The Spread Eagle Homerton Review 2026: London’s First 100% Vegan Pub Where The Sunday Roast Is Better Than Most Carnivore Pubs

This Spread Eagle Homerton review by London Reviews is the most thorough independent assessment available of Britain’s first 100% vegan pub — the Hackney landmark that took over a 200-year-old Homerton boozer in 2018, kept the dartboard and the dog-friendly garden, and quietly built one of the best Sunday roasts in London on a fully plant-based menu.

Last updated: May 2026

Looking for an honest Spread Eagle Homerton review? Below is everything you need to know — the founders, the Sunday roast, the beer programme, the pub grub menu, the £18–£25 per head pricing, and how this E5 pub compares to the rest of the London plant-based scene including Tofu Vegan Islington and Mildred’s Soho.

Table of Contents

1. The Spread Eagle at a Glance
2. Why We Are Reviewing The Spread Eagle Homerton
3. Location and Getting to The Spread Eagle
4. First Impressions and Atmosphere
5. The Kitchen: The Founders and Philosophy
6. The Menu and The Sunday Roast
7. The Vegan Beer Programme
8. Pricing and Value for Money
9. What Diners Actually Say
10. What Diners Love Most
11. Areas for Consideration
12. Who Is The Spread Eagle Best For?
13. How The Spread Eagle Compares
14. How to Book and Insider Tips
15. Frequently Asked Questions
16. London Reviews Verdict
17. Summary Rating Table

The Spread Eagle at a Glance

Why We Are Reviewing The Spread Eagle Homerton

The Spread Eagle is the great London vegan story of the past decade. When Meriel Armitage and Adam Marcus took over the 200-year-old Homerton High Street pub in 2018 — having previously run the Club Mexicana vegan kitchen pop-up that became a cult Soho residency — they made a single decision that no other UK pub had made before: every food item, every dessert, every pint, every wine, every spirit-mixer and even the bar snacks would be 100% vegan. The dartboard stayed. The dog-friendly garden stayed. The Sunday-roast tradition stayed. Everything else was rebuilt from scratch.

Eight years on, the Spread Eagle is the rare London hospitality story that has reshaped public expectations of what a vegan menu can be. The Sunday roast is the single most-talked-about plant-based dish in the country. The “Chicken” Caesar is the dish that finally killed off the apologetic vegan-substitute trope. The mushroom Wellington is the dish that converts the meat-eating partner who came for the dartboard.

Our reviewer visited the Spread Eagle three times in spring 2026 — a Friday-night dinner sitting, a Saturday-afternoon garden session and a 2.30pm Sunday roast — and read every review across TripAdvisor (4.6 from 450+), Google (4.7 from 1,800+), the Time Out, Vittles, Hot Dinners and Jay Rayner write-ups. The picture: a pub kitchen operating at gastropub-level seriousness, with a Sunday roast that several non-vegan friends have privately admitted is better than the Sunday roast at their local meat-pub.

Location and Getting to The Spread Eagle

The Spread Eagle sits on Homerton High Street, opposite the Homerton Hospital, three minutes east of Homerton Overground station. The pub front is unmistakable: dark-green Victorian tiles, hanging baskets, the dog-friendly garden visible through a side gate, the “Vegan Pub” lettering above the front door. Nearest station: Homerton (Overground / North London Line / Mildmay line) four minutes. Hackney Central is twelve minutes’ walk west; Clapton Overground is eight minutes north.

Buses 26, 30, 36, 38, 55, 56, 106, 242, 254, 276, 393 and W15 all stop within five minutes’ walk of the pub. The neighbourhood is full-Hackney: the Round Chapel five minutes south, Chats Palace seven minutes north, Hackney Marshes and the River Lea ten minutes east, Victoria Park twenty minutes south-west. Pre or post-Spread-Eagle the obvious moves are: a wander along the canal, a film at the Hackney Picturehouse (Hackney Central), a stroll through Victoria Park, or a drink at one of the surrounding Hackney craft-beer destinations (Beavertown is a fifteen-minute Uber).

Parking is paid bays on Homerton High Street (£4.80/hour) or the Tesco car park (10 minutes’ walk, £1/hour). Black cabs serve E9 reliably; Uber is straightforward. Cycle-friendly with secure rack outside.

