Bonnington Café

I have a confession: The first time I dined here, I didn’t like it and had no desire to return.
Why? I left feeling disappointed and even worse — still hungry. On that particular evening it was a vegan menu. I love many a vegan dish, but not an entire menu.
So the other night, when my friend suggested meeting here, my heart sank a bit.
Happily, as it turns out, the food couldn’t have been better this time.
Cheesy, warming veggie lasagne, tick. Slice of peanut butter tart for dessert, double tick. Both utterly delicious, and while the portions were by no means large, they were more than adequate.
The atmosphere is friendly, low-​key and homely. Superb prices and BYOB.
Give this place a whirl, it’s a refreshing little gem in the heart of Vauxhall. And hopefully you’ll strike gold with the menu, my fingers are crossed for you.

This place is just special. Having lived around the corner now for nearly a year, I still end up with a Bonnington’s meal every 7 – 10 days. Their chefs rotate daily, most on a weekly rotation in the kitchen, and no two meals are ever the same.
The family living room feel is extraordinary, and you can just feel the community rippling thru the woodwork and conversation. Yes, the place can get a bit loud and humid at times, and it just doesn’t matter. They focus on what is important, great and healthy food, time with neighbours, and no pretension whatsoever.
There are wonderful evenings when the French ladies come out and sing songs alongside the accordion in the middle of tables, or when a chef will bring along a random singer to entertain — all in good fun and intended to brighten your day.
As the food is always the same price — £3 for a starter or dessert, £8 for a main — there are no tricks and no games on getting out of the place for what you planned. They don’t serve alcohol, but bring all you want and pay £0.50 corkage per person — really for managing waste and usage of glasses.
Saturdays are packed, so try a weeknight — plenty of space, and no waiting. 5 stars all the way, because even what is imperfect about the place are things that don’t need to be perfect in a place with no pretensions.

J’ai decouvert le Bonnington café hier, et j’y suis retournee ce midi, c’est dire combien j’ai apprecie!
J’en avais entendu parle il y a quelques temps, mais n’avais jamais pris le temps d’y aller! Le restaurant est un peu viellot, mais cest ce qui en fait le charme. Le personnel change tous les jours, la nourriture est quant a elle toujours tres bonne. Gros coup de coeur pour les desserts.
Le quartier est hyper charmant, et je recommande vivement une petite promenade digestive dans les jardins communautaires.
Nous avons bien discuter avec le personnel aujourd’hui, qui nous a recommande de venir le soir egalement, afin de preter nos oreilles a l’improvision des musiciens locaux! En bref, j’y retourne la semaine pro, c’est certain!

It’s odd that, having been a veggie for 20 odd years, it has taken me so long to try out the Bonnington Café. It’s on the edge of Bonnington Square — a small, very leafy, hidden enclave which feels a world apart from from the Vauxhall gyratory, just a stone’s throw away.
The Café feels equally tucked away, and has the chic «lived in» feel you’d expect of a co-​operatively run vegetarian/​vegan joint. It’s cosy, certainly, though when it is full — which is most evenings of the week (booking essential) — it can feel rather crowded, as the tables are quite close together. The clientèle are as mixed as you might expect: suited office workers on the way home, cheek-​by-​jowl with New Agers in tapestry hoodies, and everything in between.
The Café features a different chef each night, so the food is going to vary. It’s all fresh and either veggie or vegan: there are always two starters, two mains and two puddings to choose from, chalked up on a blackboard. It BYO as far as alcohol is concerned. Prices are cheap — starters and puddings are £3 and mains £8.
On the night I was there it was certainly inventive and tasty, and very good value for central London, although to be honest it is not the best vegetarian I’ve had. Cold celeriac spaghetti was an interesting twist (and certainly tasted much better than it sounds), though a black-​bean chipotle burger with fried potatoes and salad felt a little ordinary. Pudding was a fulsome portion of apple crumble and custard. I certainly didn’t go hungry.
Despite being packed out, service was surprisingly efficient and friendly. We had a 6:30 — 9:00 booking slot, so lingering wasn’t an option, but the old wooden school chairs don’t really lend themselves to that anyway.
Booking is as quirky as the café itself. You find out the name of the person on duty that day by looking at the web-​site, and either e-​mail them or phone them on their own e-​mails/​numbers personally. Don’t e-​mail on the day as there is no internet access at the café.

