The Best Vegan Takeaways in London

Anyone that’s ever tried to stick to a vegan diet for more than a couple of weeks has probably hit "the wall" at some point. It’s hard to explain exactly what “the wall” is, but let’s just say it’s something that you’ll typically find yourself staring at around 7 pm on a Friday night when you’re dipping a sad bit of pitta bread into a pot of even sadder supermarket hummus and calling it dinner. If you’re attempting Veganuary for the first time this year, you’re probably going to end up hitting “the wall” at some point or another, MOB.

While we’d usually recommend you try your hand at cooking something simple and delicious like our vegan pad Thai or vegan shakshuka to help you vault "the wall", we also know that sometimes you simply can’t be bothered to cook. And that’s okay! Life can be tough! That’s why takeaways exist.

A tasty vegan takeaway isn't just an excellent (and delicious) way to shimmy yourself over "the wall" à la Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 2, but it’s also a great way to support some of the local businesses that have been hit hardest by the pandemic. From those serving traditional Caribbean Ital dishes to modern takes on Szechuan-style cooking, we've rounded up the best vegan takeaways in London that you should be hitting up this month and every other month of the year.

Yes, a pizza without cheese might seem a bit like a broken pencil (y’know: pointless) but the vegan pizzas that come out of Purezza’s ovens aren’t pretenders, MOB. As the first vegan pizzeria in the UK, Purezza took over two years developing their mozzarella in a laboratory to come up with an end-product that they were happy with. The end result of all that scientific hard graft is that you can get a vegan pizza, complete with a crisp crust and molten “mozzarella” (made using Italian brown rice) delivered to your door at a moment’s notice. You won’t believe it’s not cheese.

Available on Deliveroo and for click and collect.

Walthamstow-based SpiceBox takes pride in serving fresh and flavourful food that just happens to be vegan. You won’t find any holier-than-thou attitude at this vegan takeaway: just honest dishes of chana masala, jackfruit jalfrezi, and tarka dhal that might just put your own homemade versions to shame. The super eco-conscious of you will also be relieved to hear that SpiceBox boasts a zero-emissions delivery service. Because they’re good like that.

Available for delivery and collection.

For some of the best south Indian vegetarian and vegan dishes across London, you need to look no further than the ever-consistent Sagar. Masala dosa, bhel puri, saag aloo, and more uthappams than you can shake a stick at are all present and correct on the restaurant's stacked vegan-friendly menu. It’s the sheer breadth, diversity, and quality of the plant-based dishes on offer at Sagar that makes it one of the best vegan takeaways in London, and one of my favourite takeaways in the city, full stop. See what all the fuss is about. Like, now.

Available on Deliveroo and UberEats though you can also order from Sagar directly.

All Nations is a family-owned Caribbean spot in Dalston that pays homage to chef Atreka Camero’s Rastafari background through the plates of wholesome, healthy vegan cooking that come out of its bijou kitchen. The menu changes on a weekly basis and the takeaway boxes – which you can customise to contain your favoured combo of mains, grains, and hard food – can come packed to the brim with everything from jackfruit curry to callaloo and chocho. An undisputed gem in London’s vegan takeaway scene.

Available on Deliveroo and Just Eat but you should order from them directly if possible.

Mildreds is a legend when it comes to serving top drawer vegan food. The original restaurant has been keeping London’s lentil lovers fed for over 30 years now and hasn’t shown signs of slowing anytime soon. There are currently four Mildreds restaurants in London, fairly evenly spaced across the capital, so keep your fingers crossed that you fall into one of their delivery catchments and you can get your hands on a vegan takeaway that’s really got a little something-something. Make sure to order yourself a mix of the substantial starters and mains with a side of the house-made kimchi. It bangs.

Available on Deliveroo or for click and collect.

Honest Burgers does a bang-up job at grilling regular beef burgers to crisp and juicy perfection, but did you know that they also give that same care and attention to their plant-based patties, too? Honest’s vegan option is definitely worth checking out, MOB: an uncannily meat-like Beyond Meat burger is joined by vegan smoked gouda, vegan chipotle mayo, onion, pickles, lettuce, and a healthy squeeze of French’s mustard in a soft and pliable bun. It’s really good, you can add vegan bacon to the party for an additional £1.50, and it comes with chips. What are you waiting for?

Available on Deliveroo.

