I’ve always wanted to eat in a Hard Rock Café and in London that dream came through. I’ve been to a few Hard Rock cafés, like New York and Baltimore, but was only ever in the gift shop. As I was always on a school trip or with my parents, I never got the chance to eat there. For someone with so much Hard Rock merch and memorabilia, it was getting sad that I hadn’t gone! Here’s my experience eating vegan in the Hard Rock café.
The World’s First Hard Rock Café
The Hard Rock near Westminster and Hyde Park was a few minutes walk from our hotel so there was no reason not to eat there.
What I only learned afterwards, was this was the first Hard Rock café ever! The Hyde Park location opened in 1971. Now there’s 185 Hard Rock’s around the world!
I believe London actually has two Hard Rock cafés, both of which are thriving. We passed the other one on our last day, and it looked just as busy as the first location.
The wait time before we could actually sit down and order was over an hour. They give you a buzzer and when that beeps you get seated. After that you have to be seated and served. It is a long time to wait, but it’s always busy. The wait can be longer during busier periods, so maybe don’t go if you’re really hungry. The staff were really nice, so we talked to the waitresses about their tattoos for awhile.
We didn’t mind passing it with a drink and a look around the gift shop.
[2023 edit: I also went to a Hard Rock in Edinburgh and was seated immediately, so other locations are not as busy as London]
The Moving Mountains Burger
I had the Moving Mountains burger, which is made vegan by simply asking for no cheese. You’ll also have to ask about the sauce, as some of the sauce used for chips and burgers contain eggs.
The Moving Mountains burger is Hard Rock’s European meatless meat. US locations have the Impossible Burger.
The burger comes topped with an onion ring, lettuce and comes with a generous portion of chips. I normally don’t even like onion rings but the one on the burger was really good. [2023 Update: The onion ring is plant-based, but is cooked in the same oil as meat products. Some vegans are okay with that, some are not, so it wanted to point that out.]
It was the best burger of my life, by a landslide.
I’ve never had a burger substitute taste so close to the real thing, the thankfully the texture was slightly off real meat. I prefer no-meat-meats to not be indistinguishable from real meat because I start worrying that it might actually be meat – like the Gregg’s vegan sausage roll which tasted and felt scarily real.
I absolutely have to try the Impossible Burger sometime!
Eating Vegan In The Hard Rock Café: The Bottom Line
Eating in the Hard Rock Café was better than I thought it would be. I can’t wait to eat in another one. It was really expensive, but it’s not something you get to do everyday. I think it’s worth it.
If you’d like to read more about my time in London, here’s my experience with the Harry Potter sights, and Sherlock Holmes attractions. You might also be curious about the Rainforest café.
Have you eaten in a Hard Rock café before?
Check out my video about eating vegan in the Hard Rock café, and everywhere else in London:
That burger looks so good. It’s funny, but I’ve never been a big fan of the wanna be meat products. If I’m choosing not to eat meat for my meal, I don’t want something that looks or taste like meat. But still, that looks real good 😊
That burger looks insane!
Looks and sounds awesome, haven’t been to a hard rock in ages so will check this out soon! xx
I LOVE Hard Rock Cafes!! I’ve been to the one in London, Rome and Venice. Their cocktails are absolutely to die for, too. There’s a blue one I have every time I go and it’s so, so delicious. Great to hear the vegan burger was a success! It’s great that places are catering more for the diet now 🙂
Alice Xx
Ahh this is soo good!
I’m always on the lookout for tasty vegan burgers!
Sarah xxx
http://www.dukesavenue.com
Looks really good.
I love the Hard Rock Cafe! I have eaten in a few different locations in the USA and one in Canada. Unfortunately, we had two locations in my hometown, but both have closed (super bummed about that!). I am impressed that you found a vegan option to eat. Although I am not vegan, I know that it can be a challenge to find options in restaurants, and I was anticipating this post going in a completely different direction.
I’ve only ever been to one Hard Rock Cafe, and it was the one in Vegas. We just stopped for a drink though and a mooch around. That burger looks incredible! I’m not usually into faux meat – I prefer like a bean/vegetable burger. But I would definitely be up for giving that a go! Great post!
Kenna – lifeoflilyblog.com
I love The Hard Rock Cafe, it’s so fun! I remember going about 6ish years ago and from what I remember at the time, they didn’t have anything vegan. So it’s great to see they’ve improved and now have some vegan options! Just goes to show how mainstream veganism has gotten!
Not somewhere I’d typically think of as being particularly good for vegan food so I’m glad you enjoyed your burger!
I do love the Hard Rock Cafe’s though, think I’ve been to around 20 now. There are two in London but the second only opened this year yet. I’ve not yet been to the newer one so hopefully squeeze in a trip soon 🙂
I was pleasantly surprised they had a good vegan option too! I’d love to go to more!
Hopefully you’ll get to some more. They’re based in so many places now. I think Manchester’s is my favourite in the UK 🙂