Purezza Camden — Restaurant in London

I've now tried Purezza at Brighton, Manchester and Camden.

Unfortunately my first experience at Brighton was poor, and I failed to understand what the hype was. I avoided Purezza for awhile.

But when I got stranded in Manchester late at night without vegan GF food, I thought I'd give them another go. This experience converted me, especially the Mac n Cheese and the cheesecake. Holy moly, it's amazing. Not only did the food save me from starvation, I enjoyed it so much it made me feel good.

Finally and most recently, I took my mum to Camden. And honestly, the Camden branch is wonderful. Very different to getting a takeaway.

What I really love about the Purezza ethos is their focus on Gluten Free dishes. On their website they say they want to be as inclusive as possible.

As a vegan avoiding wheat for 12 years, I am used to restriction. Missing out is a way of life, and I don't like to complain about it, but when I read that I was shocked! And yes, it would be amazing if more eateries (especially wheat-heavy vegan places) thought about this, but Purezza is in a league of their own right now.

But not only is Purezza considerate like this, the food is actually delicious and comforting. It's Italian inspired and the one thing you can never hope to eat as a GF vegan is Italian food, even though at home pasta is my favourite food.

The Camden branch is also so beautiful to look at. There's something about the decor that is just so soothing, which feeds into the uplifting ambience. The staff are very likeable too.

There's also a deli at Camden where you can buy dairy-free cheeses and GF flours.

The picture I took last time is of my surroundings rather than the food, which I wasn't patient enough to photograph. I think this tells you all you need to know!

When I went there in February 2025, my mum ordered the truffle pizza with a GF base. I don't think I have ever seen my mum finish a pizza and she has always said she doesn't really like it, but on this occasion she ate every slice. She loved it, still talks about it and wants to go back to have it again!

I decided to skip pizza and order small plates: the Caeser salad, the Mac and Cheese and the meatballs, which taste so homely and slow-cooked. It all sounds simple but it tastes so delicious and indulgent.

However, I have to add one consistent and constructive criticism, which is the caesar salad. I've ordered it three times at every branch and each time it's been a let down. I like to have something fresh and salady with every meal, and there's no other salad option at Purezza, so I get it each time. But at Brighton I had to send it back because the chick'n was inedible, at Manchester there wasn't much, and again at Camden there was barely at chick'n, just a few scraps. So what I end up feeling like I've paid for is iceberg lettuce in a dressing. I really think they could afford to be more generous with the protein.

And then secondly I love the Mac n Cheese so much that I asked whether I could have a larger portion as my main course (at a higher price) and was told no. I don't really see why. I technically could've bought two little plates and asked for a big plate to scoop them both onto, but that would work out at £18 instead of the average £16 for an entire pizza, and might be just that bit too much to eat anyway.

Purezza has a lot of potential to offer GF vegan pasta dishes and almost achieve a monopoly with this in London. I hope they branch out into that and salads, starting with the Mac n Cheese!

Either way, I would recommend Purezza to anyone and everyone, whether vegan, GF or not. The food speaks for itself and it's generally a lovely experience. I can't...

We came to Purezza Camden after having had an amazing experience in the Manchester branch. I’m not sure if they use different providers for their ingredients but we were a bit disappointed since our pizza didn’t taste nor looked as good as during our last experience: the pistachio pesto looked darker (= either not that fresh or less quality pistachios) and the roasted ham was brown instead of pink-ish and seemed to be plain seitan. As vegans, we’re happy to have innovative options, but the dough wasn’t the best for us. Our highlight was the pancetta, that we added to one of the pizzas for £2.5. Also, we came to Purezza as a birthday meal (with a reservation ofc) so we were expecting to get seated at a nice table, but we were only offered to sit by the window, with one of us looking at the wall. We got the complimentary birthday brownie as we knew about this offer in advance, but it would be nice to just get the brownie when booking for a birthday meal, instead of having to ask for it. Especially when you’re already being charged a 12.5% “optional” tip – which shouldn’t be the norm since it’s Purezza’s responsibility to offer a good wage to their workers and not to make customers feel bad by having to ask to remove it if that was the case… On that same note: we were served a bottle of filtered water without asking for it, which is only priced at £1, but still it seems like they’re just trying to sneakily charge you more. At that time, we were trying to decide whether to order drinks or just have water, so at least that played in our favor and helped us decide. On the good side: our waitress Vita was lovely. But with so many amazing vegan restaurants in the city and nearby, we probably won’t come back nor...

Honestly had such an incredible time in the cheese cellar. I’ve been vegan for 6 years and I brought my friend along who isn’t vegan but LOVES cheese. I thought this would be the perfect middle ground place, and boy was I right. There’s a lot of stigma that vegan cheese sucks and in all honesty, a lot of them do. These cheeses however, are a class above. My friend who isn’t vegan ended up purchasing some cheese after our evening as she enjoyed them so much. We weren’t all that knowledgeable of cheeses as for me it’s been a long time since I’ve really had cheese, and my friend will eat anything that falls under the cheese category, so we really didn’t know what to order whatsoever. Joey, our server for the evening was absolutely incredible, bubbly and funny and was more than happy to describe each of the cheeses flavour profiles to make sure we ordered something we would enjoy. We went with 2 of joeys recommendations, based off of our preferences in flavour and the nail was hit right on the head. We also ordered 2 deserts which were so good. We only had one of the wine pairings as my friend doesn’t drink and I only wanted the one glass, but it worked very well with what we ordered. Joey was so accommodating and really made us feel extremely welcome. The atmosphere was amazing, it almost had a bit of a speakeasy vibe to it, which made me feel very classy I must say. We left with our tummies full, our pinkies high and a new found perspective on vegan cheeses. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dream of the camembert last night. Thank you Joey for all your help navigating the menu. 10000% will be coming back in the future. P.s the prices were a lot more affordable than we expected and...