Beza Ethio’s eponymous Ethiopian restaurant is a staple of the Elephant and Castle dining scene and a favourite among vegans and meat-eaters alike. Starting up as a pop-up in 2016, Beza Ethiopian Food serves a succinct and fully vegan menu that doesn’t house any disappointments. Choose from dishes like shiro wot, a stew of grounded chickpeas cooked with red onion, garlic, and ginger; miser wot, a redolent mélange of red lentils cooked with red onion, garlic, and Ethiopian berbere; kik wot, a spicy stew of yellow split lentils cooked with red onion, garlic, and turmeric; and many, many more. All of the food is excellent, and all of it comes served with teff injera.

Available on Deliveroo.

DabbaDrop is London’s first plastic and emissions-free takeaway subscription service. Founded by two friends with a shared passion for plant-based eating, DabbaDrop specialises in hearty vegan curries that come delivered in reusable stainless-steel tiffin containers (also known as dabba) on push bikes. Those dabba are swapped on delivery with fresh ones every time you get a new drop. Hence the name. All deliveries are contact-free and dabbas are washed and sterilised on return. As for the meals inside of those tiffin boxes? Well, they’re all totally vegan and, composed of one delicious dal and two plant-based curries alongside homemade roti and rice, more than enough to feed two. Menus changes every week to keep with the seasons.

Subscribe to the delivery service.

Looking a bit like the kind of burger joint you’d get if In-N-Out left home for uni and came back really into veganism and incense, Halo Burger delivers the goods on that all-time classic combo of burgers and fries with a plant-based twist. Burgers are packed with Beyond Meat patties and can come jazzed up with a host of toppings like vegan smoked gouda and crispy fried jalapeños. An order of the THIS™ Isn't chicken nuggets on the side isn’t essential but it is highly recommended.

Available on Deliveroo, UberEats and for click and collect.

Late-night kebabs have been the downfall of many of my own attempts at sticking to a plant-based diet over the years, so you can imagine just how thankful I am that What The Pitta! have come along with a tasty vegan alternative. This vegan takeaway, which specialises in a meat-free döner made from spiced soya pieces, was even selected as the 'Best London Takeaway' at the Kebab Awards 2020. High praise indeed.

Available on Deliveroo.

Good news, MOB: the ramen group Bone Daddies, best known for their umami-laden broths and plump yet snappy noodles, has launched London’s first-ever plant-based tonkotsu to celebrate Veganuary this year. Called the ‘Notkotsu’, this special combines Bone Daddies’ homemade plant-based tonkotsu broth with mushrooms, THIS Isn’t pork belly rashers, beansprouts, spring onion, pickled ginger and burnt garlic mayu oil for a rich, satisfying tonkostu-ish ramen. Without, of course, any of the piggy bits. I don’t know about you, MOB, but I’d happily swim in a bowl of that.

Available on Deliveroo and for click and collect.

Unless you’ve been living (and eating) under a rock since 2010, you’ll probably know a thing or two about Dishoom. This stellar group of Indian restaurants have refined the art of serving excellent food alongside even excellent-er hospitality, and it’s safe to say they’ve been pretty successful at transferring that quality onto their delivery options, too. Although they don’t run a solely vegan ship, Dishoom has got a spate of plant-based takes on classic dishes such as vegetable samosas, jackfruit biryani, and a particularly filling and fiery chole. Go on, treat yourself.

Available on Deliveroo.

Das Sreedharan’s Stoke Newington restaurant Rasa was born out of Das’s passion for the vegetarian meals that his mother cooked for him growing up. Rasa’s bricks-and-mortar restaurant has been frequented by everyone from Aishwarya Rai and Sachin Tendulkar to Jamie Oliver but the takeaway service can still give you a taste of why it’s so widely celebrated. Try and whittle down your choices from a mouthwatering selection of vegan eats like mysore bonda, rasa kayi, and cheera parippu curry before inevitably caving in and ordering everything they’ve got. You won’t regret it.

Available on UberEats but you can also call Rasa directly.

Sounds terrifying, tastes delicious. Temple of Seitan operate one of London’s hippest vegan restaurants and they’ve pivoted that rather gracefully into one of London’s hippest vegan takeaways since lockdown. With two locations in London (one in Hackney and the other in Camden), Temple of Seitan’s expertise lies in plant-based riffs on wraps, burgers and fried chicken. The Nashville Hot wings are probably our pick of the bunch. But, honestly MOB, it’s hard to go wrong with an order from the Temple.

