The best vegan restaurants in London for every occasion

London vegan fine dining restaurant exterior evening

For the single best plant-based tasting menu, book Plates in Shoreditch, the UK’s first fully plant-based restaurant to hold a Michelin star. For classical French technique without the meat, choose Gauthier Soho, which holds a Michelin Green Star and runs a lower-priced Petit Dîner alongside its full tasting menu. Want something less formal? Mildred’s and Stem and Glory both deliver reliable all-day vegan dining, while Unity Diner runs the only vegan carvery in the city on Sundays.

Here’s the quick-reference shortlist before you dig into the detail:

  • Plates (Shoreditch) — the UK’s only Michelin-starred fully plant-based restaurant. Book several weeks ahead for weekend dinner.
  • Gauthier Soho — Michelin Green Star, Petit and Grand Dîner menus; the Petit Dîner has shorter lead times for midweek bookings.
  • Holy Carrot (Knightsbridge) — polished, design-led à la carte dining for a smarter evening out.
  • Mildred’s — multiple central London sites, walk-ins often possible outside peak hours.
  • Unity Diner — vegan carvery on Sundays, best booked a few days out for weekend slots.

London Vacation Guide checked each pick against Michelin’s own coverage and independent reviewers to make sure this list reflects what’s actually bookable and worth the trip, not just what ranks well online.

TL;DR:

  • Plates in Shoreditch is the only fully plant-based restaurant in the UK to hold a Michelin star, requiring several weeks’ advance booking for weekends.
  • Gauthier Soho offers Michelin Green Star quality with shorter booking lead times, and its French technique seamlessly translates to plant-based dishes.
  • Casual options like Mildred’s and Stem and Glory provide reliable same-day or next-day bookings suitable for relaxed dining or family visits.
  • Sustainability claims vary, with Gauthier Soho’s Green Star confirming genuine sourcing practices, while casual spots may prioritize seasonal menus over eco credentials.
  • Match restaurant choice to the occasion first, then plan your neighborhood itinerary accordingly, considering booking windows and specific dietary needs.

Table of Contents

Best vegan restaurants in London: eight to know

London’s vegan dining scene has stretched from tasting-menu ambition to genuinely good casual food, and the gap between the two used to be much wider. Eight restaurants stand out for covering that full range without any of them feeling like a compromise.

Restaurant Best for Format Price band Booking lead time Neighbourhood
Plates Michelin-level tasting menu Tasting menu only £££££ several weeks (weekends) Shoreditch
Gauthier Soho Classical French plant-based Petit or Grand tasting menu £££-£££££ around one to two weeks Soho
Holy Carrot Luxury à la carte evenings À la carte £££££ around one to two weeks Knightsbridge
Tendril Chef-counter tasting menu Tasting menu £££-££££ around one to two weeks Mayfair
Mildred’s Casual all-day, post-theatre À la carte, all-day ££ same-day to a few days’ notice Soho and other sites
Stem and Glory Business lunch, family-friendly All-day, à la carte ££ same-day to a few days’ notice Barbican / City
Mallow Modern casual dining À la carte £££ a few days’ notice Central London
Unity Diner Social dining, vegan carvery À la carte, Sunday carvery ££-£££ a few days’ notice (weekends) Shoreditch

Plates earned its star through classical technique and depth of flavour rather than leaning on meat-substitute theatrics, according to Michelin’s own inspector commentary. The tasting menu changes with the seasons, and London Reviews rates it as the strongest plant-based tasting menu in the UK, with detail on price band and how far ahead you’ll need to book. Expect a multi-course format with no à la carte alternative, and weekend dinners that fill up well in advance.

Gauthier Soho took the more unusual route. Alexis Gauthier ran this as a classical French fine-dining restaurant for over a decade before converting it fully to plant-based cooking in 2021, and the technique never left. The restaurant now offers a Petit Dîner and a longer Grand Dîner, both reviewed in detail by London Reviews, and holds a Michelin Green Star for its sustainability practices. The Petit Dîner is the smart entry point if you want the quality without the full price or the longest lead time.

