Hadestown at London’s National Theatre: A Riveting Epic of Love, Death...and Capitalismby Randi / November 22, 2018
When I last lived in Philadelphia, I lived in the Rittenhouse Square area, right near the big (only?) Barnes and Noble on the corner of 18th and Walnut. Literally the day after I ended my lease, HipCityVeg, a super cool vegan ‘healthy but fun food’ joint, opened across the street from my old apartment. They had burgers, wraps, fries, shakes, all really fantastic too. (Of course their management is questionable at best but this isn’t a post about them.) So of course, of COURSE, I have to tell you that I used to live on Commercial Street, right outside Spitalfields market, right across the street from As Nature Intended, the organic shoppe. And lo, what has opened up right on that block recently? A super cool vegan ‘healthy but fun food’ joint, what else? Let me know if you’re looking to open up a similar place and I’ll tell you when I move from my current house, since I guess that’s the game the universe has chosen for me. Genesis, this newest addition to London’s vegan, organic, swanky, instagram-friendly restaurant scene, is a great addition to the neighborhood, but it’s a good thing I don’t live as close to it anymore, because it’s way too expensive.
Definitely the best decorated new place I’ve seen in a while, Genesis nails that chic fancy-casual (it’s a thing) vibe that Spitalfields and Shoreditch embrace more and more. Even the food market inside Spitalfields, once just shaky frames that would get taken down every evening, is now mainly composed of permanent counters that give the impression of easy street food but are upscale and expensive. Genesis is all cool, bright, and pink upstairs, with neon lights and fun artwork and signs advertising their choice to cook everything in avocado oil (supposedly healthier, probably more expensive). It feels like it could be an ’80s throwback, but also with ’70s New Mexico decor? It’s cute and fun. OH the only bad thing is – sometimes there is incense burning near the counter where you order, and where some diners will eat. That is like Restaurant 101, to never have strong smells competing with the food smells, especially near (or at!!) seats where it’ll interfere with people’s ability to taste the food. Did you never watch the Top Chef episode where the judges berate the team who puts scented candles on the tables? (One of three episodes I have seen.) Downstairs is dark, crowded, and feels like a late-night joint even earlier in the day (and where decent pictures are impossible). I have now eaten upstairs, downstairs, and via takeaway, so I am equipped to pass my judgment.
The menu, the giant gorgeous menu above, is probably the greatest sounding ever. I can’t remember any place I’ve ever been more excited about after looking at the menu. It is BALLER. Everything sounds amazing. Whoever created it really did a fantastic job. It’s random, with burgers and hot dogs and also laksa? and Indian food? but you get the worldly joyous feel they were going for.
Execution of the food is not as fantastic. It’s fine, don’t get me wrong, and some things are great. But nothing is so incredible that it warrants how expensive it is. Let’s take a look.
Let’s start with the apps and sides. The small plates, if you will, although most things here would fit that description. When I was there with a party of three, we ordered the nachos and the cheese sticks to start. I mean, guys, look at these portions. I could have housed both of these myself and still had room for my main. The bowl for the nachos is what most restaurants would serve a cup of soup in. Not even a bowl of soup! A cup! They were pretty good, but they needed more toppings to make it more ‘nacho’ and less ‘tortilla chips with some sprinkles’. Good, not great; small, not large. The nacho cupasoup bowl is £9.50!!! That is essentially 10 pounds for a handful of chips, a literal tablespoon of guacamole, and some peppers. I could make my own nacho trough for that price, and that’s expecting that I’d have to go through five or so avocados before finding a good one, LONDON.
But that was fine and whatever compared to the cheese sticks. Guys, do you see the cheese sticks? First of all, they were AMAZING. So delicious, so impressive – they found that right texture between solid and creamy that few purveyors of vegan mozzarella et al. cheese sticks have been able to. But that’s the full portion – three. And at least on my computer, the picture is true to actual size. They were about the size of my pinky finger, no longer or wider. And there were JUST THREE. And it cost £5.95! That’s a motherforking £2 PER PINKY. I didn’t realize how expensive they were because I didn’t pay for them but MAN ALIVE. I really liked them too.
