Alara Health Store

Great vegetarian hot food counter that’s freshly cooked and varies on a daily basis. Yummy homemade cakes free from all the usuals. Some nice and hard to find organic beauty products /​complementary health products. A little on the pricey side but then this is central London I guess. Friendly staff. Quite often get given free beauty product samples to try when I pop in.

Great variety of organic products! Especially for hair and beauty. I came in looking for gluten free bars and unfortunately wasn’t able to find any Lara bars or the other ones I was looking for. However, I ended up choosing this brand called bar9 and I absolutely love it! It’s so filling and super delicious. Only 1£ per bar and even better with the 10% student discount! Just make sure your card has an expiration date on it or have some kind of proof to show you still are a student. I saw the lunch café and the food looked pretty good

Very cool health food shop with lots of vegan meals available. We pretty much visited here every day to stock up on various things which was very handy! It is abit pricey, but vegan things usually are… I wouldn’t recommend buying the «alara» brand raw food as they are extremely bland and not tasty at all like other raw foods can be. I do recommend checking the fridge for premade meals such as the curry or bean mix, and the raw sandwich and raw brownie are superb. The staff are friendly and if you have a student card then bring it for 10% off!

FYI: £5 minimum for card. 10% student discount!
What’s with the 3.5 stars for Alara peeps? This place is lovely and filled with everything you would need in a household. Skin care, shampoo, soaps, groceries, spices, drinks, candies etc. Anything organic that you can’t find in the obnoxious The Grocery in Shoreditch you can find here.
No complains other than the horrible pharmaceutical fluorescent lighting surround the awkward store layout.

Having just come from Alara having spent 20 quid on some vegetarian/​vegan food (sausages, vegetable roasts, pesto, soap etc). However my overall opinion, after having used the shop on many, many occasions over the years, is that the staff at the tills don’t enjoy serving customers. In fact they act as though they would rather be anywhere else God forbid that they actually have to engage or look at the people they are serving. Unfortunately, it’s not a one-​off. I shop local to support businesses like this, but now I am going to look into getting my wholefood supplies
online instead. On a positive note the range of products is generally broad, and café is it’s nice to sit outside in the summer.

Oh. my. god. I prayed for a place like this. I’ve been living in Los Angeles, land of copious amounts of inexpensive health food, and I have been horribly unhealthy in London (by my standards) but this place is AMAZING. Kombucha, sweetened almond milk, fresh-​cooked healthy food. And student discount! I love this place. Seriously, if you are having trouble finding nutritious food at affordable prices in Central London– GO TO THIS STORE.

4 stars for the grocery, but just three for the café. Here’s why:
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Grocery_​
Great range of ingredients and products at the expected prices for organic/​gluten-​free/​raw/​fair-​trade/​ethical goods, nicely displayed in this cosy store.
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Cafe_​
It’s wonderful to discover an organic drinks café but the coffee is not good enough for the coffee list… I ordered a cappuccino which just tasted like frothy milk… so fine if you like weak coffee bot if you’re want a stronger dose. Slightly frustrating to have to pay at the grocery till for what you want to purchase before you will be made your drink (you give the barista your receipt). I understand the point of the system, but it should not have to involve crossing the entire shop floor… at least put a sign in the café bit so you don’t wait to be served there to find out you need to back track.
The hot buffet looked delicious though; dishes ranging in selection from Indian-​style chickpea and paneer to spinach lasagna. Sold by weight (£1.19 per 100g) in biodegradable boxes into which you serve yourself.
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AND… 10% discount for students is never a bad thing.

Summer 2010: Alara introduces its own frozen yogurt. Non-​fat (which is good), but a bit tooooo soft for my liking and only available in natural flavour. Topping selection was a bit underwhelming and not worth the extra money, in my opinion. Disappointed (or relieved perhaps?) that the fro yo wasn’t anything special considering it’s just down the street from me.

Great little shop to get organic whole foods and supplements. I liked the great teas, variety of vegan and gluten free options, and a great little buffet and juice bar. My only complaints: it’s on the pricier side and it’s hard to do do all of your grocery shopping at this place alone.

Nicht ganz so gut sortiert wie der nicht weit entfernte Planet Organic Shop, dafür aber in Punkto Mittagsbüffet deutlich besser: Jeden Tag bekommt man hier ein abwechslungsreiches und extrem schmackhaftes Lunch geboten, welches zahlreiche Salate, Falafel und Reis-​, Hülsenfrucht-​, Kartoffel– und Gemüsegerichte umfasst. Der Preis berechnet sich nach Gewicht, was das ganze nicht ganz billig werden lässt, aber ein randvoller Teller, für den man zwischen £ 6,00 — 9,00 bezahlt, ist absolut jeden Pence wert! Außerdem lassen sich im Alara noch zahlreiche (zumeist vegane) Cakes und Cupcakes sowie Kaffeespezialitäten, die auch mit Sojamilch angeboten werden, verköstigen. Ferner wird auch Frozen Yoghurt angeboten, den es aber leider, leider nicht mit Sojajoghurt gibt. Auch kann man nur draußen sitzen, weshalb das Alara eher ein Ort für die Sommermonate ist. Trotzdem fünf Sterne für das beste Büffet-​Essen, was ich bislang in London gegessen habe.