Holy Carrot, tucked into Knightsbridge, plays a different game entirely. It’s a design-led space with an à la carte menu built for an evening out rather than a set-course commitment, and it suits diners who want vegan food without it being the headline of the night.

Tendril, in Mayfair, runs a tighter, more intimate tasting menu than Plates but at a gentler price, built around whatever vegetables are peaking that month. It’s a good middle ground if Plates is booked out or feels like too much commitment.

Mildred’s has been doing this longer than almost anyone. It opened as a vegetarian restaurant decades ago and pivoted heavily towards vegan cooking, and its multiple sites across central London mean you’re rarely more than a short walk from one. Menus run large, service is fast, and it’s genuinely useful for a late dinner after a West End show.

Stem and Glory targets the City crowd directly, with an all-day menu and a business-lunch offer that reviewers single out as notably good value for workers near the Barbican. It’s also relaxed enough for family visits at weekends.

Mallow brings a more contemporary, restaurant-forward feel to casual dining, with a menu that leans into modern techniques rather than comfort-food staples.

Modern vegan restaurant interior with plated food

Unity Diner closes the list with something none of the others do: a Sunday vegan carvery, alongside rotisserie-style dishes and a genuinely social, cocktail-bar atmosphere that makes it one of the better options for a group dinner rather than a quiet date.

Vegan Sunday carvery meal on wooden table

How do you choose the right vegan restaurant for the occasion?

Match the restaurant to the occasion first, then work backwards to booking.

  1. Special occasion or anniversary — Plates or Gauthier Soho’s Grand Dîner. Book weeks ahead for weekends.
  2. Date night without the full tasting-menu commitment — Holy Carrot, Tendril, or Gauthier Soho’s Petit Dîner.
  3. Casual dinner with kids — Mildred’s or Stem and Glory; both handle walk-ins reasonably well outside peak hours.
  4. Business lunch — Stem and Glory’s Barbican site, built specifically around City workers on a schedule.
  5. Quick, informal bite — Mildred’s or a Borough Market vegan stall, no booking required.

Before you commit, ask three questions: What’s the deposit policy for a tasting menu? How do they handle allergens beyond “vegan” (nut, gluten, soya)? And is a service charge already included, or added at the table? A restaurant that can’t answer the allergen question clearly, or that has no visible online booking system for a fine-dining slot, is worth a second look before you hand over card details.

Pro Tip: Tasting menus at places like Plates typically run two to three hours. If you’re combining dinner with a show or an early flight the next morning, build in more time than you think you need.

Where should you eat by London neighbourhood?

Pick your neighbourhood by what else is on your itinerary that day, not just the restaurant.

  • Soho — Gauthier Soho and Mildred’s both suit a pre or post-theatre dinner; book Gauthier Soho ahead, walk into Mildred’s after 9pm to dodge the queue.
  • Shoreditch — Plates and Unity Diner cover fine dining and casual social eating within a few streets of each other.
  • Knightsbridge — Holy Carrot pairs naturally with an afternoon around the museums on Exhibition Road.
  • Barbican / City — Stem and Glory is built for a lunch break between the Barbican Centre and the Museum of London.
  • Borough Market — skip a sit-down booking entirely and graze the market’s vegan stalls for a casual evening.

Weekday lunchtimes are consistently quieter than Friday and Saturday dinners across all five areas.

Why we chose these restaurants

London Vacation Guide built this shortlist against three criteria: formal recognition (Michelin stars and Green Stars), consistency of independent reviews over time, and enough geographical and price spread that the list actually works for different budgets and boroughs, not just central tourist routes.

Plates succeeds on classical technique and depth of flavour rather than relying on meat-substitute framing, which is precisely why Michelin’s inspectors singled it out as more than a novelty act within plant-based cooking.