The tacos are the best part of Genesis, I think, because even though one taco is £5 and that is ridiculous, that’s also about market rate for vegan tacos in London, at least compared with the queen of all vegan Mexican food, Club Mexicana. So fine. And the tacos here are really good. I’ve tried the smoked chorizo, with tomatillo salsa, potatoes, and pico de gallo; the fried avocado taco, with refried beans, pico de gallo, and sour cream; and the jackfruit hoisin, with jackfruit ‘duck’, hoisin mayo, cucumber and spring onion, and they were all RG. The fried avocado I’d say is my favorite, and then the jackfruit duck. Their duck piece was more solid than jackfruit usually is, which I liked. So, solid taco game, Genesis!
The next up of the small plates, maybe we’ll call them the Mindy St. Claire Medium Plates, if you will, do not fare as well. Nothing is bad, as I said above, but some things aren’t executed as well as others, especially for the price.
I’d been waiting a while to try the kamut mac & cheese, because they can’t do it to go, something about how it’s cooked in its wee pot. So we got it on our third trip, and while it was fine, it was kind of bland. And I love bland food. Also, this little ramekin is tiny. Given the trend so far, I’m sure it’s exactly what you’d expect here for £6.50, but in a regular place for that price I’d expect double the portion.
My most disappointing dish was the kale caesar salad. You know I love salad, like weirdly all the time love it and I even put regular food on top of salad often, so it’s no surprise I ordered this on my first visit. They offer two sizes for their salads, and I got the large. Or so I thought. Does this look like the large? I shudder to imagine what they serve the small size in, Dixie cups?? The perspective in the picture is a little off for comparing, but the salad bowl was about the same size as a taco, and about as deep too. The lettuce and kale were in too-big pieces, making it super awkward to eat. They definitely need to cut the leaves smaller. But at least it allows you to see how small the portion was – I mean you can count the total number of leaves in the bowl. It’s about 10. I can’t really believe that this is actually the large size, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that there was a mistake and this was the small, because for £12, Ima need more than 10 leaves.
The bigger dishes are much more satisfying, both in terms of value and taste. My favorite is the sabich, mainly because you get two. It’s little Israeli pita sandwiches with aubergine, red onion, green tahini, cucumber, tomatoes, and the best little tofu egg scramble. The flavor here was wonderful and I really liked it. And for £7.95 it’s the best value in the whole place. Would recommend!
Please excuse this picture of my takeaway, but it’s the torta Milanesa. And this is another one that’s pretty decent value and a great taste! Two in a row! I really enjoyed this super hearty, flavorful Mexican sandwich. Its base is panko-dipped aubergine slices, which were a little tough to bite without taking the entire slice out of the sandwich, so I’d recommend that they cut them into smaller pieces. But with the lettuce, avocado, chipotle mayo, salsa, onions, tomato, and coconut cheese, it was a great flavor. It says there’s nopal cactus in there too which is awesome but I didn’t really notice it. Regardless, this is a great sandwich, and for £9.95 it’s a lot but decent for this restaurant.
We also tried one of the hot dogs. Honestly, the reason I recommend the hot dogs over the burgers is purely based on size. If you aren’t that hungry, then order a burger. They are tiny. They’re a little bit tall, but they are the circumference of sliders. Literally half the size of a Vurger burger (which is around the corner, and cheaper, just saying). But the hot dogs are well-sized. For about £11, they better be. This sauerkraut dog is the simplest of the hot dog offerings, but is solid. I know I’m criticizing a lot, but look at that plate, and imagine a burger about a 1/3 of the size of the hot dog (at best) all alone on that plate. It doesn’t take a lot to add something, even if it’s just a few pieces of lettuce and onion, on the side so it doesn’t look so lonely and depressing.
