Shoreditch. Wembley. Croydon. The shipping container-style street food hubs are a London favourite. Here is our Ultimate Guide to vegan food in BOXPARK.
Standing loud and proud in Shoreditch, Wembley and Croydon are a selection of spacious shipping containers, housing a diverse array of eateries, bars, and shops. Alongside the grub and beverages, BOXPARK organises a lively schedule of events throughout the year, but its street food is the star, and it isn’t short of vegan options.
There are plenty of plant-based dishes for diners to devour, from Greek gyros to seitan steaks. Prepare to feast your eyes on charismatic cruelty-free cuisine. Here’s our Ultimate Guide to vegan food in BOXPARK.
BOXPARK Shoreditch
Eat Chay
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Graduating in 2017, Liz and Joe, founders of Eat Chay, were driven to create an array of vegan dishes influenced by their East Asian heritage. With no experience in the hospitality industry, their journey began at Brick Lane Market, where they sold their Korean BBQ seitan, which proved very popular. Now based at BOXPARK, their passion for producing enticing vegan food remains paramount.
Eat Chay’s menu flaunts its founders’ East Asian roots, as customers can choose from rice and noodles, banh mi, baos, bento and snacks.
The team behind dishes up pillowy soft bao buns in a variety of heavenly flavours, including kimchi, vegan chicken and Korean tofu. In addition to its bao, Eat Chay has built a banh mi baguette with a choice of fillings including chilli lemongrass and Korean BBQ.
Get that spicy kick with a side of colourful kimchi, the traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, seasoned with a selection of spices.
Cookdaily
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Delivering plant-based South Asian street food to Shoreditch, Laotian chef and owner King Cook has conjured up an array of vegan dishes to delight diners at Cookdaily.
Cookdaily serves traditional South Asian dishes such as its House Pad Thai — adapted to coincide with Cook’s vegan philosophy of “no blood, no bones” — which consists of flat rice noodles stir-fried with “egg tofu”, bean sprouts and carrots seasoned with tamarind and a homemade vegan fish sauce, and topped with crushed peanuts.
Acai Berry
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Whether you’re a health food aficionado who can name all the benefits of an acai berry off the tip of your tongue, or if you are just partial to an acai bowl, Acai Berry will take care of all your acai cravings.
Acai Berry offers — you guessed it — acai-based dishes, from smoothies to bowls. However, it provides an assortment of other options too: a selection of super healthy salads, super juices, super shots, cold-pressed juices, wraps, paninis, coffees, cakes and brownies.
Vegans are inundated with options at Acai Berry, with six out of seven acai bowls suitable for vegans, including the Nutty Heaven bowl, which consists of pure acai topped with either banana or strawberries, then drizzled with high-protein sugar-free peanut butter and granola.
There are a selection of salads that include vegan-friendly options like the Poké Vegan Salad, which is made up of carrots, red cabbage, radish, cucumber, spring onions, carrots, rice, sesame seeds, edamame beans, and tofu, served with an acai berry vinaigrette dressing on the side.
Humbledough
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If you’re craving freshly baked vegan cookies, head to Humbledough to feast on its edible cookie dough, cookies and ice cream specials.
It prides itself in being the first vegan cookie bakery offering a selection of innovative cookies and cookie dough serves, using seasonal and artisanal ingredients. There are an assortment of cookie dough pots on offer, like chocolate orange and mandarin, peanut butter and jam, lemon meringue pie, black forest gateau, cashew caramel banoffee and chocolate classic.
Mercy Burger
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If you want a banging plant-based burger, Mercy Burger will deliver your vegan wishes. Sister store to BOXPARK institution Coqfighter, it provides diners with a choice of six burgers, including a ‘Nashville Hot’ which consists of spicy fried vegan chicken, onions, ‘Mercysauce’ and house pickles.
To quench your thirst, there are oat milk-based shakes on offer in chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours. You can choose from a selection of sides and fries, including vegan chicken nuggets and loaded fries topped with the house sauce, buffalo sauce, jalapeños and crispy onions.
Pieminister
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Australia unlocked. Pieminister radiates founders Jon and Tristan’s love for pies. During their early twenties, they travelled across Australia, consuming copious amounts of pie throughout their journey. Upon returning to the UK, they set up a pie shop in Bristol, whose success sparked a pie revolution in the UK.
Aside from the classic meat pies, they have conjured up a variety of plant-based alternatives, including the Kevin, which consists of chestnut mushrooms, tomatoes, quinoa, baby onions and a red wine sauce. You can embrace the pie experience by welcoming a vegan mash and minty mushy peas on the side.