Fabulous local organic whole food shop!
Stumbled upon Alara whilst wandering the streets of Bloomsbury, which was fateful because the kiddo and I were in desperate need of some organic veggies, beans and pasta for our dinner (and I’d rather support a local independent then make do at a Sainsbury’s or Waitrose if I can help it). They had much more than I was expecting, and we ended up leaving with tea, natural moisturiser and treats too!
Definitely a great place to buy picnic supplies or healthy takeaway on your way to sit in Coram’s Field with your kid (or Russel Square Garden with a friend!).

This place is great! I think it’s my new go-​to shop for things I really need as a vegan. It’s also nice to know that I can get my shampoos and soaps here in addition to groceries. There’s even a great little buffet inside, where they charge you by weight, as well as a juice bar.
One of the biggest issues though, was the woman running the juice bar when I was there. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was new, but I ordered a smoothie and had to teach her how to use the blender. Wasn’t anyone around to teach her how to do things?
But I plan to go back some time… and hopefully raise their rating.

Excellent shop, with a very wide selection of organic and health foods. They have a a fair few larger packs to get the bulk discounts.
The lunchtime food is a real treat. There are usually 5 – 6 hot dishes to choose from, with choices such as Quinoa and peas, Roast Potatoes, Date Curry — v special and chickpea coconut curry. The cold section has beetroot hummous, red cabbage salad, falafel etc etc.
The best value and the tastiest veggie food in central London in my book.

I award this joint five stars for fabulous food, and deduct three for EXORBITANT prices; having just got stung for a tenner for a bottle of pomegranate juice and a carton of lasagne and haricots from their lunchtime buffet (at £1.50 per 100g), I thought ‘OK, Simon — maybe you’re just a greedy pig. On recounting the tale to our office admin, it turns out that she’d suffered the same fate.
Q:Why didn’t I just say ‘oh, I’ll leave it thanks’, when I got to the till? Or maybe ‘oh, OK. I’ll put a little back (it was a fairly big portion — what you’d expect from Pizza Express, I reckon, for £2 less).
A: I didn’t say it because I’m a wuss and I didn’t want to seem mean.
Learn from me, gentle reader. Do not buy lasagne and beans from this joint, or if you do, take your own scales!

So far everyone’s gonna think that all I do in London is eat. And that I’m obsessed with organic shops.
That’s pretty much true though I went to Gagosian yesterday to check out the freakin’ awesome Takashi Murakami’s panel that has nothing to do with Alara Wholefoods that has a nice help yourself buffet during lunch time and has eco-​friendly wooden forks and knives and has all these homemade dishes that includes stuff like jasmine rice and veggie lasagna and mushrooms with onions made in a way that I can’t explain but it’s delicious and makes you feel healthy and hungry a few hours later if you do not eat like Godzilla which is good ’cause then in the afternoon you can go back there and get an organic yogurt and organic fruits and maybe an astonishing muffin if you are a warrior like me and all.

To sum it up, you’d like this little grocery store if you come from vegetarian-​organic-​hippie-​health-​conscious stock. It sells lots of little goodies, and a simple visit for some vegan egg-​replacer (or, you know, something of the same ilk) can end up being quite costly, as you’ll inevitably find that some exotic tea, organic lip balm, gluten-​free muesli, and freshly made vegan rice pudding has fallen into your basket.
Come at lunch time and try some delicious vegetarian grub from the hot bar in the corner and enjoy it alongside others at the outside tables.

After doing some research on the Internet I was charmed to find that there was a small organic market just around the corner from where I live. This afternoon, I visited the whole foods market during my walk.
Alara isn’t just a market though! They stock all kinds of organic and all natural products, from household cleaners, beauty supplies, and snacks. They carry an organic beauty line I use sometimes, Avalon Organics. I’m glad they have a nice selection. Many of their products read paraben and aluminum free on their labels. They also carry Tom’s All Natural Products, Green People, Ecover. and tons more.
In the other half of the store there is a surprisingly large floor to ceiling shelf of organic snacks. I was in awe from such a large selection. Though I was very tempted, I decided only to grab a bag of organic Japanese crackers. Though everything was reasonably priced.
I will have to venture back another day to try their hot foods!

Outside this organic grocery every morning will be kids with dread locks and backpacks, having breakfast before continuing on their tours of Europe. There are hostels dotted all over this area and this is where the hippy kids like to shop. I have found it useful in the past, as one of the few organic food shops in London. The selections isn’t huge but you can live on it if you had to. I would kill to have a branch in Turnpike Lane (my new area of residence). You can get health foods as well as teas and products for your body. There is a café where you can grab lunch if you are in a hurry. It is more expensive than a basic grocer but reasonable for organic food.

I end up in this area quite a lot as I have a friend who lives close by. So I go to Alara quite a bit. Generally you get mostly supplements in these stores but I was impressed with their selection of frozen and fresh vegetarian foods.
They have a hot counter where you can get good quality choice of vegetarian health foods like tofu and vegetable dishes.
They have wide isles in this store so you can move around without bumping into everybody. This is important for me as I like to stand and read the labels on the supplements without feeling like I am constantly in the way.
Nice friendly local store.

Alara sells cheap sprouts. I bought mark down sprouts here once for 99p. This is not a regular occurance but it was good when it happened.
Today I was hungry and I needed nourishment and I bought a falafel, hummus and tabbouleh package and a proavil shake here. The hot bar was closed so I settled for the cold offerings.
This store is nice and large and well priced, considering the location. This guy in front of me on the que bought about 10 natural toothpastes here whilst I watched wondering why he was stocking up.
I think this store is top notch.