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• Temple of Hypeny

Its only just above freezing, stuck in the shade of adjacent buildings, the queue waiting patiently to the try out London's latest Vegan outlet snakes down the thankfully wide pavement. What's going on? The Temple of Seitan have opened up a permanent vegan deep fried "chicken" joint that's what! Seeing as its just down the road I decided I could weather the weather and the Hipsterdom and check it out. I arrived minutes after it opened and there was already a small queue! The wall menu was obscured by customers (time to add a menu list behind the counter me thinks!) but I knew I wanted to try their signature deep fried seitan (chicken) and chips. So I did. The batter is thick, crunchy and slightly spicy the seitan was hard to find but juicy enough. All in all very nice. The chips were standard "packet" chips. The menu includes Mac n Cheese and burgers and I'll try them out some time when the queues and hype have died down. My minimal meal cost £8 so you could get a bigger and healthier meal just up the road at the Black Cat or So Vegan cafes but this place is not offering health food. It offers vegan fast food. It does have lots of quasi fascist imagery on its walls but I'm sure its ironic or Hip in some way I'm missing. It would be good to see a non corporate tomato ketchup on offer (not Heinz) to compliment the Karma Cola drinks. Great to see a vegan food outlet with a queue outside whilst the butchers next door was deserted, hopefully a sign of things to come! Welcome to Hackney Seitan seekers! Updated from previous review on 2017-01-22