London has to offer, then search no more! This spot will do nicely.

En Root

En Root is a south London vegan restaurant chain you need to check out (Credit: En Root/ Instagram)

With restaurants in Clapham and Peckham, En Root is one of the top vegan Indian restaurants London locals should check out.

These guys are all about super-casual veg-focused dining. They're all about healthy, nourishing food.

There are traditional Indian dishes, like a Masala Dosa filled with lentils and rice, and the Don Dada platter, featuring the likes of a daal, sag aloo and coconut curry.

But take some time to peruse the quirkier options, like the Jerk Dosa, filled with a fiery jerk plantain mushroom mix, and the Baba Ganesh, an Indian twist on the Middle-Eastern aubergine baba ganoush.

Their Full Indian breakfast, with a veg pakora, plantain and a paratha, among other goodies, is also pretty epic.

Mains start at a tenner, and you can also order their food from The Railway pub in Tulse Hill and the Ritzy cinema in Brixton. Fancy that? A plant-based movie night!

Facing Heaven

Facing Heaven is a Hackney vegan spot celebrating Sichuanese flavours (Credit: Facing Heaven/ Instagram)

LA chef Julian Denis brings us Facing Heaven – a vegan Chinese restaurant, situated just round the corner from where his old sticks, Mao Chow used to sit.

Tucked down a side road in London Fields, Facing Heaven is a site visited by those in the know about vegan food. Don't be fooled by the relaxed, low-key vibe – this is one of the best vegan restaurants east London has up its sleeve.

The focus is Sichuanese flavours – think DanDan Noodles and Donpo Tofu – but it's also so much more than that. An ever changing menu features dishes like Char Siu Ribs, Black Pepper Steak Frites and breaded mushrooms disguising themselves as fried chicken.

If you ask us, they've got some of the best vegan burgers about, too.

Dishes start at £6 and hover around a tenner, but it's a sharing concept so you'll likely want to order a few.

Club Mexicana

Club Mexicana is one of London's best vegan spots, whether you're vegan or not (Credit: Club Mexicana/ Instagram)

Club Mexicana comes from another friend of Twisted, Meriel Armitage.

This plant-based Mexican food concept started as a supper club, and is inspired by the tacos you'd find in Los Angeles and Mexico City, but with a few vegan subs.

It's safe to say it has been a hit. Now they've got an outpost in Covent Garden and restaurants in Shoreditch and Brixton, serving the likes of Buffalo Mushroom Tacos (starring some pretty epic Southern fried oyster mushrooms) and BBQ Short 'Rib' Tacos (made with plant-protein 'ribs' cooked in a sweet and smoky sauce).

The meat alternatives are enough to convert a sceptic, here, as is the Taco Tuesday promotion in their Shoreditch branch, which offers all you can eat tacos for £20. Come on any other day and you can get vegan tacos starting at £4.50, or Mexican mains at just over £12.

The city is lacking quality Mexican restaurants, but this one is well worth a visit, whether you eat meat or not.

The Omni Collective

The Omni Collective is a plant-based kitchen in Peckham (Credit: Omni/ Instagram)

The Omni Collective in south-east London's Peckham Rye takes inspiration from global cuisine, and aims to showcase vegetables in the very best light.

Founders Jess McGill and George Matheou present an 'all-in' a la carte menu with ten different plates, including grilled green beans with chilli and mint, crispy brussels sprouts with tahini and Lao gan ma chilli sauce and fried hen of the woods with fermented chilli sauce and sauerkraut.

It all sounds a rather fancy, but if you've got a celebration coming up (or just want to treat yourself) then trust us when we say it's a bloomin' special experience.

With a menu that changes monthly, and focuses on the freshest, seasonal ingredients, they also put a big emphasis on sustainability and low waste cooking, which gets a big thumbs up from us!

The 'all in' menu costs £40 per person and you can also visit for lunch where there's a trimmed down offering and sandwiches (starting at £7.50) if that's more your thing.