Genesis has a banging dessert menu, including my favorite food in the world: soft-serve. I know. It’s really delicious but much richer than the typical cheap soft serve that I love out of those magical machines. I was told that it’s a mix of cashew and coconut, which accounts for the richness, and for the cost, I guess. It’s £3.95 for this little cup, which is okay I guess for London, typical, fine. But then each topping is another POUND. Man, at least make the little sprinkle of chocolate shavings 50p or something. A whole pound for a teaspoon of powder seems extravagant. I would have loved to have tried the soft serve with the chocolate sand (as pictured) and the honeycomb together, as a server recommended, but £6 for a little baby cup would have been too much.
They also use the soft serve for their milkshakes, which are great, I must say. You know I rail on and on about how London can’t do good milkshakes because they are too thin. But Genesis does them pretty great. Although, again, for £7, jeez louise.
So given its expensive location in the gentrified-beyond-recognition area of Spitalfields, and given that it has a decent number of (actually really nice) staff, and given that they use hundo p organic ingredients, I’m sure the prices are warranted to cover costs. It’s just that they could try a little to make it not seem like you’re getting ripped off. It doesn’t cost much in terms of time or effort to throw a basic af side salad on the plate with the sadly small burger, or throw some cheap fries next to the hot dog. And would it really cost them that much more to have another cheese stick or two in that order, considering at the moment it’s three little bits the size of mini gherkins??? I’m trying really hard to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding their price points, but the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems. I mean THREE CHEESE STICKS. For SIX POUNDS! That is 2 pounds per little fried mini Gherkin. As someone who has eaten her fair share of overpriced food, I can say with a fair deal of certainty that there’s nothing in a 1.5 inch piece of fried (delicious) goop worth 2 whole freaking pounds.
But if you know what to order (the sabich, the torta) and what to skip (the cheese sticks, the salad! le sigh), then you can at least have great food for an okay value, at least given the area. And that way it doesn’t feel too excessive to get soft-serve too! I feel bad being so critical of this place because I really do like the food and I really really like the staff. And they have nice bathrooms! But most of the dishes are just so g-d overpriced. Given how much great vegan food is in the area, and for so much cheaper, I can’t really justify going here all that regularly. But if you are in London, you give it a try! And tell me I’m wrong! I’d love to be wrong.
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Morimoto Philadelphia: The Original Sushi Lovers’ Paradise Has Wonderful Vegan Options
Despite living in Philadelphia since Morimoto opened, I never ate there until after I became vegan. It might seem like unfortunate timing to many, but the vegan options are so wonderful that anyone, vegan or omnivore, would be more than satisfied eating fishless here. I called the restaurant when I was helping The Humane League make the new Philly Veg Dining Guide, and the person I spoke with was so excited to talk about their fantastic vegan options that it warranted inclusion.
It’s still milk! |
Now it’s tofu! |
I’ve tried many dishes and still not all of them. I started with the yosedofu, which I’ve heard is one of Morimoto’s most famous and beloved dishes for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Perhaps the most authentic dish on the menu, the yosedofu is a soft tofu that is made at your table. The server brings a clay pot of fresh soy milk to your table, stirs it with a flourish, and covers it for 10-15 minutes. When the time is up, the lid is lifted and you magically have a dish of solid tofu! It usually comes with a crab sauce, but the vegetarian option was some type of carrot-y goo. The tofu was insane, obviously the freshest you could ever imagine, but begged for a strong sauce. This goo was not that sauce. I ended up using a lot of soy sauce to give it the necessary kick. The video below shows the waiter stirring the soy milk for way longer than you need to watch it.
The tofu, now plated
Speaking of the soy sauce, the #1 rule for vegetarian dining at Morimoto is to ask for the vegetarian soy sauce! What kind of soy sauce isn’t vegetarian by default, you ask incredulously? Morimoto’s house soy sauce, that’s what. It’s ‘infused’, or some other fancy word, with fish sauce. E. Gads. Like I said, #1 rule.