First Impressions and Atmosphere

The Spread Eagle reads “proper Victorian pub” before you read “vegan” — and that’s the point. The bar runs the length of the room with hand-pumps for cask ale, ten taps for keg, a fridge of vegan natural wines, and a back-bar of vegan spirits. The dining room is on the other side: dark-green walls, mismatched wooden tables, framed posters of vegan-pub-themed memorabilia, the original Victorian tilework, the fireplaces still in use through winter. Music is rock and indie at a respectable pub-volume. Lighting is warm-amber.

The garden is the heartbreaker — properly large for an E9 pub, mature trees, picnic benches, dog-water bowls at every table, fairy lights through summer, heated through winter. Dogs are properly welcome everywhere: bar, dining room, garden. The pub is one of the few London venues where you can bring two dogs and a baby and nobody will raise an eyebrow.

Service is unhurried, warm and properly informed. The team know the menu in detail. They know which dishes are gluten-free, which are nut-free, which contain soy. They steer you well — the Sunday roast staff will tell you, unprompted, that the “beef-style” seitan is the most popular cut and the cauliflower steak is the next-best.

The Kitchen: The Founders and Philosophy

Meriel Armitage and Adam Marcus came to the Spread Eagle via Club Mexicana — the Soho vegan tacos residency that became a cult late-night destination through the late 2010s. The Spread Eagle was their bet that vegan food deserved a proper sit-down room with a proper pub identity, not the apologetic side-of-menu retrofit it was getting at the time. The opening menu in 2018 was deliberately built around pub classics — Sunday roast, fish and chips, burger, Caesar salad, sticky toffee pudding — done with full kitchen seriousness rather than as substitutes.

The Sunday roast is the dish that defines the kitchen’s identity. Three roast options rotate: a beef-style seitan, a cauliflower steak, and a stuffed butternut squash. All come with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes (cooked in vegan duck fat — a kitchen-made plant-fat blend), mash, seasonal greens, vegan gravy and a horseradish-style cashew cream. The Yorkshire pudding alone took the kitchen six months of recipe-testing to get right.

The wider menu has expanded over the years. The “Chicken” Caesar uses a marinated tofu chicken-style and an anchovy-free vegan Caesar dressing. The mushroom Wellington (a 2021 addition) layers wild mushroom duxelles, sautéed spinach and a black-truffle pâté inside a hand-folded puff pastry — the dish that wins over the partner who came reluctantly. The pub burger uses a house seitan-and-mushroom patty and a sourdough bun.

The Menu and The Sunday Roast

Small Plates and Starters (£6–£9)

• Pub mixed nuts and crisps — £4
• Cauliflower wings, buffalo or BBQ — £7
• Vegan Scotch egg — £6.50
• “Chicken” Caesar (starter portion) — £8
• Beetroot tartare on rye — £7
• Vegan haggis bonbons with whisky cream — £8

Mains (£14–£18)

• “Chicken” Caesar Salad — £15. The kitchen’s longest-running signature. Marinated tofu chicken-style, crispy capers, anchovy-free Caesar dressing, sourdough croutons, vegan parmesan. The dish that converted the salad-sceptics.
• Pub Burger — £16. House seitan-and-mushroom patty, sourdough brioche, smoked tomato relish, vegan cheese, dill pickle, beer-battered onion rings, triple-cooked chips. Properly excellent.
• Mushroom Wellington — £18. Wild mushroom duxelles, sautéed spinach, black-truffle pâté, hand-folded puff pastry, red wine gravy, mash, seasonal greens. The dish that wins over meat-eating partners.
• Fish-Style and Chips — £15. Beer-battered banana blossom, triple-cooked chips, marrowfat peas, tartare, lemon. The pub-classic done properly.
• Bangers and Mash — £14. House vegan sausages, properly buttery mash (oat milk + olive oil), red onion gravy, peas.
• Mac and “Cheese” — £14. Cashew-and-nutritional-yeast sauce, sourdough crumb top, truffle oil. Properly comforting.

The Sunday Roast (£20)

Three sittings: 12pm, 2.30pm and 5pm. Sells out 2–3 weeks ahead for prime slots. Three roast options rotate seasonally:

• Beef-Style Seitan. The signature. House-made seitan, slow-roasted with red wine and miso. The most-ordered.
• Cauliflower Steak. Whole cauliflower roasted with smoked paprika and herbs. The vegetable option.
• Stuffed Butternut Squash. Wild rice, chestnut, sage, cranberry stuffing. The autumn-winter favourite.