Author Matt cross-checked every entry against Michelin’s coverage and independent write-ups, and London Vacation Guide’s own neighbourhood guides informed the geographical spread.

What should you budget and how far ahead should you book?

Lead times vary sharply by restaurant type. Fine-dining tasting menus at Plates often need three to six weeks’ notice for weekend dinner, while weekday lunch slots or Gauthier Soho’s Petit Dîner can usually be secured within a week or two.

  • Fine-dining tasting menus: budget significantly more than a casual dinner, and expect a set-price menu with limited substitutions.
  • Business lunch formats like Stem and Glory’s Barbican offer represent the value end of the scene, aimed squarely at City workers rather than tourists.
  • Casual all-day spots (Mildred’s, Unity Diner) run à la carte pricing and rarely need more than a few days’ notice, sometimes none.
  • Always check the deposit and cancellation policy before booking a tasting menu; most require card details upfront and charge for late cancellations.

What do reviewers actually say about London’s top vegan restaurants?

Independent reviewers converge on the same handful of names for different reasons. London Reviews treats Plates as the benchmark for plant-based tasting menus in the UK, citing its technical precision as the reason it outperforms most meat-inclusive tasting menus in the same price bracket. Gauthier Soho draws consistent praise in the same publication for proving that classical French technique translates cleanly to plant-based cooking, rather than feeling like a workaround.

Casual spots get reviewed differently: consistency matters more than innovation. Mildred’s and Stem and Glory are both cited repeatedly for reliability across multiple visits and locations, which counts for more with a lunch crowd than a single standout dish would. Unity Diner’s reviews cluster around its Sunday carvery specifically, with diners returning for the format rather than any single dish.

The pattern worth noting: fine-dining reviews focus on technique and originality, while casual-dining reviews focus on consistency and value. If you’re choosing between two similarly priced options, that’s often the more useful filter than a star rating on its own. Read a couple of recent reviews rather than relying on an aggregate score, since a restaurant’s kitchen and menu can shift meaningfully within a year.

Diagram comparing fine dining and casual vegan restaurant review focus

How sustainable is London’s vegan dining scene?

Sustainability credentials vary more than the “vegan” label suggests. Gauthier Soho’s Michelin Green Star specifically recognises its sourcing and sustainability practices, not just its plant-based menu, which is a meaningfully higher bar than simply removing animal products.

Several restaurants on this list build menus around seasonal and local produce as a matter of kitchen policy rather than marketing. Tendril’s tasting menu shifts with what’s in season, which keeps food miles down and forces genuine menu variation through the year rather than a fixed rotation. Plates follows a similar seasonal logic, with Michelin’s inspectors noting its ingredient sourcing as part of what earned the star, not an afterthought to the cooking itself.

Casual, high-volume restaurants face a harder sustainability equation simply because of scale. Mildred’s and Stem and Glory both work at higher covers per night than a tasting-menu restaurant, and sourcing entirely local, seasonal produce at that volume is a tougher ask. That’s not a knock against them. It’s just worth knowing that “vegan” and “sustainable” are not the same claim, even when a restaurant’s marketing blurs the two. If sourcing matters to you specifically, ask the restaurant directly, or read up on what Michelin recognition actually verifies before assuming a green accolade covers everything on the plate.

Can vegan restaurants in London handle gluten-free and nut-free diets too?

Most of the restaurants on this list can accommodate gluten-free and nut-free requests, but the depth of that accommodation varies a lot between a tasting menu and a casual all-day spot. Fine-dining kitchens like Plates and Gauthier Soho build menus course by course, which makes swapping out an allergen far more manageable since each dish is already planned in detail. Flag the requirement when you book, not when you arrive, since some substitutions need advance preparation.

Casual restaurants such as Mildred’s and Stem and Glory generally mark gluten-free and nut-free options clearly on the printed menu, which suits diners who want a quick, confident answer rather than a conversation with the kitchen. Unity Diner’s carvery format works reasonably well for gluten-free diners too, since the core dishes are naturally free from wheat-based fillers, though it’s worth double-checking the gravy and any bread-based sides.

