A Guide to London’s Healthiest Places

There’s no finer way to kick off a weekend than with a relaxed brunch. While pancakes, waffles, and fry-ups galore have their time and place – Beany Green is all about the lighter brunch offerings. Their menu sticks to their Aussie roots and is strongly influenced by Melbourne and Sydney café culture. Beany Green use only fresh and seasonal produce from top-quality suppliers, and the atmosphere here is casual but sophisticated. Menu highlights include sweetcorn fritters (served with smashed avocado, poached eggs, red pepper, and feta), and the ‘healthy start’ full brekkie (complete with chilli and maple celeriac toast, avocado, poached eggs, broccoli, and grilled tomatoes). Prices are reasonable and there’s an excellent smoothie menu to boot. What’s not to like?

Wild by Tart is proof that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or tasteless. A neighbourhood restaurant located in a former coal store, the 9,000 sq. ft site combines a restaurant, bar, coffee kiosk, retail store, events space, and photography studio. The menu is full to the brim with sustainable and seasonal food, and the team here strive to source all their ingredients locally. There’s plenty in the mix for vegans and vegetarians, but there are also several sustainably sourced fish and meat dishes too. From aubergine, with cashew satay and crispy shallots (vegan and gluten free), to bream served with a chickpea tagine and aioli, all the dishes are flavoursome but fresh. The prices reflect the quality of ingredients and the service staff are super friendly.

Morito is a fun and lively tapas and mezze bar, serving up seasonal plates, all hovering around the £10 mark. The menu is split into ‘vegetables’, ‘fish’, ‘meat’, ‘moritos’, and ‘postres’. Each dish only showcases a handful of ingredients. Our favourites include the beetroot borani (served with feta, dill, and walnuts), chicken a la plancha and winter tabbouleh, and the grilled leeks (served with romesco sauce). Leave room for dessert – Morito’s vegan chocolate and olive oil mousse, served with hazelnuts and sea salt, is a decadent treat that still errs on the side of healthy.

In many ways, Yottam Ottolenghi is the godfather of healthy eating. He’s known for putting vegetables on the map, and inspiring thousands to adopt Levantine-inspired flavours in their cooking. Rovi serves a menu with vegetables at its core but with a fresh focus on fermentation and cooking over fire. There’s also a large central bar with cocktails based on seasonal spices and house shrubs, and an intriguing low-intervention wine list from small producers. Prices are high, but we promise that it’s some of the tastiest health food you can purchase in the city. To begin, we recommend choosing a selection of small plates to share: real highlights include the celeriac shawarma, coffee roasted beetroot, grilled octopus with borlotti bean piyaz, and the burrata served with muscat grapes and radicchio. Follow with one of their main plates (the vegan Jerusalem mixed grill is excellent) and we guarantee that you’ll leave healthily satisfied, having enjoyed most of your five-a-day!

For one of the most upmarket healthy eating destinations in the city, head to Aqua Kyoto, which serves Japanese food in an uber glossy rooftop setting. There’s a knock-out vegan brunch menu, which includes the likes of miso soup, aubergine with green chilli miso, and matcha green tea soba noodles with edamame, Japanese mushrooms, and onion teriyaki. As you tuck into your healthy feast, you’ll be greeted with terrific views of the city, and five-star table service. Wash down your brunch with a non-alcoholic cocktail (lychee lemonade or passion for plants) and feel smug in the knowledge that you’re managing to eat healthily in such glamorous surroundings!