Amico Bio

We emailed regarding a reservation, and despite no reply showed up at 7:30 on a Friday evening anyway to find plenty of room. By 8:30pm the restaurant was completely full. A cheerful, diligent and quality-​focused server was fine accepting our order in 2 parts.
We started with an amico bio salad, which consisted of a giant bowl of greens, fennel, pea shoots and sides of sampling of little bowls of marinated, grilled vegetables and oil. Very wholesome, fun and visually appealing.
Next we had a «pie» which was really a vegetable casserole with mashed potatoes on top. Delicious, but my husband wished the vegetables had been more dense and plentiful.
Finally we finished with the Piatto Unico which included soup, risotto, beans, salad, focaccia, potatoes, mayonnaise and cabbage. Delicious. The vegetables are not seasoned — so you have to appreciate the quality of the produce and preparation. My husband said he would have preferred a bit more creativity on the seasoning however.
Wonderful service and delicious vegan food. Delightful space to dine. Would recommend to anyone looking for very high quality dining experience but not a flavor extravaganza!

Durant un w-​e en amoureux à Londres, nous avons voulu tester ce restaurant végétarien très bien classé sur de nombreux sites.
L’expérience a été décevante.
En effet, la signature du restaurant (rappelée à l’aide de grandes affiches sur ses murs) consiste en des produits frais provenant d’une ferme «amie» en Italie.
Mais malheureusement cela né suffit pas à faire des grands plats!
Il faudrait pour cela :
— cuisiner ces produits avec plus de justesse
— les accompagner d’herbes, de sauce… Pour donner du goût
— dresser les plats
— et enfin améliorer le service (et la deco), terriblement médiocre. (On se croirait à Paris, c’est pour dire)
Bref, l’archétype du resto végétarien bien marketé qui «pose» des produits frais mal cuisinés dans une assiette. Aucun intérêt. L’ensemble ressemble à la cuisine d’une ménagère fatiguée.

A mixed bag here but the extra star is for the pumpkin and aubergine timbal.
I started with the pumpkin and cauliflower soup with garlic croutons, expecting a creamy and rich concoction. Instead the soup was like chicken stock, watery and with very little flavor. It had chunks of cauliflower and pumpkin rather than the purée I expected. Only the tiny garlic cubes (barely) saved it.
I got the fried polenta as a side and it really would have helped to have it accompanied with some kind of cheese sauce or dip. It’s good on its own but could be better. I asked the waitstaff and I give props to them in trying to accommodate me as I eventually got a bowl of tomato sauce to dip the fries in.
My entrée was aubergine and pumpkin timbal with lentils. This was the best part of the night. The rich flavor of olive oil and tender veggies mixed well together along with the crunchy greens sprinkled on top. I finished my dish.
The service was meh to say the least. I was mostly ignored and had to ask for the check three times, which was annoying, but when approached all the servers– young women– smiled and were amiable.
I ended up paying £24 with tip and that’s pretty expensive for one person so I’d unlikely return even though the timbal was quite good.

As part of our monthly dinner dates, my friends and I decided to veer from our usual noodles night to check out Amico Bio for some vegan fare. From a value perspective, the set menu is definitely a more affordable option — I was a bit surprised by how pricey some of the dishes were as other vegan/​vegetarian restaurants in London tend to be more affordable.
Our service was neither amazing nor subpar — it appears from a number of other reviews that they had a less than stellar experience. I fear I’ve come to expect not being blown away at most London restaurants (which is why I’ll usually note if it was much better than usual or really really much worse).
That being said, from a quality perspective the food was good — the portions were large (actually too large to finish which rarely happens to me in London) & the quality of the ingredients was sound. I tried the papperdelle for my main course, and was ultimately pleased with the selection. The best part by far of the meal was the drink selection — there is a range of organic wines (sans hangover my friends!), and the tea infusions were particularly delightful. Though I would probably not come here again for a meal, I would not be adverse for stopping in for a dessert torte and drinks, as the window spot in the corner is the perfect spot for people watching.

I’m excited to have Amico Bio branch more accessible to me (and other people I guess).
My mom was craving Italian for lunch, so this was perfect as we passed by. The set menu looked incredible, but we couldn’t justify the amount of food (or price) it was offering.
The service was good at first and then seemed to trail off after we ordered.
I had the vegan calzone and it was a MONSTER. I was only going to eat half, and, well you know. Oops! All of a sudden I was very full. It was pretty good, a bit dry, but good. It had a moderate amount of vegan cheese in it, but it was mostly dough. Good, but not particularly memorable.
I would like to come again for dinner or try their set special menu and get something more exciting. So if you would like to help me eat & update my review, let’s go!

