vegan Brick Lane

Female focused vegan restaurant

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Do you wanna support independent women in business and eat delicious vegan food?

You need all this news!

Lady Lane Catering Co and The Canvas are proud to bring you Lady Lane Kitchen: a veritable pop-up feast running until the end of 2021. The kitchen is taking over The Canvas Cafe five nights a week, and is is all about sharing cultures, empowering women, sustainable lifestyles, and great food.

The cooperative brings together six women from all different backgrounds who tell a story of their love, their lives, and their dreams through their food. Launched in October, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the pop up kitchen is set to stay for the rest of the year.

They are now going to be running Tuesday-Saturday from 6pm, and in December will shake up the menu to offer a selection of dishes called ‘What we eat at Christmas’.

These women set up Lady Lane Catering Co in 2020 and they haven’t even let a pandemic stop them. They have persevered and have made it to this stand out London pop up, even as other hospitality businesses are struggling. It’s not been easy. Childcare, budgeting, and schedules could get in the way of a thriving business, but these women are excelling.

The strong women are coming together through a love of food, a fierce drive to succeed, and a vision to bring their family and heritage recipes to more people.

Flavour and passion abound in a menu featuring Caribbean, South Asian, Persian, Mediterranean and Somalian food from a group of single mums and super women.

Leila is a single mother who has created a Caribbean menu in her kitchen and is quick to point out the parallels between cultures; “Pilau rice is used in Caribbean cooking too – food shows us that we’re not so different after all!” Leila runs Munchbreaks, an eclectic multicultural catering service from the heart of East London (a bit like the person behind it). She says that it’s about community and caring for them.

Woin Ethiopic Kitchen is passionate about making traditional Ethiopic food 100% vegan and has created her business to create high quality, plant based menus, full of rich flavours.

Aseel’s Kitchen was started 5 years ago by Sophia, a mother of four lovely children. Providing for her family and friends great quality and scrumptious food has always been a point of great joy and pride and she specialises in providing great flavoursome dishes from the southern Mediterranean, Levant and Arabian Peninsula kitchens. She says that “cooking isn’t just about serving food, but sharing your story” and hopes to do jus that through her tasty menu.

Dadu’s Kitchen LDN opened in 2019 as a way of spreading love and joy through full bellies! Syeda, a mother of 6, and a grandmother, has had over 40 years of experience cooking a wide range of Bangladeshi foods, using aromatic spices from the south of Asia. Her passion is to extend the joy and love for her food beyond her family and friends, with a vegan twist! She says that “cooking isn’t just about serving food, but sharing your story” and hopes to do jus that through her tasty menu.

Amiira started making her own hot sauce Basbaas (which means chilli) after she lost her job in 2017. She noticed there was a gap in the market for Somali foods and condiments, and decided to use this downtime to launch her own business, as it had always been a dream of hers.

Ruth Rogers, founder and owner of The Canvas says: “The pop up was originally planned to run for a month, but we’ve seen just how transformative it has been. From customers saying they never realised vegan food could be inspired by cultures around the world, to the growth in confidence the women have found, we’re delighted they’re staying around a bit longer.”

Lady Lane Kitchen is a cooperative of women in partnership with business and government:

● Tower Hamlets Council

● The Canvas – East London Profit for Purpose Cafe hosting the pop up

● Heura Foods – proactive vegan meat brand who are donating products for the ladies’ menus

● Lady Lane Market – London’s first women-led market, in east London

Click here to see the exact location of The Canvas thanks to Google Maps.

Follow The Canvas cafe and event hub on Instagram. You can also follow The Lady Lane Kitchen on Instagram.

Book your table for one of these wonderful pop up dining experiences… or all of them!

London restaurant bookings skyrocket with vegan menu

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City Spice in Brick Lane has been awarded for their new vegan menu and their business is booming!

City Spice restaurant was recently named London’s Best Vegan Indian Restaurant option at the prestigious Bangladesh Caterers Association Awards.

The awards are considered to be the ‘Oscars’ of the curry-house awards and City Spice was selected as the winner of their category in a vote involving the 12,000 member restaurants of the Bangladesh Caterers Association.

But what is all the fuss about and why is the restaurant being honoured?

