London's Michelin-Starred Restaurant Pied à Terre Goes Vegan

Fitzrovia's Michelin-starred restaurant has gone vegan to deliver food for its customers during the lockdown.

Located in Charlotte Street Pied à Terre opened in 1991 and is one of the longest standing fine dining restaurants offering vegetarian and vegan meals. 

The restaurant was forced to shut down and lay off its employees in March. It remained closed for about six weeks leaving the owner David Moore uncertain about the future of the business. 

He told Evening Standard: "I think it was kind of depression about what the future would be of our restaurant and hospitality generally. But then after about six weeks I woke up and thought, 'I need to do something'. Other restaurants were offering make-at-home kits, but I knew our usual offering just wouldn't translate. We had never done delivery as our dishes just aren't deliverable and would be overcooked by the time they got to our customers."

Pied à Terre's menu has featured vegan-friendly dishes for several years.

Moore said: "It was an opportunity to spread the word that we did excellent vegan dishes. And we could deliver those dishes easier and keep our menu integrity."

The special Vegan Feast menu is designed to feed two people. Priced at £50, it is available on Fridays and Saturday for delivery and collection. The box for two features three starter dishes, a main course and dessert.

This weekend's menu includes tender stem broccoli with romesco sauce, chilled white bean and truffle soup and pea ravioli with pea velouté. 

The restaurant is working on developing new vegan products such as cashew ricotta-style cheese and will offer it to the clients after reopening.

"It has been eye-opening just how tasty vegan food can be," Moore said. "I have been going to supermarkets and trawling the vegan aisles for inspiration."