Update 03/12/2020: Soho Vegan Market is now closed
Last weekend was so lovely and sunny for us here in the UK. For the first time in a long time, we’ve had an uninterrupted glorious weekend of warm sunshine! So, in proper British fashion, everyone’s making the most of this unusual February burst of sunshine and taking to the city parks to bask in the balmy 15 degrees. Obviously, we didn’t want to miss out on our fair share of fun in the sun, so we decided to visit one of our city’s many vegan markets. On Saturday (which also happened to be our 6th anniversary, go us!) Freya and I visited Soho vegan market. Run by Street Food Union, Soho Vegan Market can be found every Saturday in… you guessed it… Soho!
It’s not the biggest market but we really appreciated that. Sometimes larger food markets can become overwhelming from having so many options. So much so that if I find myself spoilt for choice, simply deciding between one pizza stall or another becomes a difficult task! Luckily for me and my fragile ability to make simple decisions, it seemed that each stall solely represented their cuisine. One pizza stall, one fish and chips stall, one Ethiopian stall etc… oh, and two cakes stores, because you can’t have too much vegan cake! We arrived at around 2 PM for a spot of late lunch and the place was still heaving. It’s great to see that vegan events like this are so popular!
To begin with, we decided to try some Filipino Pancit Palabok from Oh My Gulay Ldn for £9.00. It was a noodle dish topped with vegan prawns. It’s quite a delicious sight to behold. It’s on the steeper side of what we’d like to pay for street food, however, for the price you do get a large bowl. If you only wanted a small lunch I’d even suggest sharing a serving. We enjoyed it for sure, however, we felt it was lacking a little punch. We really wanted to be hit with some bold heat and acidity which was lacking from the dish. That being said, the food did have some lovely, more subtle aromatic flavours. The prawns added texture to the dish and I personally really liked the noodles, they were quite thick and had a slight bite in their texture too, I often find that noodles can get lost in a dish like this and I was happy that this wasn’t the case. If you’ve always wanted to eat Filipino food but found the heat was too much, I’d definitely recommend this.
After another session of browsing the market, we decided to head over to Green Box to try their vegan fish and chips. What’s unique about Green Box is the banana blossom they use to replace the fish. For £9.00 we opted for the ‘small’ which was one battered banana blossom with chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce. The battered banana blossom, unlike the usual tofu tofish, has an amazing layered texture to it!
Besides the battered banana blossom, both Freya and I were particularly impressed by how good the fries were! They were perfectly golden and crispy whilst remaining soft and fluffy on the inside. The condiments were delicious also, especially the tartare sauce. For us, it was just an all-around winner of a meal!
To finally round off the meal we chose a salted caramel brownie slice from Baking Bad Vegan for £3.00. We were given the choice of an edge piece, which was more risen and fluffy, or a central piece, which was denser. It’s nice to be offered a choice! We went for one that was something between the two, dense on one corner and risen on the opposite. This was a sensational brownie! The flavour of the salted caramel was delicately balanced with the chocolate.
We loved our outing to Soho vegan market, I’d recommend it to anyone! Its atmosphere is the perfect balance of that busy central London feeling mixed with those times spent with friends having a natter over some delicious vegan grub.
Soho Vegan Market is open every Saturday from 11.00am till 4.00pm
Soho Vegan Market
Rupert Street, Soho, London, W1D 7PG
@sohoveganmarket
https://www.streetfoodunion.com/markets/
Have you ever been to Soho Vegan Market? If so, we’d love to hear what you thought. Leave us a comment, like, or share this post with your friends.