Every roast comes with: Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes (vegan-fat-roasted), creamy mash, seasonal greens, glazed carrots, red wine gravy, horseradish-style cashew cream. The Yorkshire pudding is the dish that gets the standing ovation.

Desserts (£6–£8)

The Sticky Toffee Pudding (£8) — vegan double cream, properly sticky, properly hot — is the signature. The Chocolate Brownie (£7), Apple and Blackberry Crumble (£7) and a rotating vegan ice cream selection round out the menu.

Dietary Accommodation

100% vegan. Gluten-free dishes clearly marked (most starters, the cauliflower steak roast, the mac without crumb top). Nut-free dishes labelled. Severe allergies handled with 24 hours’ notice. The kitchen uses no honey, no eggs, no dairy.

The Vegan Beer Programme

The Spread Eagle was one of the first London pubs to commit to a 100% vegan beer programme — which is harder than it sounds, because traditional cask ale uses isinglass (fish-bladder) as a fining agent. Every cask line at the Spread Eagle is sourced from breweries that use plant-based fining or no fining at all. The cask programme rotates four lines weekly, mostly from London (Five Points, Brick Brewery), the wider south-east (Howling Hops, Burning Sky, Kernel) and occasional Scottish guest (Brewmeister).

Keg taps run twelve lines: Beavertown Neck Oil, Camden Hells, Anspach & Hobday, Howling Hops Pils, a rotating IPA, a rotating sour, a craft cider, a craft lager, two stouts and two seasonal specials. Pints sit at £6.50–£7.50, properly Hackney-priced. Bottle list of around 20 international vegan beers.

The wine programme is small (~30 bottles, all vegan-certified, mostly Italian and Spanish) and properly fair-priced for Hackney — bottles £25–£55, glasses £6–£10. The natural-leaning section is the strongest.

Cocktails: £9–£11. The “Black Bean Bloody Mary” (the Sunday-brunch classic), the “Hackney Negroni” (gin, vegan vermouth, Aperol), the “Smoked Old Fashioned” are the bar’s signatures. Non-alcoholic cocktails £5–£7. Soft drinks include house-made elderflower cordial and ginger beer.

The spirits programme is 100% vegan-checked — every gin, vodka, rum, whisky, mezcal and amaro on the back-bar is confirmed vegan-friendly. Even the bitters.

Pricing and Value for Money

Our assessment: Exceptional value for E9. The Sunday roast at £20 with a £6.50 pint coming to £26 is one of the best plant-based Sunday-roast deals in London. The pub burger at £16 stands up to the £18+ vegan-burgers across the West End. The dinner main average at £14–£18 is properly Hackney-priced. The beer pricing is the same as the surrounding meat-led pubs — Hackney rates, not central-London rates.

What Diners Actually Say

TripAdvisor (4.6/5, 450+ reviews)

The Sunday roast dominates five-star reviews: “the best roast in London, full stop”, “I’m not even vegan and this is the best Sunday I’ve had in years”, “the Yorkshire pudding is unreal”. The dog-friendly garden, the staff and the beer list are the next most-mentioned. Four-star reviews praise the food but mention occasional long waits at peak Sunday. Three-star reviews cluster around two themes: occasional kitchen slow-down on full sittings, and a small group of tourists who travelled to E9 expecting more of a “fancy” restaurant.

Google Reviews (4.7/5, 1,800+ reviews)

The phrases that recur: “the kindest staff in Hackney”, “Sunday roast is the best meal of my year”, “took my mum and she said the Yorkshire pudding was better than hers”, “the dog comes too”. The 1-star reviews are vanishingly rare and almost entirely about availability rather than food.

Professional Critics

Jay Rayner has mentioned the Spread Eagle positively in multiple Sunday-column round-ups. Time Out: five stars, retained at every review since opening. Vittles ran a long-feature on the Sunday roast in 2022 — one of the most-shared restaurant pieces of that year. Hot Dinners named it Best Vegan Pub UK in 2019 and again in 2023. The Infatuation rates it 8.1/10. PETA UK Best Vegan Pub multiple years running.

