Plates London: UK Gets Its First 100% Vegan Michelin-Starred Restaurant

Among the 22 new one-star UK restaurants in the 2025 Michelin Guide, Plates London stands out as the country’s first 100% vegan eatery to receive the honour.

Barbecued maitake mushrooms, a raw cacao gateau, and a mung bean and urad dal lasagna – these are some of the dishes that propelled Plates London to become the UK’s first vegan eatery to receive a Michelin Star.

Helmed by chef-owner Kirk Haworth, who founded the restaurant with his sister Keeley, Plates London was awarded a star in the 2025 Michelin Guide ceremony last night, making it one of 10 new eateries in the British capital to receive the honour.

Plates London joins a handful of plant-based establishments with a Michelin star across the globe – a distinction that’s hard to come by. Only five entirely vegan restaurants have been awarded a star, with eight designated as Bib Gourmand (recognised for good quality and value), while another 19 are “selected” (honoured for good cooking).

“We’ve always believed in pushing boundaries and this achievement proves that plant-based dining can stand proudly at the highest level of gastronomy,” Kirk and Keeley said in a joint statement, as per the Evening Standard.

A Michelin Guide inspector who visited the restaurant noted that chef Haworth was “clearly passionate” about his work: “As someone who’s going to eat plant-based food for the rest of his life, he’s on a mission to make sure it’s as delicious as possible.”

‘Strong culinary technique’ impresses Michelin inspectors

Plates London officially opened in its current Shoreditch location in July 2024, shortly after Haworth won BBC show The Great British Menu. Months later, the restaurant appeared in the Michelin Guide, and now, it has received its first star.

Haworth has worked at some of the world’s most prestigious restaurants, including The French Laundry, Pied à Terre, The Square, and Quay Sydney – but he turned to a plant-based diet after being diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2016.

Having gained a Michelin star, ‘plant-based’ isn’t necessarily the tag Haworth wants to be known for. “I’m trying to get rid of the word ‘vegan’, really. It’s all about flavour, excitement, and innovation. We’re taking food to a new place of deliciousness,” he says, echoing the sentiments of several other chefs on the tyre manufacturer’s guide.

The Michelin inspector was left impressed by the “strong culinary technique underpinning all the dishes” at Plates London. “The depth and balance of the dishes was superb; each one came with layers of flavour and texture that all worked together in brilliant harmony,” they said.

“Kirk Haworth is a classically trained chef, and you can see that in his impeccably made sauces; what’s most interesting is how he has adapted this to plant-based ingredients in such a clever way.”

What’s on the Plates London menu?

The restaurant changes its menu seasonally, and currently has several of the dishes Haworth presented on The Great British Menu. Like most high-end vegan eateries, there are no meat alternatives seen on the menu – instead, it’s all about produce and whole foods.

Plates London’s £75 seven-course menu begins with a kabocha squash and ginger soup with potato dumpling and herb pesto, followed by slow-cooked leeks with chestnut cream and a jalapeño-gooseberry dressing, and house-laminated sourdough bread with whipped spirulina butter.

“This glistening golden roll was warm and flaky, almost like a croissant in texture with its lovely crisp exterior and soft, slightly sweet interior,” the inspector explained. “The cashew-based butter was enhanced by warming spices and sharp redcurrants to cut through the richness.”

The menu then moves on to a barbecued maitake mushroom dish with black bean mole, kimchi, and puffed rice, and a mung and urad bean lasagna with miso and chive sauce.

“After several Inspector visits to Plates in the last year, every one of us came out singing the praises of this exceptional mushroom dish,” noted the Michelin inspector. “The way each layer of flavour and texture married together here was a prime example of everything this kitchen is great at.”

This is followed by a supplementary dish (for an additional £15) featuring caramelised lion’s mane mushrooms, smoked shio koji, bread caramel, cauliflower cream and black truffle jus.

For dessert, the restaurant treats diners with a rice pudding ice cream with rhubarb, beets and mulberries, and a raw cacao gateau with coconut blossom ice cream, sour cherry compote, African pepper, toasted macadamia, and a raw caramel sauce.

Which other vegan restaurants have a Michelin star?

“Since it opened, Plates London has been permanently packed – and not just with vegans. The restaurant is full of curious and discerning diners, who are here not because of their diets but because they’ve heard it’s one of the most exciting new restaurants around,” said the Michelin inspector.

“Yes, this is a groundbreaking, unique establishment within the UK’s dining scene. But more than that, it’s just a wonderful restaurant with Michelin-star cooking that could convince the most committed of carnivores.”

It’s a ringing endorsement from the acclaimed food guide and a marker of its growing acceptance of plant-based cuisine. Plates London is one of the very few vegan Michelin-starred eateries, but it’s a category that has been on the rise, despite some high-profile closures.

Perhaps most famous of all is Eleven Madison Park (EMP), which made its name as the world’s best restaurant via delicacies like a honey lavender duck, before doing a 180 and turning to a completely vegan menu (bar the tea and coffee service) in 2021. The New York City eatery retained its three Michelin stars in 2022.

Other that EMP, vegan Michelin-starred restaurants include Seven Swans in Frankurt (one star), KLE in Zurich (one star), and De Nieuwe Winkel in Nijmegen, Netherlands (two stars). New York’s Dirt Candy and Madrid’s El Invernadero, both of which have one star, are vegetarian. And Mia, a one-star restaurant in Bangkok, offers a fully vegan tasting menu.

Within the UK, six meat-free restaurants appear on the Michelin Guide (without any stars): Gauthier Soho, Naïfs, Holy Carrot, Tendril, Oak, and Hendersons.