Next I tried a dish that I have been craving daily ever since I had it, the cha-soba, which are green tea noodles, chilled, with scallions, wasabi, sesame seeds, and shoyu. I don’t know how these subtle noodles won me over but they did. I didn’t quite get the green tea – maybe I don’t actually know what the flavor of green tea is if it’s not over-steeped actual bitter tea – but there was a special, new taste to them that was lovely. I love noodles. Noodles noodles noodles. Watch them go down. Down into my belly.
Noodles. Every time you eat them, you get smarter.
See you tonight! Sushi! Sushi!
Surprisingly, the sushi rolls were less impressive, though of course delicious. At a place like this, you’d expect even their vegetarian sushi rolls to be as innovative and remarkable as the fishy rolls. But, although the seasonal vegetable maki and the shiitake mushroom rolls were great and I could eat 100 of them, they were basic. They weren’t noticeably better than anything I’d get from the local great but non-veg sushi place. Maybe I’m just super-spoiled by Beyond Sushi, the all vegan sushi joint in NYC, which I have pretty much every single weekend. Okay, I’m definitely spoiled by Beyond Sushi. But shouldn’t Morimoto be better than a counter in Chelsea Market? He needs to add some creative vegan sushi to the menu.
Two of the main entrees can be made vegan, and while I didn’t get them, I will need to next time because they both sound great. One, the ishi yaki bop, is rice cooked with vegetables and tofu (for the veg option) in a hot stone bowl that crispifies the components, like a bi bim bap. I know you are shocked I didn’t get something with the word bop in it. Next time. The other option was another rice and tofu-based dish that sounded wonderful.
Two of the main entrees can be made vegan, and while I didn’t get them, I will need to next time because they both sound great. One, the ishi yaki bop, is rice cooked with vegetables and tofu (for the veg option) in a hot stone bowl that crispifies the components, like a bi bim bap. I know you are shocked I didn’t get something with the word bop in it. Next time. The other option was another rice and tofu-based dish that sounded wonderful.
My favorite dish was the yasai ramen, an already vegetarian soup with vegetable broth, rice noodles, and Japanese vegetables. The vegetables were not as plentiful as I would have hoped (or cut small enough! It got messy), but there were lots of those stick-like mushrooms that I love. And more importantly, the broth was superb. It was the best soup broth I have ever tasted. Stuffed at this point, I still needed to finish this enormous bowl. I would go back and just get this ramen. I wonder if Morimoto does orders for pick-up. This huge bowl of perfect soup was only $12, too, so it’s pretty much the same price as any ramen you’d get from any street corner noodle shop. What a great deal! The rest of the menu is pretty incredibly expensive, but this ramen is so filling and delicious you’d be set just having this and proving to your friends that eating vegan can be cheap, even at four-dollar-sign restaurants! (Just don’t ever split the bill evenly. Ever. Always say, “Nah let’s each pay for what we got.” Jesus.)
Someone remind me what my favorite kind of mushroom is called.
MORIMOTO, PHILADELPHIA
- Water speed: Decent, but the glasses are too small. What is it with fancy restaurants and tiny glasses? Give me enormous beersteins or something!
- Bathrooms: Downstairs and lovely, as expected in fancy restaurants. HOWEVER, my biggest gripe was that one sink was marked as ‘out of order’, but was just running nonstop. I talked to the hostess and she said “Yeah, that’s broken.” I asked if someone was called to SHUT THE WASTING WATER OFF, and she said yes but like, how long does it take to get a plumber to just shut off the water? How long did they let it run? Ughhh stabby.
- Service: It was fine at first, but then in the second half of our meal, our waitress was nowhere to be found. It got so bad that we were going to order dessert, and then too much time went by that it was like bedtime so we just asked another waiter for our check. When it was time to pay, our waitress came back and looked super out of it. I blame the rampant drug problem that occurs behind the scenes at fancy restaurants.
