New Roots Cafe is open. And two more vegan cafes to consider

New Roots Cafe

This new vegan and vegetarian social enterprise and café arrived on the slopes of Cally Road earlier this year, and is in support of Highway House, a charity in north London.

There’s real Indian chai, hand-roasted filter coffee and mint tea, plus meat-less breakfasts, and lunch with locally grown produce from non-waste food agencies.

It’s also open for dinner with starters around a fiver and simple mains including butternut squash moussaka, tagine or noodles with veg in coconut and lemongrass at under a tenner. Mon-Sat 8am-4pm, Wed-Sat 5:30pm-10pm, 346 Caledonian Road N1.

Mildred’s

The Soho original may date back to the late 1980s, but longstanding meat-swerving Mildred’s has only recently opened an airy outpost in King’s Cross.

As well as takeaway salads – super-healthy mixed boxes of purple sprouting broccoli, carrot salad, roasted winter veg and shiitake mushrooms, say – there are imaginative small plates and surprisingly filling beetroot, white bean and dill burgers.

Things we rate? Moreish sweet potato fries with chipotle ketchup; gyoza dumplings with chilli sauce; and chargrilled cauliflower with a tahini lemon dressing and tangy pomegranate seeds. Starters from £5, mains £12. 200 Pentonville Road, N1

Hawramam

Anewish addition a mile or so north on Chalk Farm Road, Hawramam is named after the Kurdish region its owners are from (previously they ran long-established neighbouring vegetarian My Village café for many years).

A House Vegan Plate is a multi-textural delight: raw slivers of crunchy radish, angular arcs of carrot, crisp leaves and curls of cucumber drizzled liberally with a zesty salsa verde around a mound of carefully cooked bulgar wheat. Further contrast is provided by smokey baba ganoush, as well as a bowl of warm roasted aubergine topped with spring onion. It’s a substantial plate in all, costing just over a tenner (£10.45). Open daily except Monday, 38 Chalk Farm Road NW1