Eyyooo, if you’re a veggie, vegan or meat eater in London you’ll surely have heard of the Temple of Seitan, or the Temple of Hackney. This isn’t a typical place of worship although it kind of has been flipped that way for the meat-free among us. One Saturday lunchtime we thought we’d give it a whirl!

What is seitan? Well Wiki tells me:”wheat gluten is a food made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch granules have been removed, leaving the sticky insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten” and Wiki never lies.

This place is entirely vegan and very popular. The go-to place for vegan fast food and was the OHMYGODIT’SJUSTLIKECHICKEN  place folk were raving about last year ( I think, time goes too quickly these days). On the order list for us was a portion of buffalo wings, a burger and a portion of fries which cost us a total of £17.50.

Buffalo wings

Obviously these  are boneless because they aren’t going to pop fake bones into a meat substitute but I love a good nugget so this sounded good to me. The portion was quite generous including  4 large size nuggs between a standard wing and a chicken breast size  with some ranch in substitute for the cheese, as most buffalo wings come with a blue cheese dip. I quite liked the first one I had but then the sauce got a little too much and the ranch wasn’t quite cooling enough to balance out the buffalo. The texture was pretty reasonable (not similar to chicken) and the texture was alright but out of curiosity I tried a bit of the seitan on its own and it was quite dull which I guess why all the sauce was there! Not too shabby but perhaps the sauce needs work to make it have a bit more individuality.

Temple burger

We gots ourselves a Temple Burger. Thought best to go for the classic which consists of  a chick’n fillet, ranch mayo, bacon, vegan cheese, lettuce and pickles. Winner! Now I thought this was pretty good, happily chomping through about half of it then it got a bit boring. I had super high hopes but I really think it’s tough to make seitan taste interesting for any long period of time. The combo was nice but something just seemed like it was missing. Sad face. Not the end of the world and I’ve certainly had bland chicken burgers too so this isn’t a meat vs no meat issue. i think maybe the batter could be a bit thicker and crispier! Maybe?  Better seasoning? Who knows.

I am trying to branch out and try different meat alternatives and the best I’ve was was my dalliance with a vegan sausage roll so maybe it’s seitan I’m just not good friends with. I’ll keep on trucking though and will definitely try this place again. It’s super popular and I’m glad veggies and vegans are having more eateries pop up around the place. I’d be very interested to know your thoughts if you visit either the Camden or Hackney locations too!

Forked by Stefpuff

templeofseitan.co.uk

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