Plates

Plates moved into its Old Street site in Shoreditch and became, in short order, the first vegan restaurant in the UK to hold a Michelin star, a genuine milestone for plant based cooking in this country. Chef Kirk Haworth runs the kitchen with his sister Keeley, applying classical technique, Haworth trained in traditional kitchens before going plant based, to a menu built entirely without animal products, and the restaurant name itself is a nod to the plainness of the concept behind all the technique.

The signature format is a seven course tasting menu, priced around 75 pounds, featuring dishes like barbecued maitake mushrooms with a black bean mole and a raw cacao gateau to finish. Michelin’s own inspectors praised the way Haworth’s classical training has been inventively adapted to a vegan diet rather than treating plant based cooking as a substitution exercise, and the courses lean on genuine technique, fermentation, smoking, careful sauce work, rather than simply removing animal products from familiar dishes.

Time Out gave the restaurant five stars, calling it a long awaited addition to London’s vegan dining scene, and demand has followed the recognition: waiting lists for a table have stretched to several months at points since the Michelin star was announced, a level of demand that’s unusual even by London’s current standards for hyped openings.

The practical catch is simply access. With a tasting menu only format and a genuinely long waiting list, this isn’t a restaurant you can decide on the same day you want to eat there, and the fixed format means less flexibility for anyone wanting a lighter or shorter meal, or travelling with dietary restrictions beyond the vegan brief itself.

For anyone serious about where vegan cooking has reached in London, Plates is the clearest answer currently available, provided you’re willing to plan months ahead to get a seat and treat it as an occasion rather than a casual dinner.