Pockets

Pockets draws massive queues for a good reason (Credit: Instagram/ Pockets)

Pockets is another of the most famed vegan restaurants east London has to offer. Technically it's a grab and go spot rather than a dine-in eatery, but it simply needed to be included.

Known for creating queues round the block when it had a stall in Hackney's Netil Market, the pitta outpost now has its own permanent location near London Fields station, but the lines of people are as present as ever.

Their falafel stuffed pittas attract vegans and omnivores alike. Costing £9, they're the only thing on the menu – but frankly, who needs anything else?

They come stuffed with fried potatoes, humous, tahini, green sauce, zhug, amba, pickled mango relish and a cabbage slaw.

It's the sort of pitta that'll make an awful mess to eat, but who cares? We have no doubt you'll keep returning for again and again.

Gauthier

Guathier is all about vegan fine dining (Credit: Gauthier/ Instagram)

This is as close to a fully vegan Michelin star restaurant as you're gonna get in London. If you're looking for refined vegan food from a French chef who has previously bagged himself that very accolade, then Gauthier is the place.

A lot of the best vegan restaurants in London are more casual experiences, but this can be found situated within a three-storey Regency townhouse, and is a much more luxurious affair.

This was already a successful eatery when it went vegan in 2021, after the owner Alexis Gauthier changed his own diet.

Known for being the first French vegan restaurant in London (and the UK for that matter), the ever changing menu has boasted the likes of beetroot risotto with balangal and kaffir lime cream and even vegan Faux Gras, made from a lentil, walnut and Cognac paste. Controversial but intriguing!

Set menus start at £55 per person with a more extravagant £95 a head option if you wanna splash out.

Vegan fine dining is few and far between in the Capital, but if that's your jam then this is where to do it properly.

Holy Carrot

Holy Carrot focuses on healthy plant-based foods (Credit: Instagram/ Holy Carrot)

Looking for a really good vegan restaurant in West London? Holy Carrot is well worth a visit.

Holy Carrot is more health conscious than some of the other spots on our list – in fact, the majority of their dishes are "gluten-free and refined sugar-free".

Before you roll your eyes, though, we can promise you it's not what you think.

Their menu changes seasonally, but you'll find the likes of Nori Wrapped Tofu, with root vegetable crisps and bergamot mayo and Holy Buffalo 'Wings', made from crunchy oyster mushrooms, with ranch dressing and tempeh bacon. See?! Pretty epic, right?

With small plates starting at a tenner and mains pushing £20, this is one of the pricier options on the list (it is in Notting Hill, after all).

Still, these guys deserve props for being really inventive with the ingredients at their disposal, and celebrating flavours from around the world.

The Spread Eagle

Pub grub, but veganised (Credit: The Spread Eagle/ Instagram)

The Spread Eagle is London's first fully vegan pub, and you simply must give it a visit.

They work with foragers and local producers to create the pub grub you know and love sans meat or dairy.

We're talking Pie, Mash and Liquor, whole Baked 'Shamembert' with all the trimmings and Beyond Meat Burgers galore, with mains starting at £15.

Special mention to the Sunday menu, which features a Beet Wellington and may be one of the best plant-based roasts we've had.

Located in Homerton, Hackney, this is hearty, it's wholesome and it's also one of the most exciting vegan restaurants east London has in its roster. Don't sleep on it!

Sutton and Sons

Sutton and Sons has a vegan outpost (Credit: Sutton and Sons/ Instagram)

Sutton and Sons has three outposts across Islington, Hackney Central and Stoke Newington, but the latter is special, because the whole menu is vegan.

Their 'fish' is made from seaweed battered banana blossom (which are the actual flowers from a banana). They're traditionally found in South East Asian cuisine but are given a British makeover in a pool of delicious batter, here.

Also on offer are vegan calamari strips, which have an eerily convincing texture, and a classic 'prawn' cocktail (with artificial prawns, obvs). Naturally, there had to be a vegan battered sausage, too.

Fish and chips start at £12.50, which is admittedly pricy. However, it's easy to find vegan meat alternatives in London, but a replacement for the humble chippy is a different story.

When that's what you're after, Sutton and Sons are worth shelling out for.

