Can you recommend any 5 start Top Vegetarian Restaurants in London

NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 10:57:41 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/0.9.6.3 (FreeBSD) Xref: usenet.INS.cwru.edu uk.local.london:233779 uk.local.london.info:6291

On Tue, 5 Nov 2002 09:47:27 -0000, Darryn Warner
Someone wrote:
>Or Restaurants with top veggie selelctions.

As a strict veggie I would say

1) Rani www.rani.uk.com - Long Lane, Finchley.

Although it is "an Indian" it is NOT a curry house. You will get wonderful, traditional gujerati cooking, everything is vegetarian and the food is fantastic, and very cheap! The only thing is that the drinks arent great - mineral water is a safe choice.

2) The Ivy - West Street, WC1

If you can book there about 6 weeks in advance (or phone after 12 on the day for cancellations) it is great - just ask for the veggie menu and you will get one, which includes many things not on the usual menu. The Ivy is hard to get into unless you plan your life several months ahead, and quite expensive, but caters for veggies very well.

I have a website reviewing London restaurants which provides more info on those, and info on many more. Of course the veggie perspective is covered! http://www.gorge.org/restaurants.

In general I would say that as well as the two above, if you go somewhere with excellent cooking, by which I mean at least the standard of l'Escargot, the food is so good that it doesnt matter if you dont normally like or eat food of a certain type, even if they have one veggie dish, it is usually nice enough to make you very happy!

Of course, that doesnt work on a budget and I can only recommend Rani for good, cheap, interesting veggie food.

Best of luck. If you make any great discoveries please post them here!

Cheers,
Flash

I'm a veggie as well.  My favourite places were Sofra - I used to go to the one on Old Compton St but there are others - delicious mezze, lovely staff, but the chairs and the atmosphere were a bit cold, in both senses.  I was there once and someone asked for the air conditioning to be turned down.

More relaxing and restuaranty is a great Lebanese restuarant called Tarbouche above (what used to be?) The Wag Club on Wardour St.

This might not be what you are looking for and it's a long way out, but Baltiland in Ruislip Manor (stop giggling at the back) makes the best Indian food I have ever had.  I tried some of the places around Euston and Baltiland was better imo, fresher, more vivid flavours.

Darryn W. wrote:
> Or Restaurants with top veggie selelctions.

I'm not sure any vegetarian restaurants in London qualify for a five star rating, but the following are all worth considering:

* Fiction, Crouch End Hill - http://www.fiction-restaurant.co.uk My current favourite - great food, ambience and (usually) service.

* Manna, Primrose Hill - http://www.manna-veg.co.uk Where I always used to go, but service can be very slow and the vegan options haven't been so tempting recently. Nice ambience (but not as nice as Fiction's, to be fair!)

* The Gate, Hammersmith / Belsize Park - http://www.gateveg.co.uk Used to go to Hammersmith regularly. Never been to Belsize Park (again the vegan options not so tempting). One of the best meals I ever ate (a wild mushroom concoction) was at the Hammersmith branch. Again nice ambience - but not quite Fiction's.

Regards,

Robb