UPDATE: TIBITS CLOSED IN 2020

I felt like quite the glamorous high flyer last week when I headed to London for a training day.  I almost wished my neighbour on the train would strike up a conversation with me just so I could say words like “head office” and “going forward”.  Almost.  We all know there’s nothing worse than being trapped next to a talker for three hours (or as Virgin laughingly claim, 2 hours 9 minutes).

After a day of training, I had a bit of time to kill before my train back up north, but not really enough time to wait for table service.  In short, perfect conditions for a buffet!  There is a whole row of Indian restaurants with good vegan options on Drummond Street, right by Euston station (the gateway to the north west).  I’ve enjoyed the lunchtime buffet at Chutneys before, and you can see my plate in all its glory at the top of the page.  Almost everything on the table was vegan – in fact, as the staff informed me, it’s easier to list what’s not vegan than what is.  There were even some good crispy, deep-fried things thrown in too, which is the measure of any good meal.  And I even got chatting to some fellow vegans as well who were raving about the food and pointing me in the direction of the best stuff.

However, that buffet is only in the early afternoon.  To find an evening option, I revisited another favourite, Tibits near Oxford Circus.  A lot of the options were the same as the last time I visited, and I piled my plate high with falafel, hummus, a delicious potato salad, tofu cubes, pasta salad, Thai aubergine curry, mushroom salad and some amazing crispy noodles.  You pay by weight in Tibits and there’s always plenty of choice, with vegan options clearly labelled.

But the real reason I wanted to go was for dessert – Tibits is famous for keeping vegan sticky toffee pudding on the table at all times.  I went for, shall we say, a generous portion, accompanied by vanilla cream.  It was good.  On the train home, my belly was full and mercifully nobody tried to disturb my full-bellied dozing.  A very successful day.