- Food: Delicious and interesting, for the most part. Great place to bring omnivores for a special occasion (it is expensive!)
- Bonus: Eating at an Iron Chef’s restaurant is pretty cool, even if he wasn’t there.
The Best Vegan Restaurant in London: Club Mexicana at Spread Eagle Pub
I know, I’m going super big and bold with that title but you know what? It is 8 sleeps till Christmas and as ‘Love, Actually’ told us, “it’s Christmas, and at Christmas, you tell the truth” (there’s a lot of weird shit in that movie but that’s probably the strangest statement passed off as universal knowledge). And that’s the truth, babies! Club Mexicana, formerly at the Dalston bar Pamela and now at the Spread Eagle Pub in Hackney, is serving up the best vegan food of any restaurant in the city. That’s an incredible feat, considering it’s Mexican (or “Mexican-inspired”) food, a cuisine London just cannot do well (it’s understandable given how far we are from Mexico but still). But for Club Mexicana, every single dish is a stellar achievement. Everything we tried absolutely wowed us, and even though we were so full we wanted to shout for another round of everything. If this new location were closer to me (it’s a PITA) I’d be there every week.
Even though London is positively crammed full of vegan options, I find that vegan restaurants here are mostly fine, not great. The best food in town is always, always found at stalls in street market set-ups, which are plentiful. So it’s no surprise that Club Mexicana started as one of those food stalls, in the Camden market. They still maintain their street food cred with stalls here and there, but their residency at the Spread Eagle is the way to go. It’s a cool, quirky pub, with vintage jazzy decor and candlelight. Like I said, this new location is inconvenient for me and I wish they had some delivery system worked out, but alas, it will remain a super special option for when we feel like sitting on buses for hours. And honestly, it would be so worth it.
We went recently when a friend was visiting and had simply the best meal in ages. Everything we ordered was sensational. My only issue was our table placement – we were right at the end of the bar, by the gap where servers had to continually go in and out of the bar area and where other customers would need to walk to enter the restaurant so we were jostled the entire time and it was tres annoying, . If you book in with them, request that you don’t get this table. I wanted to shout DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM but the situation on its face proved that the answer would be in the negative.
Other than that, it was the best. We started with nachos, as you have to do. When Club Mexicana first appeared on the scene and had one of their early pop-ups, I complained (of course I did) about how the nacho toppings, though fantastic, were stingy and left you with a basket of dry corn chips after not too long. Well, they kindly responded and instead of calling me out for complaining all the time, they said they would start putting all the good stuff on all the chip layers. That was almost four years ago! Obviously, they have the best nachos now, with great guacamole, red pepper queso, their signature pink onions, salsa, pickled jalapenos, sour cream, and chipotle chili oil. All I can do is quote the Hormone Monstress (see caption/watch “Big Mouth”).
“That was BEAUTIFUL!!! NO NOTES!”
Next on the small plate list was chipotle roasted pumpkin wedges. I didn’t think these would be too special because I was like “I eat pumpkin and other wintry squashes all the time, what could you do to blow me away?” but of course I was wrong because these trickster pumpkin wedges were amazing. They were big and delicious and cooked perfectly so there was no toughness left but they still had shape, and the chive aioli was perfect. It could have possibly used more to life up the flavor more but still, so good.
“Beautifully done my little yoda”
One of the most impressive Club Mexicana creations is their Mexican fried chicken wings, so we had to get an order. They have the perfect texture and the spicy fried coating is incredible. Served with salsa verde, sour cream, and hot sauce, this dish will make any dining companion a CM convert for life. I just wish the serving was bigger and that maybe the sour cream came in a separate container so there could be more for dipping.
“Hello my precious little ravioli”
I also got to try the annato glazed chicken skewers. If you’re choosing between the wings and the skewers, I think I’d give the edge to the wings, but you know what, don’t choose! Order both like we did. The skewers come in the most incredible queso sauce that we found ourselves dipping everything else into. I realize now that I don’t have a picture of the skewers, which makes me wonder if I’m dreaming up the whole thing.