The one universal rule: never assume vegan automatically means allergen-safe. Soya, gluten and tree nuts are common building blocks in plant-based cooking precisely because they replace the protein and texture that meat and dairy once provided. A dish being vegan tells you nothing about whether it’s safe for a nut allergy, so always ask directly rather than assuming the two labels overlap.

Key takeaways

London’s vegan dining scene now spans a genuine Michelin-starred tasting menu at Plates through to reliable, affordable all-day options like Mildred’s and Stem and Glory.

Point Details
Top fine-dining pick Plates holds the UK’s only Michelin star for a fully plant-based restaurant; book weekends several weeks ahead.
Best entry-level fine dining Gauthier Soho’s Petit Dîner offers Michelin Green Star quality and generally requires less advance booking time.
Best casual and family option Mildred’s and Stem and Glory both suit walk-ins and same-day bookings outside peak hours.
Sustainability isn’t automatic A Green Star, like Gauthier Soho’s, verifies sourcing practices specifically, not just the vegan label.
Plan with London Vacation Guide Pair your restaurant choice with a neighbourhood guide from London Vacation Guide to build a full day around it.

What the shortlist gets right and where the advice usually goes wrong

Most “best vegan restaurants” lists treat every entry as interchangeable, ranked by star rating alone. That’s the wrong lens. Plates and Mildred’s aren’t competing for the same evening, and comparing them on a single scale misses the point entirely.

The bigger error is treating Michelin recognition as the only signal worth chasing. It matters enormously for Plates and Gauthier Soho, but it tells you nothing about whether Stem and Glory’s business lunch will fit your Tuesday schedule, or whether Unity Diner’s carvery suits a group of eight. Prioritise occasion first, then use awards and reviews to choose between restaurants that already fit that occasion.

If there’s one habit worth changing, it’s booking too late for the wrong reason. Diners chase tasting-menu slots weeks out but leave casual bookings to chance, when it’s often the reverse that bites: a Saturday table at Mildred’s after a sold-out show can be just as hard to get as a Tuesday slot at Plates.

— Matt

Plan the rest of your London trip around your table

A brilliant vegan dinner deserves a day built around it, and that’s where a restaurant list alone runs out of road. Other guides will point you to where to eat; London Vacation Guide goes further and helps you plan the whole visit, so a booking at Plates or Holy Carrot fits naturally alongside the museums, markets and neighbourhoods you actually want to see. If you’re staying near Knightsbridge for Holy Carrot, the Kensington neighbourhood guide maps out what’s walkable before dinner. Heading to Shoreditch for Plates or Unity Diner, check the London Bridge neighbourhood guide for what to pair with the trip east. Start with London Vacation Guide’s first-time visitor guide to build your itinerary around the table you’ve just booked.

Sources

FAQ

What is the best vegan restaurant in London?

Plates in Shoreditch is widely regarded as London’s best, holding the UK’s only Michelin star awarded to a fully plant-based restaurant. For classical French cooking, Gauthier Soho is the strongest alternative.

Which London vegan restaurants have the most reviews?

Mildred’s and Stem and Glory both carry a large volume of independent reviews thanks to years of consistent service across multiple sites, while Plates and Gauthier Soho draw dense, detailed reviews from specialist food critics rather than high volume alone.

Are there any Michelin-starred vegan restaurants in London?

Yes. Plates holds a full Michelin star, the first awarded to a fully plant-based restaurant in the UK, and Gauthier Soho holds a Michelin Green Star for sustainability.

Where can I find the best vegan restaurants in the UK?

London holds the country’s strongest concentration, led by Plates and Gauthier Soho for fine dining, with Mildred’s, Stem and Glory, and Unity Diner covering casual and social dining. Check a neighbourhood-specific dining guide to match a restaurant to the rest of your day before booking.