London: The Gallery Cafe

On our fourth day in London, we stopped at Holland & Barrett again for some breakfast on the go. We bought another package of mini Provamel soya yoghurts (raspberry this time), and I got this “Italiano” by Veg.Out:

The label describes this as a “Vegetable Lattice Slice”; “Pasta & Fresh Vegetables in a Bolognese Sauce”, and it was basically puff pastry filled with wheat pasta and sauce. It seems strange to put pasta in a pastry, but I actually really liked this! The textures went well together and the sauce was pretty tasty. As with all puff pastry foods, though, this would probably have been much better served warm.

Not long after our breakfast (we got up a bit late that morning), we wandered over to The Gallery Cafe for some lunch. This cafe is a lovely little place (I wish I’d taken more pictures of the interior!) that offers vegetarian and vegan dishes for a decent price. There’s a blackboard with the daily menu behind the counter where you order your food, and the friendly staff are also quite happy to inform you of specials and vegan options. We picked out a table right by the window, so we had a nice view of the garden right behind the restaurant.

My boyfriend ordered a spaghetti bolognese, which is vegan if you leave off the cheese, but I didn’t get a good picture of that. I did get one of my equally delicious meal, which was the daily special:

That day, the special consisted of penne with cauliflower and courgette in a creamy vegan cheese sauce. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this was really good! I don’t think I’d ever had anything like this in a restaurant before, and now I’d like to try making this myself some time. I wonder what they put in the cheezy sauce… In any case, I really enjoyed this. It was quite filling, too.

To go with my meal, I ordered this wonderful organic elderflower soft drink. I had no idea what an elderflower drink would taste like, but I really love this! I’m going to try to buy it more often. I think we also have an elderflower flavoured syrup at home, so maybe I could make my own…

Here’s a picture of the menu outside the restaurant, to give you an idea. Just make sure to check the blackboard inside the restaurant, too, because the menu changes daily. They told us they didn’t have any vegan cakes on offer that particular day, but on other days they might, so make sure you ask the staff about vegan options as well! Everyone seemed super friendly there, and I’d love to go back some day. I know I say this about pretty much every place I visited in London but well… it’s true. I’ll be back with more vegan London pictures later!