The Gallery Cafe (Bethnal Green, London)

A couple of central line stops further than I normally go, The Gallery Cafe's both not that far from The City and perfectly located for visiting along with the V&A Museum of Childhood (which is free and highly recommended).

I've been a couple of times in the past year - food, price, waiting time and service all reasonable.

As the name suggests the food and set up is cafe style. Everything's vegetarian and mostly vegan. They've a mixture of communal and individual tables, with a small outside space. On our most recent visit we had a couple of vegan pizzas, which including drinks came to about £20:

Liberal serving of Cheezley and sensible amount of toppings. Fresh dough and crispy base - not stunning but above average.

I'll both return and happily recommend it - whether you're in the area already or fancy a change from the usual Z1 dross.

Ruby Tuesday's (Greenwich, London)

A bit of a non-post here - apologies! Ruby Tuesday's isn't a cafe, restaurant or even a shop. It's worth both a mention however and definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

Ruby's is a cake stall on Greenwich market. Why the fuss? Because the cake is good - really good! Everything's vegan and with plenty of gluten free options too.

We got a selection of their wares, including a slice of this Lemon, Raspberry & Pistachio cake:

Which was amongst the best vegan cake I've ever had - in London and beyond. Visually appealing, perfect texture, good flavour and not too sweet (the frosting being more creamy than like eating a bag of sugar).

If only every coffee shop in the country (or even just one in every town) had vegan cake this good, I'd be very happy. And fat(ter)!