Available for delivery.

Peckham’s Taco Queen refers to itself as “your friendly neighbourhood taqueria” and, honestly, we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. If a visit to their cosy quarters is off the cards then you should, at the very least, get a round of their slamming vegan tacos in for a cheeky Friday night takeaway. Vegan nachos come slathered in jackfruit, cashew cream, guacamole, jalapeños and salsa while plant-based taco options utilise aubergine and cauliflower as their star ingredients. God save the Queen. The Taco Queen.

Available on Deliveroo.

Burgers don’t need meat to be delicious, and Mooshies is out to prove that point. All of the burgers at Mooshies are 100% plant-based and, in contrast to the limited selection that most vegans will have come to expect from fast food menus, come in a range of different options. Marinated spicy slow-cooked jackfruit; organic quinoa and black bean burger; spicy panko fried oyster mushrooms; and panko fried aubergine all satisfy like meat when wedged in a multigrain seeded brioche vegan bun. If you want to make your vegan takeaway absolutely Americana, man, then make sure to get one of Mooshies’ signature vegan milkshakes.

Available on Deliveroo, UberEats, Slerp, and Just Eat.

Indian-inspired vegan cuisine is the name of the game at En Root, and it’s a name that you’re going to want to become familiar with, MOB. Traditional dishes like masala dosa, filled with a verdant saag aloo that hums with cumin and turmeric, come served alongside sides of lentil sambar and coconut chutney to remind you that vegan cooking doesn't have to be about sacrifice. It’s hard to beat the classics, however, the slightly less traditional eats like the ‘Patra Burger’, ‘Raja Wrap’ and ‘Naanzza’ (yes, that’s a naan given the pizza treatment) also demand your attention. Wash whatever you order down with a sweet mango lassi and you’ll have no regrets about your life decisions. Well, at least those life decisions that revolve around food.

Available for delivery and for click and collect.

If vegan comfort food sounds like something you’d be interested in, then The Full Nelson is a kitchen you should get yourself acquainted with. Stat. Burgers, wings, and fries are pretty much all you’ll find available for takeaway from this Deptford vegan joint but you can be safe in the knowledge that everything that comes out the pass has been sprinkled with The Full Nelson’s magic. And probably some nutritional yeast, too. The chick’n burgers – which come coated in a lip-tingling Southern-style coating – are essential.

Available on Deliveroo.

Getting a table at Mao Chow pre-COVID was difficult, to say the least. The pleasantly poky, no-reservations restaurant could only fit a handful of people at a time and, as a result, often had a queue that snaked onto out Mare Street and signalled to everyone in the area that Mao Chow was a place to be and be seen. Those halcyon days of eating shoulder-to-shoulder with a total stranger might seem like a distant past but, thankfully, Mao Chow’s cheeky vegan take on Chinese food is available for takeaway. The dan dan noodles are the undisputed hero dish; equal parts spicy and chewy, those noodles are slick with sesame and peanut sauce and generously topped with a meaty ‘shroom mince, shreds of cucumber, and pak choi. A bowl of those noods with some dumplings should see you right.

Available for Deliveroo.

Molly Loves Chick’n might be fairly new on the block but they’ve already started to establish themselves as a great vegan takeaway option and the people to call for a banging plant-based alternative to the fried chicken sandwich. The ‘Queenie’ is a Southern-fried buttermilk chick’n burger rammed with masala mayo, mango relish, shredded lettuce, chilli, and cucumber ribbons. The ‘BBQ Belle’, on the other hand, gives that Southern-fried buttermilk chick’n fillet company in the form of sweetcorn relish, shredded lettuce, aioli, BBQ sauce, and red onion. Get a side of loaded fries on the side and you’ve got a mighty fine dinner on your hands.

Available on Deliveroo.

Eat of Eden is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best vegan takeaways in London. With menus inspired by both Caribbean Ital and more Eurocentric plant-based recipes, each of the city’s four Eat of Eden spots divvy out plates of wholesome vegan food made using the freshest and finest ingredients available. The signature platters are an excellent way to familiarise yourself with what Eat of Eden does best. Which, to be honest with you, is just about everything: curries are generously portioned (and spiced) and the side dishes of macaroni pie, plantain, and callaloo patties are worth both your attention and stomach space. Order from Eat of Eden and you will eat well, MOB.

Available for collection and delivery.