Vegetarian restaurants that have come and gone

[Sherwil16]

I saw the thread asking about restaurants in London and started thinking about veggie restaurants in London from the 70s onwards when I first became vegetarian. These sprang to mind immediately
Manna in Erskine Road
Raw Deal off Baker Street
Food for Thought Neal St
Some more will come to me, but I'd really appreciate any that you can recall. Most of the old ones have closed or turned into vegan pretend meat places.

The vegetarian cafe in Machynlleth is still there and looked full and thriving when I passed it last summer. We used to go with my grandparents in the 80s.

Should have RTFT! This is great news! It's been years since I was last in Mach.

That's still there and amazingly well priced! We ate there earlier in the year.

@Chipsintheair haha, I'm glad to hear that! I've not been for many years. I presume they still don't have chips? But hope they took down at least some of the gory posters! X

Thanks for jogging my memory - I used to have a Cranks cookbook in the 90's!

Ah I loved Cranks. I still have the cookbook.
I used to love Mildreds too but haven't been for years.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads thank you! I remember the centre for alternative technology, my mate was a science geek and always made us go there. Such happy memories of being in rural Wales as a kid, Mach was the nearest town but still an hour away! X

In Manchester
Greens in Didsbury - closed recently
That Cafe Levenshume - first date with DP in 1990s
The Green Room - Moss Side ish - vegan restaurant approx 1991, been closed decades I think, lovely wholesome vegan comfort food

Wow! I had no idea about that. I thought it was just a depressing hippie barn that had its moment 😁.

LOVED food for thought 💚💚💚

There used to be the best vegetarian restaurant in the 80's in Brighton at the lower level in the old Churchill square called slims , by far the best vegetarian food ever!

Peter Peppers in Brixton in the 1990s was great as was Tumbleweeds I think it was called in Tooting

Tibits was great
I am too young to have good memories of Cranks in London but grew up on the recipe book and still use it now
Mildred's is so disappointing now it's entirely vegan

I still have one. Second-hand from a charity shop, I think. Made tomato and lentil soup from it a couple of weeks ago.

Mine aren’t in London and were both Indians. A place on Grey Street in Newcastle, southern Indian food, it was quite expensive (or it was for me at the time).
An amazing place in Edinburgh which I cannot remember the name of, I’ve looked for it online and cannot find it so assume it’s gone. They used to serve lots of small dishes, like a tapas. It was amazing.

NC for obvious reasons but I had a LT boyfriend who was a chef at Demuths, top boyfriending. I can still make their vegan chocolate fudge cake from memory.

The 8th Day in Manchester is still there I think, many hearty soups eaten. Sad to hear Greens has gone!

I agree Mildred's is not as good any more (it feels a bit like they got some venture capital involved to expand and lost what was special) but got some great ideas for new places to try from this thread. When we lived in North London we used to be in Rasa all the time, and all those little veggie dosa places near Euston as well for cheap pub fuel.

Is Terre a Terre in Brighton still good?

@Lovelydovey ah that's great to know- our son lives in Belsize Park with girlfriend in a 3 person share- I will alert him pronto!!

I loved Carnevale, used to work right by there.
There was a place called Eat and Two Veg, Marylebone way.
It's still there but Indian Veg in Chapel Market, Islington. I used to go there regularly in my 20s for a cheap buffet.

I used to eat there when visiting family.

If anyone is in Sheffield I recommend Church Temple of Fun https://templeof.fun/

Has Manna closed? Food was mostly good, occasionally a bit hit-and-miss in later years, but the service was truly the slowest and worst in London!

Loved Carnevale (esp the name!), was very sad to see that one go. And yes yes to the pp who mentioned Vegetarian Cottage on the Finchley Road - that was a big family favourite in the early 90s!!

I can still remember the excitement our household in the early 80s when Ranis vegetarian Indian opened in Finchley. It’s still there, but under new ownership and nowhere near as good (or maybe we’ve got better choices now?).

Chutneys is still open by Euston, although I’ve not been for years. And I’m pretty sure Ravi Shankar is still going strong too.

Loving this trip down memory lane OP - thank you!

I remember going to a good vegetarian restaurant in the late 80s in Islington. Does anyone know the name of it?
It wasn't an Indian restaurant

Btw, Rani's in Finchley Central is pretty good now.

I miss Eat and two Veg which was on Marylebone High Street. It was my favourite.

Was that The Greenhouse? In a basement, between TCR and Gower St.

I went to Terre a Terre last year and it was good (lunchtime tapas/set menu).

Aruvedic. Did amazing samosas. It moved briefly to New Oxford St when Hakkasan took over the original location, but didn't last long after the move.

There was a good one in the 90s near Goldhawk Rd tube. Can't remember the name but it was 1 word repeated 3 times. Had paper tablecloths and a pot of crayons for doodling on them.