About 10 minutes into our conversation, Holy Carrot’s chef Daniel Watkins reveals - somewhat sheepishly - that the group’s recently launched Spitalfields site is not a purely vegan concept.
Vegetables remain the star of the show, but for the first time a handful of dishes include dairy, eggs and honey, with the restaurant repositioned as a vegetarian bistrot.
“It ticks a lot more boxes and opens things up,” Watkins explains. “But it won’t take anything away from the brand. We continue to look after the crowd we’ve been serving. We’re not suddenly going to start cooking everything in butter.”
The original Holly Carrot that opened on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road, in 2024 will remain fully vegan for now, although owner Irina Linovich does not rule out introducing non-vegan dishes there in the future.
Shifting times
Holy Carrot is far from the first vegan restaurant to shift direction in a bid to attract a broader customer base. Eleven Madison Park - for a time the world’s only three-Michelin-starred plant-based restaurant - reintroduced meat and seafood last year. Closer to home, operators such as Nomas Gastrobar and Oowee have made similar moves.
Large-scale businesses are recalibrating too. Wagamama recently removed a number of its flagship vegan dishes, including Vegatsu, from its menu. In doing so, the brand appears to have quietly abandoned its pledge that 50% of menus would be plant-based.
What Holy Carrot is doing is less dramatic – but it is indicative of a wider shift. The novelty of vegan-only venues has faded, replaced by a more pragmatic, plant-forward approach focused on high-quality, vegetable-led cooking that appeals to flexitarians as much as committed vegans.
For Watkins and Linovich, the decision is also rooted in scale. Their Spitalfields site, with more than 100 covers, is a very different proposition to Portobello, which seats around half that. It looks like that in the current climate, they do not believe it is viable as a strictly vegan concept.
We continue to look after the crowd we’ve been serving. We’re not suddenly going to start cooking everything in butter
Daniel Watkins
Watkins remains vegan, while Linovich now occasionally eats eggs and dairy. Both emphasise that any animal products used are of the highest quality, with suppliers carefully vetted and visited.
Yet it is still a surprising move for a brand that is at the forefront of the UK’s vegan scene. Watkins, widely regarded as one of the country’s most accomplished plant-based chefs, has devoted years to developing alternatives to ingredients such as butter and cheese.
That work will continue. “I’m finalising a new ‘butter’ made using a culture derived from quinoa,” he says. “It’s not quite like high-quality dairy butter yet, but I’m getting closer.”
The bulk of the menu remains vegan, with just five of the 25 dishes containing dairy or egg. These include burrata with smoked pepper and citrus; English ricotta with radicchio, truffle and koji honey; and a pizza topped with baked egg and cheese that nods to Linovich’s Georgian roots.
Elsewhere, there will be evolved versions of Holy Carrot signatures, such as artichoke tempeh schnitzel with café de Paris butter and grilled Tropea onions with butter beans and miso bagna cauda. Spitalfields will also operate in a more casual space than Portobello, with a slightly lower price point - a reflection both of its larger size and the economic realities of the current market.
“The DNA and techniques behind the scenes will be the same, but Spitalfields will have its own identity,” says Watkins. “There will be more hustle and bustle. Service will be quicker, with fewer elements on each dish. It’s about being more accessible and more fun.”
Roots on the pop-up scene
Holy Carrot began life as a Knightsbridge pop-up in 2021, launched by Linovich after she adopted a vegan diet. Early iterations were more informal, with different chefs involved, but the arrival of Watkins - formerly of ACME Fire Cult - marked a turning point.
“I launched the concept because I’d turned vegan and was cooking these dishes at home,” says Linovich. “But working with Daniel changed everything. We’re very lucky to have him.”
Watkins brought a more ambitious, technique-led approach, rooted in fire cookery and fermentation. Building the team, however, was not straightforward.
“West London is tough – most cooks live east or south,” he says. “We were getting a lot of people coming from vegan brunch places that didn’t necessarily have the right levels of rigour.”
Staffing has become easier as the brand’s reputation has grown. The Spitalfields kitchen will be led day-to-day by head chef Maria Criscuolo, who held the same role in Portobello, while the original site will become something of a flagship.
Spitalfields will have its own identity. There will be more hustle and bustle. Service will be quicker, with fewer elements on each dish
Daniel Watkins
With significantly more space in Spitalfields, Watkins is now expanding his fermentation programme. “You could give me a warehouse and I’d still manage to fill it,” he jokes.
One example is a new vegetable charcuterie project: root vegetables are brined, inoculated with koji and smoked, producing slices (pictured below) that resemble salami in both appearance and intensity of flavour.
“The texture is a bit like jerky,” he explains. “The spores feed on the sugars in the vegetables, creating umami as the water content drops. We’re using carrots, celeriac and beetroot. It’s great as a snack with beer, maybe alongside pickles.”
Taking inspiration from bistrots and trattorias
Set within a former Grade II-listed bank building overlooking the market, Holy Carrot has an open kitchen centred on a custom grill and pizza oven.
The interiors, created with Studio Toogood, take inspiration from classic European bistros and trattorias, reinterpreted through a more abstract, contemporary lens.
A large bar anchors the room, while additional seating spills out into the market, alongside a private dining space and an orangery for events.
For both Watkins and Linovich, Spitalfields was a natural fit.
“It has a similar energy to Portobello,” says Watkins. “You’ve got locals, workers and tourists all coming through – it gives us access to a much bigger audience.”
Holy Carrot’s new direction feels less like a retreat and more like an evolution. The focus remains firmly on vegetables, technique and flavour - only now with a little more flexibility.
In a market where rigid definitions are giving way to broader appeal, the shift isn’t as controversial as it might have been a few years ago. Watkins’ cooking looks set to continue to push the boundaries of what plant-led cuisine can be, meaning that Holy Carrot’s next chapter could well be its most compelling yet.