🍽️ Let's Eat Out: Plant-based Menus In London
Restaurant Highlights (February 2023), featuring Sketch London, Emilia's Crafted Pasta, and Tonkotsu
This is a new monthly series, in which we pick out the most interesting dishes, menus, and restaurants throughout the year.
One of the biggest challenges of a plant-based lifestyle is finding delicious plant-based options when eating out, and not being offered just salad and chips as some afterthought.
Ahead of Valentine’s, we pick out some interesting plant-based options from restaurants in London. The restaurant itself may not necessarily be vegan or vegetarian but demonstrates seriousness about offering plant-based options. We cover both Michelin-star restaurants and popular eats. There is also an understanding that people define “plant-based” differently - for some people, it encompasses vegetarian and vegan, but for others, it’s more strictly plant-based whole foods. Here, we adopt the former, broader definition to encourage restaurants to start thinking about plant-based.
While at the end of the day, offering plant-based is a business and culinary decision by individual restaurants, the best restaurants can set an example and standard by showcasing tasty, creative plant-based options. Chefs not only can service but also lead popular culture. Even on a pure business level, offering plant-based options can accommodate wider groups of customers, many of whom actively avoid an all-meat dining venue so everybody could join.
Disclosure: none of the content below is sponsored.
Sketch - The Lecture Room & Library
Sketch Lecture Room & Library boasts three Michelin Stars, meaning Michelin deems the restaurant as “Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey!”.
The Lecture Room offers an 8-course vegetarian tasting menu (£170 pp) with wine pairing (£165 pp). What I find most intriguing are the second course and the cocktail.
Second Course: “Thin slices of smoked red & golden beetroot / Tamarillo sorbet / Castelfranco / French leafy celeriac bavaroise / Orange reduction / Torrefied Piedmont hazelnut / Citrus jelly / Cauliflower”
Let me explain why. Food ingredients release volatile organic compounds (VOC) into the air, which interact with each other to produce more complex aromas. Crucially, ingredients with overlapping aromas tend to go well together. (We have actually built this aroma pairing database into the Plantwise app so our users could check the perfect ingredients that work together.)
For Sketch’s second course, I ran a quick check on Plantwise. It turns out (and of course it would) that beetroot goes very well with celeriac, tomato (nightshades), and orange (citrus). Orange goes well with cauliflower, which in turn pairs with hazelnuts. Mushrooms, absent from the dish, could join nicely too.
“Cocktail: Sicilian pomegranate / Mirin / Quince / Coconut Foam / Lime”
As for the cocktail, it contains a unique, creative combination that piques my curiosity. Pomegranate adds a sweet and tart flavour. Mirin adds a touch of sweetness and a hint of acidity. Quince adds a subtle floral note. Coconut Foam adds a creamy texture. Finally, lime adds a zesty, citrus finish.
The full vegetarian tasting menu, taken from Sketch’s website:
Emilia’s Crafted Pasta
I have to mention Emilia’s Crafted Pasta because I live right next to one of their restaurants. There you could find delicious Italian dishes, friendly service, and reasonable prices. There are three locations in London if you are eager to try - St Katharine Docks, Aldgate, and Canary Wharf. In all of the restaurants, Emilia’s Pasta creates an authentic, cosy trattoria ambience through the rustic terracotta decor sourced from Emilia-Romagna in Italy.
In terms of price, Antipasti and Salad range from £8-12, while side dishes are £5 each. The main pasta dishes are between £10.5 and £15, but the vegan & vegetarian options are on the cheaper side.
For Antipasti, Salad, and Side dishes, half of the menu is vegan, ranging from sourdough bruschetta with heritage tomatoes, garlic & fresh chopped bail, to Italian grains and mixed vegetable salad with pomegranates, oranges, and freshly chopped mint.
Among the pasta dishes, three are either vegan or vegetarian. My personal favourite is the “homemade pistachio and basil pesto with sautéed cherry tomatoes (casarecce)”. The homemade pistachio and basil pesto create a creamy and nutty flavour, while the cherry tomatoes lend a sweet and acidic note.
For vegetarians, the “homemade creamy walnut sauce with chestnut mushrooms (casarecce")” seems a delicious choice, packed with nutty, earthy aromas with a rich, fatty taste.
The full menu, taken from Emilia’s Crafted Pasta website
Tonkotsu
My Asian heritage always calls for a bowl of noodles when the weather gets cold, warm, or hot. Basically anytime.
First established in Soho in 2012, Tonkotsu is a ramen restaurant whose chain now spans across London and Birmingham. Tonkotsu takes pride in making “homemade noodles cooked for 32 seconds perfect for a medium bite”, which sometimes is as under-appreciated as handmade pasta cooked to perfectly al-dente. Personally, that’s a dealmaker.
The particular dish I was impressed by is the Soya Tantanmen which comes both hot and cold. I have enjoyed both, and have not felt like missing out on the original pork broth at all. The spicy sesame base offers a rich and savoury flavour, while the plant-based soy mince tasted sweet with earthy notes. The Bok Choy (aka Pak Choi) and kikurage provide a crunchy texture, and the pickled radish adds a subtle tartness.
The Google review ratings range between 4.0 and 4.5 (out of 5), depending on the location. I usually visit the restaurant in Stratford, just outside of Westfield. There are usually seats for walk-ins.
For the full menu, you could check out Tonkotu’s website here.
Stay Tuned
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From Plantwise
Do you struggle with planning healthy plant-based meals, sourcing affordable ingredients, and learning what “healthy plant-based” means? We’ve got your back.
Head to our free Crash Course on Substack to get quickly started on the plant-based journey.
You can also access our 100+ specialist, protein-rich recipes for free. They are tasty, simple to make, and completely affordable, using only plant-based whole foods. Download on Apple App Store today.