
Vegetarian/Vegan food finder for London - Kliment
http://nopudding.com
======
creature
I built this! It uses responsive design to give both desktop & mobile users a
good experience, and it degrades gracefully for users without JavaScript. I
built it in Rails with the Google Maps & Food Standards Agency APIs, along
with a lot of CoffeeScript.

I need to add more reviews of places, and more links, but I've been working on
it for too long without it being live so I put it live earlier this week.

~~~
CookWithMe
Congrats on launching! Will take another look when I'll be in London again.

If it's "only" you who submits these reviews, you could make it more personal
by adding a paragraph of text with a non-objective description. Would also
help to separate your USP compared to Happy Cow.

I know a vegan blogger who wrote posts about the places she visited in towns,
and people like those. It's easier to compare/trust the reviews of a single
person vs. the reviews on happy cow that are written by many different people.

~~~
creature
I'm working on adding more reviews. They are rather sparse at the moment,
you're right. I like the single-person perspective as well; I've never found
the multiple reviews on sites like Happy Cow or Yelp that useful either.

~~~
illumen
Once you know how a reviewer views thinks relative to your own perspective,
their reviews become much more relevant to you. I read some critics even
though I never agree with them, but because I know how they think and what
they like there reviews are much more useful. "Oh, they didn't like it.
Perfect! I will like this one."

I guess you're only going for pure vegan/vegetarian places? Because these
days, pretty much all restaurants do at least some vegetarian food. Vegan is
harder of course.

Vegan drinking holes would be nice too :)
[http://www.veggiewines.co.uk/popularbeers.htm](http://www.veggiewines.co.uk/popularbeers.htm)

~~~
genetik
[http://www.barnivore.com](http://www.barnivore.com) is another great resource
for checking on the vegan status of beer and liquor.

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babysteps
I've seen these mini directories fall by the wayside in the past, but I wish
the author the best.

As someone that likes to eat vegan food and having worked in a vegan cafe, I
think it's important to clearly state if an outlet has a vegetarian/vegan
kitchen. That's very appealing to me. To be honest I've gotten lazy at asking
in a lot of places about how they prepare their food.

We have something called a chip shop in the UK, where you can buy deep fried
chips, sausages, chicken and fish. Some places keep the vat of fat for chips
separate to the meat and fish friers, others mix it all up, and some chip
shops (especially up norf'), use animal fats to fry in. I've bought countless
bags of chips only to discover small bits of fish, or find the chips taste of
chicken. Even in some places where I've asked and they've assured me
otherwise. To be frank some people are too thick to even answer the question
if posed or just don't care. I know for a fact the veggie burgers in Grubbs in
Brighton were fried in the meat friers (though that might be past practice).
It's also a bit of a turn off for me to watch someone make me a sandwich after
they've just prepared someone elses and handled meat.

I'd like a veggie chip shop friendly list (if you can ever call a chip shop
that)! I should cobble something together myself.

Where others have ascertained that the kitchen is veggie friendly, that's good
information to share.

------
flippingbits
[http://www.happycow.net](http://www.happycow.net) exists already.

~~~
kroger
Happycow is very nice and helped me to find incredibly good places to eat even
in meat heavy places like Argentina and Paris. I’m always surprised when I
talk to owners of vegetarian restaurants and learn that they never heard about
it.

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EastLondonCoder
Nice to see Rasa there. If you live in London and haven't been, go! Indian veg
in angel is one of the best value meals london have to offer, 5.50 all you can
eat of a selection of south indian curries. Possibly you could add the
woodland restaurant on Panton street.

~~~
jwarren
Good lord, its up to £5.50 now? Still a good deal, but it was £2 back in the
day.

~~~
EastLondonCoder
I moved to London in 2006 and it was £3 then which was at that point the price
of a pint. Still 5.50 is quite good.

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otl
Are the colours of the map pins universally understood by your target
audience? As a non-vegan/vegetarian, the thought behind it made complete sense
as soon as I deselected options from the filter panel, but before that I was
curious to what they meant. Including use of the same colours in the filter
panel would have made me intuitively understand it.

I appreciate that it still has a view presented when loading without
JavaScript.

~~~
Osmium
Agreed; a key/legend would be good!

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Theodores
Well done for putting this together. What is disappointing is how few
vegetarian restaurants there are! For such a large city you would expect a few
more places on the map yet they are so few and far between.

My default option when there is nothing veggie specific is to eat some place
Indian. Plenty of Indian restaurants do understand that vegetarianism is the
way even if they do have dead animal dishes on the menu for those encultured
from an early age to eat 'meat'. It would be helpful if the best Indian
restaurants were on the list too.

One thing that does surprise me about the few vegetarian restaurants that are
in London is the clientele. Places like Mildreds are packed night after night,
and the punters seem that bit more vibrant, healthy, better looking,
articulate and youthful than you would normally expect to find when eating
out.

More generally, I think that something has to change regarding vegetarianism
in London, much like how things have changed regarding cycling in London. As a
society we cannot go on eating variants of endangered species on toast for
every meal, it is just not on or necessary. Meat eaters need to lighten up a
bit and put some variety into their diet.

Why can't the variety of vegetarian cuisine in London be a tourist attraction?
Why can't house prices be that bit higher just because they are in an area
where there is an excellent choice of vegetarian restaurants? (In the same way
that being on a bicycle route adds to the value of a property.) Why can't we
have some version of the 'Bake Off' on TV that is about vegetarian food, to
celebrate it rather than be all preachy about how evil the meat industry is?
Aside from Hitler, why is it that nobody knows of anyone famous for being
vegetarian? This is particularly weird when so many celebrities, athletes,
respected thinkers and others that people aspire to and respect are actually
vegetarian. Where is the 'Boris' or 'Jamie Oliver' of the vegetarian cause?

