Plant-Based Christmas Review of Top 4 London Food Halls – Part 1: Harvey Nichols and Harrods

Harvey Nichols

Plant-based Christmas shopping can be slim pickings. What if you wanted to enjoy the luxury and decadence of the holidays but are left with Brussel sprouts and roast parsnips? What have the luxury food halls of London got to offer? I decided to run around the city exploring the offerings in Harvey Nichols, Harrods, Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges and report back on how they fare for plant-based food at Christmas time.

Off to Knightsbridge, first stop, Harvey Nichols. Entering from the Sloane Street entrance, there are two sets of double doors, enter the first and turn immediately to the right to find the express lift to the food hall on the 5th floor. On arriving, you'll see the food hall is flanked by small restaurants on two sides with a large café towards the front and aisles of products in the centre.

The food hall consists mostly of ambient packaged food. Not so much fresh. There was one fridge with fresh food, none of which was plant-based. Same with the Christmas cakes, sweets or savoury items, no vegan options here. This was surprising as you'd expect at least one token plant-based chocolate option.

The only plant-based item I could find was a vegan cheese making kit, presumably a stocking stuffer rather than the makings of a Christmas soiree. Not a great start but on to Harrods just around the corner.

Harrods

I had high hopes for Harrods Food Hall as it's famous for the quality and variety of products and produce. I arrived at the 7th entrance on Brompton Street, sped past Gucci and Saint Laurent, a quick turn right then left to arrive at the Food Halls. The are four sections to the halls, however, one is a restaurant, so for my purposes that left three halls to explore.

The first and most tempting was the Chocolate Hall. It is truly massive. There are multiple counters for various brands like William Curley and Pierre Marcolini alongside Harrods own brand sweets and chocolates. Starting clockwise from the bottom left with the vegan chocolate section, dominated by a good selection from Booja Booja products. Along side this I discovered a new brand I hadn’t encountered before, Love Chocolate by James Cadbury (yes, that Cadbury). With the famous Cadbury company sold off, he is creating more sustainably focused chocolate products.

Moving on to the Harrods sweet counter to discover a decent variety of Turkish delights and marshmallow squares. The staff were helpful in determining which sweet treats did and didn't contain animal products. I picked up a few Turkish delights for myself and moved on to the back of hall where the Harrods chocolate counter was located. Here they had a good selection of Booja Booja individual chocolates to create a customised selection, all ready to be beautifully boxed and ribboned in Harrods branded packaging.

Finally, across the other side of the hall, I came across Bateel who have a counter offering an impressive variety of their famous stuffed dates. Alongside the counter are prepackaged selections to pick up if you’re in a rush. They even sell date syrup which can be used as an alternative to honey. They looked so decadent I had to pick some up as a gift for a friend. On to the next hall.

Fresh Market Hall

Of interest in the Fresh Market Hall is the deli, fruit & vegetable selection and the 'food to go'. I enquired with the cheese monger if they carried any artisan vegan cheese but all they had was packs of Violife, which is not exactly artisinal and something you can find in any supermarket.

The range of fresh food available was excellent. All of the produce seemed high quality. If you need to pick up some ingredients for Christmas dinner, Harrods should have you sorted. You won’t be able to do your full Christmas food shop here but they have a great range nonetheless, from girolle mushrooms to white alba truffles.

ROASTERY AND BAKE MARKET HALL

I thought this might be the jackpot, where there would be a cornucopia of delicious plant-based baked goods and sweet or savoury pastries, however, for vegans there was only bread loaves on offer. Everything else was buttered or cheesed in some way or other. The patisserie section fared no better, with no vegan items, despite the vast range. Quick tip, you can order monogrammed bread loaves for yourself or as a unique gift. In this section was also the impressive tea and coffee range that Harrods is known for. They even have their own coffee roasting setup on-site.

HARRODS FOOD TO ORDER

Not as well known as their food halls is Harrods 'Food to Order' service. One can order gourmet food from the Food to Order menu, the dishes are prepared and cooked by in-house chefs, and packaged for pick-up or delivery by taxi to specific London postcodes on the day of your choice.

However, perusing the menu it is clear that plant-based folk are not a consideration in the development of the dishes on offer. Out of 36 starters, 23 mains, 9 sides, 63 cheese & desserts, 9 party foods and 96 Christmas items, there are only 7 vegan dishes available, all accompaniments to a main meal. These plant-based dishes seem to be vegan simply by the nature of their original recipes rather than dishes intentionally catered to plant-based eating. Vegetarians do fare better, they have a feast specially designed for for them. I can only imagine a fully plant-based Christmas feast will be offered at some stage but sadly not for 2021.

OVERALL

Harrods is worthwhile destination for Christmas food. They fare well for sweets and chocolates, have a great range of fresh produce and bread, along with high quality teas, coffees and other drinks.

There are some areas where they could introduce plant-based offerings without much fuss, for example, the cheese mongers, bakery and 'Food to Go' service.

It also be said that Harrods has a reputation for ‘making it happen’ and welcome custom orders. While I imagine this extends to plant-based cakes and pastries, it is not clear if their chefs can deliver plant-based main courses and other savoury dishes.