Vegan Guide to Winter Wonderland

Updated: November 2022

It’s that time of the year again. Christmas markets, stressful gift shopping, eating your bodyweight in desserts, festive foods being released left, right and centre, and of course Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland. I’ve put together this guide to help you plan your day and find the best vegan food.

Winter Wonderland is a huge event put on every year in London based on the famous German Christmas markets. Previous years, the vegan game has been weak. But this year I was pleasantly surprised by all of the new vegan stalls and plant based offerings. There’s always lots to do there, but this is the first time vegans will definitely not struggle to find something to eat.

What is there to do there?

Aside from all of the food stalls, markets, bars and everything you would expect from a Christmas market, you can also pre-book certain events like the circus, ice rink, ice bar, restaurants and so much more. Previous years, you’ll find us trying out all of the rollercoasters (I recommend the Hangover if you want to see a breathtaking view of London for 3 seconds before plunging into, what feels like, your death). This year we went ice skating and spent most of our time at the bars.

Food

Whilst Winter Wonderland is a meat-heavy place (as you’d expect), I was surprised by how many new vegan stands there were this year and clearly labelled vegan items. We’ll start with warm food you can find depending on where you are in the park.

Blue Gate

If you enter through the Blue Gate, you’ll be by the Ice Rink and pass a few food stalls and gift stalls. Here you’ll find Berlin Doner, who offer a vegan doner kebab for £9.50.

You’ll also find Vegan Bratwurst who offer bratwurst with different toppings like cheese (£9.00), katsu curry (£9.00) and chilli cheese (£9.50).

Fed by Plants can be found opposite the ice rink entrance and you can try their award winning tofish and chips for £12.50, which was delicious, and other options too.

The ice rink is sponsored by Lidl, they have a Lidl Bear’s Lodge next to the entrance where you can buy vegan sausages and stuffing balls in a small pot with vegan gravy.

Angels Christmas Market and Traditional Funfair

Here you can get a vegan burger for £8.00 with a choice of a soya patty or a Thai burger with a bean patty from Wild Fire Burgers.

There are two Noodle City’s in the park, the one by the traditional funfair offers vegan katsu curry or vegan fried rice for £10.00 and some vegan sides.

Street Food stalls

The street food section has lots of options for vegans. Oh My Dog! have a yummy vegan hot dog for £11.00.

Krapow! offers northern Thai street food including coconut curried noodle soup with tofu for £13.00 and yellow coconut curry with pumpkin for £12.00

The Duck Shed has vegan ‘duck’ which you can have in a burger, wrap or salad box for £10.50 (the least expensive option as well!)

You can get some street food from Mumbai at Curry on Naanstop who sell chana masala (£12.00), a Mumbai burger (£5.00) or Punjabi samosas (£5.00).

Clean Kitchen Club is a fully vegan stall who have lots of different burgers to choose from, fries, mac’n’cheese, and more.

If you fancy chicken, you can try Chick’n sours‘ vegan nuggets and fries for £13.00 with different seasonings or sauces.

Wood Fire Pizza offers a vegan with vegan mozzarella, kalamata olives, piquillo peppers and portobello mushrooms for £12.00.

The last of the street food is Little Bao Boys who have crispy tofu bao buns – you can get one for £6.00 or two for £11.00.

Bavarian Village

You have to get tickets to get into Bavarian hall (which we didn’t) but they promise vegan options are available inside if you do visit. If anyone can share what these are, I can update this post.

Mr Brutwurst has a vegan bratwurst for £15.00 (more expensive than all the meat ones). Their veggie schnitzel is not vegan, but their chips are.

Pizza Pretzel have a mushroom and peppers pretzel which is vegan for £7.00.

If you want some mac’n’cheese, the Mac Daddy stall have two options for vegans, one with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh herbs for £9.00 and one with cranberry sauce for £8.50.

Next to them, Edgy Veggie have a van with lots of vegan options from falafel flatbread (£12.00), different burger (from £11.00), and many more options.

You can get a posh dog from this hot dogs and fries van, with avocado sauce, tomatoes, crispy onions and chives (£9.00).

What about dessert?

Once you’ve filled up on burgers, hot dogs, pizzas, garlic bread and curries, you may be in the mood for something sweet. By the blue gate entrance, Little Pots of Crumble have vegan crumble options with vegan custard.

At Bavarian village, you can find French galettes from the waffles and crêperie stall – these are made with buckwheat and are gluten free as well as vegan. You can choose different toppings like a variety of fruit, cinnamon and sugar, lemon and more.

Vegan churros can also be found here from Churro House no.1 where you can get churros topped with cinnamon and sugar, lemon and sugar, or chocolate sauce.

There’s also a Doughnut Time van, they make their doughnuts fresh every day and have a few different vegan options.

Where to Drink

It’s not all about food, Winter Wonderland is full of bars and carts with any drink you could possibly want. They serve mulled cider, specifically Brother’s Toffee Apple, at most places which is vegan-friendly, tasty and perfect for the cold weather.

If you’re looking for tea or coffee, you’ll have to check with the stall and see if they offer alt milks. Cumble & Waffles advertise alternative milks on their menu as do the El&n vans. One of the coffee stalls in Bavarian village offer some vegan treats like blueberry bake wells, and alternative milks with vegan marshmallows. However, they don’t specify if the drinks are vegan so please do check.

You can get different lattes with oat milk from We Are Dot Dot (in Candy Cane Lane, but the street food stalls) but do check if they use powers with milk in before ordering. They also have a few vegan bubble teas.

Is it worth going?

The big question – is it worth it? Winter Wonderland is a lovely place if you’re looking for somewhere with a good atmosphere to get you into the festive spirit. However, it can get seriously over-crowded, is very overpriced and requires a lot of planning. My advice would be to plan your day and know what you want to do beforehand.

Going to Winter Wonderland on a budget:

If you still want to go but don’t want to fork out on too much, here are my tips for spending less but still having a good time:

• Eat a big meal beforehand and only buy something small to eat
• Get some cash out BEFORE as the cash machines on site charge you almost £3 to take money out and not everywhere accepts card
• Don’t plan to go on any rides as they are definitely overpriced, only plan to go on one if you really want the experience
• Spend minimal time on the fairground games because they are addictive and made to eat up your money
• There’s enough to do there that doesn’t involve spending money like listening to the live music, sitting by the firepit and chatting, browsing around the stalls, or having a cute Christmas photoshoot with your friends (there are so many great photo opportunities!)