2Apr
Breakfast is best
Every now and then I like to throw out the following question: who serves the best vegan breakfast in London?
I do my best to bring you all you need to know about vegan eating in the UK capital, but it is nice when you give a little back. Please tell me where I should go in London for a cooked breakfast.
Below is a photo of a recent plate I enjoyed at The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green (the setting for my upcoming Mexican supper club). Is this the best vegan fry up in London?
Give your suggestions below.
Black. Cat. ;-p
i vote inSpiral! Vegusto sausages and homemade beans 😀
Well, I can give you plenty of fry-up options for East London…
I’ve been a Gallery fan for a few years. I’m no longer local so I don’t get over there as often as I’d like but I used to get comfortable in there for at least a couple of hours every weekend. It still remains my favourite, not least because of the range of options available later in the day.
Black Cat is also a vegan venue, provides an excellent fry-up. Since the days of Pogo it has been renovated and is a great place to sit in the summer. Always has a number of different options and cakes to follow up.
The following places aren’t vegan so my guess is that they don’t cook with separate implements for their vegan food, (which will obviously be a deal-breaker for some vegan folk)….
The Larder (vegetarian cafe, also in Bethnal Green) has done me a very nice vegan breakfast. Their vegan cake availability proves less reliable than The Gallery and Black Cat but the coffee there is second to none (except perhaps G&T). Opening hours are more limited but I do like this place.
The Premises on Hackney Road does a very good fry-up (not a vegetarian place but you can choose a veggie set menu and then switch out some options).
I have also had a very high quality cooked breakfast in The Grocery on Kingsland Road (again not a veggie establishment), but I haven’t been there for a while and again it has limited kitchen hours.
If you want to go full-on Old East London greasy spoon style, then E. Pellicci on Bethnal Green Road (a totally non-veggie place but very full of character) can offer some vegan options (mushrooms, beans, etc) for a fry up. You’ll be rubbing shoulders with old geezers eating a full English, though…
This is so useful! Thank you 🙂
No problem 🙂 I didn’t actually realise Inspiral did a breakfast, so I’ll have to check that out soon…
It’s a goodie!
Thanks James! It’s always a pleasure to see you!
I love Gallery’s breakfast, but Black Cat is excellent as well.
Another vote for Black Cat!
my kitchen. the gallery breakfast depresses me—canned beans and frozen linda mccartney sausages! inspiral’s is decent. i haven’t tried black cat’s yet but it looks promising.
Sorry to hear that quarrygirl. Do not fear though as we are going to be upgrading our sausages very soon! Watch this space…
We are now serving V-Bites sausages and not the Linda McCartney ones so I hope you’ll give it another try. We have also added two new breakfast dishes!
Can’t beat my local, Inspiral! But now I’m gonna be trying this black cat for sure 🙂
Now this, is useful! Great job x
I haven’t eaten breakfast in London (I’m not local, so rarely get there in time!), but if any places are ‘listening’, the best cooked breakfast I had was in Brighton in the WholeFoods cafe. Why was it so good? They put more than the standard ‘items/substitutes’ on the place, including sauteed potatoes, and garlicky spinach (which really does compliment the cooked breakfast). A generous portabello mushroom too (not those ones that seem to be boiled!). I think they used tofu based sausages that were less dry the LM ones can be. I can’t remember if they had scrambled tofu or not, but scambled tofu people! We need to see more of this! 😀
The Gallery…(-:
It’s not a fry up but I stumbled across something (for me) new yesterday: The Hampstead Le Pain Quotidien (and I guess all the other LPQ as well) offers an all vegan brunch with taste portions of almost all their vegan menu items including the Raspberry Parfait, Quinoa Salad, Pea Hummus, Hummus and Guacamole, Fruit Salad, loads of really good bread, Hazelnut Flute, freshly pressed orange juice and a hot beverage. It’s 14.25 and it was so yummy and way too much for me (but I guess not way too much for all the FGV out there).
I had a gorgeous hummus platter at the Notting Hill location a while back. It’s great that they are inclusive of vegan offerings.
The Gallery cafe now serves V-bites sausages, and we also have two new dishes: the new signature: spinach, mushrooms and scrambled tofu on sourdough toast, and also a breakfast quesidilla!
I can definitely say that the new signature with spinach, mushrooms and tofu is amazing. Much, much improved over the scramble that comes with the standard English breakfast, in my opinion. I haven’t had the quesadilla yet, but I plan to soon! And as always, the coffee at Gallery Cafe is top notch.