If you’re looking for the best food vegan Shoreditch has to offer, this is your complete guide! We did the hard work of eating our way around Shoreditch — and the rest of East London — just for you. So, if you’re hungry in Shoreditch, get ready for a feast.
What’s in our guide to vegan Shoreditch restaurants?
1. Vegan Restaurants Shoreditch & Brick Lane
2. Bethnal Green Vegan Restaurants
3. Hackney Vegan Restaurants
4. Stoke Newington Vegan Food
5. Dalston Vegan Food
6. Bonus London Vegan Listings
A few years ago, when we lived there, London was a sad place for vegan travellers. There were only a couple of purely vegan places to eat, and most of them weren’t all that good.
Recently though, there has been a vegan food revolution. On our latest stopover in London, we spent a week stuffing our faces with all the new vegan delights East London had to offer.
(We did it just for you! We’re selfless like that.)
There are so many vegan options in London now, that we decided to focus just on vegan restaurants in East London, with an emphasis on Shoreditch, but also branching out into Bethnal Green, Hackney, Dalston, and Stoke Newington.
Vegan Restaurants in Shoreditch & Brick Lane
1. BoxPark in Shoreditch
2-10 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6GY
BoxPark is a collection of independently owned restaurants and boutiques that makes a fun place to hang out for a few hours. There are plenty of vegan options inside BoxPark, and one awesome all-vegan eatery which is where we’ll start our tour!
CookDaily in BoxPark
In a word, yum! CookDaily is a vegan food stall on the 2nd floor of BoxPark offering countless (there are SO MANY) Asian-inspired noodle or rice bowls. Most come with the option of adding tofu or plant-based chickn.
We ate: CookDaily’s special mash-up with Wagamama – a Japanese udon curry bowl. Did I say yum?
We wish we’d had room for: The Full English.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for CookDaily →
Other vegan options in BoxPark
- Beatbox offers vegan mushroom pies.
- Poptata does fancy fries with vegan cheddar
- Osteria della Pasta has 4 vegan sauces & pastas.
- Voodoo Rays pizza usually has one or two vegan slices.
- Nosteagia has a vegan bubble waffle! Drool.
2. Essential Vegan Cafe
6 Calvert Ave, London E2 7JP
Getting its start as a pop-up cafe in London, Essential Vegan recently opened a Shoreditch restaurant, meaning we could finally go and visit. The casual cafe offers Brazilian-inspired burgers, small bites, and a few other mains. They also have a tasty selection of vegan desserts.
We ate: The Cluckin’ Good, a burger made of deep-fried breaded seitan that was properly fabulous.
We wish we’d had room for: The cheese platter of house-made nut-based cheeses.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Essential Vegan →
3. Mooshies
104 Brick Ln, London E1 6RL
Right on Brick Lane, Mooshies is a casual vegan burger bar, with 4 kinds of burger and 7 sides. They also serve vegan desserts from Vida Bakery. We’ve eaten here a few times and, though the burgers don’t reach the gourmet level at Essential Vegan, they make a great quick lunch while you’re wandering along Brick Lane.
We ate: What’s UR Beef, Brick Lane Bhaji, Chick P Bites.
We wish we had room for: Vida Bakery peanut brownie.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Mooshies →
4. Merkamo Ethiopian in Spitalfields Market
16 Horner Square, London E1 6EW
Merkamo is ideal for a fresh, flavourful lunch while you’re exploring Spitalfields and Brick Lane. This vegan Ethiopian stall serves cooked and raw salads accompanied by spongy Ethiopian flatbread. The super-friendly women who run the stall will be more than happy to advise you on what to eat.
We ate: A plate full of deliciousness!
We wish we’d had room for: More.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Merkamo →
5. Crosstown Shoreditch – Donuts & Coffee
157 Brick Ln, Shoreditch, London E1 6SB
All-vegan branch in Marylebone at 5-6, Picton Pl, London W1U 1BL
We were pleasantly surprised in London to find that many omnivore-orientated places supply vegan options. Crosstown in Brick Lane does fresh-baked sourdough donuts and they had a few vegan flavours when we dropped by on our way to get bagels. Huge props to Crosstown for opening a 100% plant-based location in Marleybone!