City Spice recently launched Brick Lane’s first ever purposefully-vegan menu in a curry house, resulting in a 170% increase in bookings for the restaurant in the two months following the launch.

Yes, that’s correct. A 170% increase. That’s the power of plants, people!

The Michel-Indian inspired vegan menu comprises of 14 dishes and was perfected after the restaurant attended a culinary masterclass with Michelin-star chef Rupert Rowley in Sri Lanka.

Some of the vegan dishes that grabbed my attention include:

  • Palani Potatoes (£9.95)
    Fresh cubed pieces of potatoes are cooked with zesty cumin seeds and curry leaves, to provide a distinct, medium flavour, exemplified by a thick mouth-watering sauce.
  • Shobji Kufta Bhujon (£9.95)
    Lightly spiced mixed vegetable balls cooked in a spicy sauce with mushrooms, baked tomatoes and capsicum. Garnished with spring onions and coriander.
  • Mixed Vegetable Jalfrezi (£8.95)
    Seasonal vegetable cooked with an original recipe with an emphasis on the flavours extracted from fresh green chillies, fried onions and green peppers.
  • Mixed Vegetable Rogan Josh (£8.95)
    With its distinctive tomato flavour, this is the perfect go-to for newcomers to Indian cuisine. Medium spiced, tomatoes make up the base of this delicious dish, being built up with a selection of fine herbs as well as our own secret recipe, to give the Rogan it’s aromatic flavour.

Restaurant manager Abdul Muhaimen, 19, who created the menu, commented:

“Brick Lane is an incredible institution, but every institution needs a kick up the bum once in a while! Palates are changing, and the street needs to catch up.

While we’re delighted to have been recognised by the BCA, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for our family run restaurant. Since its launch we’ve now sold more than a thousand vegan dishes!”.

The restaurant was even recently featured on ITV News to talk about the runaway success of the vegan menu.

This isn’t the first time the restaurant tasted success in the BCAs. In 2017 the East End restaurant won London’s Restaurant of the Year at the Bangladesh Caterers Association Awards, and Best Asian Restaurant at the Asian Curry Awards.

Click here to see the new vegan menu online. You can see the exact location of City Spice thanks to Google Maps.

Customers can try the vegan menu, which also includes vegan wines, by booking a table. Simply visit city-spice.london/contact, dial 020 7247 1012, or email reservations@city-spice.london to secure your dining experience.

Follow City Spice on Facebook.

FGV received a fee to post this news. 10% of this fee has been donated to water security charity Isla Urbana in Mexico City.

Coffee shop, cafe, and cocktail bar all-in-one

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Hey, London.

There is a new vegan cafe on Brick Lane called Beanuts.

Beanuts is unique to the UK in that all the fresh plant milks on site (16 kinds of milk rotating daily!) are made in-house and the menu is based around them as well as the milk by-products.

They have polish rye soup, mezze platters, sweet bites, and awesome cocktails (including vegan white Russian and whisky sour).

The freshly-made milks are squeezed from:

Grains – barley, oat, spelt, rice
Legumes – lupin, pea, peanut
Nuts – almond, cashew, hazelnut, walnut pistachio
Seeds – pumpkin, chia, sunflower, sesame, quinoa, hemp, flax

Beanuts will also sort you out with amazing breakfasts, a great lunchtime selection of delicious sharing platters, cakes, smoothies, and fabulous vegan cocktails or warmers for these cold evenings.

You can see the exact location of Beanuts thanks to Google Maps.

You can follow Beanuts on Instagram.

Vegan restaurant gets a new London location

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A short while ago I posted about a new vegan restaurant on Brick Lane called Buffalo.

The food got some great reviews but they shut up shop pretty soon after opening. The location was not suitable for some reason but all is not lost.

I just had word that Buffalo is re-opening in Hackney!

This is what founder Stephen had to say to me:

Buffalo’s re-opening will be early October 2018! We have the lease for 6 months which hopefully will become permanent. The menu is expanding to include our burgers, extended list of homemade sauces and toppings, extra options for fries, and a new tapas menu. We are taking over the space recently used by The Brook Social.

Great news!

You can follow Buffalo on Instagram.

New vegan restaurant in London: BREAKING NEWS

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BREAKING NEWS

A brand new vegan restaurant is opening on Tuesday July 17, 2018 and you can get an incredible opening day special.

