Ptooch

For someone who isn’t a vegetarian it is an achievement to have fully enjoyed a meatless restaurant. Ptooch’s prices are really affordable and that isn’t even their best perk.
Usually I’m a picky eater, but there really wasn’t a thins I could complain on the meal I ordered. Feel free to order whatever you want without worries. The only thing that I disliked was the waiting to get my order, but that is a common thing these days.

Incredible self-​service fresh lunch spot. Visited here for lunch from out of town. It is on leather lane which has a ton of lunch trucks, but this was great. So many options, you pack as much as you can into a small, medium or large tub. Large tubs cost 4.80. Cheap, delicious, ton of variety.

I love, love LOVE, this place. It is a vegetarian’s wet dream. Seriously! To the untrained eye, it may look like a regular salad bar. But to me and other veggies alike, it’s an orgy of amazingness. The dishes are all fresh and made that day and include a wide variety of pulses, veggie dishes and beans to make your stomach lurch into a food coma.
I would recommend that if you attend that you eat in as you can pile more food on you plate that way. And unlike other veggie places that charge you by weight, Ptooch charges you by the size of you plate/​takeaway dish. So feel free to cram as much food in as possible. Just be sure that you can close to top properly.

My review is written from the point of view of a long term vegetarian, unimpressed by vegetables en mass and a big more picky about what I call ‘healthy’.
If you don’t eat a ton of veggies, this place will blow your mind and you’ll feel like a champ afterwards– and rightfully so. There are tons of choices– usually 5 hot dishes, which are basically different kinds of mixed vegetables– from grilled sweet potato, tomato and squash to a veggie mix with halloumi. There are also maybe 15 bowls of vegetable and bean dishes, from plain spinach and green beans and broccoli to couscous and garbanzo and lentil salads.
My pickiness comes from the fact that everything here is way, way too oily. I’ve been three times, and after the first visit was more careful to only take things that looked ‘dry’ or fresh, but by the time I dug into my takeaway container, there was a layer of oil at the bottom, and lots of the ‘fresh’ veggies seemed to be tossed in it too.
Sure, it might be good fat. But it’s still a layer of oil, and if you’re coming here for a safe diet-​friendly lunch option, I think it constitutes major sabotage.
But if you’re not calorie or fat conscious, the vitamins and fiber you can pack into a container for £3.50 or £4.60 constitutes a great deal. Eating in is also an option if you want variety that’s a bit more spread out on a plate and not smooshed together.
Friendly staff, quick moving line. Cash only.

I’ve been looking for a decent salad bar close to work for ages. Et voila, here it is.
Though it’s not much to look at, and sits in the rather grimey end of Leather Lane, it’s a lovely little spot to have a tasty, healthy lunch.
Big bowls of salad, pasta, hot veg, lentils and more are refilled regularly. Everything is fresh and delicious, with a hint of mediterrenean influence. No soggy lettuce here.
Also, randomly, has the best hummous EVER. Super tasty.
£6 for a plate and fresh juice, or take away in cartons for less.

This is not just your run-​of-​the-​mill salad bar.
A few of these types of self service salad places already exist, but Ptooch is great value for money and has a decent selection of vegetarian salads to chose from.
For you humus and olive lovers this place is perfect to feed your addiction, with lots of grilled and marinaded vegetables if you’re feeling healthy, or pasta salads if you’re feeling a bit more naughty.
Tasty home-​made juices too, and you walk out feeling super-​duper healthy.

For a cheap, cheerful and relatively varied lunchtime salad — Ptooch isn’t half bad. Takeaway is only £3.50 for a fairly generously sized small box, or you can pack a huge portion into a £4.80 size. There are plenty of roasted veg and various herbs to flavour things up, so it’s not just a load of dreary old grated carrot. Plus lots of lentils, couscous, pasta etc for added carbs. It’s all veggie but you can take a splodge of hummous if it’s protein you’re after. They provide half a slice of rather pappy sliced bread which didn’t add much — but otherwise a really good option for summertime takeout.

Ptooch is paradise for vegetable lovers who covet variety.
Bowls upon wooden bowls of whole foods line this tiny place on Leather Lane. They’re filled with steamed broccoli, snap peas, green beans, avocado and tomato salad, couscous, cabbage, marinated mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes, lentils, spinach, lettuces, hummus and that’s just what I can recall tucking into yesterday!
My dining companion and I especially appreciated that every dish had its own flavour (as opposed to lots of «salady» places where the same lame vinaigrette is merely dumped over everything in sight.) Additionally, there was plenty of plain veg, which I really liked.
I’m also a fan of Ptooch’s pricing. There are two sizes of containers if you’re doing takeaway or plates if you’re eating in. The food’s priced by the container, as opposed to the weight as in many salad bars. For about £6, you can get a generous portion of veg and salad plus a freshly squeezed juice. I’ve scarcely seen a better value in these parts!
If you’re looking for me at midday, I’ll probably be noshing at Ptooch.

I’m not really a fan of buffet, but this is no buffet, it’s salad buffet and the salad that’s on offer… let me tell you something… it is no ordinary salad. Think of all those annoying friends of yours that can magically make wonderful tasting things out of vegetables, they are people like the ones making the salad here. The price was really reasonable, as you can take away or pile your plate high full of good wholesome healthy food and the service was really good. They were just really nice and friendly, which is all I ask for.