King Cookdaily, an inconspicuous, easy-to-miss glorified kiosk with a few seats on Hanbury Street in Shoreditch, east London, serves a mere 11 dishes with names such as “Infamous”, “Yoga Fire” and “High Grade” advertised above the till. The store’s frontage is defiantly anonymous, and its signage understated, so perhaps you will also walk past two or three times while looking for it, as I did.
In a postcode that’s full of shouty, shiny rooms to eat in, and to be seen eating in, most of them places that overpromise and under-deliver, King Cookdaily is befuddlingly low-key, especially considering its revered status among plant-based diners. The old joke goes that vegans are constantly announcing their presence, apropos of nothing, lest anyone miss their very saintliness. At King Cookdaily, however, it would take the unfamiliar guest a few long, hard looks at the menu to realise there’s not a scrap of meat or animal by-product on offer here. The vibe is Buddhist, but there’s devil in the detail.