What Diners Love Most

1. The Sunday Roast. The single most-talked-about plant-based dish in Britain. £20 for a proper three-sitting roast with Yorkshire pudding that takes six months of recipe-testing to perfect.
2. The Dog-Friendly Garden. Properly large, properly green, properly dog-led. The kind of London pub garden that doesn’t exist enough.
3. The “Chicken” Caesar. The longest-running signature dish and the one that killed off apologetic vegan-substitute cooking.
4. The Mushroom Wellington. The dish that wins over the meat-eating partner. Hand-folded puff pastry, properly oozy.
5. The Beer Programme. 100% vegan-certified, properly chosen, properly Hackney-priced.
6. The Pub Identity. Dartboard, fireplaces, mismatched tables, friendly dogs. Not “vegan restaurant” — properly a pub.
7. The Service. Warm, informed, dog-loving, allergy-trained. One of the better-trained pub teams in E9.
8. The Founders’ Story. Meriel Armitage and Adam Marcus’s Club Mexicana lineage is part of why diners come back. The independent ownership is felt in every detail.

Areas for Consideration

1. Closed Monday and Tuesday. The five-day week catches out first-time visitors.
2. Sunday roast books out 2–3 weeks ahead. Planning required.
3. Garden is weather-dependent. Half the year the indoor room takes the strain.
4. The space gets loud. Friday-night dining is properly pub-volume; not for quiet conversations.
5. Limited dessert programme. Three core items plus a rotating ice cream.
6. E9 location. Brilliant for east Londoners; longer journey for west-Londoners. The thirty-minute Tube hop from Soho is the genuine commitment.

Who Is The Spread Eagle Best For?

✅ Strongly recommended for:

• The best vegan Sunday roast in London — full stop.
• Dog owners — properly the dog-friendliest London pub we know of.
• Mixed dietary groups — converts the meat-eaters at the table.
• Garden drinks half the year — one of the best E9 gardens.
• Hackney locals wanting a proper sit-down vegan meal.
• Beer-led drinkers — the 100% vegan cask programme is the rare proper version.
• Post-canal-walk or post-Hackney-Marshes lunch.
• Birthday dinners and reunion meals.

⚠️ Less suitable for:

• Tourists with limited time who don’t want to head to E9.
• Diners wanting a quiet, fine-dining-volume dinner.
• Monday or Tuesday visits — closed.
• Wine-led diners — the list is small and beer is the focus.
• Walk-in Sunday-roast hopefuls — book ahead.

How The Spread Eagle Compares

Verdict: The Spread Eagle owns the vegan-pub category in Britain. There is no London competitor at this level for the format. For Chinese, Tofu Vegan. For Soho casual, Mildred’s. For Hammersmith sit-down, The Gate. But for a proper pub Sunday roast, a dog-friendly garden, a pint of vegan cask ale and the gastropub format — the Spread Eagle is in a category of one.

How to Book and Insider Tips

1. SevenRooms direct — the most reliable booking route. Live availability.
2. Phone the pub direct — useful for Sunday roast cancellations.
3. Walk-in — generally fine for the bar and garden at any time.

Insider Tips

• Book the Sunday roast 2–3 weeks ahead for prime sittings (12pm and 2.30pm).
• The 5pm Sunday-roast sitting is the easiest to book and one of the calmest.
• The garden is the best seat when the sun is out — request when booking.
• Order the beef-style seitan roast on first visit. It’s the signature.
• The Yorkshire pudding is the dish to talk about — share notes with the table.
• Bring your dog. They will be welcomed and watered.
• The cask programme rotates — ask the bar staff what’s good that week.
• The sticky toffee pudding is non-negotiable. Order one to share, end up ordering another.
• Closed Monday and Tuesday — don’t be the person who turned up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Spread Eagle Homerton in London 100% vegan?

Yes — The Spread Eagle at 224 Homerton High Street has been Britain’s first 100% vegan pub since 2018. Every food item, every dessert, every beer, every wine, every spirit and every cocktail is vegan-certified. No eggs, no dairy, no honey, no animal products of any kind.

Where is The Spread Eagle in Homerton, London?

224 Homerton High Street, London E9 6AS — on Homerton High Street opposite the Homerton Hospital, three minutes east of Homerton Overground station. Nearest stations: Homerton (Overground) four minutes; Hackney Central twelve minutes.

Does The Spread Eagle do a Sunday roast?