BUFFALO is London’s latest vegan eatery and is celebrating its opening at 63 Brick Lane with a soft launch offering of 50% off food orders on Tuesday 17th July (opening times 12-3pm and 6-9pm).

The signature offering from Head Chef Ludmilla Girardi (formerly of Gordon Ramsay & Ottolenghi) is the Classic Buffalo Burger – a tempeh, beetroot and red kidney patty with homemade buffalo sauce.

There’s also the 63 Burger made with a tofu and mushroom patty, served with wasabi mayo and kimchi. Other main courses include The Brick Lane Jackfruit Korma and Pasta Carbonara.

It’s not just gourmet savoury cuisine being served up in BUFFALO. Desserts include a homemade Mousse au Chocolat and vanilla ice cream. So special!

Check out the full menu online here and be sure to follow BUFFALO on Instagram.

You can see the exact location of the restaurant thanks to Google Maps.

New food at Mooshies

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Mooshies on Brick Lane is one of vegan London’s favourite places to eat comfort food.

This announcement of a new menu item is only going to strengthen the love affair.

The east end burger bar has launched a limited edition nacho dish in collaboration with Kinda Co. If you know your artisan cheese, you’ll already know that Kinda Co is one of our regular traders at Hackney Downs Vegan Market and their cheese always sells out.

These nachos are loaded with slow cooked jackfruit, guacamole, jalapeños and Kinda Co cashew cheese.

You can buy and devour these loaded nachos until the end of April from Mooshies on Brick Lane. Click here to see their exact address thanks to Google Maps.

You can follow Mooshies on Instagram. While you are there, follow Kinda Co too.

New burger at Mooshies

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Adored burger providers Mooshies on Brick Lane have a new festive burger!

The burger is called Nutcracker and the ingredients are:

  • Lentils and Mushrooms
  • Sage & Onions
  • Flaxseeds
  • Peanut Butter and Cranberry Mayo Sauce

This seasonal burger is served on mixed salad and is available until end of January 2018.

You can follow Mooshies on Instagram.

New vegan food in London

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Do you know about HUTCH?

HUTCH is a brand new vegan food business in London and let me tell you something straight up. Their food looks amazing.

Christopher wrote to me to let me know that he quit his corporate job and set up HUTCH because although he had been vegan for almost four years, he felt that this wasn’t a big enough contribution towards the change he wants to see in the world. He says that he remembers reading my call to action shortly after the launch of the Hackney Market (which could also be remembered as my hysterical outburst).

The philosophy driving HUTCH is that vegan food can be amazing and that it’s the future. I love it!

The HUTCH menu is based around crave-able snacks that they personally love, and they’re experimenting around core items of popcorn seitan chick’n, okra fries and spicy veggie cutlets.

You can follow HUTCH on Instagram and Facebook.

You can catch HUTCH trading at the Boiler House Market (152 Bricklane, E1 6RU) on Saturdays in August 2017.

Cheese sticks and ice cream

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Do you know about the much-loved vegan eatery and bar on Brick Lane called Mooshies?

If you don’t, my guess is that you will become familiar with the place in a hurry once I tell you about the new cheese sticks and ice cream being served.

Umm…. those cheese sticks, though!

Mooshies is bringing you all this fabulous food stuff PLUS a completely vegan bar with beer, wine and cocktails. How fantastic is it that you can go out for vegan cheese sticks, vegan burgers, ice cream and vegan prosecco all in one place?

Get over to the Mooshies website to check out the full menu including awesome burger line ups and watch for future movie screening sessions. Yes, film screenings at a vegan burger bar! Mooshies don’t intend on messing you about. They mean business.

Follow Mooshies on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Grilled cheese this weekend

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London, you have something very special happening this weekend and you must put a reminder in your phone NOW.

Decadent comfort food superstars Joey’s Kitchen will be back at The Boiler House on Brick Lane this weekend (Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June, 2017) with a spectacular menu.

Check it out.

OK, so grilled vegan cheese sandwiches are fabulous in their own right but look at all of those extras you can add. Bacon bits! Jackfruit! Seitan!

Of course you would also have to make room for a slice of the baked cheese cake.

Follow Joey’s Kitchen on Instagram and let me know if you get your hands on a sandwich this weekend.