The new wave of sustainable restaurants: London eateries tackling waste

Ugly Butterfly

Best for: eating sustainably while keeping with the cool crowd

He’s the man behind exceptional small-plate restaurant the Frog; its exquisite, sordid-looking basement bar Eve; and several other London institutions named after creatures, ingredients or himself. Now, award-winning chef and restaurateur Adam Handling brings us a new project: zero-waste restaurant Ugly Butterfly on the King’s Road in Chelsea.

The restaurant, open from November 2019, is pitched as a ‘sustainable casual restaurant, Champagne bar and sustainability conversation hub’. While the description might scream ‘Champagne socialist’, with Handling at the helm, we’re expecting big things from the kitchen. All dishes are made from the parts of ingredients that are usually discarded, while the emphasis is on four of the most wasted foods: bread, milk, eggs and bananas.

Among the offerings are deboned crispy fried chicken feet with caviar; Handling’s famed cheese doughnuts made with left-overs from the cheeseboard; and banana bread and chicken butter. All of which can be washed down with a glass of Champagne (served by the glass), or enjoyed with a discussion about sustainability initiatives, that is. Look out for the free programme of drop-in talks, which are held on Wednesday and Sunday evenings at 7pm.

The Conduit private members’ club

Best for: recycled interiors and an exceptional ‘back to work’ programme

The Conduit is a relatively new members’ club in Mayfair with a commitment to the environment and social change. No less than 77 tonnes of recycled materials have been used to form the club’s interiors, while energy-saving and biophilic design schemes are in place to help reduce the space’s carbon footprint.

Over in the kitchen you’ll find staff (10 per cent of whom were previously homeless or from underprivileged backgrounds) working with ingredients supplied by small-scale farmers, fishermen and other UK-based specialist producers. The team also has a food waste programme in place, repurposing leftovers as biofuel or compost to grow biodynamic vegetables.

Tiny Leaf

Best for: leading the way with sustainable dining

Tiny Leaf is proudly London’s only zero-waste, organic and vegetarian restaurant. This appealing mix of elements has seen the restaurant recently up sticks and move from its home-for-a-year at Mercato Metropolitano Italian market in Elephant & Castle back to Westbourne Park Road in Notting Hill, where it first began.

Tiny Leaf’s menu is brought to life using surplus food stock provided by local wholesalers. Dishes take inspiration from cuisines the world over, currently offering a root tartare; rice cake and kimchi; and seasonal buckwheat risotto among other plates. Thirsty? The restaurant also stocks Toast beers, which are made from surplus bread, and a range of organic wines.

Cub

Best for: zero waste in a stylish setting

Tiny Leaf might be London’s first zero-waste restaurant, but Silo – originally from Brighton, now opening in London this October – holds that title nationally. Silo's head chef Douglas McMaster already has one London venture, Cub, with none other than the king of the cocktails Ryan Chetiyawardana (aka Mr Lyan). Cub is about as hip, delicious and conscientious as it gets.

The food served at Cub is purchased from renewable sources, while the restaurant’s interiors are compiled from reused materials – including the tables made up of recycled yoghurt pots. Even the air is better quality in Cub, filtered through its walls made out of breathable clay. Oh, and Mr Lyan’s cocktail bar Super Lyan is just downstairs, so you can sip world-class cocktails while you wait for a much-in-demand table to become free.

Riverford at the Duke of Cambridge

Best for: farm-to-table dining

What happens when the owner of a well-established London gastropub marries the owner of an award-winning organic vegetable delivery company? Top-notch farm-to-fork dining, in the case of Riverford at the Duke of Cambridge. Guy Watson’s farm Riverford in Devon – known for its organic veg box scheme and farm shops – now supplies the popular Islington pub run by his wife Geetie Singh. The menu is, of course, seasonal, which in the autumn months means diners can tuck into plates of game flavoured with foraged herbs, hearty braises and stews, and veg fresh from the field. Riverford’s fish-sourcing policy is also responsible, and its breads and spreads are made in-house to keep the farm's carbon footprint to a minimum.

Spring at Somerset House

Best for: fighting the war on plastic

Spring at Somerset House is a restaurant on a mission: to be plastic free by 2019. Headed up by Skye Gyngell – the Australian chef and former Vogue food editor who won a Michelin star for Petersham Nurseries Café during her stint as its head chef – Spring eliminated plastic straws in November 2016 and is now looking into biodegradable clingfilm alternatives, as well as ways to eradicate the use of plastic containers in the restaurant. For dining in a stunning setting – and with a clear conscience, environment-wise – Spring is worth a visit.

Daylesford organic farm and café

Best for: sustainable shopping and takeaway dining

The team behind Daylesford organic farm in Gloucestershire opened their fourth London outlet last October in Brompton Cross. The in-store farm shop sells handmade food from the farm, including cheeses, freshly baked goods, juices and wholesome meals to take away. Meanwhile, the café – which seats up to 80 guests at a time – offers all-day dining and a seasonal menu set to change six times a year. Daylesford has been committed to sustainability since opening in 2002 and has won over 100 awards across different areas of its farm, including a prestigious Grocer Gold Award.