Temple of Hackney

food was amazing, staff are welcoming and friendly. Cannot fault this place. Vegan chips and gravy.. if they had this i would die 😁

Words cannot describe how tasty the food was!! If you're a junk food vegan...this is the place to be! 10/10

The vegan chicken was great. Service was quick. The taste combos of the burger was alright but not mind blowing. Eating outside was very of-putting as all you could smell was the rotten meat of the halal meat place next foor 😬😢🤢

Do they even NEED any more 5* reviews?! I'd give it a 10*. A bit of a wait, but relative to the queue the service is very fast. Mac'n'cheese can fool any cheese eater, and so can everything else really. A lunch meal here will keep you full for a day. (Or two?)

There's a lot of hype around Temple of Hackney but i'm really happy this place has popped up in my neighbourhood. I've been a couple of times and not had to wait longer than 10 minutes for food, which is impressive considering how busy they are.
The food is tasty vegan 'junk' food, even the chips are v. delicious. It's worth a visit if you're just curious or looking for a junk food hit. Would recommend the 2 piece with fries and mac n' cheese.

I absolutely love this place, I go at least once a week.

My favourite is the strip sub, it just really hits the spot, it reminds me of chicken royales from before I was vegan and I intend to drag all of my non-vegan friends to try this place.

The mac and cheese is the best vegan version I've ever tried.

The staff are always really friendly and I've always received my food very quickly. The only time I've had to join a long queue is at the weekend and even that wasn't bad as ended up chatting to other lovely people while we waited.

I really hope they start to open other branches around London and open 7 days a week.

A great place to visit for the novelty of a vegan fried chicken shop, but better atmosphere, service and quality can be found elsewhere.
Great if you're in the area anyway, but wouldn't recommend the trip out just for Temple.
We tried the popcorn chicken which was great, coleslaw and chips which were also lovely, but the 2 piece was just too much of the same taste/texture after a while.
We came at a time when it wasn't busy (no queue at all in front of us) and it still took around 15 mins for our small order to be ready - not really a problem in itself, but the staff didn't make us feel welcome at all and almost felt like we were inconveniencing them by waiting for our food!
Overall would recommend a visit for the novelty, but much better places elsewhere in London!

Updated from previous review on 2017-02-18

After all the media buzz I had to check it out. When something is hyped that much I'm naturally skeptic, but OMG! It might not be healthy but it was VERY delicious. I had the burger, popcorn bites and coleslaw. While the coleslaw was underwhelming the burger and popcorn bites turned out to be the best vegan junk food I ever had. It was crispy on the outside and "tender" on the inside. I don't know how they do it, but it's savory and juicy. Highly recommended. I need to get back there ASAP.
I arrived 20 min before they opened and was the 2nd in line. 10 min later the queue was already long enough to piss off the neighboring stores.

I came here for vegan chicken strips and chips tonight and was blown away by how great it was! Even though it meant I was queueing for about 15 minutes, it's so exciting to see a new vegan takeaway in London being so popular. I didn't get a chance to try it tonight but a fair few people around me were raving about the mac and cheese too. Very happy this place has opened and seems to be thriving.

First time eating here today. Worth the 20 mins wait!

Such a fan of Temple of Seitan and now that Temple of Hackney exists I couldn't be happier. I was absolutely blown away by the 2-piece, roast chicken and mac and cheese. The mac and cheese had an amazing smokey flavour. Everything is literally amazing; you will be so happy if you go!!

Fun bit of deep-fried "chicken", but you don't get much seitan compared to the amount of deep-fried batter - you're tasting batter more than anything meaty - and I found it quite dry. (Other people here seem to have found it juicy enough - maybe it varies.)

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

So finally I got to try fried chicken - but vegan! Good little place for some vegan junk food, great chicken pieces or chicken in a bun, coleslaw, fries and mac n cheese, plus lots of vegan mayo!! Pretty cool!

Amazing "fried" chicken that I could eat all day long. Even non-vegans would love this. Absolutely beautiful!

Best Vegan food I've had in such a long time!

Finding great vegan food is a struggle that I, and I'm only sure other vegans and vegetarians know all too well. After trying Temple Of Seitan, I can honestly say I don't feel like I'm missing out anymore. Try the Mac and cheese guys!! And of course, the chicken!! 6/5 stars! Exceptional! Love your work!

Had some of the "chicken" strips and i gotta say, WOWEE, very impressed and will go again.