Holy Carrot

This restaurant opened in July 2024; a sister branch opened in March 2026 in Spitalfields. The executive chef for the group is Daniel Watkins, with Maria Criscuolo as head chef. Daniel Watkins was formerly head chef of Acme Fire Cult in Dalston, and prior to that was head chef of the Anchor in Hullbridge. The restaurant is vegetarian, with a tasting menu available at £45 in addition to the a la carte choice. 

The wine list had 31 labels and ranged in price from £28 to £130, with a median price of £72 and an average markup to retail price of 3.3 times, which is quite high but not unusual in London these days. Sample references were Le Benjamin; Chateau Des Annereaux Bordeaux 2021 at £44 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £12, Wagramer Selektion Heiderer-Mayer Gruner Veltliner 2024 at £67 compared to its retail price of £17, and Kiss of Saperavi; Kortavebis Marani from Kakheti 2021 at £80 for a wine that will set you back £27 in the high street.

We tried both a grilled sourdough (£5) from Notting Hill Bakery, and fire-fermented koji (grains inoculated with a fungus called Aspergillus) flatbread with dips (£18). Both of the breads were fine, and I liked the smoked mushroom chilli ragu dip. This tasted of mushrooms and had a pleasant, gentle touch of spice from the chilli (12/20). There was also a pleasant dip of tzatziki with pickled cucumber and sweet and sour dill.

Heritage tomato salad (£13) came with watermelon, tofu stracciatella (a cheese made from cream, and shreds of mozzarella) and shiso. The tomatoes had reasonable flavour and the watermelon provided some freshness, the other flavours being quite subdued (11/20). Smoked carrot and ezme (“crushed“ in Turkish) salad contained mint, beetroot and hazelnut (£13). This was rather odd to my taste, as there were some quite strong flavours in this which somehow ended up being muted, the result mostly tasting of carrot, and the crushed salad had the effect of just being mushy (just about 11/20).

My main course was coal-roast young onion (£16) with orzo (barley) pasta and soubise, a traditional French onion sauce. The onions were nicely sweet but there was a major problem with the pasta, which was distinctly soggy. Orzo should retain some firmness and even a hint of chewiness, but this had been cooked for longer than it should have been, and had little texture left beyond soggy (10/20). I also tasted sweetcorn with miso butter beans, pumpkin seeds and peppers, which was rather better, the peppers nicely cooked and the butter beans working fairly well with the sweetcorn (comfortably 11/20). 

The best dish of the meal by some margin was a quartet of Madeleines flavoured with blood orange syrup. These were nicely made, with good texture and the syrup not too sweet (easily 13/20). Service was friendly and the bill came to £124 per person. Admittedly this included a bottle of champagne, but even if I exclude that entirely then the bill would still be £61 per person just for food, water, coffee, and that is with one dessert between two. If you had shared a bottle of modest wine and had three courses then you would still have ended up with a bill of around £90 each assuming water (charged at £3) and coffee (£3.50) plus service. This seems to me an awful lot for the level of the food that actually appeared tonight. Consider as a contrast the excellent vegetarian food at Diwana Bhel Poori Euston, where it is a struggle to spend £25 per person, and where the food is distinctly better than tonight. I know where I would rather have eaten.