Review: Tibits Restaurant, London

Before Christmas I chanced upon Tibits, a relatively new vegetarian restaurant in Heddon Street, off Regents Street in London. This restaurant is unlike any other that I have ever visited before. Upon entering, you are greeted by a large central buffet boat, containing a wide range of dishes (over 40 in total). After making your selection, you take your plate of food to the till, where it is weighed, and the price calculated accordingly. At first I was a little sceptical about this approach, as I prefer to know the cost of my meal before commiting myself. However, the system seems to work well - especially for children or small adults who may generally find large restaurant meals too filling. I have always been a fan of ‘all you can eat’ buffets, however after indulging in these I often find myself bloated and barely able to walk! With this ‘weighed’ buffet I was much more restrained, and hence felt much better for it afterwards.

The selection of food was very good, and most of the dishes appeared to be vegan. There was a range of salad, a selection of dressings, samosas, onion rings, coleslaw (vegan version I think), curry, potato wedges, and also warm quiche. My fiancé and I had no difficultly filling our plates with tasty food. My plate came to around £6.50, and his was about £8 (this was at lunchtime rates, the price is slightly higher for evening meals). We enjoyed our food so much, that we returned the following day with my vegetarian parents (who happened to be visiting for the weekend).

Surprisingly most of the hot dishes were different on our second visit, which made things more interesting. However, due to our second visit being on a Saturday, the restaurant was much busier and the hot dishes were running out, and were not being restocked quickly enough (meaning I had to go without some items I was interested in). Also there were queues to weigh and pay on Saturday, which meant that the food started to get cold. However, despite these minor issues, my parents loved the food and the concept, and said that they are looking forward to returning on their next visit to London!  I am also still a fan of the restaurant and I am looking forward to visiting the next time I’m in the area. It will be a good place to stop for lunch during a shopping trip to Oxford Street.