Food For Thought

i have tried to forget about my trip to london but we are just discussing our london trip (in august 2009). we read reviews about food for thought before our trip as we have a vegetarian in our family (15 year old son), so we were all going to go veggie for our saturday evening meal.

it was packed when we entered, there was a queue of around 10 people all waiting to be served. this went downstairs so we were all standing on the steps waiting. all seats were occupied so we had to wait until people had finished there meals. when it came , eventually for us to be served, we were stared at as my wife was having hot flushes due to the confined space and heat of the place. there were obviously regulars in their seats as we were stared at as if we shouldn't be there. when we were all served we were guided to a table near the toilets. people were using the toilet while we were eating and the stench could be smelt by us very distinctly.

as for the food, 3 of us had chickpea tagine, which was laden with oil and the majority of the dish was rice.

cheap yes, quite, but the service was awful and the conditions were terrible.

fortunately we had an evening seeing oliver at the theatre royal to take our minds off our bad experience.

food for thought? yes. i will be avoiding this place in any future trip to london!
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darrenleeds
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 6
Thursday, March 11, 2010

I absolutely love this place, I have been 7 times since I discovered it 2 weeks ago! Its fab...
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Joanne Hurley
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, February 11, 2010

Simply perfect!!
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Tina Dimitriadis
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Food for Thought is a long time favourite for me. It's an institution. The food is always very well prepared with good quality, fresh ingredients. The dishes are very flavourful and nice and substantial (something that is sometimes lacking with vegetarian choices). A standing feature on the menu is their quiche with mixed salad. The variety in taste and texture in the salads works very well. I also love the hot dishes and the deserts and have never had anything I didn't like here. Great fruit scrunches, fruit crumbles with cream and custard too. I will even go to Covent Garden specially to eat here.

I'm not even a vegetarian but I do love well thought out vegetarian food like this. I know that non-meat eating friends complain that just because you are a vegetarian, restaurants often assume you must be on some sort of starvation diet (eg just vegetables by themselves or some sort of 'diet' dessert). Not so here. Food for Thought proves it's possible to have both tasty, nutritious and wholesome vegetarian food.

Don't come here expecting some sort of candlelit, white table cloth restaurant ( I think that's what one or two of the other reviewers below were looking for). It's a very small but cosy and friendly space that manages to turn out great food in a high rent area of Covent Garden that is dominated by chains or more expensive places. The lunchtime trade, when I usually go, is brisk and so you will probably have to sit on a table with other people and squeeze in a bit. There may be a short line and people are usually in a hurry to eat and go and the servers aim to be quick and efficient, so just bear that in mind. They also do take away (get that from the counter upstairs).

Tip! I try to avoid the peak time and go a bit earlier or later when the crowds are less.
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Steve B - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Friday, August 28, 2009

Nice food, seating conditions are cramped, but I knew that before I went. However, the guy who clears the plates shouted at me that he needed the table back. I was still eating, and had only been there around 15 minutes. When I told him this, he was aggressive, and gave me evils when I left later on. So, nice food marred by aggressive staff member. What a shame.
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JimmyM - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Thursday, August 13, 2009