Best restaurants with vegan options London has to offer

Want to expand your search? There are a whole bunch of restaurants that aren't fully vegan but are still well worth a visit if you're eating plant-based. In fact, we'd implore you to do so.

Whether you're looking for somewhere with a separate plant-based menu or simply a bunch of impeccable vegan options, here are some of the best vegan friendly restaurants in London.

Tendril

Tendril is a 'mostly vegan' restaurant (Credit: Tendril/ Instagram)

Tendril brands itself as a 'mostly' vegan kitchen, found in the heart of Soho.

The restaurant came about after chef and founder Rishim Sachdeva embraced the vegan lifestyle himself, and wanted to try and bring his flexitarian approach to London's restaurant scene.

The 'mostly' exists because he still "finds himself drawn to a little real cheese from time to time," but other than that this joint is all about plants – no processed ingredients, just veggies, herbs and grains.

Tendril also has really impressive zero waste credentials and prepares everything in house.

Expect the likes of Leek Fritters with Potato Salad and Curry Leaf Aioli, Roasted Squash with a Potato Crumb and Gunpowder Spice and Grilled Celeriac with Apple and Harissa. Big yum.

You can get a set dinner menu for £45 or individual small plates start at around a tenner each.

Rasa

Rasa is a vegetarian Indian in north London, but with plenty of vegan items (Credit: Rasa/ Instagram)

Rasa is perhaps the very best vegan friendly Indian restaurant London has to offer. There, we said it.

It's not fully vegan, in fact, it's actually a vegetarian restaurant. However, the plant-based offerings – typical of the Nair community – are so ample and innovative (there are over 20) we can guarantee any plant-based diner will have a truly lovely time.

Highlights include the Rasa Kayi – a veg packed Karnataka curry packed with beans, carrots, cauliflower and potatoes – and the Chilli Onion Rava Dosa – a crispy Indian pancake, served with lentil sambar, coconut chutney and a spicy potato masala.

Curries start at under £7, and portions are massive, so you get your money's worth.

If you fancy a big feed, you can order the Vegan Feast, which is packed with snacks, starters, curries, sides, rice, breads and Keralan sweets, for a mere £25. Well worth it - you WILL need a doggy bag.

Bubala

Bubala is a veggie Middle Eastern with a mean vegan menu to boot (Credit: Bubala/ Instagram)

Bubala is a dream for vegans. In fact, it's a dream for just about anybody, to be honest.

It's a Middle Eastern meat-free restaurant from Marc Summers and Helen Graham (another friend of Twisted), but has a fully vegan set menu, if that's what you're after.

The beauty of this place is that you don't even notice you're not eating meat, because everything is just so delicious in its own right.

We're talking dips upon dips (Baba Ganoush and Gumous), the best Laffa Flatbread ever, Smacked Cucumber with a Tahini and Chilli Crunch, and Oyster Mushroom Skewers, all served in an informal yet bustling restaurant.

With spots in Soho and Spitalfields (and prices that vary slightly depending on the location), the vegan set menu starts at £40, and you can also grab a lot of the same plant-based dishes on the normal menu, where it costs between £5 and £10 for a small plate.

This is the restaurant you take your non-veggie mate when you want to convince them to eat vegan with you.

Chuku's

Chuku's brings vegan Nigerian tapas to London (Credit: Chuku's)

Chuku's is a Nigerian tapas restaurant, and like Bubala, it has a vegan menu for those who are that way inclined, or just fancy cutting out meat for a meal!

From brother and sister duo, Emeka and Ifeyinwa, the Tottenham hotspot is one to check out if you're looking for a vegan meal in north London (or just a really good feed, tbh).

You can order Jollof Rice (or quinoa), smoked in house, or an Egusi Bowl, packed with grated cassava dumplings, egusi (Nigerian melon seed stew), spinach coriander and fennel and red pepper and tomato.

With prices ranging from around £5 to £10 and sharing dishes encouraged, what started as a tribute to the founders' heritage has cemented itself as a staple on London's African food scene.

Featured image: Tendril/ Club Mexicana