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Crosstown →
6. Brick Lane Beigel Bake
159 Brick Ln, London E1 6SB
One of our don’t-miss London haunts, Beigel Bake is an institution, making the best bagels we’ve eaten anywhere in the world. Forget doughy, bready, American-style bagels — these boiled and baked beauties are a perfect combo of chewy and crunchy.
Don’t be fooled into buying any of their other offerings (no rainbow bagels, people!). Just get the plain bagels and spread them with vegan cream cheese or peanut butter from the supermarket. Great!
Vegan trigger alert! At the front of the shop they make smoked meat sandwiches involving excessive slabs of animal flesh — it’s enough to make even the most even-tempered among us fly into a vegan rage!
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Beigel Bake →
7. Vida Bakery
139 Brick Ln, London E1 6SB
Order on the Vida Bakery website
Every city needs at least one great vegan bakery, and Vida Bakery is London’s. When we were in London, their little shop had closed, but they’ve just opened a brand new cafe! Next time we’re in London, we’ll be along to say hello and stuff our faces with all their delicious treats.
You could also order some cakes and treats online and have them delivered to your London hotel! Damn, why didn’t we think of that?
Once you check out their Instagram account you won’t be able to stop yourself from adoring them.
Bethnal Green Vegan Restaurants
8. The Gallery Cafe
St. Margarets House Settlement, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL
This is the in-house cafe at St Margaret’s House, a little community centre in Bethnal Green. It is all vegan and serves breakfast (hello, vegan pancakes), lunch, and delectable-looking desserts. This is another vegan restaurant in East London we just didn’t have time for. Sad face.
We wish we’d had time for: Jackfruit tacos, Indonesian gado gado.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for The Gallery Cafe →
8. The Hive Wellbeing
286-290 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 9DA
This is an omnivore cafe in East London, but it deserves a mention because there are plenty of vegan options on the clearly labelled menu. They focus on holistic dining, paying close attention to where they source their produce and ingredients. We were just too full to make it there, but it looks like a great place for a late breakfast or casual lunch.
We wish we’d had time for: The tempeh sandwich.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for The Hive →
Hackney Vegan Restaurants
9. Temple of Seitan
10 Morning Ln, London E9 6NA
Also in St. Pancras at 103a Camley St, London N1C 4PF
OMG!! This was the height of our Shoreditch vegan food journey! Temple of Seitan is a hole-in-the-wall joint with a few seats outside (and additional seating on the sidewalk). It’s not fancy, but it is fabulous.
Imagine a KFC big crunch… this is the vegan version. Thick chunks of seitan are encased in herbs, spices, and breading and then deep-fried to perfection. Whoever invented this is pure genius!
If you only have one vegan meal in London, make it at Temple of Seitan.
We ate: Temple Spicy Burger, Hot Wings, fries & gravy.
We wish we’d had room for: Another Temple Burger. So so delicious.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Temple of Seitan →
10. Dough Society
11 Dispensary Lane, London E8 1FT
There’s this amazing doughnut shop in our old LA neighbourhood called Donut Friend. It serves the world’s best vegan donuts and since we had them, nothing else can come close.
Dough Society’s donuts are heavy slabs of donut-shaped dough, but they’re more like a thick, heavy cake. The British never really understood donuts, so I guess it’s not surprising that they don’t quite get it right. The icing is delicious but… well, it’s just not my kind of thing.
We ate: One huge donut between the two of us.
We wish we’d had room for: More burgers from Temple of Seitan.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Dough Society →
11. Black Cat Cafe
76A Clarence Rd, London E5 8HB
While talking to the chef at Essential Vegan, we mentioned that we might visit Black Cat – she gave us her emphatic recommendation. They serve burgers, sandwiches, and some amazing-looking internationally-inspired mains, like jerk tofu stew and blue corn crusted tofu.
We went on the weekend and it was packed out, so we decided to leave it for next time. Let us know if you’ve eaten here and what you recommend!
