Eating out

11. Oct 2016

London, UK: Vanilla black

Vegan par excellence at this vegan and vegetarian institution. A la carte dining for all your senses.

If you are looking for a vegan restaurant for special occasions or if you would like to impress your clients then look no further than Vanilla Black. Close to Chancery lane tube and tucked away in one of the side-streets of the city of London this is not your every-day vegan joint.

My friends took me there for my birthday and when they started serving the first dishes I really felt I had arrived. I've been to quite a few vegan places but they are taking plant-based cuisine to new heights. My friends I had a mix of vegan and vegetarian dishes and I had the all vegan menu. Even though they normally aren't vegan or vegetarian they thoroughly enjoyed their meal (there were two dishes that couldn't quite compete with the other flavours though). Service was great and very attentive as well as you'd expect in this price category.

Check out the amazing dishes we had below.

Vanilla Black
17-18 Tooks Court, London EC4A 1LB

Opening times:

n/a

www.vanillablack.co.uk

Simple, uncomplicated yet understatedly elegant interior.

A quirky bench compared to the otherwise straight-forward design of the restaurant.

The amuse bouche to get us started. I can't remember what exactly it was but it was delicious.

My starter: watermelon, red pepper and tomato with shallot cream, mustard 'yolk' and caper crackers.
What a combination of sweet and savoury, fabulous! I think I want to try to make my own version of this.

Another vegan starter: sweet potato and puy lentil 'dhal' crispy lentils and curry oil. It didn't just look beautiful, but tasted fantastic.

My friend's main - it looked amazing but could've done with a bit more seasoning if we were to be very critical: I can't remember the exact name of the dish but it was some kind of soy cheese.

A firework of flavours as a main: fried and pickled mushrooms and sweetcorn pureé, pickled mooli and crumbs

Another starter, although not our favourite admittedly. A stunning plate and edible nasturtium leaves were a first for me, what an interesting texture! Compared to the other dishes this was one of the least favourites though: soya curd, beetroot and nasturtium leaves, seeds and lettuce.