Temple of Seitan — Restaurant in London

Oh, how the Temple has fallen…

Back when the Hackney location opened in 2017, it was a vegan Mecca that I regularly went out of my way to visit when I was so much as passing through London. It was a real treat - no fuss fast food with friendly staff. The last time I went was in 2018/2019 at their previous Camden location. I’d been dreaming of going again and finally did today…

Unfortunately it has changed beyond recognition. I don’t expect fine dining, but it is now a ghost kitchen with seating attached, a highly exploitative and inaccessible business model. There are no front of house staff anymore, nobody to greet you, help you or take your order. You sit yourself down at a free table and order off an app (you are forced to make an account for this), then the kitchen prepares food based on (presumably) what order the orders come in even if there are only seconds in it. This meant I waited 30+ minutes for a chickn wrap and popcorn bites, and my partner had received and eaten her order 20 minutes before mine arrived, while tables who came in after us were also served before me. I noticed neighbouring tables also having similarly staggered orders. Completely bonkers and majorly chaotic. This would never happen anywhere else - bossman kebab shop or fancy restaurant.

The staff are absolutely rushed off their feet and unable to cope with the volume of orders, with just one staff member running food out to tables as well as helping in the kitchen. He didn’t even speak to us, just dumped the food down and ran back to the kitchen - I felt incredibly sorry for him, but also annoyed! Nobody cleaning tables or anything either. Absolutely none of the amenities you would expect in a restaurant or even a cheap fast food place like McDonalds (which at least has some customer facing staff and people wiping tables occasionally).

The only reason it gets 2/5 instead of 1/5 is because the fried chicken is still absolutely delicious even if the portions are quite small. Grilled chicken was really mushy though, so avoid. It is also quite reasonably priced for London. And it’s nice to have a 100% vegan place still open when most others have shut down. However I will not be returning - it is clear the brand no longer cares for actually advancing the vegan community and puts profit...

✓ All Vegan establishment Overall Review on the Last Paragraph below

WHAT I HAD: Temple Burger [£8.00] Chick’n Fillet, Ranch Mayo, Bacon, Cheese, Lettuce & Pickles; Buffalo Wings (4 Pcs) [£6.00] with Ranch Mayo; Regular Mac n Cheese [£4.00]; Regular Coleslaw [£2.50] *I had the Temple Burger with Coleslaw and Drink as a Regular Combo [+£3.00 to Burger Order]

FINALLY got to try Temple of Seitan and I completely understand the hype behind this now. Wow. The Temple Burger and Buffalo Wings were really good.

Their Chick’n is tender, juicy, dense and meaty with a nice crunch from the breading that isn’t too thick. The cheese in the burger was more of a hard cheese that isn’t melted, which I didn’t mind as it added another dimension of savouriness, nuttiness and aged flavour to the burger. It was a well-constructed burger that let the Chick’n Fillet shine! The Buffalo wings were nice and spicy! The ranch mayo of course is the perfect dipping for it to balance out the spiciness and add some tang and creaminess. It was also served with some carrot sticks and lettuce shred which I find thoughtful. The Coleslaw was great – creamy, fresh, crunchy and well-seasoned. The Mac n Cheese was pretty good as well, topped with bacon bits, cream cheese and parmesan crumbs. The sauce was thick and flavourful but wasn’t as good after a couple of minutes when it quickly turned gummy. An alright vegan Mac n Cheese that hits the spot but not the best I’ve had.

The place is pretty spacious but there is quite few tables. As it’s really popular, most of the seats were taken up when I was there for lunch that I had to sit outside. It is situation outside a student accommodation building by the river so it is a quiet area and nice to sit out (if the weather permits). Still, I think they (and us customers!) really will benefit from more seating. Everything is self-service, like a fast food joint. Still, the staff who took my order was nice and smiley.

I definitely recommend Temple of Seitan for their amazing Vegan Seitan Chick’n (be it in burgers or wings)! Their prices are reasonable too, really worth it for what you get even for the sides of decent portions! I will definitely be coming back for more...

We have been eating here for years since this branch was in a different location on the canal and we absolutely loved it...but it feels like the quality has slipped a little more each time we have come over the past couple of years.

The recipe was changed a while ago and it's alright but it just isn't as good anymore - it's quite mushy in texture. I have always ordered the Buffalo wings, burger or wrap, and ordered it again this time but the sauce appeared to be different. It seemed a bit watery/thin and it lacked flavour whereas it used to be thick and flavoursome. My partner always orders the garlic parm wings and he said they lacked any garlic flavour at all this time and they were really dry - usually they are tossed in garlic butter. The mac was creamy but it lacked flavour and the dip pots have also massively reduced in size. The only thing that was without fault was the tater tots which were fresh and crispy.

We ate in and there weren't a lot of other people there, but the kitchen was super busy with lots of delivery orders. You could see the staff were working as hard as they could but it meant service was really slow and we had to wait ages for our food. It also meant there were loads of delivery drivers hanging around right next to the kitchen which was off putting. Something in my order was wrong and it had to be made again but it took ages to come by which point my parter had finished eating already, and I was fed up and just wanted to leave.

I always say that it's important to support the original vegan businesses that helped bring vegan food into the mainstream, rather than going to big chains where they put a gratuitous vegan option on the menu...and I really didnt want to leave a negative review as a result. But I see this as the only way to really feedback our experience and I hope improvements can be made.

Unfortunately I don't think we will be coming here again anytime in the future as we left disappointed and unsatisfied....