Going back to the cycling situation we have had a culture shift in cycling and
attitudes towards it that has not pissed off motorists. Even if they don't
cycle they don't get uppity about those that do. We need something along the
same lines for vegetarianism in London.

Anyway, I hope you too have ideas on how attitudes towards vegetarianism could
change in London, it would be great if you could say so on your site.

~~~
unwind
This is probably the first time I've actually Godwinned a discussion, but
still: Hitler is not primarily "known" for having been a vegetarian. He did
some other more notable things, too.

~~~
Falling3
That's because he wasn't one.

------
JeffJenkins
For those not familiar, the pudding in the domain name referring to a few
kinds of sausage in England/Ireland (e.g.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding)
)

~~~
Kliment
It might also be a Pink Floyd reference ("you can't have any pudding if you
don't eat your meat")

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babysteps
@creature

What do the coloured markers represent? You are missing some info from your
key.

Could you also add some help text to the key? As in how you define
vegan/veggie/vegan-friendly.

How about providing a method whereby people can suggest other places? Perhaps
for you to go and sample their wares at a later date.

I think you could squeeze in more info into your pop-ups. It's annoying going
back and forth.

You are missing some direct links to websites (tibits).

If you hover over markers near the top of the map the popups are lost.

Slow on my 1.4 mb line.

Personally I think it would be better to use a frame like approach, especially
for those with the real estate. Click on a marker, get the text in a side
column.

My 2p.

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tfinch
Nice project. Sadly no new places to me (yet!) but glad to see the Loving Hut,
this is a must.

Are you going to add functionality for submissions? Or did I just miss it?

~~~
notjosh
Loving Hut is pretty creepy. I sincerely appreciate being able to find
veg/vegan food in a lot of cities and countries, but the idea of supporting
the Supreme Master situation (I hesitate to call it a cult, but I struggle to
find a better word) is pretty distasteful. From online stories and friends'
personal anecdotes, I'd rather steer clear and go hungry.

Some links I plucked from Google:

\-
[http://www.humanewatch.org/the_murky_sea_of_cult_money/](http://www.humanewatch.org/the_murky_sea_of_cult_money/)

\- [http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-06-02/news/critics-
claim...](http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-06-02/news/critics-claim-
supreme-master-ching-hai-s-followers-restaurants-front-for-an-exploitive-
movement/)

\-
[http://thechinghaicult.blogspot.com/](http://thechinghaicult.blogspot.com/)

~~~
kroger
I’m not religious at all, but I’ve eaten in some religious-based restaurants
such as Harikrishna, adventist, and buddhist. And to be honest, I don't find
it creepier than any other religion/cult.

I used to go all the time to a Loving Hut in Chinatown (San Francisco) and got
friendly with the staff. They never mentioned religion or tried to convince me
to join their religion/cult. I would be annoyed if they tried to push their
religion on me, but instead, they seemed interested in promote vegetarianism
and veganism. On a side note, this Chinatown branch has the best vegan Pho I
ever had.

~~~
babysteps
We have a loving hut nearby (Brighton, UK), and I can't say that I was
particularly taken with the menu. I'm not even sure if I'd class it as food
and I'm a champion for veganism!

~~~
kroger
The quality of their branches doesn’t seem to be consistent. For instance,
they have a branch in Palo Alto that is a cafe where they reheat food prepared
in advance. The food in this branch is kind of meh. I guess that is one of the
reasons I didn’t fell compelled (yet) to go to any branch in London (where I
leave now). There’s good (and cheap) vegetarian food everywhere in London!

~~~
Joeboy
I ate at their Camden branch once and it was pretty good, but the Holloway
Road branch experience was kind of revolting.

~~~
kroger
Good to know, I'll check the Camden branch.

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eyko
I noticed the "Omnivorous" check box, but clicking it doesn't show that many
more places - I assumed omnivorous would mean something along the lines of:
every pub, restaurant, and shop in London. Apparently not, so, can somebody
explain what being an "omnivore" as a lifestyle choice (or whatever) means in
this day and age?

~~~
creature
I'm planning to add more omnivorous places that do an OK job of catering to
veggies. Particularly places like East Street, near Oxford Street. It's not a
vegetarian restaurant, but it's got vegan options clearly marked on the menu
and all the staff seem pretty switched on. My goal is to help people find
places where their veggie friends can have a good meal easily, without lots of
explanation to the staff about what they do and don't eat.

~~~
bodyfour
I think almost every restaurant in London would be considered "vegetarian
friendly", at least by US standards. No matter where I went, there were
multiple options clearly marked on the menu. It's the easiest place I've ever
visited food-wise.

Perhaps "vegan friendly" places is harder though, I don't know.

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autarch
[http://VegGuide.org](http://VegGuide.org) provides a REST API that you could
combine with this data. See [http://www.vegguide.org/site/api-
docs](http://www.vegguide.org/site/api-docs) for details.

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shire
A friend of mine was looking for this or was thinking of building a site based
on this. Very cool idea! awesome I can see a lot of people using it.

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anarchitect
It's a great start. I'd love to contribute some places (around EC1) that I
frequent if you take suggestions?

~~~
creature
Happy to take suggestions! Let me know what I've missed.

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derrzzaa
Insta spotted bug. Toggling 'Show brands' the number increases every time.

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chrisvineup
Awesome stuff mate, Ill post this on www.fb.com/yumveganrecipes if thats cool?

~~~
creature
Totally cool! Please spread the word far and wide. :)

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jmotion
Awesome set up.

Are there any open source solutions that allow me to do this for my city?
Simple execution, mobile ready - add locations and reviews along with 'find
places nearby' ?

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n9com
Nice! Very useful, thank you :)

