Vital Ingredient

An awesome place indeed. I often come to have salads. There salads are the best and I don’t know which one of them are my favourite. I must say nearly all. All the ingredients are fresh and really juicy. I always enjoy my lunch the most whenever I am here!

— small location with a small seating area (mostly take-​away)
— friendly and alert staff
— big salad bar with a huge variety of ingredients where you can create your salad bowl in three steps (regular 6.25 GBP; mini 5.15. GBP)
1. choose your base (cos lettuce, mixed leaf, egg pasta, quinoa, brown rice, baby spinach, guest base)
2. select 5 ingredients (1 item from deli counter — e.g. crispy bacon, chicken breast, juicy prawns and 4 items from veg counter — e.g. cucumber, peppers, asparagus, raisins, tortilla chips, houmous)
3. add a dressing (ranch, caesar, blue cheese, honey balsamic, french, etc.)
— they also offer prepared salads, e.g. super cob, chef salad, oriental prawns, chicken caesar, tuna nicoise, etc.
— hot food (soups, hot pots) as well as wraps, raws and artisan rolls are offered
— for a vital start to the day you can also create your own breakfast (muesli with fruits, milk, yoghurt and topping); additionally they offer full english, hot breakfast sandwiches, porridge, toasts, snacks, smoothies and desserts
— so far I only tried the self-​created salads; always fresh and very individual; however, the dressing is not aromatic enough (in my opinion) and already tried different ones; even the mango, chilli & lime was not really special
Conclusion: Big variety of ingredients for your individual salad; always fresh! Dressing could be better! Still very good for a take-​away salad bar!

Not for regulars! I liked this place but then they got this new frequent flier card thing. It’s so useless it’s almost offensive. You get 2% back if you eat there regularly. If you are a keen salad person like me, you’re better off going down the street to Chopp’d. The ingredients aren’t as good but at least after 9 times you get one free.
Also the seating is an abomination. You feel like a troll cause you are practically under the table.

I’m obsessed with this place. I’m almost embarrassed to say I come here two times a day sometimes. Almost embarrassed, but not fully, because I find justification in the fact that the place is the opposite of McDonald’s.
I like their Breki Bowls, you can choose amongst their house Breki Bowls (about 3.95 and comes with coffee) or customize your own for 2.95. Can choose foundation of Cheerios, toasted oats, bran, muesi, granola, frosted flakes, and toppings of various seeds, yogurt raisins, dried/​fresh fruit, yogurt, milk (in other words you can make it as caloric and fibrous as you choose).
They also have a variety of both house and customizable choices (will run you about 5.95) for salads as well (bases of couscous, quinoa, romaine, mixed greens, pasta, and a surprise base of the month woohee!) and fresh toppings that totally beat Chop’d selections. Some of their dressing come in both full fat and low fat, and their portions are plentiful.
Not the biggest fan of their soups, but I come here for the salads anyway. Line can be long but goes by quickly. Happy I’ve found another lunch option in the City!

Vital Ingredient is an excellent stop for a quick lunch time stop although the price point means is more of a ‘once a week treat’ rather than a regular haunt.
The staff are friendly, service is quick, choice is excellent and the queue is well managed. I’ve been to Vital plenty of times and never once been disappointed.
The only reason I can’t give a five star rating is that it is on the slightly high side in terms of price. A drink, salad and bag of crisps is probably going to take the best part of a tenner but apart from that the place is pretty much faultless.
I definitely recommend it and it certainly provides a pleasant change from the much bigger chains that are dotted around the area.

I absolutely love it! If you like salads but you find them boring, this is your place. Base of quinoa, couscous, white rice, brown rice, lettuce. Add up to 5 toppings for free
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So many choices, so many tasty ingredients, that you will never get bored. Fresh, filling, nice staff and great prices. You MUST go.

I went to Vital Ingredient for the first time today. It is amazing.
There are so many things to have, and the amount of choice you actually get is better than probably anywhere else I’ve ever been ever.
You might question that, but if so, read on.
There are about 5 ‘bases’ for your salad (if you want salad, you could get soup if you want…) like lettuce, quinoa, couscous, rice…
There are at least 30 options from which to choose your five ‘fillings’. These include fish, meats, carbohydrates… Of course, if you want more than five, then you can buy extras…
Then there are at least eight different dressings, from balsamic vinaigrette to fresh lemon juice to the mango, chili and lime concoction I gulped down.
So, now for the math (s): number of salad choices is 5×30C5 x 8 which is a staggering 5 700 240!!! That’s over 5 and half million!
That means you could go here every day for lunch and get a different salad for over fifteen thousand years.
At under £6 a pop, you can’t beat it for fresh, healthy goodness.

Vital Ingredient takes the salad bar concept and BAM kicks it up a notch. They say «WHATEVS» to your lettuce-​based salad, and allow you to choose from all kinds of bases: quinoa, brown rice, pasta, couscous…
And the list of ingredients (VITAL you might say) is astonishing and filled with yum.
They’ve also got a great selection of daily soups, ready-​made salads, and juices/​smoothies… and lots of tempting sweet stuff placed conveniently near the register. Impulse purchases are my weakness.
This particular location is near Mansion House tube, which makes it über-​close to where I work, but I suggest anyone take a trip down here for lunch if you’re in the mood for something interesting and healthy.