I wanted to love Bonnington’s. I’d heard rave reviews from friends, and the fact that it was an independent, vegetarian restaurant (of which I think there is a definite shortage in London) meant I was already favourably predisposed.
As has already been pointed out on here, there is a different chef on duty everyday which makes it a) hard to review and b) a very hit and miss/​pot luck affair.
I went for the warming coconut Indian soup, which I was very disappointed to find was essentially hot broth with a bag of frozen sweetcorn and peas tipped into it. Not being a fan of sweetcorn, and given that it was the main ingredient, I think some reference to it on the dish name would have been good!
That said, the décor is very nice, great lighting, a cosy atmosphere so I guess I’ll just try my luck another day.

Let me start by saying that as this is a co-​operative little restaurant with different cooks almost every day, I can only review the day on which I visited. This is not indicative of any other day’s cooking, and so it’s up to you all to visit and find out which days are good or not for yourselves!
I popped along here for lunch with a veggie friend — I’d been once before yonks ago, before my Unilocaling days — on the second Tuesday of the month (in case you want to cross-​reference cooks!). On the menu was a Moroccan tagine and a bean burger, which were both absolutely delicious, and at £5.50 a dish, it was an absolute steal. Pudding was a pear crumble, which was not great — it was essentially cooked pieces of pear with some sugary crumble dashed on top, and there was barely any custard. Also, my water glass was chipped around the rim, which I was not impressed with, but the staff were lovely, the food was quick, and the prices were very, very reasonable indeed.
Overall, if you’re looking for good veggie home-​cooking, this is somewhere you’ll love. It’s a cosy, slightly quirky little place that screams community project in a good way. Not somewhere you’d go for a classy slap-​up meal, but for a lunchtime pop-​in joint, a lovely place to have a meal and a conversation, even if the food isn’t going to be consistently restaurant standard.
P. S. It’s apparently BYO! I’m definitely coming back for dinner to test that one out!

It’s a Vegan restaurant tucked away in Vauxhall! How amazing is that?
Located on the ground floor of the Bonnington Centre, this place is a local haven for vegans and vegetarians. I love the café atmosphere and how the menu is never the same. The chef is always different as there is a waiting list for people wanting to cook for this restaurant. On top of all that? It’s BYOB!
The odd thing about our eating experience was that none of our friends were vegetarian. We simply saw how quaint the café was and booked a table. I loved the simplicity of the menu: 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 desserts to choose from (if you want all 3 courses). Surprisingly, everything was really tasty! I had the wheatball and mashed potato main, a apple doughnut for dessert and all the wine I we could carry over from the Sainsbury by the station.
I cannot find one thing wrong with this place. I would highly suggest people to try it out — even if you’re not a vegan /​vegetarian. It’s still a great experience.

The Bonnington Café is a quaint little place, almost like walking into a persons house for dinner. The menu is fixed to a few, curated selections, each quite nice. Vegan is the order of the day here, and in my experiences, done very well.
I cannot comment on specific dishes as they change with each chef rotating in their kitchen. This is a common occurrence, and a welcome one.
In short, if you’re looking for clean, vegan food, this is a great option.
It’s BYOB for those wanting alcohol. Keep that in mind. Bring your own bottle of wine as needed.

I discover this little gem through Unilocal and took a 15 mins walk from Albert Embankment over.
This is a unique café where they have a daily menu that doesn’t offer much choices. 2 starters, 2 mains, dessert and tea or coffee.
The food is good and service is fantastic. Despite just one server for the entire café she was friendly throughout the entire dinner.
Highly recommended for tourists that wants to escape the main stream cafes and eateries.

When my girlfriend took me for dinner at Bonnington Café it felt like we’d tapped into something quite hidden and special. The chefs here are on rotation so you have to email whoever is in residence that week to make a reservation. This means that the menu changes very regularly so every visit will be different. Its also BYOB.
All of the food is vegetarian or vegan, with the possibility to request gluten or dairy-​free options.
The starters and deserts were about £3 and the mains about £8 with a couple of choices for each. The food was OK but like I said there will be a lot of variation week by week here. It was certainly heathy, homemade, and hearty!
I would certainly recommend this as a great place to take friends or family who are visiting London and want to see some of its more hidden gems. Do be sure to book though as we were there on a Wednesday and people who hadn’t booked were being turned away.
All in all, great fun!

Vauxhall’s best kept secret. The service isn’t very fast or attentive but the server herself was very nice. I was really lucky because the chef tonight prepared an all vegan menu. I don’t believe that is always the case however I lucked out this time.
I started with Muhammara Dip which was quite flavorful and a nice nutty start. It came with 2 slices of room temp Rye bread… the dish might do better with crostini or crudite instead. It needed a little crunch but again, very flavorful. I definitely cleaned my plate.
For the main, I had a quiche with leeks, sweet potatoes and spinach served with 2 different salads on the side. As a vegan, I get nervous when you say «quiche» without the word tofu in front of it. There was no tofu in sight and I haven’t gotten sick so I’m trusting that the chef just created some magic in the kitchen because it was really nice. Super hearty. Exactly what I needed.
Then came dessert. Neither of the choices REALLY jumped out at me but I opted for a cashew-​based blueberry lemon pie thingy which was raw, served with ice cream. I was surprised by the coloring of the pie. It was a muddy brown color– not bad or anything, just unexpected. It was very tasty and the ice cream was a perfect compliment to mellow out how sweet the pie was.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: THEY ARE CASH ONLY. PLAN AHEAD*
All in all, the food was great. I’m proud to support a co-​op owned establishment and look forward more places like this popping up. GO, Bonnington Café, GO!

Very fairly priced veggy/​vegan restaurant with a daily changing menu. When I went with a friend, it wasn’t a very inspired set of dishes (tasty, but quite bland in flavour and texture). Nonetheless, it was a filling meal for not much money — and a cheap corkage always goes down well.
I feel a review of the venue is going to be as useful as it gets (because the food will always be different — check the website ahead of time). It’s been doing everything that seems to be ‘in’ nowadays, such as mis-​matched crockery and furniture along with bare or stripped back wood. There is a large space, with room for walk-​ups, but you can get a table mid-​week with pretty much only a few hours’ notice. A very nice, unpretentious place, next to a gorgeous community garden. One for a light summer’s evening, to be sure.

Our first time at the Bonnington Café’ with family and friends for dinner on Saturday 18 January. The place is Bohemian, very cosy and lovely. We found out that different chefs cook every night. Our chef tonight was Margarete. We previously phoned her to book a table the day before and were
lucky enough to be accepted considering the short notice. We brought our own wine. Food was excellent and made with fresh produce. We adults started with a soup, followed by cous-​cous with aubergines and our daughter had a vegetarian burger. We ordered apple strudel and a portion of chocolate cake as dessert. Food was delicious. We loved the place and will be back!

Very overrated vegetarian café. The menu only had 2 choices on it. The food was quite forgettable. I appreciate the concept of a daily rotation of chefs. It’s got quite an nice hippie ambience though.

Great food, good for the community all around. Vegan and vegetarian cuisine. You will not leave hungry nor disappointed. Marcus makes phenomenal food by the way.

In a quest to find a cheap but delicious place for dinner in an easy location for me and 2 of my sisters, we stumbled across The Bonnington Café in Vauxhall, once a squat, now a cooperatively run vegetarian café.
Although it is very close to the station, The Bonnington Café is nestled down a semi-​tropical (it has palm trees?!) residential road. The restaurant offers a different chef and a different vegetarian or vegan menu each night. On Tuesday, the food on offer was a sweet potato soup to start, tri-​colour lasagne or red veggie curry for main and blueberry and apple crumble or orange and almond tart for desert. The food was seriously tasty but I would recommend going a bit later (8:30ish) when the atmosphere picks up as more people come in to sample the veggie delights.
Although the food was good and the décor was shabilly cosy, the lighting could’ve done with some work — but at only £3 for starters and deserts, £7 for mains and BYOB policy with no corkage, I’m willing to let it slide as this place really is hearty grub on a budget.
As one of my sisters said, ‘It’s almost like going out and having your mum cook you dinner’. So try it out, give it some support, and enjoy!

A chef cooperative, each night a different person cooks. If you go to their website, most of the chefs have written a short note on themselves and what they like to cook. The food is vegetarian/​vegan, sometimes raw, always delicious and nourishing.
You can BYO, and is a perfect place to sit and have a chatter whilst working your way through the short menu.
Tends to be a choice of two starters £3 each/​two mains £7 each/​2 desserts £3.
You can call and ask what the menu will be. It mostly seems to be made from what was good at the market on the day.
I love coming here, whether I am on my own, on a date, with a friend or a group.

I first found Bonnington about 2 years ago, while living in Oval.
It’s one of the best vegetarian lunch, dinner and coffee places in London, and perhaps that I“m not a vegetarian will qualify that a bit???
The food is perfectly made with local produce, and the rotating cooks help to keep things different. The latest meal I had here was a Mexican burrito– delicious and cheesy. I’ve found it’s a great place to take friends/​coworkers who have additive allergies or are just a bit fussy– the ingredients are basic and the chef of the day can actually tell you what’s in what.
Warning: this place is packed after 6pm on later week and weekend nights.

This ex squat is a co-​operativey run veggie and vegan café with a different chef taking their turn each night. The interior is cosy and shabbily chic, with fairy lights, a piano, mismatched furniture, candles and flowers on each table and a fire in the winter. The small upstairs room is used for various classes and community events, or can be hired for birthdays etc. The noticeboard by the loo is crammed full of flyers for every goodly boho activity group/​class you can think of.
There’s a choice from at least two different items for each course, and at about a tenner for 3 courses I have absolutely no complaints about the food. It is plentiful, simple, wholesome and yummy. Last time I went I had a very savoury mushroom and chestnut stroganoff with rice and several salads, and my friend had a comforting cheese and spinach soufflé. The time before I think I had lentil shepherd’s pie.
It’s BYO with no corkage charge, and there is a shop in Vauxhall station and a supermarket across the road from the station should you arrive empty handed.
This is a lovely chilled place to enjoy a meal out, and anyone you take here will think that you are cool. If they don’t, you probably shouldn’t be friends/​go out with them any more because they have no soul.

… at long last!
Friends who live in the neighbourhood have raved about this amazing little place for ages. I have been wanting to go for months, but probably wouldn’t even have found it on my own.
I love everything about Bonnington’s: it’s a community project, it’s unpretentious, you bring your own, and it exclusively serves vegetarian food.
I just wish there were more places like this!
Mind you, as a «tourist» to the area I am probably as guilty as the large birthday parties of destroying part of the café’s appeal.
We went on Friday night. We were nice and early and got a brief chance to soak up some of the unique homely atmosphere. Come 8 o’clock we were surrounded by several large parties, increasing the decipel levels (as a result we were unable to hear the accordeon player whose tunes would have set the perfect backdrop for a relaxed night) and creating a general feeling of unrest with people arriving late, popping out for a smoke, etc.
Not sure how the small staff of one chef with a couple of helpers managed to juggle those crowds and not to run out of food.
I feel stressed cooking Sunday lunch for six — this was a dinner party for more than 50 people!
The menu was limited to two starters, two mains and two deserts. All delicious, albeit of the old-​school vegetarian cuisine of overly nutritious and filling food (beans and nuts galore) — perfectly suited to the surroundings, actually.
It is easy to imagine this to have been a squat or massive house share — I particularly appreciated the Chinese whisper which resulted in a spare role of toilet paper to be delivered to the mixed queue.

Cute little veggie place tucked away in Vauxhall. There’s a different cook every day, making a couple of dishes for lunch.
The food is veggie and sometimes there’s vegan options too, plus you can ask for gluten free dishes as well.
It’s nice, homemade, healthy food.
Yesterday when I went for lunch the options were mushroom stroganoff with rice or butternut squash and spinach lasagne. Dishes both accompanied by two salads — it made for a tasty nutritious meal.
At £5.50 it’s a decent price for a hot meal.