What The Pitta
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From a spontaneous trip to try a vegan doner kebab in Freiburg to creating a distinguished establishment across London and Brighton, Roj and Cem, founders of What The Pitta, have generated a cult following of vegan doner worshippers.
Fuelled by frustration at the lack of vegan takeaway options, they created their first vegan doner outlet, flipping fresh bread and delivering traditional Turkish dishes with a plant-based twist.
The Mezze Boxes will mesmerise you; with the option of falafel balls or doner pieces, they are served with couscous, a mixed salad of lettuce, onion, tomato, pickled red cabbage, olives, pickled peppers, a dollop of hummus, and tzatziki.
You can also devour its famous Vegan Doner Kebab Wrap, served in a freshly made flatbread, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickled red cabbage, hummus, tzatziki, and jalapeño peppers.
Voodoo Ray’s
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If you have a passion for pizza, Voodoo Ray’s will provide the goods. Serving by the slice, it provides diners with an array of 22-inch pizzas to decide from, with two slices equalling an 11-inch pizza!
It is famed for its frozen alcoholic beverages, including the signature frozen margarita, made using golden reposado tequila, agave syrup and juicy citrus.
You can embody plant-based royalty by devouring its Vegan Queen pizza, which is topped with artichoke hearts, green olives, red onion, sun-blushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and a green sauce. Voodoo Ray’s also offers a vegan garlic mayo, so you can smother your pizza in a garlicky blanket.
Rudies
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Transport your taste buds to the stunning island of Jamaica by sampling the Jah Love vegan dishes at Rudies. After traveling across Jamaica to uncover the ultimate jerk techniques and recipes, the team behind Rudies has delivered authentic Jamaican cuisine to the heart of Shoreditch.
Its vegan menu embraces Jamaican vibes with the Ital Vital, consisting of sautéed ackee and sweet peppers, spinach callaloo, fried plantain and rice and peas, and the Trini Doubles, which is made up of two baras (a fried flatbread) stuffed with curried chickpeas drizzled in sweet and spicy condiments.
To wash down the meal, you can try two classic Jamaican beverages: rum punch and Red Stripe.
The Athenian
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Transporting the taste of Greece to BOXPARK, Tim and Neo, creators of The Athenian, use local producers and small independent Greek companies to reduce their carbon footprint, whilst creating delicious, traditional Mediterranean dishes.
They have a variety of vegan options, including popular Greek street food favourites such as gyros. This can be prepared in either a wrap, a box or naked, with the vegan option being a combination of seitan and soya, served with a dollop of The Athenian’s signature sauce or the aubergine dip.
The Athenian has created an array of plant-based fries and croquettes, including courgette fritters that are slathered in The Athenian sauce and the loaded fries with vegan gyros pieces drizzled with either The Athenian sauce or aubergine dip.
Looking for more plant-based options in Shoreditch? Check out our vegan guide to Shoreditch.
BOXPARK Wembley
Kabab
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Serving up a mixture of modern Mediterranean dishes, Kabab embodies classic dishes like stuffed pittas and falafel salad boxes.
Vegans are inundated with a variety of options such as the falafel pitta, marketed as “crispy on the outside, soft on the inside”, or the Roasted Cauliflower Salad Box, served with a mixed leaf base, a Greek slaw, with either a tabbouleh or Greek salad.
Mama Jacq’s
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Inspired by its Vincentian roots, the Coudougan family is serving up authentic Caribbean cuisine with plenty of plant-based options.
The menu at Mama Jacq’s begins with the Nature Isle, which offers customers a choice between a chickpea curry served with coconut rice and peas and plantain, or Jerk Tofu served with coconut rice and peas, plantain and a ginger-infused herb salsa.
You can get your hands dirty with a chunky chickpea curry burrito, stuffed with a flavoursome chickpea curry, coconut rice and peas, plantain, spinach, guacamole, and sour cream, served with a drink worth £2.
Nanny Bills
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Paying homage to their grandma Bill’s café, which was a North London institution in the ’70s and ’80s, Nanny Bills serves up hand-pressed burgers, mac and cheese croquettes as well as an array of flavourful dips.
Vegans can indulge in a burger named The Luna, with a black bean and quinoa patty, vegan cheese, teriyaki-glazed pineapple, pink onions, vegan burger sauce and shredded lettuce squashed between a seeded bun.
There’s a choice between rosemary or seasoned fries to accompany your meal.
Oatopia
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Celebrating the humble oat and born from the lack of healthy and nutritious food served at endurance sports events across the UK, Oatopia serves specialty porridge, artisan flapjacks, and even a revolutionary oat burger.
