E3 Vegan
Just a couple of minutes’ walk from Victoria Park Market on Bow’s Roman Road, E3 Vegan serve up a good value Sunday lunch – just £13.50 for the roast. The Nut Roast-En Croute comes with a Yorkshire, veg, gravy and tonnes of potatoes. The portions are huge, the presentation unfussy. The whole vibe is simple and charmingly old-school – there’s no impossible-esque fake meat – more classic meat substitutes like nuts and beans. It’s all quite un-hipster. E3 Vegan has several quite different offerings under one roof. During the week you can think of it as one of those coffee/fancy larder/deli places – and on Friday evenings they have the ‘First vegan fine dining supper club in London’ serving up an eight-course seasonal menu. The Sunday Roast is quite far removed from the supper club – it’s certainly not fine dining and not fussy in the slightest. It’s just tasty, filling, healthy and fun. The staff are friendly and chatty. And when you’re done you can just stroll into Victoria Park to walk off that post-roast fatigue in the winter sunshine.
@e3.vegan
Flat Earth Pizzas
One of London’s only sustainable pizza takeaway restaurants, serving up a mouth-watering vegan and vegetarian menu. Flat Earth’s founders Sarah and Rich are spearheading an eco-food revolution, following their dream of creating a seasonal food concept. Using UK sourced ingredients from independent suppliers whenever possible, each season brings with it a brand-new set of flavours, introduced to the menu every eight weeks. They don’t send any food waste to landfill; vegetable ends, garlic skins and surplus dough are transformed into new ingredients. Sustainability is truly at the heart of everything Sarah and Rich do – pickling and fermenting their own preserves, they create Kimchi to tackle what they call, ‘the Hunger Zone’, the time in between January and March when fresh produce can’t be grown in the UK. And when they’re not busy running Flat Earth, they live aboard an East London narrowboat.
288 Cambridge Heath Rd, Cambridge Heath, London E2 9DA
@flatearthpizzas
The Gallery Café
Outstanding food from start to finish. A mixture of culinary influences from around the globe, all contributing towards a coherent blend of vegan flavours to create a sense of joy. First opening its doors in 1996, the Gallery Café is an award-winning vegan café, restaurant and coffee bar in the heart of Bethnal Green, East London. Part of St Margaret’s House, a charity and community hub striving to support creativity and wellbeing in Bethnal Green and beyond. Aside from the Gallery Café, the charity hosts live events and workshops and has its own shop, Ayoka. St Margaret’s House is made up of over 30 different charities and community organisations, all with their own unique style and ethos. All profits go straight back into St Margaret’s House, so guests can enjoy the offering knowing they are also giving back to their local community. The menu provided a clear nod to the diverse, global community we are lucky to experience around us every day in East London.
21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9PL
@the_gallery_cafe_smh
Young Vegans
This 100% vegan pizzeria in Bethnal Green offers a devilish selection of plant-based, hand-stretched pizzas: try the Filthy Weekend, a naughty take on the contentious Hawaii, with ‘mock meat’ ham and pineapple, vegan mozzarella, marinara sauce, and spring onions and; The Godfather, a New York style vegan pepperoni, vegan mozzarella and marinara sauce or The Devilfather with vegan spicy Nduja, spinach, vegan mozzarella and marinara sauce. Young Vegans have gone to extreme lengths to ensure all their vegan-alts are as good as – no, better – than their animal-derived originals. Mozzarella is made from coconut and soy, ricotta crafted from tofu and ham from homemade smoky seitan (wheat). The pizzas have sloppy toppings and crispy, chewy crusts – a happy marriage of textures and tastes.
393 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9RA
@youngvegans
M*lkman & More
For many, the jovial whistle and clinking of bottles on the doorstep that signified the arrival of the milkman are distant memories. M*lkman, Mother & More brings the tradition back to life, with a contemporary twist. Using a 69-year-old electric milk float, a collection of small, ethically driven East London producers are offering vegan home-delivery for cruelty-free, plastic-free produce. Delivered on a Saturday morning to E3, E2, EC1, E8 and N1, the M*lkfloat will bring dairy alternative nut milks, juices and ice cream straight to your door.
@freshmilkandmore
Sun.day
While there is no shortage of home fragrance brands that claim to be all-natural, few can claim quite the same depth of knowledge as Sun.day. Artist Natasha Garbawi began by selling gorgeously scented candles, packaged somewhat incongruously in old cider bottles, which she had picked up on the streets of Hackney. Her first outlets were local markets, such as Hackney Vegan Market and the Rosewood Hotel Slow Market in Holborn. And she quickly gained fans for her scent blends, which have been given intriguingly urban names such as ‘Midnight (Somewhere)’ and ‘Rooftop Garden’. All are made using pure aromatherapy-grade botanical essential oils, such as bergamot, basil, thyme, pine needle and lavender. These are carefully blended by hand with pure coconut wax and GMO-free plant waxes, and finished with a pure cotton wick. They’re packaged in apothecary-style brown glass jars, although she still makes the cider bottle candles to order.
@sun.dayoflondon