Holy Carrot has, cough, taken root in Spitalfields, east London. It’s the second sprouting from this plant-based restaurant with a name that’s especially hard to sell to meat-loving friends. “Please come with me to a vegan restaurant,” one might say. “It’s not one of those pious places, honest! Oh, um, the name? Holy Carrot.” In fairness, though, it’s generally tricky to cajole meaty people to venture anywhere vegan or even vegetarian, because there’s always a sense that your steak addict acquaintance is enduring their meal “as an experiment”, and despite quite charitably being “willing to be convinced”. Sigh … it’s exhausting.
Still, chef Daniel Watkins’ first Holy Carrot restaurant over in Notting Hill has made its name over the past couple of years as a place where you can take a mixed group without someone throwing a tantrum about the dearth of pork chops. Watkins’ preference for live-fire cooking and fermentation led to the likes of roast aubergine with koji mole, smoked tofu stracciatella with rhubarb nam jim, artichoke schnitzel with pickles and curry sauce and sweet potato with corn miso butter. Take your miso-Marmite koji bread, scoop it though some smoked mushroom chilli ragu, then take a sip of your black walnut gimlet to put a sparkle in your eye, or even just a Holy Carrot 0% spritz with no-waste carrot molasses.