The range of porridge is wide, providing dairy and vegan options alongside a collection of toppings. Whether you’re a caffeine connoisseur or a smoothie drinker, Oatopia makes its smoothies with oat milk, fresh bananas, Mornflake oats and a drizzle of agave syrup, with smoothies such as the Banutty on offer.
In addition, Oatopia have developed an innovative Oat and Bean burger, sneaking their favourite cereal into the patty, which is then topped with tomato, avocado, red onion chutney and spinach.
Thai Express
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Thai Express has twisted and transformed traditional Thai dishes to reinvent “the fast food crisis” in the UK. The team was sparked by the sad stereotype of a cold soggy sandwich frequenting many Londoners’ lunchboxes, and was determined to provide fresh, quick and fun food for everyone to enjoy.
It provides an enormous range of vegan dishes, such as stir-fried aubergine, which is made up of thinly sliced aubergines smothered in the house soya sauce, served on a bed of jasmine rice with onions, carrots, peppers, and basil.
BOXPARK Wembley also has a branch of The Athenian.
BOXPARK Croydon
Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen
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Cooking up authentic Caribbean cuisine in Croydon is award-wining Bajan chef Michael Springer, founder of Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen. With the approval of Ready Steady Cook legend Ainsley Harriot, Springer has acquired a reputation for his classic Bajan dishes such as his fried plantain.
Starting with Taste Bud Teasers, vegans can sample Festivals, which are golden-brown Caribbean dumplings slathered in sugar essence and cornmeal. Moving to mains, Springer offers plant-based diners a Vegan Fried Chicken meal or a Chana Curry meal. You can ramp it up with an authentic handmade Caribbean Dhal Puri Roti, which can be stuffed with Chana curry.
Chilango
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Dan and Eric are both devoted to Mexican food. Creating Chilango in 2005, they quit their jobs and embarked on a culinary mission to Mexico to uncover honest Hispanic food. Through hard work and dedication, they have created a restaurant empire across London, serving the likes of Boris Johnson and many more.
Vegans can order either a burrito, a hotbox, a salad or a vegan box, filling it with THIS Isn’t Chicken or vegetables, then topping it with a selection of salsa, guacamole and cos lettuce.
The Gnarbecue
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If you’re partial to a seitan steak sarnie or a bulging plant-based burger, The Gnarbecue can curb your cravings.
Creating a 100% vegan menu, they provide a Texas Steak Sarnie, a fried seitan steak with garlic, crispy onions, special sauce and crispy kale, and a Gnarburger, which is made up of a seitan patty, mayo and lettuce squished into a brioche bun. For sides you can opt for curly fries or loaded ‘gnarly’ fries.
K+K
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Sri Lankan street food is the driving force behind K+K. With its three founders growing up across Sri Lanka, they were driven to transport their childhood flavours to the heart of Croydon.
Incorporating elements of their culture into their restaurant, they have decorated it with traditional masks and art, offering an immersive dining experience.
Vegans can choose from either a Pol Roti — three warm rotis topped with grated coconut, onions and green chillies, and served with caramelised onions and a plant-based dal — or an idiyappam, which are five steamed pancakes, made of rice flour noodles, served with a plant-based dal.
MEATliquor
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Despite the name, MEATliquor provides plenty of plant-based options for vegans. Embodying all things American, it is famous for serving burgers, hot dogs, and a fantastic selection of fries. It also offers a Green and Serene section for vegetarians and vegans.
You can choose from a Burgaloo, a house-made spiced potato, beetroot and black bean patty, served with red onions, pickles, lettuce, ketchup and garlic mayo, Satan Fingers, which are battered seitan fingers smothered in chilli sauce, then served with a garlic dip, or Black Bean Chili Fries.
The Noodle Bar
Hungry? 🍜 The Noodle Bar Croydon!
Posted by Boxpark Croydon on Thursday, 21 February 2019
Serving sizzling speedy Asian food, The Noodle Bar caters for vegetarians and vegans alike. Wok-frying its noodles, it offers plant-based options such as Singapore rice vermicelli noodles and ‘special’ Pad Thai rice noodles served with vegetables and tofu. It also offers a Ramen Noodle Soup, which can be topped with vegetables and tofu too.
Raveoli
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Raveoli prides itself in serving “fresh, handmade, vegan ravioli” in seven different flavours for you to eat there or a raw option to take away and cook at home.
You can choose from flavours such as porcini mushrooms and truffle and Bolognesi, then slather your ravioli in either a green pesto, tomato and basil, sage and extra virgin olive oil, or white cream and pepper sauce.
Toppings come in abundance with a choice between chilli paste, vegan cheese shavings, smoked tofu shavings, or truffle oil.
BOXPARK Croydon also has branches of Oatopia, Thai Express and What The Pitta.
