Navigating the city’s restaurants and bars isn’t always easy if you’re on the hunt for more eco-conscious spots. But there are kitchens in London that are passionate about minimising waste, champion ethically sourced ingredients and are invested in implementing renewable solutions.
Sustainability seems to becoming more and more at the forefront of restaurants and bars, so here’s a list of waste-conscious and sustainable restaurants, bars and pubs in London that we think are worth a visit.
1. Silo
Kicking off the list with Silo, Hackney Wick’s zero waste hotspot that incorporates the theme of reuse and recycling in every aspect of the restaurant. From its “nose to tail” policy that aims to use all parts of the animal, to having an onsite compost machine that turns any restaurant scraps and trimmings into compost – Silo is all in when it comes to zero waste. The restaurant’s furniture, tables, and plates are all made with recycled materials such as empty wine bottles which are pulverised and turned into plateware. Expect dishes such as red Kuri pumpkin with cultured cream and furikake, wild rabbit and spent sourdough, and Fosse Meadows chicken with rainbow chard and buttermilk all made using local ingredients brought in reusable delivery vessels.
Find Silo at Unit 7, Queen’s Yard, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN.
2. Fallow
Once a three month pop-up residency at 10 Heddon Street, Fallow found its permanent home on St James’ Market in 2022 and has thrived ever since. The motto at Fallow is “creative cooking, sustainable thinking” and they’ve got it bang on the money. Flamed mussels meet bacon butter sauce and pickled lemon, rare breed pork is paired with glazed ’nduja cabbage, beer pickled onion and apple ketchup, smoked cod’s head is served with siracha sauce, whilst the tikka masala swaps chicken for octopus in a menu that champions nose-to-tail and root-to-stem. The move to their larger space has meant they’re able to buy animals whole and butcher them in-house, giving Fallow the creativity to use their cut-offs and scraps in interesting ways on their menu.
Find Fallow at 52 Haymarket, St. James’s, SW1Y 4RP.
3. Apricity
Apricity has reconsidered every aspect of its operation with sustainability in mind. From its menu, how they wash their dishes and to its carefully chosen suppliers, it has taken its responsibility towards low waste very seriously. Seasonal ingredients from small-scale farmers are used in the menu, alongside regeneratively farmed meat and sustainably caught fish from the British Isles. Apricity’s ethos is found in its drinks menu too, with an extensive list of low-intervention wines that care about soil and biodiversity while championing English vineyards and winemakers, alongside a selection of innovative low-waste cocktails.
Find Apricity at 68 Duke Street, W1K 6JU.
4. The Spread Eagle
The Spread Eagle is London’s first fully vegan pub and an advocate for sustainable kitchens. The pub works directly with local producers and foragers to bring classic British favourites with the finest seasonal British ingredients. What’s more, The Spread Eagle’s rotating draught lines are brewed without the addition of finings making them natural and 100% vegan.
Find The Spread Eagle at 224 Homerton High Street, E9 6AS.
5. The Duke of Cambridge
This Islington local is Britain’s first organic pub with a devotion to sustainability. The Duke of Cambridge recycles food waste, uses local organic produce and is decked out with repurposed furniture that otherwise would have gone to waste. It’s a friendly joint with the environment at its heart, creating a community one sustainably sourced pint at a time.
Find The Duke of Cambridge at 30 St Peters Street, Islington, N1 8JT.
6. The Culpepper
Found in Spitalfields is a sustainable oasis of a pub. Boasting four floors with a pub, restaurant, small boutique hotel, and rooftop – The Culpepper has it all. The star attraction has to be the 1,400 square-foot rooftop, of which approximately 500 square feet are taken up by The Culpeper’s rooftop growing space where you’ll the very ingredients found on your plate or drink bloom, taking the definition of hyperlocal quite literally. Any ingredients they can’t grow themselves are sourced from farmers who use regenerative approaches.
Find The Culpepper at 40 Commercial Street, E1 6TB.
7. Nine Lives
Set in a Victorian basement near London Bridge, Nine Lives incorporates sustainability in any way they can at this subterranean bar. Their ethos is ‘salvation’, cocktails have reused key ingredients that otherwise would have gone to waste, anything else leftover is composted in their back garden in order to grow fresh herbs, and furnishings and even sound systems are reclaimed.
Find Nine Lives at 8 Holyrood Street, SE1 2EL.
8. Eve Bar
Located in the basement of Chef Adam Handling’s restaurant Frog is Eve Bar, the new Technique menu showcases the bar’s dedication to creating zero-waste cocktails. A section is dedicated to each of the key methods used in Eve’s cocktail lab; Carbonation, Clarification, Distillation, Fermentation and Freezing all of which utilise fruit and veg offcuts from the kitchen upstairs.
Find Eve Bar at 34 Southampton Street, WC2E 7HF.
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