Very disappointed. Like the idea of a vegetarian Italian place with lots of vegan and gluten-​free options, but the food was just OK and the service was frightening. My friend ordered a cheese plate he thought was gluten-​free, and it came with bread, so he asked the server about it. She said, «if you don’t want the bread we’ll take away the bread. It’s your choice, you can take it or leave it.» We were left staring at each other in stunned silence after she walked away.

Amico Bio is actually serves some of my favourite vegan food in London; it’s fresh and delicious, and I love everything about them when they get it right — and that last statement is related to why I’m only giving this place two stars.
This is a 100% vegetarian Italian restaurant, and I’ve been eating here for years (initially at the Cloth Fair branch) and have always promoted it as one of London’s best. Sadly, however, there have been several instances of them serving dairy in dishes clearly marked vegan. I have experienced this personally and also have friends who have experienced the same. The manager is always apologetic and the situation remedied, but it’s becoming too frequent an issue for me to trust this establishment.
I hope they take the issue seriously and fix whatever seems to be causing the confusion. If you’re vegan and you decide to try Amico Bio (and really, it’s ace taste wise) then quadruple check your order.

Had the best dinner here. Simple mushroom pasta that was not buried in sauce. Staff was very attentive and friendly. Garlic bread starter was excellent. Tried to save room for the vegan cheese platter — but I failed. Next time for sure.

I wonder if Ada C was at the same restaurant? I am not a vegetarian but was with someone who is.
Delicious dinner, charming maître D/​owner, good atmosphere with several fun tables full of Italians who knew the owner.
I would definitely go back if I was in the area, but would not make a trek to get there.

This is a classic example of why vegetarian food gets a bad rap.
All four of us started with the fried broccoli with salad which was essentially several small spears of greasy tempura battered broccoli on some sad lettuce leaves. Aside from being a poor dish, the presentation was abysmal. Similar to something a child would have thrown together if some irresponsible adult had let him/​her in the kitchen.
We waited about 30 minutes for the mains to arrive. Two orders of brown rice risotto came slopped on the plate. A pizza marguerita reminded me of a cheap frozen food item from Iceland and my veggie lasagna not only tasted dry and bland, it was also the size of a starter, definitely not a main. I left the restaurant feeling hungry which is a disappointment given the type of ingredients involved. Surely, the portions can be bigger?
Everything was poorly prepared, poorly flavoured and lacking in any care. All the marketing speak they have posted on the walls about the restaurant’s organic and quality credentials did not reflect in any way on the food we had. One of our friends is a professional chef and boy, he was really not at all impressed.
To top it off, the service was horrible. Very curt wait staff. No smiles or warmth. Really appalling experience overall and in retrospect, we should not have left a tip. Will definitely not be going back. Avoid!

I’ve been to the other branch of Amico Bio and was surprised to see that they had opened another branch since they seemed to be doing so many Groupon deals (which I know result in zero profit). Regardless, the food is good, but still over-​salted in an extreme way. I had the vegan pizza (extra points for that!) with seitan which was a great size and also tasty. Enough to take home too which I love. Service was again slow so they really need to work on that — but still pleased to see more veggie organic options becoming mainstream! x

I went to Amico Bio on a Groupon deal. After having experienced the food, service and atmosphere I cannot believe that this restaurant even needs to go on Groupon to attract customers (I guess they did it because it is newly opened?).
The manager came to our table a couple of times and explained the food we were about to have (I opted for a cheese and pear salad — the manager explained that the cheese was made with rennet produced by some kind of flower in Italy instead of animal rennet). For a main I had the tofu with crispy beetroot which was outstanding, my partner had the smoked cheese ravioli which was also very good (being an Italian vegetarian restaurant there are obviously a lot of pizza/​pasta dishes on the menu). The dessert was good although I couldn’t choose the dish I would have liked because it was excluded from the Groupon deal. My partner had the biscotti with sweet wine which he liked very much too.
I will definitely return to Amico Bio soon although it might be hard to get a booking given the 650+ other people that bought the same Groupon deal I did.
From the waiters t-​shirts it looked like they also have 2 restaurants in Italy, which adds to the restaurants authenticity.