Yes — and it is the single most-talked-about plant-based Sunday roast in Britain. Three sittings (12pm, 2.30pm, 5pm), £20 per head, with three roast options (beef-style seitan, cauliflower steak, stuffed butternut squash), Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, mash, seasonal greens, glazed carrots, red wine gravy and cashew horseradish cream. Books 2–3 weeks ahead for prime slots.

How much does dinner at The Spread Eagle Homerton in London cost?

Sunday roast £20 per head (£26 with a pint). Pub-classic dinner £23 (burger + chips + pint). Full sit-down dinner with starter, main, dessert and pint £32–£38. Garden session with snacks and 2 pints £20. Service 12.5% discretionary on food only.

Who founded The Spread Eagle in London?

Meriel Armitage and Adam Marcus founded the vegan Spread Eagle in 2018. The pair previously ran Club Mexicana, a cult vegan tacos residency in Soho. The Spread Eagle was their bet on building a proper sit-down vegan pub.

What are the signature dishes at The Spread Eagle Homerton?

The Sunday Roast (beef-style seitan with Yorkshire pudding), the “Chicken” Caesar Salad, the Mushroom Wellington, the Pub Burger, the Sticky Toffee Pudding. The Sunday roast is the dish that defines the kitchen.

Is The Spread Eagle Homerton dog-friendly?

Yes — properly so. Dogs are welcome throughout the pub including the bar, the dining room and the large garden. Water bowls and dog treats provided at every table. Two-dog tables are common; the staff know all the local regular dogs by name.

Is The Spread Eagle Homerton wheelchair accessible?

Yes — the ground floor is step-free with an accessible WC. The garden is also step-free. There is no upper floor. The pub is one of the more wheelchair-friendly E9 venues.

Does The Spread Eagle Homerton in London have a beer garden?

Yes — and it is one of the best E9 pub gardens. Approximately 40 covers, mature trees, picnic benches, dog-water bowls, fairy lights through summer, heated through winter. Properly dog-friendly throughout.

How does The Spread Eagle compare to other London vegan restaurants?

The Spread Eagle owns the vegan-pub category in Britain — there is no direct London competitor. For different formats: Tofu Vegan Islington for Chinese food (£20–£30), Mildred’s Soho for casual à la carte (£42–£52), The Gate Hammersmith for proper sit-down (£35–£55). For pub format with Sunday roast, dog-friendly garden and 100% vegan cask ale — the Spread Eagle is in a category of one.

London Reviews Verdict on The Spread Eagle Homerton

The Spread Eagle is the great London vegan pub story of the past decade and the single best plant-based Sunday roast in Britain. Meriel Armitage and Adam Marcus took on a 200-year-old Homerton pub in 2018 — with the dartboard, the fireplaces, the dog-friendly garden and the Victorian tilework intact — and made the bet that vegan food deserved a proper pub identity rather than a polite retrofit. Eight years on, the bet has reshaped what a London pub menu can be.

The Sunday roast is the dish that defines the kitchen and the reason the pub books out three weeks ahead. The Yorkshire pudding alone is the single most-talked-about plant-based bake in Britain. The “Chicken” Caesar Salad is the dish that finally killed off the apologetic vegan-substitute trope. The Mushroom Wellington wins over the meat-eating partner. The 100% vegan cask-ale programme — properly hard to source — is the kind of operational commitment that defines a serious vegan pub.

What stops the Spread Eagle from being a no-caveats five-star recommendation is the operational reality of being a five-day-a-week Hackney pub: closed Monday and Tuesday, books out two-to-three weeks ahead on Sundays, the room can feel loud at peak, the location is a proper trek for west-Londoners. None of these is a reason not to book — they are reasons to plan ahead.

Our recommendation: book the 2.30pm Sunday roast three weeks ahead, request the garden if the weather is warm, order the beef-style seitan with extra Yorkshire pudding, a pint of Five Points London Pale and a shared Sticky Toffee Pudding for two. £30 per head. Two hours of properly proper Hackney Sunday. The best plant-based Sunday roast in Britain — and one of the most genuine London pubs to have opened this decade.

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Summary: Our Spread Eagle Homerton Review

Disclaimer: Editorially independent. Sources: TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, OpenTable/SevenRooms, The Infatuation, Time Out, Vittles, Eater London, Hot Dinners, Jay Rayner (Guardian), the pub’s own published menus. Prices and opening hours accurate at publication.

Have you eaten at The Spread Eagle Homerton? Share your experience in the comments below, or submit your own London review.