London eatery serves ‘vegan fish and chips’

Owner Sutton says ‘there’s no fish in our fish’

Fish and chips, scampi and prawn cocktail are all on the menu at chippie owner Daniel Sutton’s newest branch, with one caveat: “There’s no fish in our fish,” he says.

Sutton began serving “vegan fish and chips” at one of his East London chip shops as an experiment earlier this year, but did not expect such high demand.

With orders for the new menu flooding in, Sutton opens the doors this week to London’s first dedicated vegan chippie.

The new branch will help cope with capacity, Sutton says, and allows the entire kitchen including the deep fat fryers to be meat and dairy free. The “vegan fish” is made from banana blossom marinated in seaweed and the sea plant samphire to give it a fishy taste, then deep fried. Vegan “prawns” made of Japanese potato starch are battered and served as scampi. Curious customers sampled the food during a test run for the new branch on Monday.

“It’s delicious,” said Cat Thomas, a 32-year-old fundraising manager. “I don’t think it tastes like fish, but I’d definitely eat it more. It tastes healthier than fish and chips,” she said.