The last of our small plates was the Al Pastor cauliflower, with charred pineapple, sour cream, and toasted cashews. The Al Pastor sandwich from Cinnamon Snail is one of my all-times, so it’s no surprise that this amazing flavor combo worked wonders on bites of fried cauliflower. Honestly cauliflower has no business being this good.
Onto the mains! For the bigger plates, we chose to get combos of their three taco offerings. They offer the tacos 3 for 10$ (that’s pounddollars) so you really can’t say no to that! My favorie upon favorites is the Baja tofish. Their tofish is the stuff of legend, and for dern good reason. It really is the best vegan fish anything ever. Man alive it’s incredible. The tofish taco is served with pickled cabbage, salsa verde, sour cream, and pickled chilis and it’s just perfection. The other two tacos are strong as well: we tried the jackfruit barbacoa (beef style jackfruit in salsa roja, roasted padron peppers, salsa verde, and sour cream) and the chorizo & potato (with salsa verde, chipotle mayo, pico de gallo, and pickled jalapeno). All three are sensational, really, but I think next time I should stop fooling myself and just get three of the tofish. I’m kind of obsessed.
You probably know by now that I’m weirdly obsessed with salad, and I try to force lettuce into most of my meals, so it should be no surprise that we (I) also ordered the autumn salad. It was a really big portion, great for sharing, and it was filled with roasted cauliflower, charred pumpkin, candied beetroot, mixed leaves, Mexican slaw, jalapeno-mango salsa, chive aioli, and toasted cashews. This was a fantastic salad, although it would benefit from cutting the leaves and the spiralized veggies into small, more manageable pieces. And it could have used more dressing, and more of a creamier one at that. But as salads go in places where your tablemates scoff at you for ordering a salad, this was among the better ones.
No trip to Club Mexicana is complete without dessert. They proved they know what’s up back at Pamela with their Choco Taco offering, oh man. While that was missing from the Spread Eagle menu, they more than made up for it with the current dessert list: a lemon & blueberry taco stack, and deep fried ice cream. Now, listen. The ice cream is from Black Mylk, which is just the greatest vegan ice cream maker in London, nbd. So I was so stoked to be able to get their ice cream here and not just at their stall in weekend markets hither and thither. Because their ice cream is so good, I wanted it just plain, not fried. But the staff said they couldn’t do that because it’s already prepped with the frying mixture or whatever. I was kind of annoyed, but there was no reason to be, because as intended with the crunchy fried coating, it is unbelievably delicious. They offer the deep fried ice cream in three flavors: Mexican chili chocolate, toasted honeycomb, and black rice horchata. Since there were three of us, we got all three! They are all wonderful but I think the horchata is my favorite, followed by the honeycomb. You really can’t go wrong though. I bet you think that’s all we got for dessert, but we also decided to get the taco stack! It’s sweet fried corn tortillas separated with layers of whipped vanilla cream, lemon curd, and blueberry coulis. Fruit desserts are not my thing, but this was very good. While I’m more of a reserved positive about it, my two companions were blown away by it, so you should give it a try. The homemade lemon curd is really impressive, as is the whipped cream, which I could have eaten a whole bowl of.
the little drink umbrellas in the ice cream lolol
So clearly you have to get to the Spread Eagle asap for some incredible Mexican vegan food. You can’t go wrong with your order, but to be safe, order everything! It’s all so good. Just please bring me if you go.
CLUB MEXICANA AT THE SPREAD EAGLE PUB, LONDON
Water speed: Actually great! They brought carafes and kept them coming, THANK YOU!
Service: Mostly fine.
Bathrooms: A step up from your typical pub bathroom, and a big improvement from Pamela.
Food: SUH. BLIME. Actually great Mexican food in London!
Bonus: We saw Kit Harington sitting nearby at the bar! We were so excited and stared a little too intently. Realized after several minutes of staring that it wasn’t him. BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN.
