Let’s talk fish.
Or more accurately, let’s talk fish that isn’t fish but tastes like fish and thankfully didn’t come from a fishing boat.
Read more below.
I stopped eating fish decades ago so I’m probably not the best judge but I’ve just been to Unity Diner in London and, let me tell you, the vegan seafood on their current menu is scarily convincing. It might not fool an actual East End fishmonger, but it might just get a raised eyebrow and a stunned silence from your average pescatarian.
The highlight of my visit was a stunning vegan salmon steak. It came perched beautifully alongside crunchy roasted potatoes and bright green broccolini. The salmon was flaky, tender, and carried that ocean-y taste that seafood fans crave, without any of the suffering or environmental fallout. There’s also a side dish that made me do a double take. Vegan sashimi served with vegan caviar.
It’s wild what plants can do in 2025.
Now let’s get into why this sort of food exists.
Vegan seafood isn’t just a novelty. It’s a tool. A delicious, high-tech, sauce-drenched tool that helps people move away from eating animals without feeling like they’re giving something up. A lot of people want to go vegan but feel attached to familiar flavours and textures. Unity Diner is giving them an excuse to make the switch without compromise.
There are more reasons to ditch fish than just not wanting to hurt sea creatures, although that reason is more than enough for me. Industrial fishing is a planetary disaster. Our oceans are in serious trouble. Entire fish populations have collapsed under the pressure of overfishing, and some scientists have talked of a near-total wipeout of may fish species if current trends continue. Trawlers rip up the seafloor, dolphins and turtles get caught in nets, and plastic pollution is everywhere. It’s all very grim.
Saying no to seafood is one of the biggest things you can do to help.
So when a restaurant steps up and offers genuinely exciting, delicious, animal-free alternatives, it deserves a round of applause. Or at the very least a table reservation. Unity Diner have long been champions of compassionate food and advocacy. Their profits support animal protection, their team are some of the most dedicated people in the vegan scene, and they’re helping drive forward the future of what plant-based cuisine can look like.
Well done Unity. You’ve taken sea creatures out of seafood.
If you haven’t been yet, you really should get along to Unity Diner. Just don’t forget to order that salmon. It might blow your mind. Extra note: Unity also has a banging plate of vegan fish and chips!
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