Now serving meat
This ain’t cool.
One of the finest purveyors of savoury vegan food in London is now selling meat.
I have long been a champion of Koshari Street. This food outlet near Covent Garden has been selling their delicious vegetarian food for several years.
Their main offering was a sumptuous pot of lentils, pasta, fried onions, chickpeas and tomato sauce that is a staple dish in Egypt. I absolutely adore this food.
Unfortunately, Koshari Street felt the need to switch from a 100% vegetarian menu (all the savoury food was 100% vegan) and have started offering meat as an option.
I reached out to the restaurant to ask ‘what the hell?!’ and they responded by saying they aim to please everyone.
I’ve got two things to say about that:
- The animals you are serving up surely are not happy with this development, so you have instantly failed in your mission to please everyone.
- Your Twitter bio still features the phrase ‘Our food is 100% #vegetarian’. Reports of you serving meat go back a month or more, so I would think you need to urgently update your social media to avoid upset and claims of false advertising.
Koshari Street assure me that vegans can still eat the savoury tub of food as long as they stay away from the meat.
The major problem for the restaurant is a lot of us don’t want to anymore.
Ugh I’m sick of seeing vegan and veggie places add cruelty into their menus. This happened recently in Cardiff too. There was great fanfare that Atma was opening as vegan…a few months later, without any social media notice they introduced dairy (a vegan was even served dairy as they were under the false impression that all was vegan). I’ve had (heated) discussions with some vegans saying we should be glad they offer vegan…We should still support them. Well I’d rather not support cruelty personally and I am pretty sure the animals being used would agree. Support vegan places…and if other places introduce cruelty…then take a packed lunch .
I am so disappointed about this! I was planning to order from Koshari Street for dinner tonight but I have changed my mind. What can we do to convince them to go back to just veggie food?
I reached out to Koshari Street too when in Jan last year they tweeted about a lamb dish they were developing. I offered an extensive list of over 50x commercial vegan dishes that would go well with their current offer in flavour and operation, & represent their brand well. I discounted my fee offer to help them meet their budget. All declined, very sad to see this now, so much opportunity lost. However, on a positive note, there will indeed be more plant-based vegan QSR opening in London this year, with excellent offers.
This is sad news. Unfortunately my favourite local Ethiopian food stall (in Greenwich market) which has always been 100% vegan, is also now serving meat as well 🙁
I also have enjoyed the wonderful Ethiopian vegan food from the stall in Greenwich market, and like you, I am very disappointed and somewhat revolted at the news that they will now also serve meat.
I too feel that this is another food outlet I no longer wish to patronise.
It’s so difficult in London. Not mentioning names but I know a great vegetarian restaurant with a vegan owner – he’d like everything on the menu to be vegan but he ‘has to pay the bills’ – rent alone being £4000/month. I’m sure it’s the same for a lots of veggie places in London. What’s needed is a cultural shift – where omnivores don’t think twice about dining in vegan eateries – like we see in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, LA….
The Fortify vegetarian restaurant in Maidstone, Kent transitioned to a totally vegan menu in April 2014. Things have never been better for them, The food is incredibly delicious. Imagine, a whole eatery with nothing but vegan food! – breakfast, lunch and ‘pop up’ dinners, with a host of imaginative and delectable items, both savoury and sweet. This is now a place you do not visit without booking – it’s always filled to the rafters. So it seems that risky though it may be it is possible for an eatery to be exclusively vegan and still very popular, and not only with plant-based eaters.
Same with Naturalis in Chapel Market, Islington. Only ate their once as the food was poor, but still…