After hearing incredible things from a number of people about ETHOS, and how I absolutely must go, I finally got round to it and popped down with my housemate Emily. When we walked in it felt very trendy feeling, with a beautiful interior, and was super easy to get to: just 2 mins from Oxford Circus. They specifically cater to Vegetarian & Vegan customers, although if you eat meat you’re obviously more than welcome too! All the food on their menu looked amazing (not to mention pictures I had seen online from other peoples visits!).
ETHOS started as a restaurant wanting to make healthy eating: fun, delicious, and not over complicated. They serve a whole range of creative meat-free cuisine – appealing to Herbivores and Ominovores alike. They use a pay-by-weight concept, so you can try a bit of everything that tickles your fancy and experience some new specialist dishes from around the world. They’re also incredibly conscious of ensuring they cater to specific dietary requirements such as gluten-free, refined sugar-free and dairy-free – which worked well for us (my housemate is coeliac and I’m Vegan as you’re all probably aware of by now)!
The food & drink Emily and I ordered are throughout the post with a bit of info, but I took quite a lot of extra photos of the selection of food available and the restaurant interior, which are at the end of this post – enjoy!
We opted for a Longflint cocktail each, unaware that the drinks were served in rather fancy bottles with lovely designs on the front. I went for a Rose Hip & Gin Fizz, and Emily had the Ginger & Rum Fuego. Both were pretty delicious, without being too sweet or overpowering and I’m looking forward to trying another flavour from their range next time!
You can check out the full range of the drinks available on their menu here.
So the starters we had (or small plates as they are called on the menu) are set sized dishes (as opposed to the pay-by-weight mechanic on the large plates), priced at £5 each or you four for £15. There were four available, with both Vegan and gluten-free options available.
I went for the Tamari Infused Seitan Skewers, served on a bed of cooked veg (onions and peppers I think) and it was absolutely amazing!! If you’ve not tried Seitan before, you really should. Tender seitan with some lovely seasoning/marinading is just so good (and a great meat alternative, I’m told!) – I’m yet to try some I didn’t love.
I can’t find anything about the small plates on the website, so I assume these change daily/weekly! I really hope these skewers are a regular feature on the menu, because everything about the dish was totally delicious.
Now we’ve got to the main event… Behold, my plate of dreams! The food is served in a sort of buffet style: lovely big white dishes filled with colourful mixtures of tasty stuff , so you can take as much or as little of each dish as you would like (bearing in mind you pay by weight!)… As you can see, I went for a bit of everything!
I particularly enjoyed the Japanese Miso Aubergine & Vegan Sheppards Pie which were two of the hot plates. The Broccoli and Carrot with Curried Cashew Cream served with the salads was amazing too. There actually wasn’t anything I put on my plate that I didn’t enjoy. There were mild and strong flavours that complimented eachother, and I could definitely have gone back for more!
You can check out the full range of dishes available on their menu here (scroll down to see more pictures of what was available on my visit).
For dessert I opted for a Raw Raspberry & Vanilla Cream Square, which was absolutely divine and the perfect size! The crumbly texture at the base of the dessert perfectly complimented the sweeter, thicker, top layer – and although it was the “treat”at the end of the meal, it’s completely raw and refined sugar-free – a sweet guilt free dessert! Emily had the ‘Cherry & Chocolate’ dessert, which was a cross between a cake and a mousse. The cherry part was quite squishy and unusual texture-wise, but the flavour was really rich and she finished it all so I think she enjoyed it!
You can check out the full range of dishes available on their menu here (scroll down to see more pictures of what desserts were available on my visit).
My first visit to ETHOS was really great. Despite my name not being down as a reservation, it was quickly resolved and the staff were so helpful. Everyone we spoke to were friendly and happy to answer questions. It was such a lovely meal overall.
I loved that rather than typical Vegan foods, the mixture of flavours in each of the dishes seemed creative and unusual, but in a really great way. On their website they actually have a vision and mission statement, and the food certainly lives up to their mission: “To be constantly innovating and delivering delicious, creative meat-free choices, that are nourishing and non-processed”
ETHOS is open 7 days a week and located in central London, just off Oxford Circus on Eastcastle street, and aswell as sit down meals they offer breakfast, takeaway boxes, and canapes and catering for events. It’s perfect for a breakfast/lunch time catch up with friends, or a more intimate evening date, and certainly somewhere I’ll be recommending and visiting again soon!
This meal was provided for free in exchange for a blog review, but this has not affected my opinion of the evening.