We wish we’d had time for: Jerk tofu stew.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Black Cat Cafe →
Stoke Newington Vegan Food
12. Sutton and Sons Fish & Chips
90 Stoke Newington High St, London N16 7NY
There are two other locations but they don’t serve the vegan menu there! Doesn’t hurt to email them and request it though!
Traditional British fish ‘n’ chips without the fish? Heck yeah!! That’s how we felt when we saw a sign for Sutton’s brand new vegan fish ‘n’ chips offering in Stoke Newington.
For their vegan option, Sutton’s has replace dead little fishies with banana flower marinated in seaweed. Sounds weird, but it has a surprisingly fishy texture and holds the batter just right. Their chips are thick-cut traditional English chips and Sutton’s also has vegan tartar sauce and mayo (you’ve gotta ask to get it). It was all so delicious we went back twice during our one week in Stoke Newington.
Sensitive vegans alert! Sutton’s has been serving regular (dead animal) fish ‘n’ chips for decades, so you will be exposed to real fishy smells and sights if you go — but it’s totally worth it!
We ate: Vegan fish ‘n’ chips, vegan battered sausages
We wish we had room for: Even more vegan fish ‘n’ chips
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Sutton and Sons →
13. Biff’s Jack Shack at Haunt
182 Stoke Newington Rd, London N16 7UY
A permanent fixture in the back of Haunt, a 100% vegan bar on Stoke Newington Road, Biff’s Jack Shack serves “filthy AF vegan junk food”. If you like your burgers naughty and your sides dripping with delicious calories, this is your sweet spot.
Come early to take advantage of Haunt’s happy hour, 5pm-7pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Stay late to sample their great selection of vegan craft beer and wines!
We ate: The FatherJack and The SamuelHellJackson with Vegan AF Poutine (damn tasty!)
We wish we’d had room for: A flight of jackfruit Wingz.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Biff’s Jack Shack →
14. Harvest Supermarket
172 – 174 Stoke Newington High St, London N16 7JL
Also at various locations around London but with varying vegan items available
If you’re looking for a quick lunch in Stoke Newington or need to get your hands on some Essential Vegan hand-crafted cheese, you’ll find it at Harvest. It’s a small grocery store that has responded to the increasing demand for vegan products by stocking more and more great vegan stuff!
At the front, there is a small lunch counter where they offer a sandwich with vegan cheese and vegan prosciutto. They were sold out when we went though, so we never got to try it!
Check the opening hours for Harvest →
Dalston Vegan Food
15. Arancini Brothers
592 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AH
Also in Clerkenwell at 42 Old St, London EC1V 9AE
Also in Kentish Town at 115A Kentish Town Rd, London NW1 8PB
After our trip to Sicily last year, we were craving another taste of the amazing arancini (little deep fried balls of rice) we ate from a chain of arancini shops that always had one or two vegan options. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the arancini in London don’t live up to their Italian cousins.
The Arancini Brothers version are not bad; they’re just a little dry an flavourless. On the upside, they do have a few locations around London and it’s a good place to pop in for a snack if you’re in the neighbourhood.
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Arancini Brothers →
Bonus London Vegan Restaurant
Young Vegans Pie Shop
60 Camden Lock Pl, Camden Town, London NW1 8AF
Though Young Vegans is in Camden, not Shoreditch, it’s just so flipping delicious that I had to tell you about it! Pie and mash with gravy might be my favourite food in the world, and the Young Vegans version is amazing. You can also order frozen pies online to be delivered to your door! Almost worth moving back to London for :).
We ate: The steak and ale pie and mash.
We wish we’d had room for: All the pies!
Check the latest reviews and opening hours for Young Vegans →
Want More Vegan Travel?
These are some of our fav cities in the world for vegan treats.
We hope you’ll find this vegan Shoreditch and East London guide useful on your trip to London! Where are you planning on eating? What are your favourite vegan eats in London? If you discover something tasty and new, please let us know!
♥ Happy mindful adventures, Jane & Stephen