Vegan Routes

I loved everything about vegan routes — the kindhearted staff, the admittedly remarkable atmosphere, the inspiring commitment to all things organic from paper straws to bamboo plates and everything in between, even the cutsie name. Routes… see what they did there?
What I did not like was the food. Let’s just say it did not bode well for my «angry vegan» stereotype from back in my Portland days. I was angry too after finishing my meal and paying £26 for a smoothie, a scoop of what they called hummus, and chickpea stew. Maybe it was because I was still hungry. Or that my straw had literally disintegrated into my smoothie.
I truly do respect the mission, the passion and the execution of Vegan Routes. I’ll just be respecting if from afar more often than not.

It’s a London double-​decker bus. The kitchen is downstairs and the restaurant is upstairs. The food is hippy-​style vegan. But you don’t have to wear a hair shirt to enjoy the locally-​sourced juices, organic lentils and GMO-​free raw vegetables.
It’s tasty, quick and quirky. It’s also very good for people-​watching. The restaurant is parked in the middle of Soho and from the gallery there is a great view of three sex shops, a couple of bars and a bookmakers. People being people.
(Also, I think the right headline for this review should be ‘The meals on the bus go round and round’ but someone already pipped me to the post with a mention of that song. All hail Jonathan Richman.)

The wheels on the bus goes round and round… round and round
The wheels on the bus serves vegan food… vegan food… vegan food.
Me and a friend of mine was in Soho and happen to walk by the route master, parked right outside the NCP car park. We was intrigued by the big massive ‘Vegan route’ sign at the front, so we decided to go in for the kill and gave it a shot. We got on the bus and the woman said they were closing, but she kindly offered to open the bus an extra 30 mins for us to enjoy their food!
The eatery is upstairs (not so wheelchair friendly), inside looked like it was pimped up nicely. They got a smooth beige theme going on and you have space to move around, which is quiet surprising seeing as it was once an old route bus. I got a little nostalgic! We was warm and the smooth Latino music playing in the background made me feel so relaxed that I wanted to sleep on the bus!
I ordered apple and plum pie and a smoothie, my friend ordered the lentil Shepperd’s Pie ALL yummy!
There is not much to chose from the menu however LENTILS NEVER TASTED SO DAM SEXY!

I had dinner at Vegan Routes — which ”is an independent company offering organic healthy home-​made food on a historic routemaster bus” in SoHo last week.
I have often walked past the Routemaster, Bricklane, but haven’t been there yet — so I decided to try out Vegan Routes since it was in central london and I’ve always wanted to try it for the novelty :)
There are only a few things to choose from the menu so I had sweet potato and coconut soup for starters — then a lentil sheperd’s pie for my main. Both were delicious — even the salt’n’pepper was all jazzed up!
You can also byo your own wine. They didn’t have a cork opener though… so we had to run into a pub nextdoor — random!
One of the amusing parts of the experience was that the bus was located outside some ‘adult stores’ — so watching who was entering and exiting some of the stores provided entertainment haha!
Finally, they have a table at the back of the top deck which fits around 8 — 10 people, and includes a plasma screen — so Vegan Routes might be a unique choice next time you have a client meeting or dinner party ;)
Highly recommended — just for the novelty! I would go again. Would be interesting to hear other people’s thoughts?