gluten-free vegan London

[lgss]

We're finding lots of vegan and vegan-friendly restaurant listings for London, including some which identify gluten-free dishes on their menus. Anyone who has eaten at vegan restaurants in London care to recommend from among the many or warn us away from certain ones?
Thanks in advance.

[monkeytennis]

Saf, in Shoreditch, is the only vegan restaurant I've ever enjoyed eating at. Not much of a recommendation, you might think, but there you go :)

[lgss]

Just returned from Budapest, Vienna, and London. Will report back on London here and the others on the International thread.

We got groceries for our breakfasts to eat in the hotel...shelf stable orange juice (no fridge in the room), rice cakes, gf ginger cookies, (oatcakes for my husband who is not GF) and peanut butter with vegan chocolate chips in it. Got some items from WFM (visited 3 of them), others like juice, less expensive at Tesco.

Will have to go back as there were other restaurants which sounded good but we didn't have time to visit.

Ate at The Gate, for which we made a reservation for lunch, but really need not have since we essentially had the place to ourselves. Also ate at Rootmaster, vegan restaurant in an old double decker bus, GF not listed on the menu, but they were able to tell us which items were GF. We didn't have a reservation but would recommend it as it got busy shortly after we arrived. VitaOrganic, vegan and ingredients listed for each dish, so easy to tell which were GF. This place was also busy and we were there at a non-meal hour. Food for Thought, which my husband had been to 25 years ago. Again vegan but able to tell us what was GF. Also packed. Inspiral Lounge in Camden Town. Vegan except for honey in dressings. Good food, music varies from day to day. Ate at a Vietnamese/Chinese vegan buffet, easy to tell what contained gluten. Not very busy.

We generally based our choices on what was easy to access by Underground and/or near other places we wanted to visit.

[PhilD]

Was the food any good? It seems to be a list of where you can get gluten-free veggie food but little clue as to whether any of it was actiually very good and worth searching out.

[lgss]

Yes, the food was good. I don't know that a omnivore would go out of their way for these, though a flexitarian/adventurous person would find VitaOrganic, Rootmaster, and Insprial Lounge (depending on music tastes) intriguing.

[lgss]

The food at The Gate was also very good. Simple space so if you're looking for fancy decor this isn't for you.

[lgss]

We were staying near Saf but didn't make it there, so we'll have to go back. Which others have you tried? Are you vegan?

[PhilD]

No not vegan - simply intrigued that your write up had no description of what you ate (more about ambiance and decor), or whether it was good, how it compared to other vegan restaurants, whether there was innovation in the cooking or dishes that were especially interesting.

I suspect many people (myself included) view vegan/gluten free food with suspicion, and therefore I am interested to try and understand what factors make a good vegan meal, and to get a feel for the relative quality of he food. It is also very useful to have a comparative assessment of places for future reference, and in case others want recommendations.

[foodie guide]

I haven't been yet, but my friends are raving about Saf, which is a raw food restaurant, serving apparently very innovative dishes. I think there's a Time Out review of it if you're interested...

Helen Yuet Ling Pang
http://worldfoodieguide.wordpress.com

[lgss]

Thanks to both of you. I have all the mentioned places on the list and have now marked them as recommended. Will report back.

[zuriga1]

Two names that come up often are Mildred's and Food For Thought. I found Mildred's a bit crowded and noisy, but the food was fine. I think you'll find both on the web. You can find a nice salad bar and lots of snack foods at Whole Foods on Kensington High Street.