Best sustainable London restaurant
There are many different ways a restaurant can go about sustainability, but first and foremost comes the food. Is it organic? Is it local? Is it seasonal? And are the soft drinks and alcohol organic? Are they produced in the UK? Does the restaurant filter water, or is it bottled?
When we look at a restuarant's sustainable creds, we think about these things first, and then move on to the furniture and other interior accessories, such as decorations, soaps, lighting and candles to see how consistent the restaurant's commitment to sustainability is. Is the furniture second hand or FSC-certified? Are the candles and the hand soaps in the loos organic? If we get positive answer to the majority of these questions, we'll deem the restaurant sustainable. Bigger things like whether the restaurant is on a green energy tariff, whether it uses a compost system, recycles or grows its own produce obviously add enormously to the green credentials.
We also look at ethics as part of our scoring system. That includes what the restaurant might do to help the community around it, but also simply whether it supplies Fairtrade coffee, tea, sugar, juice, chocolate and spices.
Picking the best -- and most sustainable -- London restaurant out of the three we've visited so far is tough as old cheese. They're all green and inspiring places in their own way. Acorn House's modern approach to sustainable dining through its use of local and seasonal ingredients and its industrial composter and choice of furniture sets the bar for all high-end restaurants in the future.
Konstam is certainly a unique place (there can't possibly be enough ingredients within Greater London for more restaurants like this to exist, can there?) and we sensed that through the staff, the interior design and the menu.
And finally, The Duke of Cambridge is just a wonderful pub that has done absolutely everything we can think of to be sustainable and ethical. It makes us feel good about drinking. The restaurant area of the pub obviously boasts these same eco and ethical credentials and it's cosy, but we'd go for the pub part ourselves.
Konstam got the highest score out of the three because we found the fact that it manages to source 85 per cent of its ingredients from within Greater London to be awe-inspiring and we could not find one single thing about the meal itself to criticise.
Which one would we choose to go to again? It all depends on the situation. We would go to The Duke with our friends for drinks and a main course on a week night, we would take our family or business partner to Acorn House and we would go to Konstam with our other half or best friend.
Acorn House Restaurant
Konstam at the Prince Albert
The Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub
