i know i have raved about los angeles’ latest whole foods in venice being the best whole foods EVER…but i was lying. there’s an even better one across the pond in london on kensington high street, and it’s just one more reason that i know i NEED to move to the uk. seriously, this 3 story whole foods makes all the ones in los angeles look like scrubs. they have an entire vegan section with more mock meats and cheeses than you could ever possibly try…i’m talking double or triple the size of the sections at our local markets.
the best thing to me about this amazing whole foods though, was it had an ENTIRE wall dedicated to fake cheese, and loads of my favorite brand cheezly which isn’t available here in the states. i almost had a heart attack when i walked in and saw so many different flavors of cheezly products, all on sale for only TWO POUNDS a package, when they are normally $8-9 here in america on special order…plus an arm and a leg in shipping charges. if you ever find yourself in london, i suggest you do what i did: pack up 8 or 9 cheezlys and smuggle them home in your luggage. they will survive the ten hour flight no problem, and may even result in a rad pizza party if you are lucky.
of course this whole foods also had a great vegan salad and hot food bar as well. sigh. we are just always a step behind over here in the US, aren’t we? if you live in london or ever visit there, be sure to hit this place up. and feel free to mail me some cheezly. i won’t complain.
whole foods
The Barkers Building, 63-97 Kensington High Street
London, W8 5SE
(020)73684500
Monday-Saturday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sundays: Upstairs at the Market Restaurant open 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Sunday trading 12 to 6 p.m.
Check out the new quarrygirl.com FORUMS!
1:38 pm on April 26th, 2009
You can get Cheezly on veganessentials.com. Most of the flavors are sold out right now, but nacho is in stock.
1:42 pm on April 26th, 2009
i know but it’s just SO DAMN expensive!!! and with all the shipping and the freezer pack and blah blah blah. i still order it though, don’t get me wrong…IT’S WORTH IT!
5:57 pm on April 26th, 2009
This place was even better in its original incarnation as “Fresh and Wild” (no relation to Tesco’s “Fresh and Easy” experiment in the US). Anything that elevates it above WF mediocrity is probably attributable to that.
Unfortunately WF came along and hoovered it into the collective, vandalising another perfectly good enterprise, as it has other favorites before it: Bread and Circus (Cambridge, MA), Capers (Vancouver, BC), Wild Oats . . .
9:11 am on April 27th, 2009
Whoa…an entire section of vegan cheeses that’s taller than I am! That’s so cool!
1:04 pm on April 27th, 2009
Wow that is amazing. Talk about a selection.
12:54 am on April 28th, 2009
I’m in Italy right now and they’ve got NaturaSi which is like a mini Whole Foods, but it has an insane selection of Seitan / Tofu / Tempeh products like in your pic above! Actually heading there right now
4:30 pm on April 30th, 2009
Ahh! SO EXCITED.
Okay, caaaalm.
8:00 am on July 25th, 2009
You know this link comes up 5th when you google “vegan london” at least when you are in London!
11:01 am on August 17th, 2009
I actually went here twice. We went on the Sunday we were in London just to scope it out. And also because we needed toothpaste (liked their toothpaste selection, since many were non-minty, and I hate mint). Being Sunday, we were afraid most restaurants and pubs would be closed that night, so we picked up some takeaway items and a few bottles of beer, and had a little picnic in the garden at our hotel. We went back the following Saturday after returning to London from Edinburgh, and picked up a few packages of vegan cheese to bring back.
I stored it in the mini-fridge overnight, then wrapped it in clothes in my suitcase, and it was actually still cold when I got home, about 18 freaking hours later.
9:35 pm on October 21st, 2009
[...] on our last day we visited the mecca (not Macca) of Whole Foods restaurants in Kensington to stock up on some hard-to-find vegan stuff. Lo and behold, as we were browsing around, we [...]